Buns of Meal

Foodbuzz not-so-recently sent me some free samples of new products from Nature’s Pride, but clearly it has taken me a while to make good use of them. Thank God for freezers!

I shared the Country White hot dog and hamburger buns with my parents, so I’ll have to check in with them to see how they’ve enjoyed using this stuff. As for me, I’ve been slowly but surely making my way through the bag of 100% Whole Wheat hamburger buns. Actually, I think I’ve used them for just about everything but hamburgers.

For example:

Snobby Joes! I’m so late in trying this recipe, considering how popular and reliable it seems to be. My impression was right—this vegan take on Sloppy Joes comes together easily and the seasonings will definitely remind you of its bemeated cousin, if you’ve ever tasted the beef version, that is.

To round out the meal, I roasted up some brussels sprouts, broccoli and diced butternut squash (note to self: roast frozen butternut squash at your own risk, as it may or may not “squash” itself all over the other veggies). I also blended up a quick raw kale soup (water, kale, avocado, carrots, EVOO, lemon juice, Bragg’s…the usual suspects).

This is how food babies are made.

I ended up enjoying the leftover Snobby Joes open-faced on the buns for a higher filling to bread ratio. I highly recommend eating Snobby Joes this way, considering you’d probably be happy to eat the filling straight from the pot by the spoonful anyway!

The most recent use of my Nature’s Pride buns was far more spontaneous. I wanted a sandwich and my only criteria was that it involve bread. I’m easy to please.

I ended up spreading 1/4 avocado on one half of the (toasted) bun. Meanwhile, I broiled some sliced crimini mushrooms (spritzed with cooking spray and dusted with Adobo) for 5 minutes and layered those onto the sandwich along with a tahini drizzle and a touch of Sun In Bloom sauerkraut.

I’m a little obsessed with tahini these days…it’s just so rich and creamy and drizzle-able! I considered drizzling it directly onto my tongue but settled for a lick of the spoon.

I was a bit worried that this sandwich would suffer from the all-too-common bite ‘n’ splode effect, but it actually held together very well. I credit the tahini. :)

And on the side, a delightfully peppery salad:

Organic arugula topped with roasted brussels sprouts, artichoke hearts, pistachios and balsamic vinaigrette.

And tahini.

Not like it’s earth-shattering news, but clearly hamburger buns are useful for infinite vegetarian sandwich options, so I’ve really liked having these whole wheat buns around. I’m not a huge sandwich person, so having bread that is specially made just for sandwiches has challenged the flabby and underused sandwich portion of my brain. Many thanks to Nature’s Pride for helping me tone and tighten my sandwich muscle.

What goes in your favorite sandwich?