After reading Mama Pea’s post a few weeks ago on feeding her man plants I got to thinking a bit about how I could keep my man happy on a more plant based diet. Although he is a meat lover and eats chicken several times a week, usually for lunch, I have been wanting to make an effort to satisfy him with my vegetarian dinners. One of her tips in the post was feed him what he likes. I got to thinking about how often dinner is a large salad and some grilled vegetables or some sort of bean and grains, foods I enjoy. I very rarely make manly meals and definitely don’t often try to recreate guy food in a healthy, vegetarian way. This week I decided to focus on creating more guy friendly meals, my way.
Sunday night we fixed a quick dinner of barbecue tempeh and herbs de provence roasted potatoes which Dutch was a huge fan of. Savory and filling this meal was reminiscent of a typical meat & potatoes dinner with a twist.
We served it alongside a delicious baby kale salad loaded with avocado, tomato, cucumber, and dressed with olive oil and braggs liquid aminos. I still got my vegetarian meal but in a much less “girly” way.
Last night I decided to try out another “man” meal and whipped up an old childhood classic, sloppy joes.
Sloppy Jo’s
inspired by mama pea
Ingredients:
for the filling:
4 cups water
1 cup lentils
2 carrots, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 ½ tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp chili powder
1 bay leaf
2 tsp salt
½ tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp fresh parsley
for the sauce:
4 large tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
½ yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
Directions: Bring a large pot of 4 cups water to a boil, stir in lentils, green pepper, onion, and bay leaf. Reduce to a simmer and cook 25 minutes until tender. In the meantime bring another large pot of water to a boil. Take your tomatoes and cut an X in the bottom of each one, drop into boiling water and cook 30 seconds, remove and cool enough to handle. Drain water from pan and add olive oil, onion, and garlic, cook over medium heat until soft 8 minutes. Peel and dice tomatoes finely, add to pan and using a potato masher, mash until desired consistency, stir in tomato paste and simmer until lentil mixture is finished. Drain lentil mixture and add to sauce followed by the remaining ingredients. Simmer 10-15 minutes until warmed through and serve on grilled buns or toasted sprouted grain bread topped with spinach and nutritional yeast or cheese for your man!
The homemade sauce definitely put this dish over the top. I loved the rich tomato flavor and hint of sweetness from the brown sugar.
So sloppy, but so good. And the fact that I had a happy man for the second night in a row is a win in my books.
Questions:
Do you ever plan meals around things your guy likes? I usually try to incorporate things he likes
Sweet or savory recipe tomorrow? I cant decide
Anyone going back to school? blehhh last semester 
Time to get a move on things, classes start tomorrow and I have a mile long list of things to get done on my day off
Have a wonderful afternoon
Kate
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{ 21 comments }
Um YUM! I am totally making these. I think my BF will LOVE them. Sloppy Jo’s are so fun!
I’ve been cooking vegan meals for my husband and sons for over a year now. When I first switched to the vegan lifestyle, the first thing I did was veganize our old favorite meals so they wouldn’t feel like they were missing out on something. Great idea with the sloppy joes! They look delicious!
Love this recipe! My carnivorous BF might actually eat it!
Love Mama Pea’s recipeas
I just hosted a giveaway for her book!
The husband usually goes with the flow and doesn’t care what i cook as long as he gets dinner :0
I’m not going back to school, but thankfully two of my kids are!!!
hahah you’re lucky!!
Mama Pea has inspired me as well to try to feed my hubby more manly foods….I was the girl trying to get him to live off of green juice and coconut water!!! LOL So, I am working hard to be a little better!!
Somehow I was blessed with a man who was the “healthy eater” before me, ha. We both love lentil sloppy joes and haven’t had them in awhile, going to have to fix that sometime soon … yum!
I. am. drooling. This looks fantastic!
that’s the sloppiest Joe ever!
Awesome, love it!
I’m lucky I only have to plan meals around what I like
Yummy! I love making sloppy joes with lentils. Too bad my hubby wont eat lentils, haha. I do have to plan meals around my hubby because he’s pretty picky when it comes to anything vegetarian. He likes to take leftovers for lunch the next day so I like to have something he likes and can take. Sometimes I just make meals for myself and the kids though and sometimes I’m surprised by what he likes
Does Dutch come to your place to eat or do you cook at his? So cute you eat together even though you live separately
I want to try those Joes!
haha thanks
he usually comes to my house on his way home from work!
ps try them they’re delicious & even better the next day!
Mmm delish!
Mama Pea always comes up with some yummy recipes! They both look delicious and I bet my hubby would LOVE the sloppy joes! I totally forgot about those!
Cheers!
Yea last semester!!
Those look great! I grew up on traditional (not-so-healthy) sloppy joes, but now I never get to enjoy them since the hubby dislikes them. Hopefully he likes these though – I’m going to give it a shot!
thankfully, my husband is unaware that there are specifically “man” foods. He just eats regular food.
the sloppy joes sound delicious!
Do i ever plan meal around my man? Which one? Three boys and a husband leaves my out numbered and surrounded by meat!
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