HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICHARD (OF RBB)

I'M TRYING TO DO MY BIT, BUT .....

I'm really interested in meat substitutes to complement the vegetarian diet that I'd like to fully adopt.

See: HERE

I haven't yet found any decent and palatable meat alternatives yet in the supermarkets I shop in but will keep looking. No doubt Auckland will have a greater choice but Whangarei is always a bit limited in choices for the unusual and, being surrounded by rural enterprises it may be risky buying meat and dairy alternatives if any farmers are watching.

Yesterday I bought this product:

It has these certified organic ingredients:

Soya beans, filtered water, sunflower oil, tapioca, rice, onions, cocoa, garlic, sea salt, carrots, celery, herbs and spices, yeast extract.

It looks reasonably enticing and was in the chilled section near the processed meats and cheeses.

It was expensive - $9.99.

It's all very good intended but ...... it tastes awful or, frankly, doesn't taste of much at all. I've tried it twice - sliced in bread with Havarti cheese and tomato but I don't think I'll bother making any more sandwiches with it. At $9.99 though I'm a bit loth to throw it away. I should have mixed it in with the meatloaf ingredients that I put together yesterday (lamb mince and sausage meat) and made and froze 5 portions.

Maybe I'll make a spaghetti sauce during the week and add it in.