Vegetarian Banh Mi Bowls with Gardein

Thanks to Gardein for sponsoring today’s post and sharing their delicious Gardein Teriyaki Chick’n Strips and Meatless Meatballs.

Lately I have been a bit obsessed with two things – turning traditional sandwiches into "bowls" and making all things Asian. So when an opportunity came around to work with delicious Gardein products and come up with a quick and easy Meatless Monday meal, I jumped at the chance. Without too much thought, I knew I wanted to make my own version of a traditional Banh Mi sandwich in a bowl complete with spicy pickles, lots of crunchy veggies, and Gardein’s delicious Teriyaki Chick’n Strips and Meatless Meatballs. It was too hard to pick just one.

I have been a pretty big fan of Meatless Mondays for a long time and stand behind it for both its health and environmental benefits. (Reducing your meat intake just one day a week can have a considerable impact on your health, increasing life expectancy while reducing the risk of heart disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes. Additionally if all Americans ate one meatless meal a week all year it would equal the equivalent of taking 1/2 million cars off the road.) However getting my meat loving partner to get on the Meatless Monday train has not been quite as easy.

To overcome his aversion to meatless meals, I am a huge fan of vegetarian meat replacement and Gardein makes some of my absolute favorite products in this category. I like Gardein for lots of reason, the most important of which is that is it delivers on the taste, the texture, and the nutrition of meat with no cholesterol, less fat, and less calories. Seriously, every time I make the chick’n, it takes him a few minutes to realize it isn't the real thing. It’s also made with non-GMO soy and wheat, ancient grains and veggies and is a product that’s good for me and for the planet. For me it’s a terrific, easy to prepare, alternative to meat and comes in so many varieties I can pretty much find a Gardein product to use in any of my favorite recipes.

So now on to that Banh Mi Bowl I was telling you about! And make sure to check out the coupon and giveaway below as well.