Enchilada Casserole

If you've read some of our earliest blog posts, you know that Kay has always been in the kitchen with me. When she was a baby, I'd put her bouncy chair on the kitchen table and she watched. When she was about 4, she started making cornbread. Then when she was about 8 she was helping with the cutting, sauteing, and kneading. But she is now 12 years old and it is a whole new phase which involves a lot of complaining and eye rolling and stomping around the house. That is why I was so happy yesterday when she came up to me with one of her old cookbooks and asked if she could make dinner! That is why I'm posting this, even though we don't have a picture. This is a truly momentous occasion!

Actually, this casserole wasn't very attractive anyway. It did taste really good though. Not at all like what I expected. It is out of Kay's favorite cookbook "Kids Can Cook: Vegetarian Recipes" which we've mentioned before. We've had nothing but success out of this book. I will warn you though, this recipe ended up taking about an hour and a half to prepare.

Since I don't have a picture of the food, I'll post a picture of Kay so you can get a taste of the atmosphere around our house lately.

That is Kay with her aunt. We had just got back from the park. She was mad because she was thirsty but I didn't take a water bottle with and her uncle was talking and not unlocking the apartment door so she could get a drink. Oh the stress that is her life!

Enchilada Casserole

(This is half a recipe. The original made 8 servings.)

First make the chili gravy:

3 tablespoons oil

1 onion, chopped

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/2 tablespoon cumin powder

1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup flour

3 cups water

In a large pot, saute the onion in the oil over low heat. Cook until the onions are soft. Add the dry ingredients and stir into the onions. Slowly add the water to the pot, stirring with a whisk to remove all the lumps. Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes, whisking occasionally.

Casserole assembly:

Chili gravy

8 flour tortillas

2 cans pinto beans, rinsed

cheddar cheese (or melty cheese sauce)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour half the chili gravy into the bottom of an 8x10 dish. Heat a skillet over medium heat and spray it with a light layer of oil. Cook each tortilla on each side about 30 seconds.

Spread a big spoonful of beans in the tortilla and roll it up. Place it on the gravy in the dish. Continue with all remaining tortillas. Pour the remaining gravy over the enchiladas.

Top the casserole with cheese of your choice.

Bake for 40 minutes. To serve, cut into squares.

Melty Cheese Sauce:

In a small sauce pan, mix together:

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Whisk in:

1 cup water

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard.

Cook and stir until the sauce thickens.

Kay: (She's at school now. I'll see if she has time to post later. I know one thing she will say is that the onions should have been cut smaller! She seemed to like it though and for once didn't complain about dinner.)

Dana (Mom): We usually don't add salt to our recipes but both the cheese sauce and the gravy needed it. We make a lot of different kinds of enchiladas but this was really different. The beans, tortillas, and sauce all blended together. The cheese sauce is your typically nutritional yeast fake cheese. If you don't like nutritional yeast (which I happen to love) then you won't like this! Kay and Bill had regular cheese on their part. We did it all in the same pan without any problem.

Franks and Beans

This is one of those recipes that we used to have when I was growing up but then I just kind of forgot about it. A couple years ago, my dad was over helping with one of our endless home improvement projects and I needed to throw something together for lunch. This has become one of his favorites which is why we had it last month for his birthday as well as a couple weeks ago when we visited my brother's family at their new apartment.

Kay and Grandpa on his birthday

It is very versatile because we have found that most non-vegetarians will eat vegetarian hot dogs without batting an eye if you just don't say anything. The first time I tested this was 2 years ago at Kay's birthday party. No one had any idea. Then a few months later we had a family get-together. My niece is usually a very picky eater (maybe not always but at least when I try to feed her!) but it seemed crazy to get regular hot dogs for just her so my mom and I decided to give her the veggie hot dogs. I worried a little when she didn't want a bun, ketchup or mustard. She ate it completely plain though and didn't seem to mind at all. (I have to say, they've come a very long way since I first tried them 19 years ago. Those things were disgusting!)

Kay and her cousin playing Wii

Therefore this makes a really good meal when you have a mixture of people. It is also really easy. That first time I literally just threw things together!

Franks and Beans

1 cup onions, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon oil

15 oz can of vegetarian baked beans

15 oz can of kidney beans, rinsed

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons mustard

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

6 hot dogs, cut into bite-sized chunks

Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Saute the onions over medium-low heat until browned. Add the remaining ingredients, stir and simmer for 15 minutes or until heated through and the flavors are blended. Stir every now and then so it doesn't stick.

Kay: I like mostly the hot dogs but my dad likes mostly the just the beans so it works out good.

Dana: This recipe can get unhealthy really fast depending on the ingredients you use. Make sure you check the salt content in all items and get salt free beans if you can.

Potato and Black Bean Quesadillas

Last night I was going to make either potato enchiladas or black bean and potato tacos (which I haven't posted yet but plan to) but we have both of those so often. It was much warmer yesterday and I didn't want to turn on the oven so I came up with something similar but in a quesadilla instead.

Bill had two races in Chicago today (see Flickr for pictures) and we must have walked 5 miles! I was so happy to have these leftovers at home!

Potato and Black Bean Quesadillas

2 pounds potatoes (about 4)

2 tablespoons vegetable broth

1 can chopped chilies

Juice of one lime

1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder

3/4 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

tortillas

Cut the potato into chunks. Boil until soft and then mash along with the vegetable broth. When the potatoes are relatively smooth, add the chilies, chili powder, cumin, and garlic powder. Stir in the black beans.

Warm a lightly oiled skillet over medium heat. Place a tortilla in the pan and cover half of it with the potato mixture. Fold the tortilla in half. Cook about 3-4 minutes per side until nicely browned.

Serve with sour cream and salsa.

Kay: I thought these were a little spicy. I didn't see the salsa so I ate mine plain.

Dana (Mom): This made a lot of filling. I'm going to try freezing some of it to see how it holds up. You can use any kind of bean that you like or have on hand. If I had extra spinach in my refrigerator, I probably would have chopped that up and added it as well.

Pesto

I didn't get very good pictures but that is the pesto peaking out under the peas.

We finally had our first CSA pickup last Friday. Actually, with how cold and rainy it has been, I'm shocked anything has grown. We received Swiss chard, shelling peas, fava beans, arugula, and basil. Kay and I cooked the fava beans which were such a pain but then we sat down and ate all of them within 5 minutes! I'm not sure what we'll do with the arugula since none of use care for it. The other ingredients were all incorporated into our dinner on Monday.

We grow our own basil so whenever I get a bunch from the CSA, I make pesto. Kay and I don't really like peas but I remembered a salad recipe from Ina Garten that used pasta, peas and pesto so I decided to turn that into a warm meal. Shockingly, Kay loved it. I think it had something to do with the huge amount of garlic I put in the pesto. I cut all the ingredients in half, based on the amount of basil I had but forgot to half the garlic!

Pesto

1/4 cup walnuts

1/4 cup pine nuts

8 cloves garlic, chopped

5 cups basil leaves

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 cup olive oil

Place the nuts and garlic in a food processor and chopped for 30 seconds. Add the basil, salt and pepper and chop for 30 seconds more. Leave the processor running and drizzle in the oil until all ingredients are pureed and well blended.

This will freeze very well.

Kay: I don't really care for peas but they tasted good mixed with the pesto. The fava beans were awesome. We gobbled them up in one minute!

Mom (Dana): For our dinner, I blanched the peas for about 1 minute and then mixed the peas, some cooked pasta, and some of the pesto. Bill and Kay added Parmesan. As you can see, we also had pea pods with almonds and onions and Swiss chard and potatoes.

Vegan Egg McMuffins

July 1st is the worst day of my professional year every single year. There is tons of work and stress and time constraints but, lucky for you, I just lived it and have no intentions of rehashing the whole thing. After working about 10 hours, I collapsed on my couch to watch some TV and turned on "Delicious TV Totally Vegetarian". After a few minutes Kay wandered in and sat down as well. She was so amazed by how these sandwiches looked, she asked me to make them. So this is what we had for dinner.

First of all, the "egg" part really looks like the egg on an Egg McMuffin. I was shocked. We had ours on toasted sourdough bread with fake bacon (which we LOVE!). When eaten like a sandwich, I thought it tasted pretty authentic and I don't know that I would have realized it wasn't egg if I hadn't been the one who cooked it. Kay ate one of hers as a sandwich and the other by itself. She thought it tasted more like egg in the sandwich than alone.

These were really easy to make. I'm not sure how quick it went but it is 5:40 now and I didn't stop working until 5:00 so within 40 minutes we watched the show, fixed the food and ate it. Not too bad.

Vegan Egg McMuffin

Actually this recipe is just for the egg part. You'll have to figure the rest out yourself!

1 pound firm or extra firm tofu

1 cup cornstarch

Pinch of salt

Turmeric

1 tablespoon coconut oil

Heat the oil in a large skillet.

Mix the cornstarch and salt in a bowl.

Slice the tofu into 4 slabs. We cut ours into circles because that's how they did it on TV but it would work just as well as rectangles. Dip each slice into the cornstarch, coating well. Sprinkle turmeric on one side and place that side down in the pan. Sprinkle the top with more turmeric. Repeat with other pieces.

Cook about 4-5 minutes per side until nicely browned.

Serve with toast, bacon, sausage, ham, cheese, or whatever else sounds good to you.

Kay: If you eat it plain it doesn't really taste like egg but if you eat it with fake bacon and bread, it tastes like an egg mcmuffin but a lot less greasy.

Dana: Unfortunately our home computer is in my home office and my work computer keeps beeping at me about new e-mails. I was tempted to ignore them since if I was still on the couch, I wouldn't have even known about them, but in the end, I couldn't so I'm back to work again. At least I got a dinner break!

Vegetable Enchiladas

For the first time in maybe forever, I'm home alone for about 24 hours. Bill is at Horribly Hilly in Madison, Wisconsin and Kay has a slumber/pool party. I always liked my alone time but I've gotten so used to not having any that I'm not real sure what to do with myself! Luckily, it is gorgeous out today and I have 2 library books and 3 magazines I haven't read so I've been on the porch all afternoon.

I made these enchiladas on Thursday when my parents and one of Kay's friends were over. The grown-ups all really liked them and the kids thought they were ok. I'll take it!

There was one still left over which I ate with herbed rice and roasted carrots. I'm quite impressed with the meal I was able create from leftovers considering it is Saturday and Sunday is our shopping day. Usually at this point we are eating buttered noodles and crackers!

Vegetable Enchiladas

Corn tortillas

Enchilada sauce of choice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 red or orange bell pepper, chopped

1 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 zucchini, chopped

1 yellow squash, chopped

2 cups eggplant, chopped

1 pound firm tofu, crumbled

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp chilies (I used the kind that come in a squirt tube. Hot sauce or crushed red peppers would work too.)

Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Add the onions, peppers, and garlic and cook until translucent. Add the mushrooms, zucchini, squash and eggplant. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the tofu and seasonings and cook 5 minutes more. If you must add salt, add it now but not sooner or your vegetables will get watery.

Heat the tortillas in the microwave to soften them. Heat the enchilada sauce in a skillet. Dip each tortilla into the sauce and then fill with a spoonful of the filling (yes, this is very messy). Roll the enchilada and place in a baking dish. Continue until you run out of tortillas, filling, sauce, or pan space. Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes.

Dana (all by herself!): I topped the kid's portion with cheddar cheese. Tonight I put sour cream (soy of course!) on mine. I had planned to offer it along with salsa on Thursday but forgot. I'm heading back to the porch!

Taco Salad

This is the taco salad I grew up with. My husband claims this isn't real taco salad but he still eats it! I always crave this when the weather first turns warm. This time I made one regular salad for Bill and Kay and tried to make a dairy-free version for me. It didn't work. It was fine but didn't taste anything like the original. Tough luck for me, I guess.

Taco Salad

There aren't really measurements for this because it depends on what size pan you put it in. Layer the ingredients in the following order starting on the bottom.

Lettuce (usually romaine or iceberg)

Green pepper

Green onion

Tomatoes

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Creamy garlic salad dressing

Cheddar cheese, shredded

Doritos, taco flavor, crunched up

If you aren't serving it immediately, wait to add the chips or they'll get very soggy.

Kay: I liked this salad. It tasted like tacos and salad. I really liked the chips! This has nothing to do with the salad but I got a new hamster today.

Mom (Dana): If I ever come across a decent dairy free creamy dressing, I'm giving this another shot!

Fettuccine Alfredo

Kay and I have both been on spring break this week. Normally this is a fun week, especially when her birthday falls in the middle of it like it did this year. Unfortunately for Kay, she also had to get two teeth pulled, go to the eye doctor and to the orthodontist! Plus the weather was terrible up until yesterday. To make up for this though she is having 3 birthday celebrations including a slumber party this weekend so don't feel too sorry for her.

On her birthday, I let her pick the meal. I was positive she would pick gnocchi but in a surprise move she picked fettuccine alfredo instead. Everyone seems to like this and it is my friend Lisa's favorite out of all my recipes. It is not at all healthy though! Obviously it is pretty much pure dairy so I ate a frozen dinner instead but Bill and Kay enjoyed it.

Fettuccine Alfredo

12 oz fettuccine

1/2 cup margarine

1 1/2 cups shredded Parmesan

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons fresh parsley

Cook the fettuccine according to the package directions.

In a medium sauce pan, melt the margarine. Gradually stir in the cheese and then the cream. Stir until well blended. Continue heating sauce, stirring constantly until it boils.

Combine the noodles, sauce and parsley.

Kay: I like the fettuccine a lot. I would rather have the parsley only on top instead of mixed in though. For my birthday my parents gave me a Wii and then I got money from my relatives so I bought some games yesterday.

Mom (Dana): This always looks like a disaster but it does eventually come together. If the cheese is really gloppy, a whisk helps.

Chicken Salad

Yes, we realize it has been over a month since we posted. And what a dreadful month! First Kay got the flu and then gave it to me. We both had fevers for several days and didn't start feeling better for over a week. After a couple days of feeling better, I developed bronchitis which had me completely wiped out for 10 days. During the 3 weeks we survived mostly on sandwiches and pre-made soups. It was dreadful.



Finally last week I was able to cook again. I've been fixing all of Kay's favorites which are already posted. So today I decided to post her favorite lunch instead. This is about the only non-vegetarian food that is ever made in our house. I developed this several years ago when I couldn't get her to eat anything. I discovered organic canned chicken that is all white meat and low in salt. I thought it would have tons of preservatives in it but it is just chicken, water and salt so I don't feel so bad using it.



Chicken Salad

1 10 oz. can chicken, drained
2 tablespoons fat free ranch dressing
1/4 cup chopped cucumber
1/4 cup chopped orange bell pepper
ground pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together. Refrigerate at least an hour to blend flavors.

Kay: I like this with grapes added in. I like grapes more than the vegetables. I eat it on crackers. Once I brought it to school and our classroom smelled like ranch dressing.

Mom (Dana): I've included all kinds of vegetables in this. I'll try anything that I think she might eat. I can usually spread this across 3 lunches for her.

Texas Caviar

Lately everything we've been eating is either something that we've already posted or straight from someone else's blog. Therefore, I'm going back to Christmas and posting one of our salads.

This is probably my husband's favorite recipe. When I had surgery a few years ago, I made a double batch of this and he ate it for lunch and dinner for a full week. Amazingly, he still likes it!

It is such an easy item to make, we often take it to get-togethers and everyone always seems to like it. This year I asked my family if they could only pick one recipe from past holidays, which would it be and most picked Texas Caviar.

Kay, just to be different, doesn't like it. Lucky for her, there is usually a large variety of foods when we have this so she can completely avoid it. This year for Christmas, she made it by herself while I was on the phone making our final holiday plans.

Texas Caviar

1 can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed

1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can corn (white shoe peg is really good)

1 small jar chopped pimento

1 cup celery, chopped

1 cup green pepper, chopped

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl combine:

3/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1/2 cup oil

1 tablespoon water

2 tablespoons sugar

Pour the dressing over the salad and gently mix. Marinate in the refrigerator overnight.

Kay: She is asleep on the couch right now. She is battling terrible growing pains today so no comment from her.

Mom (Dana): Bill eats this with a fork but it is also really good on corn chips or wrapped in a tortilla (I'll throw just about anything into a tortilla!).

Beans

We've always eaten a lot of beans but, unless they are going in soup, I usually use canned. My reasoning for this was that we like to eat a variety of beans and so the cans are more convenient. Like everyone else though, I've been trying to cut back on my expenses and so I decided to try dried beans again. I measured this week and a one pound bag of black beans gave me the equivalent of 4 cans but cost the same as only 1 1/2 cans. The extra bonus was that we now remember that we actually prefer the taste of beans that we cook ourselves!




The way that I combated my own argument that we need a wide variety of beans on hand at all times was to go through my recipes. For the past month, every week I've picked one kind of bean. I then found 4-5 meals or snacks using that bean. For example, last week I made chickpeas. We had patties, falafel, chickpea salad, and roasted chickpeas. I also planned to make a pasta and rice dish with chickpeas but we ran out! There is such a variety of things you can do with beans, you don't have to worry about feeling like you are eating the same thing every night. Not once did Bill or Kay say "Chickpeas again?!".




My other argument was always the time involved which is really ridiculous because, seriously, I'm not that busy! It's almost no hands-on work. Here's what I do:




Soak one pound beans in a large bowl with about 6 -8 cups of water. You need a large bowl. It is amazing how much they swell. Leave on the counter overnight.




When you wake up, drain the beans. Place the beans in a stock pot with 6-8 cups fresh water and one strip of kombu* or 2 bay leaves. Bring the beans to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer one hour. Test for doneness. You should be able to easily crush it with the back of the spoon but you don't want them to be mushy because you'll more than likely be cooking them again in whatever recipe you choose. Drain the beans, remove the kombu or bay leaves, and leave to cool. Once cool, place in a large ziploc in the refrigerator.
(Here's what a smashed bean looks like.)




You can also freeze them. I've done this in the past with good luck. Lately I haven't had any left over to freeze.

I don't salt my beans. I'd rather add salt if needed, when I'm adding them to a recipe. If you insist on salting the beans while cooking, don't add it until the last 20 minutes or so. But really, don't add salt - it isn't good for you!

*Kombu is supposed to make the beans easier to digest. It also seems to help them cook up more evenly. I ordered a ton of it through amazon.com but I've also seen it at our health food store.






Kay: Kidney and garbanzo beans are my favorites. I like kidney beans whole in recipes but I like garbanzo's mashed up like in chickpea patties.




Mom (Dana): Really - it only takes one hour in the morning. You can eat breakfast, take a shower, get dressed, make the bed, watch tv, read a book, etc. Who doesn't have an hour in the morning on a weekend? You could even go back to bed if you really needed too. Just remember to put your timer nearby!

Cheese fries with corn by Kay

Yesterday, I asked my mom, after school, what we were having for dinner. She said that we were having leftovers. I don't like leftovers unless there is something in the refrigerator that I like. I asked her if I could make something because she had a headache. I said that I wouldn't make anything complex like Pinto Gallo or pizza. I wanted to have something like mini Potato Enchiladas that you would cook in the microwave.

Then I thought of Cheese Fries. I love Cheese Fries. I went in our refrigerator and found some corn. I then knew that my dad and I would have Cheese Fries with Corn. Here's the recipe:

Cheese Fries With Corn

2 potatoes
1/2 can of corn
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk (original rice milk)
3/4 cup cheese (Queso and Cheddar)
salt and pepper to taste
salsa (optional)

First, peel the potatoes if you want. Then, cut into cubes. You can either roast or boil the potatoes. I boiled the potatoes because I wanted it to go quickly.

While the potatoes are cooking, melt the margarine in a saucepan over low heat. Add the flour and stir constantly for 1 to 2 minutes. Slowly add the milk 1/2 cup at a time. Whisk to combine. Then stir after it is combined. After all milk have been added continue cooking and stirring until it thickens.(about 5 minutes) Then stir in the cheese. Add salt and pepper if needed.

Cook the corn in a saucepan or the microwave.

Drain the potatoes.

To serve, put the potatoes on a plate. Then add the corn on top or as a side. Add as much cheese sauce as you want. If desired, top with salsa.

Kay: I really liked this and so did my dad so he says. You could also use the cheese sauce to dip with chips. You can put whatever flavorings you like. You could put in tomatoes, cumin, chili pepper, or any kind of seasoning.

Dana (Mom): I didn't have any of this because I had a headache and because it has cheese in it but I was quite impressed that she came up with this and then managed to make a successful bechamel sauce!

Lentil Patties

Bill has not been very happy with a lot of our meals since I quit eating dairy about a year ago. Therefore I was not very optimistic when I decided to make lentil patties with chickpea gravy. I can't think of many things that sound more weirdo vegetarian than that. Surprisingly, he really liked these and he swears that they taste just like Salisbury Steak. I have no idea what that tastes like so I couldn't tell you if he's right or not but I'll take his word for it.

I adapted this recipe slightly from one on allrecipes.com.

Lentil Patties

1 cup dried brown lentils

3 cups water

1/4 cup rice milk

1 cup oatmeal

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

2 eggs (I used Egg Beaters)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Vegetable oil for frying

Place the lentils and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain any remaining water.

In a large bowl, mix together the cooked lentils, milk, oatmeal, eggs, walnuts, and onion soup mix. Mix well. Let stand for 30 minutes or refrigerate overnight.

Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Use an ice cream scoop to portion out balls of the lentil mixture. Drop them into the pan and flatten them with the back of a spatula. Fry until nicely brown on both sides, about 5 minutes per side.

Top with ketchup or your choice of gravy.

Kay: These were crunchy and I thought they tasted like peanuts. I don't usually like lentils. I had gravy on mine but I think I would have liked ketchup better.

Mom (Dana): For leftovers, we saved the mixture and fried them up fresh the next day. We had these with mashed potatoes and roasted cauliflower and it all came together quickly and with little effort.

Cabbage and Rice Pie

Kay is at soccer practice right now and it is very cold and starting to rain. Therefore, I'm going to type this up as quickly as possible before I get called to pick her up!

First of all we want to thank everyone who voted for our Paper Chef entry. We won the People's Choice!!

I received quite a bit of cabbage this week from the farm so I searched through all my old cookbooks for some new way to prepare it. I chose this recipe mostly because I had all the ingredients. Turns out we all liked it. Bill and Kay both told me it was good without me asking their opinions so that is a very good sign. Kay, I think, was just happy I finally made something without onions!

Cabbage and Rice Pie

adapted from Betty Crocker's Vegetarian Cooking

1 1/2 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

3 cups shredded green cabbage

2 cups frozen hash brown potatoes (we used the chopped)

1 1/4 cups uncooked instant rice

8 oz cream cheese, softened (we used soy)

1 teaspoon ground sage

1/2 package puff pastry, thawed

1 can tomato sauce + your choice of seasonings

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9 inch pie plate.

Heat the water to boiling in a medium saucepan. Stir in salt, pepper, cabbage and potatoes. Heat to boiling. Reduce to medium, cover and cook 5 minutes.

Stir in rice, cream cheese, and sage. Remove from heat, cover and let stand 5 minutes. Stir to mix all ingredients well. Pour into the pie plate.

Unfold the pastry sheet and place it over the cabbage mixture. Trim pastry to fit pie plate. Press edge of pastry onto pie plate with a fork.

Bake uncovered 25 minutes.

For sauce, heat one can tomato sauce with salt, pepper, Italian seasonings, etc to suit your taste.

Spread sauce on plate. Top with wedge of pie. Sprinkle additional sauce over the pie.

Kay: The cabbage thing was ok even though I don't really like cabbage. I think it would be good with spinach and would help my cousin Lily eat spinach. When we cut off the puff pastry from the edges, I wanted to eat it but my mom dipped them in cinnamon sugar and baked them. They were really good but hot. My mom said I was crazy.

Mom (Dana): This was really easy. I was worried about leftovers and how they would warm up. Bill worked late, though, and his warmed up fine. Just don't heat it too much - just enough to slightly warm it.

I'd recommend this cookbook to anyone, vegetarian or not. The recipes are very basic and "normal". No weirdo tempeh or tofu or other strange vegetarian things!!

Our special guest commenter, Dad (Bill): Amazingly enough, I actually like this puff pastry thing! (He's eating the leftovers right now!)

More of an idea than a recipe

I'm really excited about something I discovered tonight. It is probably really obvious to everyone else but it never occurred to me until tonight. For dinner we had this:



It is called Nutty Rice and Broccoli and comes from Christina Cooks cookbook. Personally, I much prefer her TV show to her cookbook but this recipe didn't sound bad and I had all the ingredients. I changed it around a little and added beans. It was bland bland BLAND!! We all ate it but I don't think anyone really enjoyed it. Plus it made a ton.

So after dinner I was writing down various ideas about how to jazz up the leftovers while watching Delicious TV. She had a guest chef on who was making what she called "Scavenger Patties". She went into the refrigerator, pulled out a few items, and turned them into a veggie patty. They had leftover millet, carrot, and I can't remember what else. All of a sudden I thought "wait a minute!!" and ran to the kitchen and pulled out the leftovers.

I threw them in the food processor along with some cilantro, salt and pepper. Then I stirred in some green salsa. It looked like this:

I formed it into patties and fried them. It worked perfect! So now whenever we have a meal that doesn't really live up to our expectations (which is more often than I'd like to admit!) I'm keeping this idea in mind. Instead of bland boring brown rice leftovers, I'm having salsa and rice patty for lunch tomorrow!

Bean, Corn, and Potato Flautas

The flooding finally went down in our town (although I think there is still some flooding in other areas) but many people are still not back in their homes. Last night after soccer practice we drove around a little. The street behind us is lined with items (including cinder blocks and tons of drywall) that people have pulled out of their houses. The town still has the street blocked off. The apartment complex just north of us sat under water the longest. We knew that the basement apartments would be destroyed but it looks like there was even more damage. The town has not yet turned on the electricity and gas over there so when we drove through, we saw a lot of people throwing everything from their apartments into big piles in the parking lot. It is really heartbreaking.

On to food! Friday I got a new cookbook (just what I need!) called Alternative Vegan. I was excited about this book because it focuses on produce instead of meat replacements. I picked several recipes to try this week. Last night Kay's friend Starr was over for dinner and we all loved these flautas. I'm going to reserve my opinion of the overall cookbook for now though, because the two things we tried tonight were not good at all!

We served these along with a choice of salsa, green salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and tomatoes. I noticed Starr unrolled hers to put the toppings inside. I picked mine up with my fingers and dipped it into the toppings. I made a few changes to the recipe, mostly just to make the steps easier. I also changed some of the amounts because I don't like using partial cans.

This is a little blurry but here is my plate.

Flautas

2 medium red potatoes, cut in large cubes

3 cups water

1 cup red onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 15-oz can corn, drained

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

12 tablespoons vegetable shortening

12 corn tortillas

various toppings

In a small pot, bring the water to a boil. Add the potatoes and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender (approximately 30 minutes).

Wrap the tortillas in foil and place in a 175 degree oven.

In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Saute the onion and pepper until soften but not browned. Add the chili powder and stir to coat. Add the corn and the black beans, stirring to coat. Cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Stir in cilantro.

Once the potatoes are done cooking, drain the water and lightly mash the potatoes (they should still be chunky). Add to the corn and bean mixture and stir well to combine. Use a potato masher to slightly blend all ingredients together. (You want the mixture to all be mushed together - not separate pieces that can fall out of the tortillas.)

Remove the tortillas from the oven. Place 2-3 tablespoons of the bean mixture into the center of each tortilla, roll them, secure with a toothpick if necessary, and place on a cookie sheet. Repeat for all tortillas.

In a large, high-sided skillet, heat half the shortening over medium heat. Once it melts, place 6 of the filled tortillas into the pan, seam side down. Do not move them for about 5 minutes or until nicely browned. Turn with a spatula or tongs and cook other side for an additional 5 minutes. Remove the flautas from the pan and place them on a wire rack over a cookie sheet. Place them in the warm oven. Add the remaining shortening to the pan and repeat with the remaining flautas.

Allow all fried flautas to sit in the warm oven to drain for 30 minutes before eating.

This served two adults and two 11-year-olds with one left over (although Bill probably would have eaten it had he realized it was still there!).

Kay: The flautas were ok. There was a strange taste that I couldn't figure out what it was. I think it was just all the ingredients mixing together. It was kind of greasy too. I didn't have anything with mine but my friend, Starr, used salsa. She thought they were really good and went back for seconds. She said she would have had thirds if she wasn't so full.

Mom(Dana): These were very good (as in Mexican restaurant kind of good). I don't usually fry our food but this was nice for an occasional treat. Bill really liked them but said they could use a little more chili powder next time. I had leftover filling that will make probably about 5 more later in the week for a snack.

Edamame Succotash

Well, so much for posting every day. I have one more Labor Day recipe but I got a little distracted over the weekend. I was thinking about skipping this one but it was Kay's favorite (besides dessert!) so I have to post it.

My mom found this recipe. I think it came out of one of her magazines but I'm not sure. The whole idea behind making this was originally that I had received fresh edamame from the farm. In the end, we chose to eat those as snacks and use frozen in this recipe instead.

Edamame Succotash

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 cup chopped onion

2 cups frozen corn

2 cups edamame (I used frozen)

1/4 cup chopped roasted red pepper

1/4 cup sour cream (I used soy)

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook 2-3 minutes until softened but not browned. Add the corn and edamame. Cook until heated through. Stir in the peppers, sour cream and seasoning. Serve warm.

Kay: I like corn and edamame and I really liked the sauce on this. The second day wasn't so good when we had to warm it up because the edamame dried out.

Mom (Dana): I'm not a big fan of succotash but this was pretty good. It would have been really good with fresh corn because there would have been some sweetness.

Vegetable Tarts

Like I said in a previous post, I received a ridiculous amount of tomatoes from the farm this week along with a another bag full of zucchini and squash. I had been hanging on to this recipe from La Tartine Gourmande for awhile and this seemed like the perfect time to try it. I'm not going to repost the recipe since I followed it exactly as written except that I substituted margarine for the butter and vegan cream cheese flavored with chives and herbs for the Gorgonzola. Also, her picutres are far superior to mine so I suggest you follow the link to her original post!



Bill and Kay don't care for fennel or whole tomatoes so I made a second crust and topped it with zucchini. I sliced 1 zucchini and 2 small yellow squash and sauteed them in a little bit of olive oil with ground thyme, salt, and pepper for about 5 minutes. I followed the same baking directions as the tomato and fennel tart.



We ate these at room temperature on Sunday but warmed them slightly in the oven on Monday for our lunch. They were just as good the second day!

Kay: I liked this better the first day. The second day I thought the balsamic vinegar taste was too strong and I couldn't taste the zucchini that well.

Mom (Dana): Next time I think I'll cut the vinegar in half. It was really good but a little overpowering. I'm definitely using this base again, though. Everyone enjoyed it.

Roasted vegetable rice salad

Yesterday, Bill had a bike race in Glencoe, Illinois which is just north of Chicago. We had perfect weather, almost no traffic going up there, and he got 8th place and $55! So overall, it was a very good day! I packed a lunch for us which we ate under a tree. It was lovely!!!

I could have just packed sandwiches but that would have been so boring. Instead I made fruit tarts, vegetable tarts, chex mix, pickled cucumbers, pickled beets, peanut butter cookies and this salad. (We also took potato chips and pop tarts but those don't fit into my beautiful story of my amazing lunch so just ignore that!)

My brother and his family live on the north side of Chicago so this would have seemed to be the perfect chance to meet up with them. As luck would have it, they had already made plans to go to my parent's house which is 40 minutes further south from my house! We still had some energy to burn (along with really expensive gas!) after the race so we headed right passed our house and on to my parent's and invaded their get-together. I plopped the rest of this salad right in the middle of my mom's planned meal so I was able to get second opinions of this recipe.

We are now exhausted but had a really great day so no regrets!

Here are some blurry and just generally bad pictures for your enjoyment!

The back of the truck where you can see the salad as well as the offensive potato chips!

Kay can always find a playground!

Bill coming around the corner. He's right in front of the guy in blue and white.

Kay eating a vegetable tart under a tree.

Lake Michigan was just a few blocks from the race. Here are Bill and Kay walking out on a pier. They got soaked! The wind was so strong I thought we were going to get blown into the water.

Bill a couple hours later at my parent's. (Kay and my niece were in this same room watching a loud movie - I don't think he noticed!)

I came up with this recipe by combining several recipes from Jack Bishop's "A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen". I had been planning to make several separate salads but at the last minute decided to throw everything together and see what happens!

Roasted Vegetable Rice Salad
1 can pinto beans, rinsed
1 zucchini, halved and sliced
1 yellow squash, halved and sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 cup brown rice, uncooked
10 basil leaves, sliced
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
4 tablespoons olive oil

Place all the vegetables on an oiled sheet pan. Turn so they are oiled on both sides and then add salt and pepper to taste. Cook in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes, flip and then continue cooking 10-20 minutes longer until browned.

In the meantime, Bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Add 2 teaspoons olive oil and the rice and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain rice in fine strainer and place in a steaming basket. Put 2 inches of water in the bottom of the pan, insert steaming basket and cover. Steam the rice for 10 minutes. Let cool.

For the dressing, combine orange juice, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Add the 4 tablespoons olive oil while whisking.

In a large bowl combine the rice, vegetables, pinto beans and basil. Toss with the dressing and chill.

Kay: I didn't eat much of this salad but I helped make it. I cut some of the vegetables and put them on the pan and I poured the oil while my mom whisked the dressing.

Mom (Dana): I highly suggest you roast extra vegetables and make vegetable tarts to go along with this!

Lemony Couscous with Broccoli

We don't like couscous. None of us. I don't know why, we just don't. Therefore it is a little strange that I had a box of whole wheat couscous in my cabinet. It is even stranger that I saw this recipe and decided to make it for dinner. Both Kayleigh and Bill immediately said, "I don't like couscous". But then the strangest thing of all happened. We all actually liked this. Go figure!

This recipe comes from Nava Atlas' cookbook Vegan Express (which means it takes almost no time to make).

Lemony Couscous with Broccoli
3/4 cup whole wheat couscous
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, sliced (I didn't have a red so I used a regular onion)
3 cups broccoli florets (I used frozen)
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons fresh dill
Juice of one lemon
1/3 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes in oil

Combine the couscous with 1 1/2 cups boiling water in a heatproof container. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until golden.

Add the broccoli and just enough water to keep the bottom of the skillet moist, then cover and allow to steam until the broccoli is tender-crisp.

Add the couscous to the skillet along with the parsley, dill, lemon juice and sun-dried tomatoes. Stir together well, cook for 2-3 minutes longer, and serve.

Kay: I usually don't like onions and couscous but this was really good. The onions were so sweet I couldn't even tell they were in there.

Mom (Dana): I had told Kay that she didn't need to be so careful picking around the onions because I had cooked them extra long so they'd be very sweet. As usual, I finished way before her and was outside watering the flowers when she came flying out the door and screamed "I accidentally ate an onion and you're right. They are really sweet!" I can't believe she would admit that!