10.17.11_Tostadas

Apparently October has been busy because this is my first post this month! Luckily I plan on having several vegetarian dishes this week so look for several updates over the next few days. Yesterday while thinking about what I wanted to eat this week I had a strong craving for fajitas. Phillip doesn't really like bell peppers or onions so fajitas are never that exciting for him so then I started thinking about refried beans.  Then I thought of tostadas. I haven't had tostadas in a very long time and I had actually never mad them so I thought this would be a great dish to try. Phillip suggested that instead of ground beef we could use Lightlife's Smart Ground veggie crumbles. We had tried them at Caitlin's a few weeks ago when she made us a Vegan Shepperd's Pie and we really enjoyed them.

After doing a little Googling Phillip told me that it seems that tostadas were almost always made with corn tortillas rather than flour so we decided to get these while shopping. I wasn't exactly how I should crisp up the tortillas. I figured I could either do it in a toast them up in a skillet, shallow fry them, or bake them. I searched online and found recipes that used all three methods. We decided to bake them to make them a little healthier than frying them and I figured it would be super easy, and it was. All I had do do was put a little oil (I used canola) on a baking sheet, rub the tortillas around in the oil coating both sides, then put them in a 400 degree oven. I baked the tortillas for about 15 minutes, flipping halfway through. They ended up super crunchy and nicely toasted. I would probably cut the time back a little next time to make them a little less browned.

While the tortillas were crisping in the oven, I cut up an avocado and some lettuce that I would use for topping my tostada. Then I cooked the Lightlife crumbles. This was fascinating. You cook the crumbles for a few minutes in a skillet after spraying it with nonstick spray. It looked exactly like ground beef, just without the oil pouring out of it. I seasoned the crumbles with cumin, cilantro, a little cayenne, Adobo seasoning, and S&P, the same as I would have if I were using ground beef. They actually sell Mexican flavored crumbles as well which would have been perfect but Whole Foods didn't have them.

Lightlife's Smart Ground Veggie Crumbles

After the tortillas came out of the oven I topped them with refried black beans, then the Lightlife crumbles, and then topped them off with shredded cheese. I put the tostadas back into the oven for another minute or so to let the cheese melt and then they were ready! They were super delicious and really satisfying. I topped mine with some salsa, lettuce, avocado, and sprinkled a little cilantro on top. The thing that's great about the tostadas is you can put whatever you want on them, just like a taco. I would definitely recommend making these if you are looking for a quick and easy meal and want to just use up somethings you have in the fridge. Delish.

08.30.11_Zucchini Tacos and Black Bean Soup

Yesterday was our One Year Anniversary and we are going to be celebrating this weekend with a trip to Charlottesville. For something special on the actual day we decided to just have a low-key night with wine and cheese on our rooftop before cooking one of our last vegetarian dinners. Our first date was at a Mexican restaurant called Surfside in Glover Park. I decided to make Zucchini Tacos and Black Bean Soup to somewhat recreate our first date. I was actually surprised with how many different things I needed to do for these recipes (lots of prep work) and I didn't even make the tomatillo salsa that the taco recipe recommended! When it was all said and done we had a sweet corn succotash, grilled zucchini tacos, and black bean soup.

I made the sweet corn succotash first since it could just sit and the flavors would just marry the longer it sat. It was easy enough. Just saute onion, garlic, jalapeno, and bell pepper for a few minutes before adding the corn. The recipe called for fresh corn but I had a can of corn on hand so I just drained it and used that instead. I also squeezed a little fresh lime into the mix to brighten the flavors a bit. After the succotash was made it was onto the black bean soup. This had to simmer for about 15 minutes so I figured I could grill up the zucchini and squash for the tacos once the soup was simmering.
I had originally found a recipe for black bean soup on a vegan blog and had bookmarked it without really looking at the ingredients. After reading it on Monday it had all kinds of things that I did not have so I decided to go back to trusty Rachael Ray and get an easier recipe with things I would most likely have at home or easily be able to find at the grocery store. Her recipe called for black beans, celery, onion, bell pepper, and a can of diced tomatoes, seasoned with bay leaves, cumin, coriander, S&P, and hot sauce cooked in vegetable stock. I decided to leave out the tomatoes for Phillip so I added a little extra stock to make up for the liquid that was lost by omitting the tomatoes. Other than a lot of prep this recipe was easy as Ray Ray's recipes always are. I'm not sure why she calls it a stoup though. I know she loves making stoups because she thinks she's clever for combing the words soup and stew but this was definitely more soup-like. If I were to make this again I would cut back on the celery. It seemed more like a Tex-Mex vegetable soup than an actual black bean soup like I wanted.

Black Bean Soup, Sweet Corn Succotash, and Grilled Zucchini and Squash for the Tacos

Once the soup was simmering I sliced up the zucchinis and squash into long planks. Having a mandolin would have made this much easier and the size of the planks more consistent. Obviously cutting them with a knife worked fine but my slices were inconsistent to say the least. After slicing all I had to do was brush each side with olive oil and season with S&P before throwing them on the grill pan. A couple of minutes later dinner was ready. I also put out salsa, cheese and lime wedges to top the tacos with. The zucchini tacos were delicious and I did not miss the meat at all. All the vegetables were super juicy so they were a little messy to eat but well worth it.

08.15.11_Spinach Enchiladas

Spinach Enchiladas. This picture does not do these enchiladas justice for how delicious they were.

Since we hadn't had any Mexican food since our Bean Tacos, we decided to try this recipe for Spinach Enchiladas that Phillip found. I had not made enchiladas in probably four or five years so I was excited to make them again and the thought of spinach and cheese pouring out of a tortilla sounded incredible.

As almost all of the other recipes have been, this dish was super simple to prepare and involved very little cooking and/or prep work (my favorite kind of meal). The first thing to do was to defrost the frozen spinach. To go back and quote my favorite teacher Rachael Ray, frozen spinach truly is an incredible deal when you think about how much spinach wilts down after being cooked. While Ray Ray always used a dish towel to ring out all the liquid in the defrosted spinach ("She can afford to buy new towels each time" is how Phillip rationalized this gross technique) I decided to just use my hands and some paper towels to make sure all the liquid was gone.  Meanwhile, I sauteed some green onion and garlic for a couple of minutes in a tablespoon of butter before adding the spinach to the pan.

In a mixing bowl, I combined the ricotta and Monterrey Jack cheeses with the sour cream before adding the spinach mixture. After everything was combined, I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop out the spinach and cheese mixture into each tortilla. Using the 1/4 cup divided the enchilada filling perfectly, making the 10 tortillas stuffed evenly. The enchiladas were delicious, super satisfying, and ready in about 30 minutes. I served the enchiladas with some guacamole for a little something extra on the side.

The enchiladas after they came out of the oven, with an excessive amount of cheese melted on top!

The only modifications we made were using flour tortillas instead of corn (it's what I had in the house already) and I put way more cheese on top then the recipe called for. If you wanted to make this dish even healthier you could use olive oil instead of butter to saute the green onion and garlic, sub low fat cottage cheese instead of ricotta, and use corn tortillas (rather than flour) like the recipe calls for.