Lentil Loaf Taco/Tostada "Meat" Recipe + Your Kind Kitchen's Website Goes Live

Take the above mixture and throw it wherever you’d usually put seared cow/pig/chicken.

Don’t have lentil loaf?

NO WORRIES. You could do the same thing to cooled lentils, and this is how we almost always make it.

Don’t want to grate garlic? You could use granulated or just chop it. The flavors will be altered accordingly, but it’s a time saver.

Start with the tsp each of of the seasonings, and then adjust on the back-end per your tastes. I tend to have a base framework and then alter from there (because sometimes I’m cooking for folks who may not like a lot of cumin, the berbere would be too spicy, or their salt preferences/requirements are different than ours.)

Despite their robust health benefits, their amazingly inexpensive price-per-cup, and their versatility; lentils used to be a rare occurrence in this household. If you’d told me that I’d not only be enjoying them, but Raving about (and perpetually craving) “lentil loaf tacos” I’d likely’ve balked.

For most of us, 2020 has been a whirl of change. On our end, it made it all the more economically imperative that we use inexpensive ingredients in myriad vectors (<—I was laid-off at the start of the pandemic); and it was through that silver-ling squeeze that these body-kind/environmentally-kind/animal-kind delights were created.

Just like “meatloaf” tastes like saucier ground-up muscle; lentil loaf tastes just-like/but-better muscle-meatloaf, and it holds together better than ground beef (<—you can just sear it in strips); and if you add it to a taco, you get all the flavor you want from muscle-meat, but you have it in an easier-to-eat-form. Plus it is healthier for you and better for the planet than the cow carcass.

It’s a win-win delicious win; and at Your Kind Kitchen’s First tasting these easy beauties were loved by all, so this is not just environmental hot-air.

And, if you’re like old-me and you hear “lentil loaf tacos” and your brain jumps right to something akin to “That’s weird” or even hollers “GROSS!”, first I’d point out that consuming ground-up flesh (that is full of bacteria, antibiotics, and pesticides) that is directly tied to increasing your chance of cardiovascular disease and cancer is foolishly gross. And if you’re anything like old-me, you’re eating several animal-product packed meals a day, and you need the harsh shake of those facts (again and again) to start shifting your meals plant-based for planetary health and body health (<— and if you care about compassion, you just added a big heaping swell of that to the line-up. <—And if you’re like old-me and calling yourself an “animal lover” while perpetually participating in a cycle where animals are bred/raised in horrible conditions just so you can have them slaughtered for a meal you do not require at all nutritionally —ie you’re doing this purely for taste— and also calling yourself an “environmentalist/nature lover/etc” while consuming a product directly tied to the destruction/ruination of our environment: you may want to do like old-me did and acknowledge that hypocrisy and grow forward. <—The future of every species depends on it —this includes my son’s future— so I have boundless energy for self-improvement, and hopefully there’s someone/thing out there that you care about enough to spark inspiration in you too. )

Have a moment and want to create a dish you’ll then crave every meal from then on? Something bursting with fibrous HEALTH instead of disease and destruction? Try this recipe.

Continue for: Lentil Loaf Taco Recipe; Your Kind Kitchen’s hot & fresh website; continuing down this new homeschooling path; examples of plant-based family meals, and a feast of free recipes for your own use.

Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward.

Chop up about 2 cups of cooled (even better day-old) lentil loaf.

Prep seasonings

Add the oil to the pan, toss in the lentil loaf, grate in the garlic, throw in the seasonings, stir it all around, sear for about 5 minutes, season per taste, and go enjoy on wherever you’d usually use cow carcass.

Lentil Loaf Tostadas with cashew queso, quick-pickled cabbage, balsamic dressed greens, and ten-minute tomatillo.


**I put the queso down first so it protects the shell from soaking up all the juices from the hot sauce and pickled cabbage**

Lentil Loaf Tostadas with: quick-pickled cabbage, bell peppers, romaine, sorrel, roasted corn, and “Holy Moly!” sauce.

Lentil loaf tacos with mashed potatoes (like a flautas), cashew queso, and swiss chard.

I'd forgotten about how great flautas are, and we'll be adding way more potatoes to our taco lineup now. 😅

Lentil Loaf Tacos for DAYYYYYYYYS :-D

Go get yourself a hot sauce you love; make yourself a big batch of quick-pickled cabbage, a jar of queso, and a big batch of lentil loaf; and start slicing that deliciousness onto hardshell tacos and topping it with your heart’s delight.

I spent the early morning hours this week working on Your Kind Kitchen’s website, which is now officially up.
We named our business “Your Kind Kitchen” because there are a feast of folks who have reached out to say they need help to cook this way for themselves and their families. Our aim is to do it all for you and radiate out as much environmental-kindness as possible.

Jasquatch will remain a catalog of Cappello doings, and a klaxon howling of what we’re learning environmentally and nutritionally. I’m still getting souls saying, “I needed that push! / I needed your voice in my head!” and I hear you. :-( Harsh facts hollered in my own head is what propelled my stubborn self forward.

Below is a bit of what we’ve been eating/doing around here.

Plant-Based Whole-Food Breakfast Option: it’s black raspberry (we have some frozen from the summer) and cherry oatmeal made just like the blueberry oatmeal, with cashew cream and omega sprinkle.

Plant-Based Whole-Food Breakfast Option: black bean brownie with peanut butter and berry sauce (was served with an apple).

Plant-Based Whole-Food Lunch Option: our omnipresent peanut sauce bowls made with black rice, swiss chard, quick-pickled cabbage, olives, and the sugar-free version of the peanut sauce.

Plant-Based Dinner Option: “Loaded Potato” Soup with roasted corn, seared mushrooms/peppers/onions, dressed greens, and homemade bread.

Plant-Based Dinner Option: lentil loaf tacos again. They have yet to get old, and he's always excited for them. :-)

Whole-Grain Oat bread made into a graboid shape for sandworm-obsessed Q.

Plant-Based Whole-Food Dessert: black bean brownie with cashew cream and omega sprinkle.

Movement & Loved Ones: crunching around through leaf-fall on Sunday with Steph and the boys

Free/Beautiful Central New York fun.

And this week’s homeschooling theme is the real-life sandworm. :-)

Oy! :-( We learned that it’s only called Bobbit because of that horrible abuse case, and so from here on out it’ll be Eunice Aphroditois!

Math work

A thank you card he made for Crystal. <3

Beetlejuice

The front of the penpal letter he made for Aria: “It’s portraying me finding the worms when we were at Rand Tract.” <3

I have a Google Sheet populated with the subjects we are working on, and I fill it in each day. Never in my wildest imaginations did I conjure the mental image of homeschooling and/or writing about discussions about The Offspring to my offspring, and yet here we are. :-)

”He woke up requesting The Offspring's "The Kids Aren't Alright" after hearing it on the radio the previous day. He said, "Can we do that thing where it plays over and over again, 'cause this is going to be awhile." I asked him what was resonating, and he said that he likes “that the singer's voice can go so high and it’s really kind of pretty"; so we discussed that realm of rock where the drums/guitars/voice may be loud/powerful, but the singer has that special ability to be both powerful and skilled enough to sing beautifully. He said, "Like ‘Schism’ !!!... and 'The World is a Vampire' [<--Smashing Pumpkins "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"] is really loud, and great, and I reeeeally like it, but not so much good singing." TRUTH :-D”

(We still love you/your-sound Billy Corgan! :-D)

[He was singing the refrain to himself all day today too <3 ]

When your kiddo is doing yoga and he can’t stop laughing to himself as he tries to not topple over.

What’s the most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help your kin, community, millions of species, and planet? Transition as plant-based as possible.🌎♥️

Why? Plant-Based foods are environmentally imperative 🌎. They also promote ideal health💪 (which takes stress off our overburdened health care system), are inexpensive🙌, delicious🤤, & compassionate. 💕  

Why imperative, though? 🤔We’re approaching (& have crossed) climate tipping points that will doom our kin & millions of other species. 😱📣Reducing/eliminating animal products is the *most impactful thing an individual can do* to prevent worse. 🌎🔥

Why? Animal Agriculture creates more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined, it’s tied to water waste/loss/pollution (<-- freshwater is our most precious resource💧), land loss/deforestation (<-- exacerbates climate change by reducing our ability to sequester carbon🔥🌎), ocean acidification (<-- FYI 50-85% of earth’s oxygen originates from oceanic plankton🌊) & vast species loss/extinction/suffering💔📣🌎

Plus, consuming animal products is tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease❤️‍🩹, diabetes👎, cancer👎, and chronic disease👎; whereas Plant-Based feasting is linked to preventing/reversing some of our most common diseases (<— like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer); plus it promotes ideal health & robust strength (ie Olympians, Weightlifters, Endurance Athletes are thriving via PBWFs too). 🎉🙌♥️

What organizations are promoting plant-based diets for best health and environmental stability? National Institutes of Health,  Mayo Clinic, Yale, the United Nations, Harvard School of Health,  American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Kidney Foundation, even the Parkinson’s Foundation.

We’re all overwhelmed in one way or another, but for the sake of our kin (and the millions of species we share this planet with) we need to start pivoting forward. As someone who once rarely ate green things & used to eat animal products at every meal, I can assure you that is possible, affordable, enjoyable, & purposeful to pivot Plant-Based. In fact, our whole family is now healthier/stronger than ever. 🙌♥️

Anecdotally, our son had failure-to-thrive, was also plagued with perpetual ear-infections/sinus-infections, and had an omnipresent runny nose. What was he eating? Grass-fed milk, organic/antibiotic-free/grass-fed/local meats, eggs from organic-fed/well-loved chickens from a neighbor, every meal came with vegetables, and we limited junkfood. He was healed via a plant-based diet: he’s launched out of that diagnosis and the last time he had a sinus-infection (or was sick at all) was in 2019 when he had some cheese at a school Christmas party. Before shifting to PBWF’s he was sick every month, and how he’s a robust, vital, thriving kiddo. 🙌🎉♥️

If you think any of the above sounds over-reached/absurd/impossible, please go read the links above. I understand the inclination to hackle-raise (<—because I was once totally there) but the science is clear: any step we make forward is imperative (<—and again “STEPS” is the focus. Don’t leap, just start making steps!). It’s as simple as starting with one meal a week and growing from there.💕

We have the ability (deliciously, healthfully, kindly, inexpensively) to *preserve/protect* the planet we share with millions of species & our kin. How are we going to use that power today?✌️🤟🖖