Here are a few more from the “what gets in my belly the fastest” files.
On a trip to Rainbow Grocery, which is kind of like specialty vegan product heaven, I picked up a package of frozen Nate’s Classic Flavor Meatless Meatballs. I had seen them on a few other blogs and they seemed to be spoken of positively, so I figured I’d give ’em a try. Here they are perched atop wheat fettuccine and covered in Whole Foods marinara.
I like the meatless balls a lot. The taste and texture are great, and they cook up in mere minutes. However, at 90 calories per three I won’t be getting through the bag any time soon.
I also wanted a veggie side dish, and did not want to go to the grocery store, so I cooked the only vegetable I had – celery. Now, I love me some raw celery, and it’s nice cooked with onions and peppers as the beginning of a dish, but who eats just cooked celery?
I do. And it’s actually good. And it uses up that celery in your fridge. I know it’s there. I have the remains of a stalk in my fridge right now. Honestly, I made this a few weeks ago so I don’t remember exactly how I cooked it, but Google braised celery and you’ll find many ways.
One weeknight I found myself with some leftover takeout white rice, and that usually means clean-out-the-fridge-fried-rice. I only had a bit of rice though and didn’t want to take the time to make more, so I said to myself “Quinoa cooks fast, I wonder if fried quinoa is good?”.
The answer is that fried quinoa is amazing. And I didn’t feel like I had to add tofu or edamame like normal, since quinoa has so much protein on it’s own. This version included sweet potato, carrot, cabbage and broccoli and it was quite nice, if I do say so myself.
On the aforementioned trip to Rainbow Grocery, I also snagged a tube of Nacho Teese. Teese! You may recall from my past experiments with Teese that I think it’s amazing, so I couldn’t wait to try the new flavor. I wasn’t so judicious this time since it’s much easier to come by here than it was in Florida.
I knew that I wanted to make enchiladas with homemade enchilada sauce, but since I’ve been trying to vary my grains, I thought about what I might use instead of tortillas. I decided that swiss chard might just be a good enchilada wrapper, and I’m calling these Chard Enchiladas. Because that’s what they are.
One of them was nice enough to open up in the oven and show us the filling, which was pinto beans, nacho teese, onions and chopped chard stem.
I didn’t precook the chard, which I probably should have because it was still a bit tough. Overall though, this turned out pretty well.
What else do you make with nacho teese? Duh, nachos.
Blue sesame corn chips, refried beans mixed with leftover enchilada sauce, salsa, teese, a quick guacamole, and these really good mild jalapeno slices that I found at Target. The jalapenos made all the difference.
Closeup of the melty deliciousness:
This was so ridiculously filling, and so ridiculously good.
I haven’t made a whole lot of lunches lately because of all the holidays, but here are the few I’ve managed to take.
12-16 chard enchiladas, brown rice with corn & tomatoes,
avocado, candy cane jo jo’s
12-17 double fried quinoa (because it was that good),
edamame, persimmon & prunes
12-22 blue corn sesame chips, nacho dip (refried beans,
salsa, teese & jalapenos), carrots, clementine
12-23 toasted leftovers sandwich (tofurkey, spinach,
red onion, cream cheese, cranberry sauce), carrots
& celery, goddess dressing, dried apricot bar
Whew. I feel better having caught up a bit. Soon I’ll write posts about my New Year’s eats, sushi with a very special ingredient and my first CSA box, and hopefully find some time to catch up on reading other blogs too!
Vegan Homemade 