It’s been over a year since Mike and I have given up land-animals. No pork, cow, chicken, rabbit, quail, antelope, deer. If it has four-legs, we don’t eat it. So, that being said, we’ve broadened our horizons to plant based protein meat substitutes. Soyrizo, tofu, seitan, tofurkey sausage. It’s helped ease into the “What, no MEAT!” lifestyle. And you’d be surprised at the deliciousness offered in some of the substitutes!

Saturday’s dinner used Tofurky Italian sausage…we hiked all day and needed something hearty. Our goal was to park at Summit Lake and make it to Mount Spalding (13,842 ft!). It was incredible! We even brought the dogs, who made the ascent to the Summit…just barely. There were several sections where I thought my heart would stop it was so steep…but we forged on and made it, just in time for the snow showers!All-in-all, our family made it safely up and back down just in time. Although next time we plan to head up to the mountains, we’ll definitely bring warmer gear (Mike had a tee-shirt and shorts on…thank god there was a bag of dry-cleaning in the trunk, so he could put on a dress shirt and be the Fancy Hiker).

When we arrived home, we were both ravenous!  A quick look in the fridge found two HUGE portobello mushrooms, Tofurky Italian Sausage links, some pre-made polenta and asparagus…why not stuff the shrooms with the furky? YES!

Italian Stuffed Portobellos

2 big portobello mushroom caps, de-stemmed and washed
Tofurky Italian Sausage links
2-3 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese
Salt, Pepper, Onion powder, olive oil & balsamic- for the portobello marinade

Homemade Tomato Sauce
1 and 1/2 tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
1/3 cups veggie broth
3-5 fresh basil leaves
1/2 tablespoon of oregano
Pepper to taste

Add all ingredients for homemade sauce into a blender or food processor. Blend until mixed.

Brush portobello caps, with olive oil and dust with salt, pepper and onion powder. Put a bit of olive oil and balsamic in the cap. Let sit for 5-10 minutes in the fridge.

Start grill, get nice and hot. Put caps on the grill for about 7 minutes – you want them to have grill marks on them, but not burnt.
You can put the tofurky links on when you put the caps on – flip after 3 minutes.

Take off caps & sausage – put caps in a small baking pan. Cut up sausage and fill the mushroom caps. Pour homemade sauce on both caps & top with cheese. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Bon appetite!