Cheesy Spinach Enchiladas

My beautiful little niece spent the night with me on Saturday and I whipped her up some bean tostados.   They must have been kid friendly because she seemed to like them.



I seem to be on a Mexican kick this week - they had organic spinach on sale at the market and I bought a big clamshell of it and made these spinach enchiladas for dinner.   They are great - you can make the sauce I use in these alone and dip chips in it - it makes a delicious dip!

Cheesy Spinach Enchiladas

Ingredients

• 1 pound fresh spinach, stems removed and well rinsed
• 1 chopped yellow onions
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 corn tortillas

Sauce ingredients

   1 cup Nutritional yeast

  ¼ cup corn starch or arrowroot

   ½  teaspoon paprika

   2 teaspoons salt

   2 teaspoon ground cumin

   Dash garlic powder

   Dash chili powder

   2 cups water

   1 10-ounce cans tomatoes with green chiles

   1 ½  tablespoons prepared yellow mustard

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. In 3 batches, add the spinach and blanch for 15 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and shock in an ice bath. Remove and squeeze out the excess. Chop and set aside.

In a large saucepan, add the onions and enough water to cook, stirring, until very soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the spinach and stir to incorporate. Remove from the heat and adjust the seasoning, to taste.
In medium-large saucepan, combine flour, nutritional yeast, salt, paprika, cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder.  Add water and mix thoroughly.  Heat on medium heat and stir constantly; once thickened, remove from heat. Add in tomatoes and mustard and stir until a bit thicker.
Add about ½ of the sauce to the spinach mixture and stir to incorporate.
Heat tortilla by preferred method and place on a work surface. Place about 1/2 cup of the spinach mixture into the center of each tortilla and roll up into a cylinder. Place, seam side down, in a single layer across the bottom of a 9 by 13-inch casserole dish.


Pour remaining cheese sauce over the filled enchiladas and bake for 30-45 minutes.


Serve with Refried Beans and Mexican Rice.

Yield: 6 servings

Cosmic Cashew Kale with Confetti Quinoa

I've grown to love quinoa more and more over the past few years.   It is really easy to digest and loaded with protein.   This dish is from Susan V. over at Fat Free Vegan Kitchen and has been featured all over the web.   It isn't as low fat as most of the dishes I cook because the sauce is cashew based but it is rich, creamy and delicious!   The quinoa cooks up in 15 minutes so it is a great dish to make when you are short on time but needing some comfort food.   I came up with another variation on the sauce that makes it almost completely fat free.   It is not quite as good but almost!

Here is the original recipe:
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2011/05/cosmic-cashew-kale-and-chickpeas-with-confetti-quinoa.html

Here is my reduced fat version:

I make the quinoa just as directed in Susan's recipe:

Confetti Quinoa

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed very well
• 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
• 2 cups hot vegetable broth
• 1/4 red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 2 green onions, green parts only, thinly sliced

Instructions

1. In a medium-sized saucepan, toast the damp quinoa for a few minutes until it begins to dry out. Add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT the green onions, cover, and cook on low until all the liquid is absorbed and quinoa is fluffy. Stir in the green onions and serve hot.

I do the Kale and Chickpeas a little differently:

Cosmic Cashew Kale and Chickpeas

Ingredients

• 1 package Mori-Nu light tofu
• 1 cup non-dairy milk
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon vegetable bouillon or broth powder
• 1 large onion
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1 1/2 cups chickpeas (or one 15-ounce can, rinsed and drained)
• 1 bunch kale, central stems removed and leaves thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• Salt to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Hot sauce, to taste
• 2 to 4 tablespoons fresh basil, minced

Instructions

1. Crumble the tofu, milk, garlic powder, onion powder, bouillion cube, and nutritional yeast into a blender.  Blend at highest speed until completely smooth and creamy. Set aside until needed.
2. In a large non-stick skillet, cook the onion in a little water until it begins to brown, about 5-7 minutes. Add the red bell pepper and cook for another minute. Add the chickpeas, kale, and two tablespoons water. Cover immediately and reduce heat to medium. Cook, stirring often, until kale is tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the reserved cream sauce, oregano, and salt, black pepper, and hot sauce to taste. Cook, stirring, until sauce thickens. If sauce becomes too thick, add a little water to thin. Add the fresh basil just before serving over Confetti Quinoa.

Making Tofu

Tofu is very strange to some people but I love the stuff!   I could eat it every day.  The problem is that most people don’t really know how to cook it.   It took me a long time to really figure it out.   There is a technique that must be followed to make it really good.   I used to buy it and try to eat it after opening the tub, draining the water out and briefly sautéing it in with my stir fries or whatever I was cooking.  Yuck!   It tasted like rubber and I couldn’t stand it.   

If I wasn’t brave and ordered it in vegetarian restaurants and got it off the food bar in health food stores I would probably still dislike it.   When I got it there it was delicious and chewy and had an entirely different texture.  The reason mine was so awful was that I didn’t know how to prepare it!  

Let me start this by saying that you should ALWAYS buy organic tofu.   Soybeans are one of the big GMO crops , like corn, and you shouldn’t take a chance with your health buying non-organic tofu.  Now that I have that rant out of the way I will tell you how to prepare it.

The easiest way to do it is to buy the tub of tofu, take it home and put it straight in the freezer.    Wait until it is frozen solid and take it out, put in the refrigerator, and let it thaw.  Give it a couple of days to thaw completely.  I try to keep a rotation going with it so there is always some in the freezer and some in the refrigerator, thawed and ready when I need it.  

Once it has thawed, you need to press it.  Put the whole block of tofu between a bunch of paper towels and put something flat like a baking sheet on top.   Start putting heavy objects on top of the baking sheet, cast iron skillet, canned goods, whatever you have to put some weight on it.   Let it drain for about 30 minutes.

I used this method for a long time but decided that it used too many paper towels, the cans would occasionally fall off and dent my floor, and it was always sitting in the way on my countertop while I was trying to prepare the rest of the meal.   I ordered two TofuXpresses from Amazon and I use those.  They are pretty expensive but I have used them so much that it has been well worth the expense.   I wouldn’t recommend anyone buying them if you don’t eat a lot of tofu or if you are not sure if you like them or not.  Here is what they look like and where to get them:

http://www.amazon.com/TofuXpress-Gourmet-Food-Press/dp/B002QO5LY8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313072508&sr=8-1

Once it has drained, cut the tofu into the desired size and prepare it according to your recipe.   My favorite way to make it is to “bread” it with nutritional yeast and bake it.

Baked Tofu

1 block of extra-firm tofu

½ cup nutritional yeast

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400.

Spray a baking sheet lightly with non-stick spray.

Cut the pressed tofu block in half width-wise, then cut into 9 even blocks like this:

This will yield 18 pieces.

Place the nutritional yeast, salt, garlic powder , and black pepper into a gallon size ziplock bag and shake it up to mix all the ingredients well.   Add the separated tofu pieces to the bag and shake it up very well to coat all the tofu pieces.  

Place the tofu on the baking sheet – don’t let them pieces touch each other.  Bake for 20 minutes, remove from the oven and turn them over and bake for 20 more minutes.  I LOVE it cooked this way and use it in a lot of different dishes.

 Here is a photo of the baked tofu:

Vegan Substitutes

This morning I have been thinking about all the substitutes I use in my cooking.  Some of these things are pretty familiar to everybody but some are not.  For some people, this post might seem basic but for others that are not familiar with pure plant based food, they won't.  I avoid things like vegan sour cream, cream cheese, and other vegan cheeses.   First of all, they are processed foods and I try to avoid them if at all possible.   My objective it to eat only REAL food.   Secondly, they are expensive and almost always fat laden.   The final reason is that even vegan foods can contain ingredients with weird names that I can pronounce - I have a rule that if a product has somthing in it that I can't pronounce, I don't eat it.

I won't go so far as saying that I won't prepare things that try to mimick the flavor of something they are not; I do that alot.  I cook with no added oil with a few exceptions - I spray a baking pan with non-stick cooking spray (I'm trying to find a way around that) and I will add one type of oil in very small amounts.  Toasted sesame oil is the only type I use.   This oil gives a rich, smoky flavor to some dishes that can't be replicated.    I use a teaspoon or two of it in greens when they are cooking and put it in many Asian dishes but never more than 2 teaspoons in a dish.

Here are some of the ingredients that I use:

Toasted sesame oil (not plain - it needs to be toasted)  - Use when cooking foods that would normally have things like ham, bacon, or other type of meats cooked in with them like beans or greens.   Also great in Asian and Thai dishes.

Nutrtional Yeast - this replaces cheese and butter.   Make sure it is nutrtional yeast and not baking yeast or brewers yeast.   Many people find the smell offensive at first but after you have cooked with it a couple of times you will grow to love it.   Add 1/8 of a cup of it to your mashed potatoes after they have cooked, while you are mashing them and it gives them a rich, buttery flavor without adding fat.

Dulse or Kelp - these are sea vegetables that give a "fishy" flavor to vegan dishes that are mocking fish or seafood.   I haven't ever eaten seafood and I don't like the smell of fish but I like these seaweeds in things like mock tuna salad, vegan crab cakes, etc.

Egg Replacer - Mix equal parts of arrowroot flour and potato flour.  Add 1 tablespoons of this mixture to 2 tablespoons water and this equals 1 egg.   Use it for baking - don't try to make scrambled eggs or an omelet out of it!

Black Salt - this salt is really pink but it is called black salt.  It is readily available in most international grocery stores and is very cheap - it is used mostly in Indian cooking.  It is also called kala namak.   Use this in dishes that mimick eggs, it has a sulfuric smell very much like eggs.  Just use it instead of using regular salt in quiches, omelets, and tofu scrambles.

Silken Tofu - silken tofu is great for making sauces, alfredo, sour cream, mayo, salad dressings, and I use it to make eggs benedict and omeletes.  I will post these recipes soon.   It is low fat and very easy to work with.   Silken tofu is not usually found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store.   It is shelf stable and comes in little boxes.  Mori-Nu is the most popular brand.

Unsweetened soy milk - this is used where milk would normally be used.   There are some other vegan milks that are lower in fat but they can be tricky in some applications - I prefer to just stick with the soy milk.  To make soy milk into "buttermilk" just add a 1 tablespoon of vinegar to 1 cup of unsweetened soy milk.

Regular Tofu - Since we are on a gluten free diet we use this to replace a LOT of things.   Use to make scrambled "eggs" and use to replace beef and chicken in many recipes.  It also makes a great tofu bacon.

Liquid Smoke  - gives a realistic smoke flavor to foods, add a drop of it to sea salt to make a smoked salt, and you can use it in anything that you grill to intensify the smoky flavor.

Buddah Bowl, Tostados with Spanish Rice, and Hippie Loaf with Sides

I started cooking again on Friday night.   We had one of our all-time favories Buddah Bowl - a classic greens, beans, rice, with tofu and a cheesy vegan sauce.   I will post the recipe for this later - I want to do a post on the proper way to prepare tofu and I will include the recipe for Buddah Bowl with that post.  I added some extra things to it that I don't usually add;  I had a lot of leftover red and orange bell peppers along with some thinly sliced zucchini from my Living Lasagna that I didn't want to waste so I added them in when I was cooking the kale.



For lunch on Saturday I made bean tostados.   I found some corn tostados at Kroger and they were really cheap.  We really liked them so I will be using them a lot more.   My husband wanted some "Cheddar Cheese" so I bought some Daiya to toss on the top.   I don't usually use the commercial vegan cheeses because they are expensive and high in fat but I got it for him.  If you like the commercial cheeses, Daiya is definitely the best choice and Kroger (at least mine) is carrying it now.

Bean Tostados with Spanish Rice

Refried Beans

1/2  onion chopped (reserve the other 1/2 for salsa)

2 cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

pinch of ground cayenne pepper

1 small jalepeno pepper (optional)

Add about 1/4 cup water to a saute pan and bring to a boil.  Add the salt and onions and pan fry until onions are translucent.   Keep a small amount of water beside the pan and add little splashes as need to keep it from drying out.     While this is cooking, put the beans in a bowl and mash with a fork (or process in a food processor) until almost all the beans are smashed - it doesn't have to be a paste - you can also do this with a potato masher.  

Add beans and all remaining ingredients to the pan.   Continue cooking until heated through and smooth.   Add splashes of water as needed to keep it from drying out.  

Quick Salsa

1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles

3 tablespoons of cilantro

1/2 onion, chopped finely

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together and let stand a few minutes before serving.

Spread the refried beans on the tostado shells followed by some cheese if you like.   You can add black olives or anything you like.  I served it with chopped romaine lettuce and spooned some salsa over the top.

Spanish Rice

1 cup cooked brown rice

2 tablespoons taco seasoning

Add about 1/4 cup of water to the pan and add taco seasoning.   Add brown rice and cook, stirring constantly until the water is all gone.  Serve with salsa ladled over the top.

This was a very delicious lunch and I had it ready in less than 30 minutes

Hippie Loaf

This is my favorite gluten free loaf and I got the recipe from Happy Herbivore's blog here:

http://www.happyherbivore.com/recipe/hippie-loaf-gluten-free/

I served it with mashed cauliflower/potaoes with almond milk gravy and asparagus.

Quick Almond Milk

1/4 cup of almonds

1 cup water

pinch of salt

Blend together in food processor until smooth.

Mashed Cauliflower Potatoes

These are a great way to get coniferous veggies and they are delicious.

1 head of cauliflower

3 or 4 potatoes

1/8 cup of nutritional yeast

1/4 - 1/2 cup of almond milk

salt to taste

Peel the potatoes and cut the cauliflower into small pieces.   Add to pot and boil for 15-20 minutes until tender.   Drain and mash just like you normally mash potatoes until smooth.   Add in almond milk until desired consistency.   Add nutritional yeast and stir to mix in completely.  (the nutritional yeast gives it a buttery taste).

Almond Milk Gravy

1/8 cup raw almonds

1 cup water

1/2 onion, minced
2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon sherry (optional)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons corn starch
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a medium-sized non-stick saucepan, saute the onion in water until translucent, about 10 minutes.  Add the vegetable broth, garlic powder, herbs, nutritional yeast, sherry, and soy sauce.  In a blender, add the almonds and water and process until smooth. Add the cornstarch and continue blending until all is smooth.  Add the almond milk mixture  to the saucepan and stir well.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, add water if needed to thin it out.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Going Back to My Vegan - Low Fat - Gluten-free - Sugar Free diet

I had to get off the raw food diet.   I felt more energetic and better than ever while I was doing it, as I always do.   The problem was that I am in training at work for the next couple of weeks and when I am doing raw foods I get GAS - and I mean BAD gas!   I was sitting in the training room (which is about the size of an average dining area) with 8 people on Thursday and the pains kept getting worse and worse; I had tears welling up in my eyes I was fighting it so hard.   Whew!   I made it through the day without incident somehow but I decided to come back to the raw food diet when I wasn't in such close quarters with other people!  LOL!   Instead of just giving up on my blog I am going to continue but I am going to post my "regular" diet items.   I've made some pretty good meals the past few days and will be posting recipes for those.

We will still be juicing everyday - that is something we always do.  We juice every morning for breakfast and rarely eat anything else until we take our lunch break.

Day Three and Getting Bored!

Today has been tougher than the first two.   I am finally adjusting to eating for nourishment rather than pleasure.   That is the hardest thing for me - I love food!  Maybe I go too far but it is so much harder for me to not cook than to cook - if that makes any sense.   We had the regular glass of fresh  made juice for breakfast and some kiwis and apples for mid morning snack.  For lunch - leftover salad from Tuesday night.    You have to eat like a horse to make this work.   You just do.  You can't have your normal, dainty little salad and stay the course.   We had a HUGE plate of salad today.   People walk by us in the cafeteria and look at us like WHOA!   They pass back by our table after grabbing a bacon cheeseburger topped off with fried onion rings and I want to stab them with my fork - shew!

For dinner we had a bowl of cream of broccoli soup - this was very filling:



Broccoli Cream Soup

Ingredients: 

2 cups coconut milk
2 large stalks celery
1/4"-1/2" piece jalapeno pepper
2  garlic cloves
pinch of salt -- up to 1/2 tsp. (to taste)

pinch of ground cumin
1 large head broccoli

Preparation: 

Put all ingredents except broccoli into blender - blend until smooth.
Cut broccoli stems close to broccoli florets, so you have tiny broccoli florets. Peel the stems if you want (I don't), cut the stems into chunks and put them and remaining florets into blender.
Blend until all smooth and creamy.
Taste - add any other spices if wanted (i.e., more salt, garlic, hot pepper, etc).
Serve.

And then we had Live Lasagna.  This was the best raw food dish I had ever made!  We both loved it.  Now we have no leftovers for lunch so we are going to Jason's for a salad - the way I feel right now I am going to just climb up there like a monkey with a fork and start eating and not stop until I have polished off every raw vegetable on the salad bar.   To hell with running back for a clean plate every time I finish one - I just won't use one!!!

Here is the zucchini "lasagna" with the first layer of the cashew cheese (from Monday's post).

Then the next layer is marinated peppers, red onions, topped with marinated mushrooms.

Then another layer of zucchini and start all over again.   I think I did about 4 layers total.   When all was ready I topped it off with raw marinara sauce.  I served it with "Caprese" salad on the side because I had an extra home-grown organic tomato I wanted to use and a bunch of basil left over from the marinara sauce.  Here is how it looked when it was complete:



Living Lasagna

Ingredients

At a glance

Makes

4-6 people

Tomato Sauce
2 cups sun dried tomatoes soaked for 6 hrs.
7 roma tomatoes
4 garlic gloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbs. red or yellow onion
3 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
2 tbs. lemon juice
2 tsp. dried basil

Mushroom layer
3-4 cups mushrooms (sliced)
3 tbs. or more of raw soy sauce (nama shoyu)

2 tbs. olive oil

Cashew Cheese (recipe follows)

Noodle sheets & marinated veggies
2  zucchini
1/2 small onion sliced really thin
1 red bell pepper sliced really thin
1 yellow bell pepper sliced really thin
2 tbs. olive oil
2 tbs. lemon juice

1/2 cup chopped drained raw olives
1/2 cup fresh basil

Methods/steps

How to tomato sauce: Blend everything together till smooth. Set aside.

How to mushrooms: Marinate mushrooms in the soy sauce for 2 hours. Drain and set aside.

How to noodle sheets and marinated veggies: Cut the zucchini on a mandolin into into wide, paper-thin slices. Set aside. Combine the onion and the bell pepper in a bowl with the oil, lemon juice and salt and let marinate for 16hrs in the fridge.

Herb Ricotta Cheeze
Ingredients

2 C Cashews
1 C Filtered water
1/3 C Red bell pepper, diced
2½ Tbl Green onion, diced
2 Tbl Cilantro, minced
1 tsp Garlic, minced (optional)
3 tsp shoyu, or to taste
1/2 tsp Sea salt, or to taste
Pinch Crushed red pepper flakes

Preparation

1. Blend cashews with filtered water until very smooth. Place in a ½ gallon open-mouthed glass jar. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and secure with a rubber band. Cover with a towel and allow to sit in a warm place overnight.

2. Pour cashew mixture into a large mixing bowl, combine with remaining ingredients and mix well. I pulse mine a few times in the Vitamix

Making the lasagna: Put thin slices of the zucchini on the bottom of a glass lasagna pan. Top this layer with a thin layer of the ricotta cheeze, top the cheeze layer with a layer of mushrooms, then again the zucchini, top that layer with the tomato sauce, top the tomato sauce layer with a layer of the sliced onions, red and yellow peppers, top that with a layer of more zucchini slices, layer on top of that with more ricotta cheese, then top it with a layer of the spinach leaves, top that with mushrooms, and then some marinated sliced onions, red and yellow peppers, then again with the zucchini and then top the whole thing with the tomato sauce and garnish the top with chopped olives and fresh basil leaves. Now, cover (plastic wrap) the lasagna and place it into the fridge to set up, about 3-5 hours.

That's it! It looks kinda hard, but if you break it down, it's really easy. You and your family are worth it! Make it once or twice a week. Add marinated eggplant as one of the layers, or your favorite veggie. You can cut a piece and put it into the dehydrator so it will get warm and then serve it. Raw food doesn't have to be served cold. Enjoy!

So to recap Wednesday - juice for breakfast, kiwi and apples for mid-morning snack, salad for lunch.  Dinner was broccoli cream soup followed by Living Lasagna and Caprese Salad.