"Meat"balls.

A few nights back I was hungrily plodding around the kitchen trying to think of what to have for dinner. As I had had my weekend cut short by being called into work last week, I didn't have any really meal planner prep time, which I try to do!

Then I happily remembered that in the freezer I had a box of Redwood's meat free meatballs in the freezer which I get from my most favourite store in the world Vegan Online.

So I quickly grabbed them out and heated up my oven and made a kick arse marinara sauce and boiled some pasta.

Marinara Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1-2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 - 1 onion diced
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 500g jar pasta sauce, I like Raguletto's Venitian herbs
• 1 400g tin diced tomatoes
• fresh oregano, fresh basil, salt, pepper and dried mixed herbs to taste 
• Pasta 

Method:

1. Heat oil in a saucepan.
2. Add onion and saute for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add garlic and saute fror 2 more minutes.
4. Add tomato paste and let it cook off, another few minutes.
5. Add fresh herbs, tomatoes and pasta sauce, mix thoroughly and let simmer until heated through.
6. Add salt, pepper and fresh herbs to taste, you may also want a little bit of sugar in it, depending how acidic it is. Let simmer for as long as you like, when you're happy with it serve.

You could also add red or white wine to the mix as well.

This was a really great base the next night for a pizza sauce, SOO YUMMY!

But here was the dish I made

There is easily 4 serves here, you really only need 5 or 6 meatballs per dish, especially when eating with pasta, bread and salad like we did. Actually we didn't have bread, we didn't need it! And they were a great lunch of leftovers as well :)

Now I think these are gluten free, but I can't be 100% certain, just (obviously) check the ingredients first.

I can't wait to put in my next order for these, I loved them so much, even just dipping them in BBQ sauce!

Lamyong Mini Steaks.

Small bite size pieces of soy patties marinated with a sweet and spicy sauce. Add to stir fries or simply add pineapple and serve on a bed of rice.

Whenever I find a packet of food that is vegan I instantly want to try it. This isn’t necessarily a good thing. I found this out with Lamyong Mushroom Chunks, which admittedly I didn’t taste, just opened the bag, thought they smelt like dog food and chucked the pack away!
I bought this pack along with Lamyong Mini Steak from my favourite online store Vegan Online.
Due to my unwillingness to try the mushroom chunks I was really hesitant to try the mini steaks, which is why I had the pack in my pantry for about 3 or so months.

A Couple of nights ago we realised there wasn’t much in the fridge or pantry, but I did have a pack of the mini steaks, reluctantly we decided to give them a go, here's what happened:

SJ’s Lamyong Mini Steaks

I sautéed some onion and broccoli in a medium sized fry pan.
Then added some:
Sweet and sour sauce
lime juice
mirin seasoning
rice wine vinegar
1 ½ pineapple rings, cut into small pieces
and the pack of mini steaks

I cooked it gently for about 5 minutes or so, until the steaks were heated through, then thickened the sauce with some corn flour mixed with water. Cooked it for another minute or two and served it with some steamed white Basmati rice.

And guess what? It wasn’t too bad at all! A quick and easy no fuss meal with plenty of flavour :)