November 30, 2012 November 30, 2012/ Morgan Eccleston
Can I just pummel you with some enchilada photos now?
I just can’t quite pick a favorite…
They all make me equally hungry…
Alright alright! Enough photos. Down to business..
These are our new favorite enchiladas. We (2 adults and a 2 year old) ate 3/4 of the tray for dinner and the rest we ate today for lunch. It’s easy enough to throw together for a week day meal but I really think this would go over with company – even omni company! Maybe throw together some Mexican rice, guacamole, chips and horchata and BOOM! Ya got a feast worth celebrating.
Potato Enchiladas with Creamy Green Chile Sauce
(I’m going to say 4 servings.. depending on how much you eat!)
1 package of corn tortillas (10-12)
3 regular sized baking potatoes, washed and sliced thinly (I used a mandoline)
1 red pepper, sliced thinly
1 cup frozen corn
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon chipotle powder (or substitute 1 chipotle pepper in adobo, finely minced)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
4 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup cilantro (if you HATE cilantro you can leave it out but use some flat leaf parsley instead)
1-2 cups water for cooking
Green Chile Sauce:
1 package silken tofu (mori-nu)
1.5 cups
Unsweetened
soy milk (it MUST be unsweetened! Otherwise it will be kind of funky sweet.)
1 7oz can chopped green chiles
2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
1 Tablespoon miso paste (yellow, white or red)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon tahini
2 Tablespoons cornstarch or arrowroot
*optional: 1 jalapeno, finely minced
- Make the sauce: Blend together everything but the green chiles in a blender or with an immersion blender until smooth. Stir in the chiles.
- Cook over medium high heat (stirring constantly) until thickened. It should take a few minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- Make the filling: Heat a nonstick pan over high heat and add 1/4-1/2 cup water. Add in the pepper, corn and potatoes.
- Cook until the potatoes are tender, adding water as needed.
- Once the potatoes are cooked add in salt, chipotle, cumin, green onions and cilantro. Stir and cook for 1-2 minutes longer.
- Assembly: Spoon about 1 – 1.5 cups of green chile sauce into a 9×13 baking dish.
- Heat your corn tortillas until they are pliable.
- Spoon in a generous amount of filling and roll the tortilla.
- Place seam side down in the sauce.
- Repeat with remaining tortillas. If you have extra filling you can spoon it into the dish around the rolled enchiladas or save for some tacos tomorrow!
- Top with at least 1/2 of the remaining sauce. It really will depend on how saucy you like your enchiladas. We had about a cup of sauce leftover. You can store the leftover sauce in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. It makes a great dip or topping for veggies.
- Bake: Cover enchiladas with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until heated throughout.
- Enjoy!
November 30, 2012/ Morgan Eccleston/ November 29, 2012 November 29, 2012/ Morgan Eccleston
Ahhhhhhhhhhh……………… Cheesy sauce! I love sauces. I love cheesy sauces. I love totally guilt free sauces. My friends, here it is. A super creamy totally guilt free cheesy sauce. It’s beyond simple. It’s soy free, gluten free, corn free, etc.. Oh and of course it’s VEGAN! It’s a perfect blank slate to build upon.
Want to make a nacho sauce? Add jalapenos. Or add a smokey chipotle pepper. How about adding some garlic and lemon juice for a tangy pasta sauce? I feel like I could go on and on but I want to let YOU experiment with it and tell me what you did!
By the way, I ate this sauce over a LOT of steamed broccoli. Just FYI, I’m pretty sure you can eat too much broccoli. I did. Luckily my family REALLY loves me so they didn’t get a hotel for the night to escape from my broccoli-ness.
Guilt Free Cheezy Sauce
1 15oz can white beans, drained and rinsed (about 1.5 cups)
1/4 cup water (broth or milk alternatives can be used here as well!)
1 Tablespoon white or yellow miso
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (if you’re not a big fan of nooch try just 1 Tablespoon to start with)
- Blend like crazy until super smooth. Add liquid to thin out as much as you like. You may want to add salt depending on your tastes.
- Heat in the microwave or stovetop.
- Store in the fridge for 3-4 days.
- Enjoy as a dip, over veggies, in soup as a thickener, over grain and bean bowls, over pasta or whatever else you can dream of.
Consider adding the following (not necessarily at the same time) for new sauces: green chiles, jalapenos, chiptole peppers, garlic, green onion, cumin, italian seasoning, mustard, beer or wine as the liquid, smoked paprika, etc. I want to hear what you tried!
November 29, 2012/ Morgan Eccleston/ November 28, 2012 November 28, 2012/ Morgan Eccleston
How about some pita to go along with that
hummus
(or this
hummus
)?
It may just be the stores I’m shopping at but I’ve had an impossible time trying to find whole wheat pita that:
A.) are vegan (no honey, no milk, etc)
B.) are 100% whole wheat (not mostly white with a touch of whole wheat flour)
C.) are made with normal ingredients (not things that look like they belong in science labs!)
or D.) actually have pockets – flatbread isn’t pita bread to me no matter what the package says.
Since I don’t go through a ton of pita bread it makes sense to just make my own when we need it. It’s easy, its super cheap and its really fun to watch them balloon up in the oven! (Make sure your oven glass is clean enough to see through – mine isn’t and I sat there with my face pressed against it with a flashlight in hand. Probably not a good thing to teach my daughter.. but seriously, our stove in ancient and I’m not ready to tackle cleaning it yet.)
100% Whole Wheat Pita Bread
1 Tablespoon instant dry yeast (or you can use 1 package of instant dry yeast – it is a bit less but that’s okay!)
3 cups whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)
1 teaspoon sugar
1.5 cups warm water (not hot!)
1 teaspoon salt
- First you are going to proof your yeast. Mix together the water, yeast and sugar in a large mixing bowl. First the yeast will dissolve and then it will turn all foamy/bubbly. Congratulations! Your yeast is alive and it’s time to move ahead. (If this doesn’t happen at all it’s time to start with new yeast.)
- Now mix the remaining ingredients together. You may need to add additional water (at times I have had to add up to 1/3 cup additional warm water) depending on the humidity and your flour. You want the dough to be soft and supple but not super sticky.
- Knead the dough until smooth and elastic (5 minutes or so by hand or be clever and do it in a stand mixer or food processor with a dough blade.)
- Now place your dough into a large clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size. It will rise a bit quicker if it is kept in a warmer place (like next to a bubbling crockpot!)
- Now take the dough and push out the air. Separate into 8 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball. Keep the dough balls separate and cover. Rise again for another 30-40 minutes.
- Meanwhile heat your oven to 475 degrees. You want it to be HOT! If you have a pizza stone you can put that in your oven to heat up or you can instead use a large baking sheet. Either way put them into the oven cold and let them preheat.
- Once your dough has risen again take one out at a time and roll them into a flat disc shape. You want them to be 7-8″ in diameter ( around 1/4″ thick.) Roll 2-3 out at a time and then open your oven and put them in. Be careful!!
- Set your timer for 3 minutes and have fun watching them balloon up!
- Some may not balloon up but that’s okay. Take them out after the 3 minutes and put them on a plate. Cover them with a towel to help soften them up.
- Repeat with your remaining dough.
- I find it works best to let the oven heat for a couple of minutes between each batch since you’ve opened it up twice for the batch before.
- If for some crazy reason you don’t eat them all in one sitting you can store them in an airtight bag for a couple of days. They are actually really yummy toasted up in the oven with some salt and herbs and served as chips.
November 28, 2012/ Morgan Eccleston/ November 27, 2012 November 27, 2012/ Morgan Eccleston
You know what? It is freaking cold outside. And usually wet. (That’s Oregon for ya.)
This means no more spontaneous bike rides. My babes nose gets really red and cold. This also means that we aren’t going to just up and go to Trader Joe’s. They have some great snack foods for a fun day out on the bike. We recently had an olive hummus that was awesome… so here’s my go at it. With a lot more olives and a lot less fat. Making it a lot more awesome in my opinion!
(With some warm homemade whole wheat pita bread? That recipe will be up tomorrow!)
If you’re not a huge fan of green olives try this with kalamata olives or another favorite – I bet it would be awesome!
Olive Hummus
1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas) drained and rinsed
1 teaspoon tahini
juice of 1/2 small lemon
1/4 – 1/2 cup water
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup green olives (manzinilla/ Spanish olives)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder
salt to taste
- Throw everything into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. You can reserve 1/4 cup of olives and add them in at the last second for a chunkier hummus if you like.
- Add salt to taste (olives can be quite salty so don’t add any until you taste it first!)
- Refrigerate any leftovers for 3-4 days.
- Enjoy with pita bread, veggies or on a sandwich!
November 27, 2012/ Morgan Eccleston/ November 24, 2012 November 24, 2012/ Morgan Eccleston
So I know that anything with potatoes, cabbage and beer does not = Irish (haha) but that’s the best name I can come up with for this so humor me! I wanted to call it Poor Man’s Soup but that doesn’t sound as tasty for some reason. (It brings up too many questions like “why are we eating this man?!” Although it does explain the beer… Anyway!)
It’s a quick one pot meal that you can serve up with some bread (quick bread or otherwise) and call it a night.
Oh and I KNOW, I know! I said no more soup. Guess what? Gotcha! It’s a stew! Also, the kiddo loved it- see:
Since there are big chunks she was into it. She likes to see the foods and know what they are. I’m sure she likes the textures of whole foods. We didn’t really do the whole pureed baby food thing so she’s been a real food eater.
Irish Stew
serves 4-ish
3 large baking potatoes, chopped into 1″ cubes (we don’t peel them, just wash them well.)
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 large carrots, cleaned and chopped
1/2 head green cabbage, shredded thinly
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups water or low sodium vegetable broth
1 – 12oz
vegan beer
(dark ale is good!)
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
2
Field Roast smoked apple sage sausages
, chopped (*Optional. Also you can sub any type of vegan sausages you want here.)
salt and black pepper to taste
- Get a large pot and bring it up to high heat. Add a couple of tablespoons of water and steam fry the onions and carrots until the onions are translucent.
- Add the garlic and cook about 1 minute longer. Add more water if necessary.
- Add everything else to the pot and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling turn it down to low and put on the lid. Simmer for 30-40 minutes or until your potatoes are nice and tender. (You can check them by pushing a fork into one.)
- Add salt to taste and Enjoy!
November 24, 2012/ Morgan Eccleston/