tamale pie

Continental Night

Tamales are a beautiful thing!

But, they are not quick and easy to make!

You need to make the batter and spread it onto some kind of cooking pouch: corn husks, banana leaves or even just parchment paper. Then each one has to have a filling, each needs to be wrapped and cooked. This takes time. And while the whole endeavour is worth all the work - especially for a special occasion - for everyday eating a Tamale Pie makes more practical sense.

The dough is masa harina with seasoning and non-dairy milk. It is then spread into a pie plate and baked until it is a little dry. Do not over bake it, since it won't have that wonderful tender texture - it'll be dry and crispy. Add some filling - in this case a black bean and tomato mixture - and a bit of Daiya or other vegan cheese, bake for a few more minutes and enjoy with guacamole, vegan sour cream or salsa.

Cost Breakdown

masa harina, spices: $1.50

milk, Daiya: $4

black beans, tomatoes: $3

onion, garlic, pepper: $1

Total to make 8 servings (2 pie plates):

$9.50

Tamale Pie Recipe

seitan and cheese enchiladas

Continental Night

On Saturday nights I like to make something from the Western Hemesphere, North American or South American.

Enchiladas are a wonderful way to present some of these dishes in a most delicious way. Another Enchilada dish I blogged about before had vegan cheese and spinach in a blue corn tortilla. This one has seitan, pan seared, and a combination of Daiya and Follow Your Heart. Melting the cheeses on the stove top first and then rolling them in the tortillas is the best way to make sure that your vegan cheese melts.

I made Red Rice for the enchiladas, using brown rice and baking the whole thing until the rice was tender. This took a little trial-and-error, having to add more water and then baking it some more, but I think I have the water to rice proportion correct now.

The refried beans are just pinto beans, with some sauted onions, garlic, cumin and water to thin the beans.

The enchilada sauce is just as simple using, chili powder, flour, water, tomatoes and onions.

This does not dissapoint. If you want to add sauted vegetables or tofu instead of seitan, it is all very workable and will taste great. Just make sure not to overfill the tortillas.

Cost Breakdown:

beans: $2

tortillas: $1

rice: $.50

tomato, onion, garlic, jalapeno, pepper: $3

seitan: $2

vegan cheeses: $5

herbs, spices: $1

Total to make 5 complete servings:

$14.50

Red Rice Recipe

southwest wheat-meatloaf

This recipe, Southwestern Wheat-Meat Loaf, is out of American Vegan Kitchen by Tamasin Noyes. This was terrific, held together and the flavors were wonderful, but the gravy she recommends you serve with it, Jalapeno Gravy, is worth its price in gold. I exaggerate not when I say we were all licking our plates. Just make sure to toast your flour with the nutritional yeast when making the roux. A golden roux (cooked for about 5 minutes) with the nutritional yeast and the adobo sauce combination gives this gravy such a unique and lovely smoky flavor.

 Outstanding.

I served it with garlicky Swiss chard and mashed potatoes. There was hardly anything left over to put away. Saved fridge space.

Cost Breakdown

TVP, gluten, seitan, flour: $4

oil, veg. broth, nutritional yeast: $2

potato, chard: $6

spices, chipotle: $1

onion, pepper, jalapeno,garlic: $2

tamari, corn, ketchup: $1

Total to make 5 servings:

$16.00

FNF - emeril's fish tacos (MoFo 15)

It is that time of month again - FOOD NETWORK FRIDAY - Let's rumble!

Ms. Tami over at Vegan Appetite (yes, the very same one who will be giving away her cookbook, American Vegan Kitchen, on this very blog next week), hosts Food Network Friday. Anyone is welcome to join in! All you need is imagination and desire. Someone picks a recipe from the Food Network and anyone who wishes to participate recreates it vegan. That's it! Send her your post link and Ms. Tami gushes over the wonderful ways we revise top celebrity chefs' recipes. And do a heck of a better than job than they do!

This month, we are making Emeril's Beer Battered Fish Tacos with Spicy Horseradish Coleslaw.

It has been a while since I've tried making fish (except for the Filet of Tofu), and I wanted something other than tofu (I had a sneak-peek at Tami's version and I knew that she was using tofu. I...must...be...different...).

Naturally something from the sea popped into my head. And as far as I know, the only edible vegan things from the sea are seaweed. There are so many different varieties of seaweed, with many levels of strength, that if you've tried seaweed before and haven't liked it, you should keep at it. I mean, if you don't like sweet potatoes are you not going to try Russets or other tubers?

No, I did not fry up a bunch of seaweed... I flavored my seitan with the seaweed when I was preparing it by adding 1 tablespoon of crushed Arame to the gluten before I mixed it. Then I cooked the seitan in a broth flavored with a sack of crab boil - Zatarain's Crab Boil- finally putting the stuff to some good use!

The batter is a simple beer batter, the seitan is deep fried and the taco is topped with Horseradish Coleslaw.

This was excellent. Even the kids (minus Cat) ate it and loved it. The seitan turned out great - reminiscent of the sea but nothing overpowering, and the crab boil gave it that very different flavor that it needed  - after all, this wasn't supposed to be Tender Seitan. I think I shall call it, Sea Seitan. I love alliterations.

I have created a How-To Breakdown  for the recipe, but you may use the original recipe from Emeril (subbing vegan mayo) and just use the Sea Seitan. Treat it as you would fish, just remember that it isn't. It is already cooked, so you are just looking for a golden color for the crust - you don't have to worry about raw fish.

Cost Breakdown:

seitan: $3

tortilla: $2

dressing: $1

batter: $2

cabbage, green onion, cuke: $3

spices: $1

Total to make 6 tacos:

$12.00

Emeril's Fish Taco Recipe

Sea Seitan Recipe

How-To Breakdown for Sea Tacos



native foods (MoFo 5)

Native Foods is the brain child of Tanya Petrovna, who opened the first Native Foods in 1994. She will be opening the seventh very soon! That is impressive; a vegan restaurant that will be celebrating another grand opening. What is more impressive, though, is the food. I am literally licking the plate that I served the Azteca Ensalada on - that Mango-Lime Dressing rocks!

Another impressive feat is the preparation of her tempeh. While she actually makes the tempeh on the premises, my store-bought version did not suffer any using her technique. Delicious! If you are one of those tempeh-phobes this is the recipe for you. If after having tempeh this way you don't like it, then you never will and you may fearlessly throw in the proverbial towel. 

To the recipes...

Let's face it, nachos are good. Most any nachos. But these Native Nachos are great! Chef Tanya shares her Native Chi's recipe that go on this and the taco 'meat' is TVP. You can freely use seitan ground, however, or omit it at will and double the beans. Nothing processed. Even the cashew sour cream I have on there is very easy to make. THIS is one loaded nacho plate and go ahead and customize it to your palate.


Now for that salad I was drooling over in the beginning - assorted greens with tomato, onion, jicama or apple or asian pear, cucumbers, cilantro, mango, raisin, pumpkin seeds, quinoa (superfood!) and that outrageous Mango-Lime Dressing and you not only have a complete meal but a little piece of heaven.

The last item on our tasting menu is the Gandhi Bowl - two kinds of rice, steamed greens, curry sauce and that tempeh of hers - blackened. Cajun-meets-Asian. Another out-of-the-park dish. She is batting a thousand.

The only real criticism I have is that she is inundating the east coast with her restaurants and is leaving the mid and west coast to suffer without her culinary contributions. Pure selfishness.

Cost Breakdown:

Nachos:
chips: $3 
cheeze, cashew sour cream: $3
TVP, beans: $4
tomato, onion, olive, pepper: $3
Total to make apps for 8:
$13.00


salad:
greens: $4
Asian pear, tomato, cuke, mango: $4
mango, lime, oil, cilantro: $2
raisin, pumpkin: $1
quinoa: $1
Total to make 4 servings:
$12.00

Bowl:
rice: $1.50
curry, coconut milk: $2
tempeh: $3
greens, cauliflower: $3
Total to make 5 servings:
$9.50

Native Nachos



Ensalada Azteca



Gandhi Bowl



achiote rubbed zucchini tacos

Rick Bayless says that achiote-seed-marinated pork is very popular in a certain region of Mexico - forgot exactly where. He makes a taco with pork marinated in ground achiote seeds and garlic. It sounded good to me - except for the pig, of course, so I decided that zucchini would be the ideal sub. Why? Because my CSA says so!

I put about a bulb of peeled garlic, 1 T of ground achiote seeds (a.k.a. annatto), 1 t of ground allspice, 1 t ground pepper, 2 t Mexican oregano, 1 t salt, and 3 T of cider vinegar, in the food processor and ground everything together. I marinated my zucchini slices in the mixture for an hour and grilled them until tender. 

I made a great roasted corn sauce (again because my CSA says so - I have about 10 ears of corn), by roasting them in a cast-iron skillet and blending them with 2 dried yellow peppers and some lime and orange juice (just a little orange), adding a bit of water as needed.

The picture is of the zucchini in corn tortillas, but both David and I found the corn to be overkill and had another taco in flour tortillas and this is what we recommend. This was great in the flour tortilla with a little hot sauce!

Wonderful summer flavors! 

Cost Breakdown:

corn: $1.50

zucchini: $2

tortillas: $2

lime, orange, onion (pickled): $1.50

spices, herbs: $1

rice: $1

Total to feed a family of 5:

$9.00

quesadilla

I realize how important consistent posting is - having learned this not only from my son who makes YouTube videos of unabridged anime, but also from my own experiences of times when I could hardly wait to see the next food being posted on a particular blog. Not that I am trying to elevate Weekly Vegan Menu to any undeserving status; I am merely sympathising.

This past week has been challenging. After a year of living in our current home, having moved across the country, I am beginning to (maybe) foresee us staying here for a while.

Over the past month I have come to embrace our present location and the need to put things in order - sort of a 'summer cleaning.' I have organized, scrubbed and cleansed all possible surfaces. I have culled unwanted or unneeded items. In other words, I have readied my home as best as I can for the coming year.

In addition to all the hard work and exhaustive effort, over the weekend practically the whole family came down with a cold. What is worse  - I did, too. There is not many things worse than the caregiver to also get sick. Plain old sick. 

I am not someone who is intense about keeping my family germ-free. I feel it is important to expose ourselves to germs to allow our immune system a chance to fight off the invaders and learn from it. Our bodies cannot form antibodies without having previous knowledge of the bugs to fight off. BUT, I am not a doctor, so this is all my opinion and not to be taken any other way. **Disclaimer.

Anyway, we got sick and I didn't blog because we just ate whatever we got our hands on, including take-out. 

I am happy to report that a few days was enough for me. Having a strong immune system does not mean you do not ever get sick - it could (see Disclaimer above) mean you get better faster. I attribute that to our lifestyle and diet. 

Since the kids are not in any mood to cook - which I am sure is also due to the idea of it still being summer and they are still out of school - I will be messing around in the kitchen on their cooking days this week.

Because I love to support vegan chefs, and since Viva Vegan! by Terry Hope Romero has just come out (please use my link to Amazon through Vegan.com so Erik gets the commission), I have dedicated most of the menu this week to recipes from that cookbook. They sound enticing and simple enough to prepare. I love Latin food and it is great that someone has created and organized Latin recipes into one convenient format. Now I can at least stop searching and veganizing this ethnic cuisine!

Today's lunch (not from Viva Vegan!) was a simple quesadilla with a fresh tomato salsa. It was excellent!

Cost Breakdown:
tortillas: $3
pepper and mushroom: $3
tomato: $1
lime and onion: $1
Daiya: $.50
Total to make 4 servings:
$8.50

   

taquitos

The first on Mikel's cooking list is Taquitos.

Taquitos are too easy to make! No frying need be involved, just a tortilla and some good filling.

The filling can be beans, grains, vegetables, seitan or soy products - soy curls, tofu, TVP. You should have a nice thick sauce to bring the filling together, roll up the tortillas, place them fold down on a sprayed baking tray, sprinkle with a little olive oil and bake until crisp, about 15-20 minutes on 375.

Mikel made soy curls for his taquitos. He soaked the curls in Bryanna's Vegetable stock (about 1 c curls to 1 1/2 c stock). After draining the curls, he sauteed them with onions, garlic and pepper. He made sure the curls had a bit of color on them - important for flavor.

For the sauce he ground 1/4 c of cashews with the remaining stock he used to soak the curls and blended them well, making a cashew-stock milk. Even if you do not use the curls, blend some veg stock (about 2/3 c) with 1/4 c cashews to get the milk. Remember that nut milk (fresh) thickens when heated.

He added this milk to the pan, heated it until thickened and rolled up the filling in his warmed (to make them pliable) tortillas.

We devoured them - barely managing to save David some for his lunch tomorrow.

I am still on my chipotle kick so, I minced a few peppers and added them to a diced avocado with a squirt of lime. Goo-ood!

Cost Breakdown:
soy curls: $2.50
tortillas: $4
cashew and stock: $1.50
avocado and chipotle: $2
Total to make 10 taquitos:
$7.00

(plus $2 for the avocado)

tex-mex veg burger

I have this thin cookbook of burgers: Meatless Burgers , and every one of the burgers we've tried from this book has not turned out quite right. The book has great burger ideas, but the execution leaves something to be desired. So I used their Tex-Mex Burger recipe as inspiration rather than cooked it as written.

It uses tofu and gluten as the base of the burger. I added roasted corn - fresh off the cob (CSA) - roasted peppers, grilled onions, garlic and chili powder. I baked the burgers first to make sure the gluten was cooked and then I briefly sauteed them in my cast iron skillet to add some color, flavor and texture. This was a great way to make veggie burgers that hold together well enough, do not need to be fried in lots of oil, but not have that dried-out texture that comes solely from baking.

   To accompany the burgers I made a Chili-Lime veganaise by adding some chili powder and lime juice to, you guessed it, veganaise. Toppings for the burger included cilantro, avocado, red onion slices and tomato.

Quick, easy, light lunch.

The kids are on vacation from cooking this week; they are planning their menus for the next ten weeks. The kids liked this one a lot - and not just because they didn't have to cook!

Cost Breakdown:

tofu: $2

gluten: $.50

onion, pepper, garlic, corn: $2

avocado, cilantro, lime, veganaise: $3.50

bread: $3

tomato: $2

Total to make 6 burgers:

$13.00

Tex-Mex VegBurger Recipe

sin carne asada tacos

We had Mexican tonight.

'Carne Asada' translates to 'roased meat' and it tends to mean a BBQ, party, get-together, etc. The meat is usually marinated in a lime based marinade or rubbed with seasonings before being grilled.

I marinated my Firm Seitan, after slicing it thin on the diagonal, in a blend of garlic, lemon, orange, lime and olive oil. I let it sit in the marinade while I prepared the sides and the toppings. I made an ancho salsa with dried ancho peppers, tomatoes, cilantro and whatever was left of the marinade - not to worry, this is not meat so I can use my marinade however I wish.

I grilled the seitan slices on my grill, put them in a tortilla and topped it with my salsa. Some avocado, lettuce or nondairy sour cream would also be very appropriate.

Yum, Yum.

I LOVE Sin Carne Asada - smoky, flavorful, spicy (if you want it to be), juicy. Yum. Everyone loves this, and I love that.

Cost Breakdown:

seitan: $4

tortillas: $4

lemon, limes, orange: $3

garlic, cilantro, spices: $2

Total to feed 10 people:

$13.00

Sin Carne Asada Recipe

enchiladas

It was Mikel's day to cook and he made enchiladas. It seems he is very fond of Mexican food! He did a kick-butt job! He cooked the beans and onion and some chilies. He added some Daiya and Follow Your Heart, made some chili sauce and baked it like a casserole.

I made some wonderful greens with yellow squash, fennel and grape tomatoes to accompany the dish.

Cost Breakdown:

beans: $2

tortillas: $2

cheese: $2

rice: $1

vegetables: $3

Total to feed a family of 5:

$10.00

panini burritos with roasted corn and chili cream sauce

I am pretty sure kids don't really care that they have the same type of meal right after another, because Mikel chose to make bean burritos for lunch. He grilled the burritos like a quesadilla, so we decided to call it a 'panini.' Yes, we pressed it down to make it official, even though we have no panini press.

He roasted some corn on the griddle, added that to the refried beans he made, some Daiya cheese and a bit of sour cream and avocado and the meal was complete. I, however, wanted to make a sauce for it and even Mikel liked it. I just rehydrated some 2 chilis and blended them with some almond milk, a few cashews, a dash of salt and sugar, strained it and heated it to meld the flavors. Oh my! The humble burrito, as fabulous as Mikel made it, was flown to even more glorious heights.

Cost Breakdown:

tortilla: $2

beans: $4
corn: $1
avocado: $3
sauce: $1.50
Daiya: $2
Total to make 10 burritos:
$13.50

raw tacos two ways

Wow! This was fabulous. The inspiration came from my coffee-table cookbook, Raw, but I significantly simplified it.

One of the tacos has oyster mushrooms and fresh cut corn marinated in lime juice and a little chili sauce I made for the vinaigrette. I then dehydrated it a bit to let it 'cook.' The other taco has jicama and mango filling with guacamole. The shells I made using fresh cut corn and soaked golden flax seeds. I made my cashew sour cream, which is raw anyway. The chili vinaigrette was made by rehydrating ancho and guajillo chilies, (but any dried chili would be fine) and whisking it with lime juice, vinegar and olive oil. The sauce was super awesome!

The tacos with the sour cream and the chili vinaigrette were a mouth-watering combination.

Even picky-daughter who swore she would never eat raw had a few of these.

Cost Breakdown:

nuts and seeds: $5

olive oil and vinegars: $1

chili peppers: $.50

produce: $7
Total to feed a family of 5:
$13.50

Raw Tacos Two Ways Recipe

poblano and potato tacos

I was looking through a Rick Bayless cookbook and came across a taco recipe using poblano peppers, potatoes and swiss chard. I am always on the lookout for different taco recipes and this one fit the bill. In fact, except for the chicken stock (easy to fix) and the cream it called for, it was vegan. To sub the cream, I blended 1 c of cashews with 1/2 c of water and strained it through my milk bag. I was left with the needed 3/4 c of cream.

I love poblano peppers,leftover from living in Texas for many years, and the potatoes were an interesting addition. The cream made the tacos delicious, but the swiss chard lent too much earthiness for the kids.

Cost Breakdown:

poblanos: $3

beans: $2

chard: $3

potatoes: $2

onions, garlic, spices: $1

tacos: $2

Total to feed a family of 5:

$13.00

black bean tamales

I totally get why traditionally women gather at 'Tamale parties' to make this stuff. It took me hours in the kitchen! But I have been asked many times over this year to make tamales and I've been saying 'someday.'

Well, someday was today.

It takes a while to make tamales so I made a whole mess o' them. It is a black bean filling that I cooked not with lard, but with 1/2 T of toasted sesame oil (hinting at a pork-flavor; idea from Bryanna Clark Brogan). I wrapped them in banana leaves and corn husks and served them with roasted tomatillo and chipotle salsa. I made Mexican rice - using brown rice.

Everything was absolutely fantastic!

Boy, that was a whole blog-full!

 I wonder what next year's tamales will have in them...

Cost Breakdown:

masa: $1

shortening: $3

beans and rice: $2

tomato, tomatillo : $6

onion, garlic, chipotle: $1.50

corn husks and banana leaves: $4

Total to make 25 tamales and

2 days' worth of outstanding Mexican rice:

$17.50

beans and rice with corn and avocado salsa

Kate made today's lunch. She took a simple idea - beans and rice - added freshly toasted and ground coriander and cumin seeds and made a salsa using corn, avocado, tomato and cilantro. Yes, I have a ten-year old who loves cilantro and said the salsa would not be salsa without it!

Very tasty and easy dish.

Cost Breakdown:

rice: $.50

beans: $4

avocado and tomatoes: $3.25

corn, cilantro, onion, peppers, spices: $2.50

Total to feed a family of 5
(Dad gets it in his lunch tomorrow.):

$10.25

Beans and Rice with Corn and Avocado Salsa Recipe

tacos

Cat cooked the meal for lunch. With a little coaxing, she managed to make some very good tacos. Simple. Pan-seared Boca patties, a can of pinto beans, refried, sliced avocados, tomatoes, and lettuce, and a bit of Better Than Sour Cream. Satisfying and comforting.

quesedilla

Leftovers!

I had some beans and rice leftover, so I made a quick quesedilla, adding grilled peppers and onions. Topped with some Tofutti Sour Cream, it made a fast, delicious lunch that even the kids enjoyed.

cheeze and spinach enchiladas

This was an absolute hit! With everyone, except my oldest daughter, who does not care for enchiladas or spinach, which removes this dish from the running for her. The rest of us were okay with that, though; more for us! I used half Daiya Cheddar and half Follow Your Heart Mozzarella, shredded, and melted them on the stove, adding the spinach and grilled onions, and a little chili powder. Not only did it melt well, but it tasted creamy and divine. This is a very high 5 stars, only lowered because Daughter Number One doesn't like anything, it seems.