Barbecued Tempeh Sandwich

It's been a while since I've brought some bread in the lunchbox, in fact, I don't think I've brought any since I started trying to eat healthier (i.e. lower the fat and simple carbs) a couple of weeks ago. Well, I finally broke down and brought a sandwich type meal today, but when I went bread shopping this week I did at least make sure that I bought some "light" buns that have fewer calories than their normal cousins. I did check to make sure that they were vegan. I was pretty sure that they were because I remember buying them before when I was on Weight Watchers, and was vegan, but I still checked because you never know when they might change the ingredients on you and slip some milk, eggs or whey in there.

To go on my bread, I brought something that I've never fixed before. Barbecued Tempeh is something that I have seen mentioned on several other vegan message boards. Apparently it is featured a lot on salad bars at stores like Whole Foods Market and/or Wild Oats. I have seen people go on and on about how much they like it. So since there's no Whole Foods or Wild Oats here where I live yet, I decided to just go ahead and make some myself and see what I thought about it.

It was really simple to make because the only real work involved was already done. If you remember, I had some Grilled Tempeh left over from lunch the other day which I just wrapped up and put in the freezer for future use. Well, all I had to do last night was take some of that out of the freezer, thaw it out, and then crumble it up into a small bowl. I thought about making some barbecue sauce from scratch, because I wasn't sure if I had any storebought stuff on hand, but I looked in the fridge and there was a little bit left. So I just wimped out and used it. I have learned that storebought barbecue sauce is something that I have to examine closely before I buy it because I can not tell you how many times I have almost bought barbecue sauce that has honey in it. Sometimes they'll announce that in huge letters on the label because it's their main selling point, but sometimes they don't mention it anywhere at all, except in the ingredients list.

But all I did was squirt a bunch of barbecue sauce on the crumbled tempeh and stir it up. I packed it in its own little lunchbox container so that it wouldn't get my bread all soggy before lunchtime. As an omnivore, I never really like those pulled pork barbecue sandwiches, in fact, I couldn't stand them. But I did like barbecue rib sandwiches, and now, as a vegan, I love the Gardenburger Riblets. So it will be interesting to see what I think of this. I like tempeh, and I like barbecue sauce, so I have high hopes. ;o)

To go along with my sandwich I brought along some Mixed Steamed Vegetables and some Edamame. I'm sure I'll be at the grocery store this weekend and I really need to try and diversify myself a little bit as far as my vegetables go. I'm sure everybody is sick and tired of seeing broccoli in my lunch, but it IS just about my favorite green vegetable. But perhaps some green beans and brussel sprouts are in order.

I didn't pack anything for dessert, since I'm trying to watch my calories, but I think I'll be fine. I need to hang my head in shame because I have to admit that I did NOT exercise when I got home last night. It's nice outside here today though, so I will definitely get my 30 minute walk in today. That will give me 4 days of exercise this week, which is what I did last week, so hopefully I will have some more weight loss to show for it come Monday. I'm pretty sure that I will. The exciting part of this is almost over though, because even though I'll probably report a loss of several pounds on Monday, I'm just about to the point where it all levels out and the weight loss drops down to 1 or 2 pounds a week. I think THAT is when it becomes challenging to stick to eating healthy and exercising, when you feel like you're not getting a lot of bang for the buck. And especially when you plateau. That's why I'm glad that I'm using this blog to put what I'm doing out there where everybody can read it. It is DEFINITELY helping me stick to it because believe me, I don't wanna' get on here and have to tell all of you that I ate 6 vegan pizzas and downed 5 pints of vegan soy "ice cream" this weekend and gained 5 pounds. In fact, missing my exercise yesterday and having to report it here means that I WILL get it in today, whereas before, without documenting everything here in my blog, I probably would have just skipped today too and the whole thing would have started to fall apart. So thanks for reading this because just knowing that people do is the best motivation in the world.

I want to do some cooking this weekend and try some new recipes, so hopefully I'll have some new and interesting (and HEALTHY!) items in the lunchbox next week.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see everybody on Monday.

Have a GREAT weekend!