Fat Tuesday

Sorry, I'm a day late for "fat Tuesday" but I thought I'd share with you my "fat Tuesday" dinner. Vegetarian Jambalaya and Cornbread. Yummy! And it was....
Vegetarian Jambalaya
1 tablespoon safflower oil
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup coarsely chopped celery
1 green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1 garlic clove, mined
One 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon file powder
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup water
1-1/2 cups cooked or canned black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
4 oz poached tempeh (to poach, I simmered in boiling water to cover for 30 minutes), cut into 1"
pieces
8 oz frozen vegetarian sausage links, cut into 1" pieces
4 to 5 cups hot cooked long-grain brown rice
In a large pot, heat 1 1/2 teaspoons of the oil over medium heat. Add onion, celery and bell pepper and saute for 5 minutes or until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, file powder, Tabasco, salt and water. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. Stir in the beans.
Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the tempeh and vegetarian sausage and cook until browned about 5 minutes. Add the tempeh and sausage to the tomato mixture and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the flavors are well blended. Adjust the seasonings. Serve over rice.
Cornbread
1 tablespoon refined coconut oil, melted or safflower oil
1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup evaporated cane sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/2 cups soy, rice or almond milk
1/2 cup silken tofu
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Oil a 13x9 inch baking pan:set aside
In a large bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a blender, combine the milk, tofu and the 1 tablespoon of the oil pureeing until smooth. Add the milk mixture to the cornmeal mixture, stirring just until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.
Bake the cornbread until golden brown about 20 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove the cornbread from the pan and return to rack to cool completely.

"Fat Tuesday" is the last big hurray before lent. Now if you don' t know what lent is, its a time when your suppose to fast until Easter. I did grow up Catholic, can't say I'm one now, (of course once a Catholic, always a Catholic?) and after 12 years of Catholic schools, some things just get embedded into your brain. So I decided to give up bread, beer and sweets....now this is going to be tough, especially the bread part....I can do it...You can too, what are you going to give up for the next 6 weeks (I think its 6 weeks, maybe 5?) Whatever you decided try the Jambalaya and Cornbread (oh, no I can't eat the cornbread now....) its really good. As usually.....ENJOY!