While visiting my mom recently, I was able to do a veggie version of her Picadillo con Carne recipe that she always made for us when I was growing up.  Since I became vegetarian 8 years ago, it’s been a while since I’ve had my mom’s version!  But I visited recently and was able to make this out of some things she had around the house.  The key to vegan-izing the recipe is finding a suitable sub for the Carne de res (not that I’m vegan, but there aren’t any animal products involved besides the beef!)

Serendipitously, my mom had recently gone grocery shopping, and when she knows I’m visiting, she usually picks up some sort of veg protein/ meat sub.  This week, she had happened to buy Upton’s Naturals Chorizo Seitan, which ended up being perfect for this dish.  I posted the full recipe on My Food Blog, but just wanted to cross post here as well, since one of my goals for the month was to cook more, and to hold myself accountable to this, I said I’d blog about the recipes I’m trying out.

I did use it as a post-workout meal, in line with the Precision Nutrition philosophy!  So it’s a win/win!  Delicious, taste of home, while also keeping in line with my nutrition goals.  I guess for non-workout days, I could remove the potatoes and it’d simply just be a picadillo de seitan.  Perhaps I could sub cauliflower?!  My creative cooking juices are flowing!  I did want to experiment more on rest-day recipes, so this might be a start!

Reflections of Gratitude
I’m grateful for the opportunity to explore my nutrition goals in a fun way rather than feeling tied to having to stick to a “diet” (I hate that word!)  Either my eating is helping me with my goals or hurting them.  So I have to decide to play, be creative, and have fun with my food so they’re helping me with my goals.