MKS's Log: Making Meat in the Lab

PETA should give me an award, and a lot of money.

Just kidding, I'm not actually creating meat meat in a lab. That concept creeps me out a little, honestly. I've been playing a lot with formulations of lentil and flax meats, and I've been coming to some very surprising conclusions as to what works really well for different recipes. The lab projects which I hope will produce good recipes very soon are:

-Delicious lentil loaf
-Lentil nuggets (I made these with sweet and sour coating, and it tasted quite a bit like sweet and sour chicken)
-Lentil balls for squash pasta(I've done these so many times, I just have to formulate the recipe)
-Flax and pumpkin seed sausage.
-STUFFED CABBAGE! (ENTHUSIASM because this was always one of my favorite foods as an omni child, and chances are it's going to be REALLY EASY to make meat,dairy,egg,and-grain-free!!)

The challenging thing, and the thing that has caused me to throw out the most failed lentil meat so far, is figuring out how to cook, pre-cook, soak, etc. the lentils before adding the flax-gluten and the flour and all of the other ingredients, and then baking the meats. Every one of the recipes above requires a different tenderness of lentils, different amount of flour, and a completely different frame of mind for preparation. It's been amazing to learn firsthand, through trial and a lot of error, the science of lentil meat.

I also, by accident, found a good proto-recipe for grain-free tortillas. I'll work on that and hopefully post it.

The only other thing I've been working on is a couple more muffin recipes. I've got a really good one that I'll post in a couple of days, if I get to test it. (If one of my ingredients comes in the mail...)

Oh yes, and I've almost perfected a black-eyed pea, French lentil, spinach, and mushroom soup. And, I have perfected (through much practice preparing and consuming) an easy lunch option: A Mexican sweet potato with tomatoes, green chilies, black beans, and guacamole.

More recipes very soon.