Mostly Meatless Monday – Yves Meatless Hot Dogs and Recipe for Homemade Coleslaw

It’s Meatless Monday and although I don’t have a recipe for an entire meal to share, I do have a couple of ideas from my family’s weekend that I would love to pass along to you.  The weather was beautiful here and although we are missing our grill because it’s in storage right now, I didn’t want to let that stop us from enjoying some “grilled” summer food!  Now when my husband thinks of a barbecue, he wants steak or a juicy cheeseburger (for the record, he and my older son do eat meat a couple times a week), so I bought some local, antibiotic-free, added hormone-free ground beef for them to each have a burger.  Then I pulled out my electric grill pan and heated that sucker up for the best inside cookout I could muster up.
Since becoming vegetarians, my younger son and I have yet to try any of the veggie options when it comes to hot dogs.  Let’s face it, when it comes to a summer barbecue, a yummy dog is a quintessential favorite and an American tradition.  So I searched a little online and read a couple of reviews as to which veggie dogs were the best.  Just because we are vegetarians, doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice good quality and deliciously flavored food. I decided on the Yves Meatless Hot Dogs. I have tried their products before and I wasn’t disappointed so I thought this was a safe route to take.

Some of my favorite reasons to love these hot dogs before even taking a bite:

• No cholesterol
• No Nitrates or Nitrites (this one is a big deal, especially with kids)
• Vegan – I’m not a vegan, but great for those who are
• Low calories – so you can have fun with the condiments – well, not too much fun.

Actually, it was that grilling sauce right over there ——————>

As a fun side note: I gave hubby-the-carnivore a bite and he said it was good and he even went so far as to say you could “fool” other meat eaters, especially with the right sauce and condiments, into thinking they were eating meat!  If he says it, it must be so.
Oh, something a little less pretty to share is that there was not burping for hours after eating the meatless hot dogs.  I don’t know about you, but that was always something I hated when eating regular hot dogs in the past.  Just an ugh kind of a feeling, really.
Now, I do have a little recipe to share with you for homemade coleslaw!  I wanted something different to go with the burgers and hot dogs, but easy enough that I could make myself.  My family has always loved coleslaw, but I have a problem with the ones at the store that have a list of ingredients a mile long, when really, you only need a few ingredients to make your own delicious batch of coleslaw!  I wish I had a picture to share, but at the time, I was enjoying our family time so much that it didn’t occur to me to snap a photo.

Homemade Coleslaw Recipe

Here’s what I used:

• about 1/2 a large head white cabbage, shredded
• 3 large carrots, shredded
• about 1/2 a small head of red cabbage, shredded
• a splash of vinegar
• about 1 teaspoon of sugar
• Mayonnaise – amount depends on how creamy you like it, but less is better to keep it healthy!

*Additional healthy tip: substitute some or all of the mayonnaise with low-fat Greek yogurt!

That’s it! Just six ingredients!  I am very fortunate to have a food processor, which makes this recipe so easy to prepare, but if you have a handheld shredder and want to get a good workout, go for it!
Something I loved most about preparing this recipe was that my husband and I did it together (secretly, I think he helped just so he could nibble on raw cabbage, but I’m okay with that).  Any time I can have my husband or kids helping me in the kitchen, makes it a much more rewarding experience.
Basically, we just fed the cabbages and carrots through the food processor on the shred setting, dumped it all into a large bowl, added the remaining ingredients, and stirred it all together.
I then put it in the fridge while I prepared the burgers and hot dogs so I could serve it chilled.  I love the color that the red cabbage adds to this dish, but you could certainly use all white cabbage if you prefer.  We were also talking about ways we could change it a little next time by adding some chopped vidalia onion for a little different crunch and natural sweetness.  Although, there was meat involved in this post, I mostly wanted to share my wonderful find with the Meatless Hot Dogs and the amazing recipe for homemade coleslaw.  What about you?  Do you have a favorite meatless food that you cook on the grill?  Or do you have a different suggestion for something to add to the coleslaw to add some wonderful flavor or an extra health kick?  I would love to hear from you!