Vegetarian Tangerine Beef

Yes, I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but read on and you will see what I mean.

One of my downfalls is chinese take-out food. I love me some orange chicken and crab rangoons. What I don't love about them is the fat and sugar content. If I am feeling particularly industrious, I will make crab rangoons with fat free cream cheese and baked in the oven. But that takes A LOT of work so I don't do it too often. Actually, I think I have only done it once. But there is always a next time...

Perusing my favorite weight watchers cookbook (those of you who read this blog know which one and where to find it but if you don't, check out my post on stuffed french toast), I found a recipe for Tangerine Beef. Well, it was close enough to orange chicken to pique my interest, so I decided to check it out and see what I could do to totally bastardize an otherwise fine recipe.

The first thing I did was get rid of the beef. Not that we don't love beef, we just try to be healthy and not eat red meat so often. I substituted GimmeLean Smart Strips - al the taste of beef with none of the fat or cholesterol. Plus, with all the global warming, a lot of people say that if everyone substitutes just 1 meal with a veggie meal a week, we can greatly reduce the methane that gets into the environment from the smelly, farty cows.

The second change I made was not one of choice. The recipe (obviously) calls for tangerines. I could only find oranges at my local grocery store, so "Tangerine Beef" quickly became "Orange Vegetarian 'Beef"" Oh well, I liked it and that's all that really matters. It was even good cold for lunch at work a couple of days later.

I was still very pleased with the results. It tasted like I ordered from the Chinese place up the street but didn't come with the side of clogged arteries, bigger butt and guilt. The only thing missing was crab rangoons...