Healthy Eating: Homemade Vegetarian Mac and Cheese Steak Sub!

Healthy Eating and Why I'm Doing It...

So this year, I've been trying to eat healthier. Since... February?
As a general confession, I had a doctor appointment last year in the spring of 2011.
They ran a series of tests. Being only the 26 years old, I assumed I was completely healthy.

I went on, completely forgetting about it. Unsuspectingly, the results got back to me about 6 weeks later. I didn't have any horrible diseases or anything, but I did have one thing wrong with me. I had borderline high cholesterol. This was a grand epiphany that didn't change my life, but really got me all worried about myself. Both of my grandfathers passed away, and I believe their deaths were health related to cholesterol (not 100% certain). It wasn't until months later- February 2012 when I watched the movie Forks Over Knives. It convinced me to actually make changes to my diet, almost immediately and almost overnight. I can discuss this movie, but that's an entirely different topic altogether that I can go on at length. Basic rundown is: whether it's 100% true or not, it's way more convincing a movie argument than other food and health movies I've seen.


Motivation


Part of it was reduction of red meat consumption, and then other meat in general. I still have meat maybe about 3-6 times a week, but it's a lot less than the twice a day I was doing in college.
So I needed something else to turn my appetite to. Various types of meats are typically a large source of cholesterol, and there are other benefits to reducing meat in my diet. So I figured that would be the best and easiest way to attack my problem. It's been a slow process, but I now eat salads at least 4 times a week (where before, it was none). It was tough, but I learned later that I was going about it the wrong way.

Apparently you don't have to "cold turkey" away from eating meat to achieve my goal, but just replace it with non-meat "meaty" substitutes or make very good vegetarian dishes. It's not all salads and grains. It can be (and should be) better than that. I've had some great recipes that friends have made (ratatouille for example). But I am not as well versed in cooking vegetables as they are. As of late, I've been experimenting with meat substitutes such as Morningstar Meat Crumbles. Here is my latest concoction attempt with this.

Homemade Vegetarian Mac and Cheese Steak Sub

I don't have a recipe because I basically just winged it with what I had. But I do have a list of ingredients.

• 1 box of macaroni shells
• 1/2 shredded block of Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/2 shredded block of Sharp Cheddar cheese
• green peppers (1 average sized one should be enough)
• 1 package of meat crumbles (I suppose you can use real ground beef instead for the meat version of this)
• salt
• black pepper
• sub roll(s)

I chopped the green peppers, made the pasta, cooked the meat crumbles (it's not real meat, but it needs to be warmed before consumption). I put in about half the peppers into the cooking pan with the "meat" and salted and peppered it (light on the salt, heavy on the black pepper). Mix in all the macaroni, cheese and "meat" mix together until thoroughly combined. Place a hearty amount of the mix into a sub roll... and consume.

The mix

The full sandwich

First bite (added extra peppers and some crushed red peppers too)

All done

Post Analysis

Overall, it was edible and fine. Admittedly, the sub itself wasn't that good. The mix by itself was actually better tasting than the addition of the sub roll. I surmise that this dish has several problems:

• Having both macaroni and a sub roll makes it too carby a dish
• Bread itself isn't flavorful and blocks the flavor from the overall taste from the mix
• typical Philly cheese steak subs are all greasy and dripping- so the bun absorbs the flavor
• next time I'd need to flavor the bread or somehow have it absorb more flavors
• The cheeses selected were good choice for taste, but not for texture
• didn't have the typical provolone flavor; expected, but not surprising
• didn't have any butter or cream mixed in, so it wasn't creamy or cheesy/melty
• No onions
• This one is a little selfish- Sarah and I aren't the biggest fans of onions, and I didn't want to chop any

On the upside:

• The mix tastes good by itself as a Mac 'n Cheese 'n "Beef" dish
• quick and easy to make
• much healthier than a real cheese steak sub
• got some creative food experimentation done