Enchiladas!

Any of our friends know that Jess and I always enjoy some quality Mexican food which is great if you are vegetarian, a bit trickier when you are vegan. This is why I was excited when Jess pointed me to this blog post which then redirected us to I Eat Grass. On top of having what is a very clear description of why he is Vegan, the author also provides some great recipes, the first of which we tried last night.




Getting back into the swing of cooking when we get home from work was not as hard as I anticipated and was actually quite relaxing after a pretty busy day. We have crossed the threshold where we have the vast majority of ingredients in our house for cooking so after finding this recipe it was an easy decision to forge ahead and make it with what we had. This is also one of very few recipes where I made it in exactly the time it says it will take... not sure if that was actually the right amount of time, luck, or just finally knowing where all my ingredients are but I was happy to wrap up cooking in just under an hour.

All of that being said, the recipe as displayed on the New York Times I found to be very straight forward so I will respectfully repost their version here:

Vegan Enchiladas
Yield 2 to 3 servings
Time 1 hour and 15 minutes

Ingredients
For the sauce:
1/4 cup safflower or other vegetable oil
Half a medium onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
8 ounces canned organic tomato sauce
sea salt
For the filling and assembly:
1/4 cup safflower or other vegetable oil
1 pound firm tofu, drained and loosely crumbled
Six 7-inch corn tortillas
Half a medium onion, finely diced
Half a red bell pepper, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced
1 cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin, or more to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder, or more to taste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
sea salt


Method
1. For the sauce: In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat oil until shimmering. Add onions, garlic, and jalapeño. Sauté until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add cumin, chili powder, and flour, whisking until browned and thickened. Slowly stir in 3/4 cup of water and tomato sauce, mixing well. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes. Season with salt to taste. Remove from heat and keep warm.
2. For the filling and assembly: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium skillet over medium heat, heat oil until shimmering. Add tofu and cook until brown and somewhat crispy, and its liquid has evaporated, stirring from underneath to prevent sticking, 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Once tofu looks brown and cooked on all sides, add two-thirds of the onion and half of the red bell pepper. Stir, and add garlic, jalapeño, cilantro, cumin and chili powder; mix well. Add soy sauce, and mix well. Season with salt to taste. Sauté until the onions and red bell pepper begin to soften, 5 to 10 minutes. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water if mixture seems parched, but it should be dry, and the tofu should resemble crisped, browned bits of meat.
4. While the tofu mixture is cooking, wrap the tortillas tightly in aluminum foil, and place them in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove, keeping them wrapped, and set aside.
5. In a shallow 9-by-7-inch casserole (or large enough to hold the enchiladas snugly in one layer), add 1/3 of the sauce to coat the bottom of the casserole. Unwrap the hot tortillas, and place one in the sauce to coat it, then turn it over so that it is coated on both sides. Add one-sixth of the filling, and roll the tortilla tightly. Place it seam side down on the sauce. Repeat to make six filled tortillas. Pour the remaining sauce on top of the tortillas, and sprinkle with remaining uncooked onion and red bell pepper. Bake until sauce is bubbling, about 15 minutes. Serve, if desired, with a green salad.
Source: Adapted from Ayinde Howell, Caterer, former Executive Chef , Jivamuktea Cafe

Onward!

Thinking back on the past year some of the best times we had were working on this blog- cooking together, working out together and so I am thrilled to be diving into this work again! Last night- in preparation for the challenge to begin today- we had the croc pot going with pounds of black beans, the bread maker running with oatmeal break cooking inside (smelling SO good), and loads quinoa cooking on the stove. (Let the games begin!)

Since the blog went dark in April I have mastered a few more recipes (really proud of my vegan mac and cheese- thank you pinterest) but am also excited to dive in and try some new techniques. I recently started bread making, which I hope to highlight here not just in a bread maker (which is wonderfully easy) but also the old fashioned way… (vegan pizza dough included!)

I also am more and more astonished with the number of processed vegan foods I find in the grocery store. While I am excited to see more people cooking and eating veg/vegan (as it results in more recipes to find online) many of the ingredients are ones I would prefer to avoid! In the next 50 days, I am striving to eliminate all processed vegan foods from my cooking- although we are still searching for the elusive vegan burger recipe that will actually stay together (we’re still trying to keep ours from falling apart without eggs). We’re going to try to go complex and from scratch on all of this- such as making seitan from scratch (our first attempt was ok- but we are excited to master it!).

While last year we had high hopes of doing many things consistently for 36.5 days, we did take concrete steps in the right direction and now are proud owners of Rosetta Stone (which works really well!) and have an ever growing stack of books to be plowing through (although we certainly enjoyed our time with the Hunger Games this year!)

We look forward to you joining us, not being too upset that we can’t join you at happy hours and giving us suggestions along the way. Tonights cooking adventure… vegan winter chili and black bean, tempe enchiladas! Pictures and recipes to follow!

And... We're Back!

It's January 3rd again- and what did we want to do more than anything else today? As crazy as it sounds, it's true. We wanted to go for our "Not eating out" challenge again- but for this time- not 36.5 days- rather 50 days.
Today we woke up in Denver- packed out bags, hoped a flight home to D.C., spent $137 on groceries at the store (we literally came home to bare cupboards and an empty refrigerator), unpacked them and stated, "okay, we start tomorrow."

And that's just what we intend to do- 50 days of home cooked, home prepared meals together and on the go. While last year was challenging, it actually became so much more fun, collaborative, tricky and fulfilling than we ever could have dreamed. So we are back for more - for longer.

So starting tomorrow we're up and running. We look forward to new and different recipes this year, exciting adventures and the many "eating out" temptations that await. We hope you'll join us- come over for meals, host us for meals, try new meals, and send love and comments along the way.

But for now- to the next 50 days: BRING. IT. ON.