Easy Southwest Casserole

Oh, Christmas?  Yeah, about that... I'm over it.  I was absolutely sick the whole time.  From Christmas Eve Eve straight up through my stuffed up face this morning.  While I absolutely adored spending time with family and friends, I am ready for a new year.

Yesterday was a weird day.  Second day back at work, the least sick I had been in several days, it started off fine.  Lunchtime.  Enter moodiness, indecision and a strong craving for Mexican food.  I got in my car for my lunch break and began aimlessly driving around town until I landed very close to my house at one of the best Mexican places around: La Vaquita II.  I ate this:

All of it.  Enchiladas Poblanas en Mole- one chicken, one cheese, and some raw onions to foul my breath up for the rest of the day.  It was amazeballs.  Picture this moment: stuffy nosed loner redhead sitting with her back to the rest of the happily chatting Spanish speakers eating in the restaurant, scarfing down a full plate while the fluorescent bulbs highlight my loner status as I stuff my face in front of the huge storefront window.    Sexy.

The thing about Mexican food, is I can never get enough.  Ever.  So naturally, it's what's for dinner.  Casserole is what happens when I think I don't have any groceries and I want to get rid of random leftovers.   It's also so easy that I barely had to pay dinner any attention so I could watch copious amounts of Deadliest Catch get some cleaning done.  You can vary the ingredients with whatever you have in your fridge.  Salsa was on sale for $0.74 last time I went to the grocery store, so this made for a super cheap meal.  If you have a few more ingredients a a couple more minutes, you can make this casserole that has a little more kick.  I am posting the recipe exactly as I made it, but please use whatever you have and don't make a special trip for these ingredients.  For crying out loud, I topped a casserole containing pork with vegan "cheese".  Totally delicious.

Easy Southwest Casserole

1 cup jasmine rice

2 cups water

generous pinch kosher salt

1 1/2 small jars medium salsa (you can sub canned tomatoes with green chilies in a pinch)

1/2 pound grilled pork tenderloin (or cooked meat of your choice/omit meat to make vegan)

1 can black beans, drained

3 good glugs Mexican hot sauce (I use Valentina or Cholula)

1 Tbsp garlic seasoning

1 cup vegan "cheese shreds" (or organic cheese)

Fat free greek yogurt and cilantro for serving

Preheat oven to 350.  Cook rice:  Bring rice and water to a boil. Add salt, reduce heat to low, and cover for 15 minutes.  

Dump one whole jar of salsa in with the rice.  Dump in can of beans.  Dice up your meat.  Dump it.  Stir.

Season to taste with garlic seasoning and fresh ground pepper if desired.  Glug in some hot sauce.  Glug, glug.  Isn't that such a satisfying sound?  Mmm hmm.

Spread your mixture in an even layer into a casserole dish.  Sprinkle "cheese" shreds over the top evenly.  If you have tortilla chips, by all means crush them over the top of the cheese.  Dollop your remaining salsa over the whole mess and pop it in the oven uncovered for 30 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and the casserole is heated through.  Serve topped with fat free greek yogurt (or sour cream) and torn fresh cilantro.   Go back for seconds.

Best when enjoyed in the company of someone you love and not under fluorescent lighting.

Ideas for variations- add or substitute the following:

Chorizo

Chopped grilled chicken

Tortilla chips

Pinto beans

canned black olives

canned or fresh jalapenos

Veg-all or mixture of frozen veggies/veggies in danger of dying an ugly death in your fridge

Chives or green onions

Salsa Verde

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The Best Enchiladas I've Ever Made

This recipe was thrown together using pantry staples in the midst of a cleaning frenzy, not knowing what kind of crazy outcome there might be.  I was so pleased with the outcome, I decided it's the best thing I've cooked in a long, long time.  The only thing I would change would be using whole wheat pastry flour for the cheeze sauce instead of white (which was the only flour I had in my pantry save for spelt), and subbing homemade enchilada sauce for the jarred version I used out of blissful convenience.  My only kid is a fur kid, but I imagine real life kids without fur would love this meal.  Or even real life kids with fur.

Ingredients
1 can organic red lentils
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1/2 cup jarred or homemade salsa verde
1 to 1 and 1/2 cups jarred or homemade enchilada sauce*
8 corn tortillas
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups water
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/4 cup Earth Balance (non hydrogenated vegan margerine)
1/4 Daiya vegan cheddar shreds (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Make cheeze sauce: in a medium sauce pan, stir together flour, nutritional yeast, salt and garlic powder.  Whisk in two cups of water and stir frequently over medium heat until bubbly and thickened.  Remove from heat and stir in margarine and mustard.

Run frozen corn kernels under some warm water to defrost.  In large bowl, mix together drained and rinsed lentils, corn kernels, salsa verde, and 1/3 cup of the cheeze sauce.

Pour a thin layer of enchilada sauce to coat the bottom of a large baking dish.  Heat tortillas in a cast iron skillet or in microwave so they become more flexible.  Fill each tortilla with approximately 1/3 cup of filling before rolling the tortilla around the filling and placing it seam side down into the baking dish.  Continue filling and rolling tortillas until filling is used up or you have run out of room.  It's okay if some tortillas unfold or break since it will bake together anyway.

Top with remainder of enchilada sauce, making sure to cover all the dry parts of exposed tortillas with the sauce.  Finally, top the whole shebang with a generous amount of cheeze sauce, or to taste.  Store the rest of the sauce in your fridge to use later in the week as a pizza or nacho topping. Top enchiladas with vegan "cheese" shreds if desired.  They really aren't necessary to be honest, but it does add some visual appeal, especially if you are feeding this to someone who is wary of your cheese-less cheese sauce.  And they deserve to be wary- let's be frank here.  Wary until they taste it.  Bake 30 minutes and strap on the ol' feed bag, as my dad likes to say.

While my goody was in the oven, I put on some Black Eyed Peas for laundry folding music.  CAN'T... HOLD... BACK.... Rock that body! Come on, come on, Rock that body! Laundry will have to wait.  Fergie calls, and it's time for some trampoline dancing.  If you have a trampoline, you should make this part of the recipe.  You would have thought I had put pure, raw crystal meth into Sampson's dog food with the way he responded to this.  I assure you I did not, but I wish you could have been there.  Arms flailing about, hips shaking and singing poorly, I jumped on my little rebounder in the living room while Sam darted at the speed of light from one end of the house to the other tagging walls, and stopping only to jump on the trampoline with me and run in frantic circles whilst barking and making me double over with laughter.  Sam!  Rock that body!

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Espress(o) Yoself.

Oh, hello.  If you came here for a recipe today, here's your warning so you can feel free to navigate other wondrous blog pages, pinterest or facebook: no recipe today (okay, just a little lunch idea, but nothing you're going to write home about).  Today's post simply contains the musings of a caffeinated comfort food addict.  There, I said it.

Hello, my name is Melody and I'm a carbaholic.

Is this a problem?  A little over a month ago, I started a Raw Food Cleanse.  Amazing!  While it was only three days, it really changed my whole perspective about the food I put in my body.  I even gave up caffeine completely for over a week!  I would recommend you read it in conjunction with watching Forks Over Knives, but only if you're ready to make some dietary changes.  And some (or most of you) are probably not wanting to do that and that's totally cool.  After I finished the cleanse, I was hooked on some raw kale.  I still am!  Right now in life, there is literally nothing more I could want for lunch than a trip to the Whole Foods Salad Bar.  Pile that ugly container full of garlicky kale, spinach, mixed greens, chickpeas, roasted sweet potato, pumpkin seeds and some lemon tahini dressing and it's heaven.  It tastes amazing, fills me up and leaves me feeling great and energized until dinner.

Git in muh belly.

So what's the problem?  Laziness.  While for awhile it was so easy to come home on my lunch break and fix delicious raw zucchini pasta or a Hugh Jass salad (as Mama Pea likes to call them), when I run out of ingredients or fail to make a shopping trip when I should, I end up eating this:

Warning: May be habit forming.

What is this unusual mess?  It's the magical combination of Daiya cheddar "cheese" shreds and homemade hummus cooked grilled cheese style in a cast iron skillet with a teaspoon full of Earth Balance Vegan Margarine.  I was introduced to this killer combo by Peas and Thank You, where they are aptly referred to as "crack wraps".  And while crack is whack, these are not.  This is my default lunch, snack, meal, or comfort food when I am feeling too lazy to cut up veggies for salads or something more healthy and full of nutrients.  It could be worse, thought right?  Not when you start washing it down with egg nog flavored soy milk.  That's when you know it's a problem.  And now the caffeine is starting to slowly sneak in.  While I don't have a daily cup in the morning, I might have a latte in the afternoon, or a cup of black tea one morning because I'm feeling too festive not to.  Or a full blown two shot cafe americano.  Hello, espresso; let's be friends again.  While allowing myself caffeine during the week (but not daily) is forgivable, I have decided, the lack of vegetables at lunch is not.

I hereby resolve to find a solution.  If I wrote it on a blog, I have to hold to it.  It's like law now.  Here's my best idea.  What if I actually make it a rule that I MUST make a list before making my weekly trip that I MUST make to Whole Foods and then when I bring home all the nutrient dense veggies on my list, I will wash, chop, and store them in the fridge immediately.  I even wrote it in the largest font so you can hold me to it.  That way, it takes literally seconds to throw together a healthy salad or stir fry and I don't find myself making excuses to make things that melt on a daily basis.  If I can get more fiber and greens into my breakfasts and lunches, then it's okay if I make things like cheezy chili mac for dinner if I feel so inclined.

I know I'm not alone in this rut thing.  What kind of food ruts do you get stuck in?  Is caffeine a necessary evil, or do you stay away from it?

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One Pot Meal: Spicy Quinoa with Chorizo

Okay, so I dirtied two pots for this one despite the title, but it was still a quick and easy complete meal in a bowl.  You might be wondering if I ditched the whole no animal products thing after reading the title of this post.  While I did not use actual delicious and amazing authentic pork chorizo, I did find this little gem at Whole Foods: Mexican Chipotle Grain Meat Sausages by Field Roast.  Does that sound disgusting to you?  While it was definitely delicious, I completely understand should you choose to make this dish with authentic Mexican chorizo instead.

But wait!  Do you know about quinoa?  Did you just say "kwin-oh-ah" to yourself when you read it?  It's okay, Jeremy did too at first.  Of course I totally got it right the first try, duh...  It's "keen-wa".  Keen!  If you are totally keen on quinoa, you should definitely use it in Stuffed Acorn Squash.  If not, the recipe below is a pretty sweet introduction.

Quinoa is an ancient grain that was a staple part of the Inca diet.  (See how I'm totally using my Latin American Studies degree while blogging?!)  I read that on the box.  Here's some awesome stats on this awesome grain:

• It's a complete protein in and of itself.  Take that, rice and beans.
• It's got a nice little "pop" to it when you bite in that gives it a satisfying, toothsome feel.
• The germ (not like cooties, but like the part that will help it germinate, silly) is this little light yellow tail thing that swirls around the grain to make each one look like a miniature Saturn.  Trippy.
• Like couscous, it cooks really quickly and is almost fool proof to make.  But it's better for you than couscous, so try using quinoa in your next recipe that calls for couscous.  Look how smart you are.
• It's delicious!  Did you really need all those other reasons?

Ingredients
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup quinoa
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup jarred or homemade salsa verde
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 small onion, chopped
2 links meat free chorizo "sausage"
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

This dish was born out of a need for a comforting bowl of something hot and full of protein, lack of groceries, and a special ingredient that provided inspiration.  I was looking for a quick fix, but if you have more time on your hands, definitely toss in whatever veggies you might have on hand or some chopped garlic to saute with the onions for an added flavor and nutritional boost.

Directions
Cook the quinoa in the vegetable broth (instead of water) according to package directions.  While that's working, lightly coat the bottom a heavy bottomed pot with the olive oil and saute the onions on medium heat until they become translucent.  Crumble in the chorizo, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and incorporating it into the onions.  The bottom of the pot is probably starting to get little browned bits sticking to it.  You want this.  Wait until you have a good amount of browning going on (but watch to make sure it's not burning) and add in the white wine.  Make sure to use the wine and the steam it's putting off to help you scrub up and incorporate all those yummy brown bits into your mixture.

Sauteed onion, "chorizo", white wine and salsa verde.

Check your quinoa.  If it has absorbed all the liquid, dump it in the pot with your spicy onion goodness.  If not, keep it simmering until the grains are fluffy and the liquid is absorbed, but be sure to watch your onion mixture to make sure it doesn't start to brown again after the wine has evaporated.  If it does, just add in a little water to get those brown bits up again.

Cooked quinoa before combining with onion mixture.

Once you've combined your quinoa with your onion mixture, stir in the salsa verde and fold in the frozen peas.  Don't worry- they'll defrost quickly but still maintain their fresh sweetness and refreshing pop.  Ta-da!  You're all set for dinner.  Scoop out a serving into a bowl and garnish with a sour cream alternative (or plain greek yogurt if you eat it), hot sauce and cilantro if you like.

I can't wait to make something with cinnamon and watch The Family Stone soon.  I'm thinking that definitely needs to happen sometime this week because I can't stop thinking about it.  Now that the time change has happened and it's dark when I get home, I am all about transitioning into holiday mode.  Break out the crafting gear and mulling spices!

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Cheezy Chili Mac

Happy Friday!


I'm celebrating Friday by busting out the Christmas CDs.  Before anyone starts casting stones, let it be known that I realize this is ridiculous and quite possibly may even be off putting.  I don't care.  Although the Josh Groban choice this morning may have been a little much.  I think I'll ease into it a little more smoothly tomorrow with something like the Sufjan Stevens Christmas CD.  Now there is a gem.

So for lunch yesterday, I made this amazeballs chili burrito with avocado and lime crema from leftovers from the night before.  After polishing that off with a good amount of baby carrots and homemade hummus, I was feeling pretty full.  Okay, so I was feeling really full and like I needed a big salad for dinner.  So just know that I had the best of intentions.  Then I got a headache and started feeling all moody and came home and whipped up some extreme comfort food.  Queue the latest episode of Modern Family (hilarious), pass the hot sauce, and let's call it a night.

Cheezy Chili Mac
1 lb package whole wheat or vegetable shell pasta
2 cans vegan chili beans or 3 cups leftover homemade chili
1 medium zucchini
1/2 package Daiya pepper jack shreds
1 package silken tofu
2 Tbsp hot sauce
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
Sea salt to taste
1 cup panko bread crumbs


Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook entire package of noodles in plenty of water, according to package directions.  Chop a zucchini into small bite size pieces (it doesn't have to be pretty) and chunk all the chunks into the cooking noodles and water about 3 minutes before the noodles are done.  This is not a precise science.

While noodles (and zook) cook, combine chili (homemade, frozen, canned, whatever) with all the remaining ingredients except the "cheese" shreds and bread crumbs.  Stir/mash it all together.  Drain cooked noodles and put them back in the pot.  Add the chili mixture to the noodles and stir to combine well.  *Don't be scared of the tofu.  You're going to be amazed at how it brings all the flavors together and ends up looking and tasting just like the delicious cottage cheese or ricotta your grandma puts in her baked macaroni and cheese she brings to all the potlucks.

Dump all of the mixture into a large casserole dish and pat it down into an even layer.  Top with the bread crumbs, spreading them evenly over the mixture.  I shook on a little extra sea salt, garlic powder and paprika here.  Spread "cheese" shreds evenly over the whole thing.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.  Dig in.

Are you still with me here?  Are you mad that I put tofu instead of cheese into Macaroni and CHEESE?  I don't blame you.  But listen, if you eat dairy, please feel free to use regular cheese on top if you want.  But please do try to keep the rest of the ingredients the same, because I think you'll amaze yourself and maybe you'll love it.  And you don't necessarily need to tell anyone you eat this with that it doesn't have cheese.  They won't be able to tell.  In fact, I issue this as a challenge!  Cousin Ashley, I'm talking to you.  Make this for your cheese and carb addicted husband.  Maw-Maw always said, "sometimes it's okay to tell little white lies."  Let me know how it turns out!  Salad for lunch today, I promise.

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Dinner in 5! (or 10, tops...)

This isn't rocket science here, folks.  But it is a tasty, healthy and lightening fast dinner that you can put together in less time than it takes me to dry my crazy hair every morning.  Full disclosure: (I recently purchased some dry shampoo and now only have to dry my hair every other day.  Whoop Whoop!).

Like many if not most of the recipes I make up, this came together completely haphazardly based on the fact that I didn't get home last night until 9:15pm, was ravenous, and had these particular items in my fridge/freezer/pantry.  Feel free to make any substitutions you like while still following the same basic idea for endless combinations.  I did peas, pesto, walnuts, and soba noodles with broiled grape tomatoes, but you could do peanuts, teriyaki sauce, red bell peppers, and rice noodles with broiled whole green onions.  See how this works?

Tomatoes after broiling

Here's the breakdown of what happened to create this li'l ditty:

1.  Come home and turn oven on to broil.  Dump full dry pint of (almost at the end of their rope) cherry tomatoes onto baking sheet.

2.  Drizzle with a little olive oil (a couple teaspoons should be fine), sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Give the baking sheet a good jiggle so it does all the even distribution for you.  How thoughtful.

3.  Put it on the top rack of your oven and broil it while you do the rest of the steps.

4.  Boil water.  Add one bundle (soba noodles come in bundles that serve one to two people) of soba noodles to boiling water.  Pat yourself on the back smugly, knowing that since soba is made of buckwheat, you are doing your health a favor.  Cook noodles for four minutes, when they will be done.

5.  While waiting for the water to boil and then for the noodles to cook, grab a jar of homemade or store bought pesto (the Classico brand is totally delicious) out of the fridge.  Also grab a handful or two (1/3 cup) of frozen peas and defrost them in some warm water.  Cut a lemon in half.  Get your strainer.  Does this seem like several steps?

6.  Drain pasta and put back into pot with defrosted and drained peas.  Take your tomatoes out of the broiler and add them all to the pot.  Add about 1/4 c. pesto to the pot, and squeeze your lemon half over all of it.  Stir.

7.  Divide into two portions (or one if you're really hungry) and top with chopped walnuts, parmesan cheese, or a good dose of "nooch" (nutritional yeast).  Feast, Beast!

This photo makes it look gross.  It was really un-gross!  In fact, it was pretty, pretty tasty.

The thought for the day brought to you by the tag on my Apple Cinnamon tea:

"The finest pleasure is kindness to others."
-Jean de La Bruyere

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Movie Night!

Since last night was a movie night (Jeremy and I watched The Ugly Truth and part of District 9), I decided to make a super easy dinner. By the way, I highly recommend The Ugly Truth if you're not easily offended by crude humor. It was hilarious. As for District 9, I'm disappointed so far.

I like to keep a jar of organic pasta sauce in the fridge for emergency purposes since I normally prefer making my tomato or pasta sauces but don't always remember to pick up tomatoes. I preheated my oven to 425, thickened up some Newman's Own Roasted Garlic tomato sauce with a bit of leftover tomato paste I had in the freezer, and slapped it on some Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Wraps. Found some leftover herbed goat cheese in the fridge and sliced that up along with some onions to top my Cheater's Pizzas. And then there was bacon. I forgot I had it leftover from the other night, so needless to say I was pretty happy. After crisping that up and tossing the pizzas in the oven for about 10 minutes, it was go time. A leftover creme brulee from the night before sealed the deal.

So this pizza turned out pretty good, but had Jeremy not had a say, I would have reached for other fridge ingredients. Here is the pizza that didn't get made:

Ezekiel wrap brushed with crushed garlic in olive oil, sliced onions, sliced pears, blue cheese and a few sparse dollops of fig preserves. I may have to make this version for lunch Thursday while I am working on my crafts...