Burger Goodness

Dinner tonight was Chipotle Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries. I bought a case of Gardenburger Black Bean Chipotle burgers from work, good price and they are fully vegan. And fully tasty. And in the future they will be put to use in fajitas, tacos and other Mexican fare. Served them up on a bun with chipotle vegainaise, onion, tomato and leaf lettuce. Julienned some sweet potato, tossed with roasted garlic oil, cumin and salt. I loved the burger, but the fries could have been better. Crispier with more salt and cumin.

I will be attempting to cook with tempeh for the 2nd time tonight. I made some gawdawful chili a few weeks ago with it. I did not cook the tempeh long enough and it was bitter. I hope to make some tempeh salad for sandwiches for lunch. I have been looking longingly at people's sandwiches at lunch.

Vegan Snacking, oh, my.

I snacked on veggeroni (fake pepperoni seitan) tonight. And I really enjoyed it. Oh, my.

Good Golly Gee Wizzz

What a busy day it has been. Kristin has been whipping up so tastee vittles left and right....I am the lucky taste tester :-) I've got our vegan friendly ETSY shop fired up and ready to list. We've decided to give a whirl with soapmaking, bath salts, and home products initially.

Today, I listed the inagural item in our shop, a magazine bowl. An upcycled Real Simple magazine that is pining to find a new home now. The inspiration came from A Little Hut's blog tutorial. I had been searching for a way to upcycle old phone books and this seemed to be a perfect fit! Though this one isn't a phone book, you get the idea. Tomorrow I'll post a phone book bowlie.

Anywho, swing on by our ETSY shop, Marge & Vina, as new vegan goodness will be added as often as we can crank it out! Some of you all might know me from Oso Azul Design where I sell me arts. No worries, I am still selling the arts over there....I am just working with Kristin to sell some homey goodness over here! Wanna check out my art bloggy....click here. nitey nite.

~elli

"Sour Cream Chick'n" Enchiladas, bitches!

I made these tonight. If I do say so myself, they were excellent. And being newly vegan, I think I especially appreciate that I could not tell the difference between these and omni enchiladas. I think I enjoyed them more, as I tasted the different veggies more, as they were not loaded down with sour cream, or cheese. My mother loved them. Dad didn't have any, wasn't feeling well. But I bet he will. Yes, indeedy. His opinion is the one I really wanted, as he is more of a meat-and-potatoes kinda person.

First, this recipe would actually make two pans of enchiladas. But I love the filling so much, that I made 1 pan enchiladas, and I am going to use the rest of the filling for quesadillas, and a tasty southwest chicken salad. Roasting or grilling the vegetables is a bit of extra work well worth the time. It gives them so much more flavor. The amount of poblanos depends on how spicy they are, or how much heat you like. The same goes for the chipotle. I made these for a dinner with the parents so I wanted them mild.

"SOUR CREAM CHICKEN" ENCHILADAS

INGREDIENTS

• 8 oz. package "chik'n strips" (I used Morningstar brand) , or equivalent frozen, thawed and drained tofu (not silken!)
  


• 1-2 poblano chiles, roasted, peeled and diced
  


• 1 zucchini, diced
  


• 1 medium onion, chopped
  


• 1 15 1/4 oz. can corn, or small bag frozen
  


• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
  


• 1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
  


• 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes , drained (I only used half a can), or fresh diced
  


• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  


• 1 tsp. oregano leaf
  


• 6-12 oz. Tofutti "Better Than Sour Cream", depending on how much "dairy" you like. I used 9 oz. or 3/4 of a container
  


• 1-2 T. chipotle in adobo, pureed or mashed
  


• salt to taste
  


• 1 16 o. can green enchilada sauce, or homemade if you aren't lazy like me!
  


• about 9 6" corn tortillas

1. Thaw "chik'n" or tofu. If using tofu, squeeze out all water. Dice it up.

2. Drain canned corn or thaw frozen. Toss corn, onion and diced zucchini with a very small amount of oil (just enough to barely coat veggies), broil or roast in oven at 500 degrees until onions start to brown. I actually like mine a bit burnt. You could also grill them.

3. Mix "chik'n" or tofu, chiles, onions, corn, zucchini, drained tomatoes, cumin, cilantro, beans, cumin, oregano, chipotle and salt to taste. At this point you could just leave out the "sour cream" if you want a less fatty enchilada.

4. Heat up a very small amount of oil in a pan and quickly saute each side of the corn tortillas, just heating through. If you do not want the added oil, you could just cover the tortillas with a damp paper towel and put them in the microwave.

5. Dip the tortillas in the enchilada sauce, stuff and put them in a lightly oiled pan. Top with more sauce. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. I topped mine with fresh tomato and green onion when they came out of the oven.

I used what I had at my house. Certainly fresh or frozen corn would be better. Fresh tomatoes, dried black beans and homemade enchilada sauce would also be good. But, HOT DAMN, these turned out swell. I am new to the vegan thing, but have cooked professionally for years and am happy for that. I think I know a few more tricks, and such. Elli is just finishing up the dog's new vegan muesli, wit

h some TVP, shredded carrots, parsley and celery. So far he approves of the sample he was given. Oh, and above is a picture of the tastee brownies Elli made. My mom snarfed them down. -Kristin

Cooking adventures

So, this whole vegan thing has really inspired me to really cook again. Last week I came home and baked bread. I have never done that at home before. My vegan ranch turned out swell. I roasted five pounds of garlic. That almost killed us. Once I took the foil off the top of the pan to check it our home was filled with garlic fumes that made our eyes tear up and burn like the dickens. I made hummus yesterday. I need to pay more attention when I make it next time, because it is very tasty, if I do say so myself. When I do I will post it. I just took my first batch of seitan ("veggaroni") out of the oven and it is cooling on the porch. It will top the pizza we are having tonight. Thanks to Fat Free Vegan Kitchen for the recipe! AND I made the filling for what will be tomorrow nights "sour cream-chicken" enchiladas. Hot damn, I think they are going to be good. I believe that they would be tastee without the Chik'n strips, and with more roasted poblanos and chipotle, but they are for dinner with the parents and I need to customize it a bit for them. Tomorrow night I will put up the recipe with a picture.

We have been having some "crap" meals and some healthy ones, as well. By crap I mean tofu dogs with crescent rolls wrapped around them, with fries and frozen broccoli. Or hard shell tacos and taco salad the next day. Chipotle "mayo" topped veggie burgers with tater tots. High sodium, a little more fat, etc. The first week I believe we ate a bit better. I am not going to be too hard on myself, though. Compared to the pure, unadulterated crap I ate before, I am eating much better than I have in my entire life. And as stated earlier, there have been healthy meals, too. I had hummus with veggies and minestrone soup for lunch. Made tofu stir fry Saturday night. I need to have my "crap" meals once in a while. It certainly eases the transition.

We started to watch the documentary "Earthlings" on Google video last night, and after about 30 minutes, I had to turn it off. Just too disturbing to watch all of the way through. I had never heard of it. I think we will maybe watch it in a few more installments, so that we do not completely lose our minds. Watching it really solidified that this is not a diet. This is our life from now on. Forever and ever amen. Neither one of us sees how we can go back after starting on this journey.

That is all. Tomorrow we shall see how the enchiladas turn out. And I am now going to go get the seitan off the porch and try it. I do miss pepperoni on pizza, so here is hoping that it turned out good. -Kristin

Random Title

I feel that I have so much to say about this whole vegan "thing", but am too lazy to sit down and type it all. But suffice it to say right now that I am proud to be vegan for 8 ENTIRE DAYS, without any major cravings or issues. I feel a sense of pride, accomplishment and happiness that compensates for the fact that I cannot ingest mozzarella cheese. Or Funyuns. Oh, suh-weet Funyuns.

And because I am lazy and will keep this brief, what I wanted to impart, to myself, or anyone who deems to read this is this: It is so very crappy that I can be so excited, proud, happy and allofthatthere with becoming vegan, but that if I tell almost anyone, I just face ridicule. Or scorn. I am a chatty bitch. I like to talk too much at times. I like to regale people with boring stories about my daily life. I wanna tell people about the biggest thing I have done EVER, excepting the Flock of Seagulls-esque hairdo I had in high school. I am not pushing this on anyone else, nor am I judging them. Can I not just be happy about it, without the other junk? I have had many instances in my life where people tell me something they are excited about, and I inwardly groan, or cry. Does my father need another record player? Is three not enough? Does the woman I work with really need to purchase a cheap plastic pink mirror with fake lace and roses glued onto theback? I will feign my own excitement. I do it almost every day. Because if something makes someone happy, or proud, who am I to take that away from them? As long as I do not tie anyone down and force tofu down their throats, lemme be happy. Puh-lease. Thanks much.