Dinners

This weekend, I had to make a meal to bring for a church potluck.  I wanted to do anything but lasagna (that’s a common potluck guest star).  I thought enchiladas would be nice, and if I did them right, I could actually eat something at the potluck.

Here’s what I made:

First, I used Gina’s recipe for calabacitas and used that to stuff the corn tortillas.  I also added beans.  I foolishly did not buy enough corn tortillas to roll each individual enchilada, but I think it worked out better to do the tortillas flat.  That way, there were more veggies/beans per serving.

I ended up making extra servings of this dish.  The second time, I roasted the veggies on a cookie sheet with a lip.  I recommend that method rather than using a deep Pyrex-type dish because the water evaporates better.  Water enchiladas = no bueno.

For a dress rehearsal, I made the enchiladas for dinner to make sure they’d be good.  I sometimes take a chance and try out new recipes on guests, but I’ve been burned a few times.  Above are cheeseless enchiladas.

Cheesey enchiladas for the church peeps.  I had plenty of corn tortillas the night before, so my dish looked like this:

I amped up the amount of veggies and added some homemade guacamole to the mix.  I used Gina’s guacamole recipe.  Good thing I have you bloggers or I couldn’t cook!  I got a lot of compliments on this.

I also made my own enchilada sauce using this recipe:

It was disappointing at first.  It tasted exactly like slightly spicy Campbell’s Tomato Soup.  Ew.  I simmered some dry chilis in the sauce, caramelized some onions and garlic to add… I even added some dashes of spicy pepper sauce (like Tabasco, but TJ’s version).  It was all very meh until the next morning.  I was trying to decide if I should throw it out and just go by some sauce filled with hydrolized corn protein or whatever else they dump in there.  By the morning, it tasted like enchilada sauce!  So if you use that recipe to make homemade sauce, you really need to make it the night before.  Unless you like tomato soup enchiladas, in which case… I really can’t help you.

Then I made ANOTHER blogger recipe… Jena’s Vegan Carrot Cake.  I thought I took a pic of the finished product, but I don’t see it on my camera.  Maybe my camera got hungry and ate it?  All I have is a pic of one (of many) piece of cake:

I pretty much ate nothing but carrot cake all day yesterday.  It was SO good.  The frosting was a little runny because I’m using a new brand of coconut milk that just isn’t as thick as other brands I’ve used that have been almost like butter.  Somewhere else on my site I mention makeing Polly’s Oaty Cakes with thickened coconut milk (I’m too lazy to search for it).  I think you have to make sure you have very fatty, thick and creamy coconut milk if you’re using it in frosting-y or yogurt-y type ways.  Just be warned, it’s one of the consternations of cooking with coconut.

I got a lot of compliments on the carrot cake as well, but there were so many desserts that I had a lot left over (there were a lot of the other desserts left over too, so it wasn’t a slight on the carrot cake).  This is a problem as it is seriously addicting.  I will only be making it if people promise to eat lots of it or take the leftovers home.

Now for some random dinners I never got around to posting:

That’s raw pasta (spiralized beets, squash and zucchini) with marinara, nutritional yeast and grilled portobella mushrooms.

Breakfast tostada:  Black beans, salsa, tofu and nutritional yeast on a ‘zeke tortilla.  Unfortunately, adding nutritional yeast tends to make all my meals look the same.

Tonight’s din will be baked tofu marinated in this delicious sauce with salad:

Shalom,

E.