Veggie Joes

Heh! Silly me. I thought I "invented" veggie joes last summer. When Sleek and I ate meat (just over 3 years ago, now), we frequently ate sloppy joes. I had been craving some joes last summer, when I also happened to be wondering what the hell to do with the mountain of veggies I had from the CSA. Veggie joes popped into my mind. I decided to just kind of wing it with the sauce, and amazingly they turned out awesome. I have since seen a version of veggie joes in every vegetarian cookbook I've looked at! Every time I make these, I get that Adam Sandler song stuck in my head for at least two days! OMG. Y'all must watch that. Adam Sandler and Chris Farley may be my favorite comedy duo ever.

So, here's what I do: Dice up some veggies. I like zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, onions and bell peppers. I saute them until just soft. Then I add various amounts of beans. (I don't really measure, but I'd say about 2 cups.) I usually use pinto beans, but yesterday all I had cooked were chickpeas. So, I lightly mashed the chickpeas and added them to the vegetables. Finally, I added about 1 1/2 cups of cooked brown rice.

While that was all getting heated through, I made the sauce. If I had to guess on the measurements, it would go something like this: about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce, 1/2 cup to a cup of ketchup, 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of brown sugar, a couple TBS of yellow mustard, splash of vegan Worcestershire, several shakes of paprika (I just keep adding and tasting until I get it right), a dash of salt and a dash of cayenne pepper. Mix it all up and pour it into the veggies and heat it through.

This really is an easy dish to make, and it's just so good. Plus, it's just full of veggies, so it's good for you too!