Quick Vegan Tips 01: The Tattooed Chef’s Cauliflower Spaghetti with Plant-Based Bolognese makes a fast, easy, cheap, yummy dinner for the pickiest ADHDer (me)
The Tattooed Chef nails it, again.
I do think about things other than data visualization: my dogs (Parker is pictured below), other dogs, yoga, and food.
I’m a stereotypical Gemini ♊️ sun-sign (my birthday was May 30): noncommital whenever possible, party on the outside/tortured on the inside (a.k.a., my moon is in Cancer♋️), impatient, mouthy, and outspoken. (I have Sagittarius♐️ rising, too, so you might want to step back.🔥)
I have little patience for cooking or decisions about takeout (or most anything, really). I also have ADHD 🧠, and we tend to find things we like to eat and stick with them for a long time. We also tend to eat more than average because we need a lot of dopamine to feel good.
“Research has demonstrated that individuals with ADHD have a greater risk for developing binge eating disorder or bulimia nervosa than their peers without ADHD. A study conducted at Harvard Medical School, in 2007, found that girls with ADHD were almost four times more likely to have an eating disorder than those without ADHD. Another empirical study found that 11 percent of women with ADHD, compared to 1 percent of women without, reported a history of bulimia nervosa.” — “The ADHD-Eating Disorders Link”, ADDitude: Inside the ADHD Mind
So I want to eat what I want to eat when I want to eat it or else I am placing a GoPuff order for a pint of Ben & Jerry’s non-dairy ice cream 🍦(they have a few new flavors, like Karamel Sutra Core 🤤, Coca Cola Starlight (it’s limited edition run ends soon😭), Unreal Dark Chocolate Coconut bars, Quinn’s peanut butter-filled pretzels, and call that dinner.
In order to prevent the aforementioned scenario, I stock up on vegan frozen foods to make sure I always have a somewhat healthy and not-solely-sugar lunch or dinner available for when I can’t make myself cook. (The Forks Over Knives Meal Planner has made it way easier for me to cook most of the time, though.) For years, the best vegan frozen dinner options were from Amy’s Kitchen and everything else pretty much sucked. But in 2022, as bad as life on earth has gotten, at least we have a lot of new and delicious vegan frozen food options.
Some of my favorite brands are Sweet Earth (I found out the hard way — by getting sick — that the pesto chik’n lasagna is NOT vegan, but vegetarian, btw), Purple Carrot (the Purple Carrot meal kits are good, too!), and Tattooed Chef. PLEASE NOTE: all of these brands have vegetarian and vegan options, so if you don’t eat dairy or eggs, read the labels.
I placed my usual Target order on Friday and noticed a few new options from The Tattooed Chef, all multi-serving “meals.” I ordered the Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Plant-Based Butter and Sage (out of stock) and the 🍝Cauliflower Spaghetti 🍝 with Plant-Based Bolognese (pictured above in the package and cooked). The package contains 20 ounces divided into four servings of 170 calories on the Nutrition Facts panel, so this is really a two-serving meal of 340 calories per serving. Priced at $8.49, that’s about $4.25 for dinner! Add a green thing on the side and you’ve got yourself a balanced meal in ten minutes.
I keep my expectations in check when flour substitutes like chickpea pasta or cauliflower pizza crusts are concerned. They tend to be hit or miss, but I’ve been impressed with The Tattooed Chef’s Veggie Hemp Bowl, Buddha Bowl, and Pesto Harvest Bowl for lunches (at $4.99 each at Target, also a decent deal, especially when the (delicious, local) alternative is $28 worth of takeout from Farmacy or 3 Dot Dash [which I still get, just not every single day]). The portions of the Tattooed Chef bowls look small-ish, but they are filling enough for this ADHD vegan with an appetite to go from 1 p.m. to dinner around 8 with just a snack of hummus and Pretzel Crisps between. Hangry be gone!
The cauliflower spaghetti dish takes 7–8 minutes to prepare and requires the addition of only water and olive oil. It doesn’t look great frozen, but be prepared to be amazed at the transformation that happens in the pan.
Bolognese sauce is one of the things I miss from pre-vegan life, and The Tattooed Chef has nailed a vegan version. It has a richness I expect from Bolognese, too. The cauliflower pasta’s texture is pasta-like! The “meat”, called just “plant-based beef crumble” on the label (so it’s not Impossible or Beyond, but The Tattooed Chef’s own fake beef), is super yummy and has a great texture, much like Impossible Ground Burger.
The bottom line (rating out of four stars):
Taste: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Delicious. Will add to my regular rotation.
Value: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Inexpensive and good quality.
Ease of preparation: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 SO EASY.
What are your quick vegan tips? Any go-to meals or recipes for when life has you burned out and overwhelmed?