Eliot's Vegan Enchiladas

These enchiladas have it all. The acorn squash subtly remind us of Thanksgiving. Makes one large (9x13) baking dish. 

      Prep-time 0:45-1:15 
       Cook-time  2:00

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion
• 1 head of garlic
• ~18 oz canned crushed roasted tomatoes*
• ~8 oz canned tomato puree*
• 1 large portobello mushroom
• 2 large carrots
• 2 acorn squash
• 3 cups cashew butter**
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can corn***
• 12 small corn tortillas
• Several handfuls of spinach
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 cups crushed tortilla chips****
• 2 tablespoons ground flax
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• chile peppers- I used 2 poblano, 3 serrano, and 2 of a variety i don't remember the name of*****
• Spices: Thyme, Sage, Oregano, Cayenne Pepper, Salt, Pepper

* The tomatoes, spices, etc, are used to make a sauce. If you wanted to be more ambitious you could stew the tomatoes yourself, and if you"re pressed for time a store bought enchilada sauce would work also

** I had some made beforehand. A good recipe can be found here: http://healthyblenderrecipes.com/recipes/raw_vegan_cashew_cheese

*** Roasting the corn would add a lot. I didn't have time. To roast corn, place it in a 425 degree oven, husks on! Turn regularly until the outside of the husk is charred. Even better, do this on a grill 

**** You could equally well just add more flour. I have some chips on hand that were too small already to do much with (the last in the bag), so I tossed them in to the tomato sauce mixture

***** If you have some on hand or easy access to fresh, hatch roasted chiles would be divine


Instructions

1. Roast the peppers, garlic, and squash. To roast, plop them on a baking sheet and turn the oven on to 450. Wrap the garlic and squash in foil. Turn peppers occasionally, the goal is to have nicely charred brown-black skin all around. Garlic and squash should roast for ~45 minutes, until squash is soft and the garlic skin is golden brown.
2. Prep other ingredients. Onions should be diced, carrots sliced, corn and beans drained, portabello thinly sliced.
3. Make the tomato sauce. Mix tomato puree and crushed tomatoes, add herbs, salt and pepper. Add about half of the onion, half of the peppers, and all of the garlic (garlic should be smashable once roasted). Mix in flour, tortilla chips, and flax.*
4. In a large glass baking dish, spread about half of the tomato sauce on the bottom. Smear 6 tortillas with sauce and place them sauce up across the bottom of the dish. 
5. Top with onions, carrots, black beans, corn, portabello, carrots, remainder of peppers, and spinach. 
6. Mash the acorn squash, and add to the cashew butter. Add the remaining tomato sauce to this mixture also. 
7. Smear remaining tortillas with generous portions of cashew mixture, and place sauce-up across the pan. 
8. Drizzle the enchiladas with olive oil. Place in 425 degree oven for ~1 hour, or until they look done (like the picture at the top of this page). 

* The order is not important here. I added chiles and garlic last because they were still roasting

Here's the dish before cooking! Check out the layers in the top picture!

Recipe by: Eliot

Fresh Pico

Happy Easter, everyone! Today I made something really easy - super fresh pico de gallo. I always have fun making it and even more fun eating it! It's a lot cheaper than most salsas you can buy, and you can customize it anyway you like. Heres what I do:

Finely chop and mix together:

• 5-6 fresh tomatoes 
• 1/2 large yellow onion (more or less to taste)
• 2 bell peppers (I usually use green for the color contrast, this time I used red)

Add: 

• Salt (to taste - I used quite a bit!)
• Lime (I used one lime but it could have used another. I've made it before without lime and its still good)

Optional: 

• Cilantro 
• Chopped mango (I cannot wait to try this!)

I love making this. I never thought to make salsa (or pico as this is) before this year, and I will continue to do it! I think chopping all the veggies is very mediative and it's great knowing that you made something yummy and saved money doing it. I also love the creativity you can have with making it. I hope you all make some awesome salsa with your own unique spin to it!

And you're done! Store it in a jar like I did if you can't finish it immediately! Keeps it fresher longer and makes you look professional! Happy eating!

Baked Sweet Potato Wedges

Hey there! I decided to experiment with a sweet potato I had. They may not look too pretty, but these wedges are great!

You will need:

• 1 sweet potato, cut into wedges (I did a pretty bad job at chopping, so no pressure...)
• Olive oil 
• Salt

And here's what to do:

1. Heat oven to about 400ish (At first I had the oven set to 450, but turned it down to 350 after 15 minutes).

2. Arrange taters onto a cookie sheet.

3. Drizzle olive oil on top! Make sure each wedge gets a little bit coated.

4. Add salt! I love salt on sweet potatoes so I added more while flipping them! 

5. Cook for about 30 minutes**. Flip after 15 minutes.
Mmm. Look at these sizzle!

**I guessed on cooking times, the fries looked good after 30 minutes so I took them out! You can experiment to get them more or less crispy. The small wedges I had were very crispy, the larger were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Serve! I served with ketchup, but they were tasty on their own too.

Asparagus

Lemon garlic asparagus is very easy. It's a great side dish to make if you need one. It only takes about 5 minutes!

You'll need:

• 1 bunch of asparagus 
• lemon juice to taste (I used a splash of pre-squeezed lemon juice)
• 1 clove of minced garlic (add more or less to taste)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil 
• salt and pepper

And here's what to do: 

1. Heat a pan to medium-high heat. Add asparagus, garlic, and lemon. Sauté for about 5 minutes or until some of the asparagus has browned. 

2. Remove from heat, add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Serve. 

Oatmeal Pancakes

This recipe accomplishes two things. First, it makes a very delicious breakfast, and second, it uses up leftover oatmeal. Eliot thought of this recipe after he made too much oatmeal (he loves oatmeal) that I wouldn't eat (I prefer pancakes!). He decided to simply convert oats into cakes! It was awesome.
Sorry there are no measurements - it was just successful guess work, but here's how we did it:

1. Have left over oatmeal. Make sure to use oatmeal that you have already dressed up**.
2. Add milk (we used vanilla soy milk) to leftover oatmeal until it becomes somewhat soupy. 
3. Stir well to make it smooth.
4. Slowly add flour to this mixture of until the mixture is thicker (as thick as pancake mix usually is). 
5. Add about a tablespoon of vegetable oil
6. Add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

After your batter is well mixed, cook as you normally cook pancakes (medium heat until golden brown.) Top with vegan butter and syrup or honey(if you eat it, I do!).

They were killer! They looked great and tasted better!

** Cinnamon apple, chocolate chip, strawberry, and/or blueberry are all great oatmeal options! This time, we used apple cinnamon oatmeal to make apple cinnamon oatmeal pancakes.

Orchids

Last year, I received a gorgeous orchid for my birthday and I couldn't bear to throw it out after the flowers dropped. Instead, I kept watering it! The leaves were still green, after all. A little less than a year had past, my orchid began to bloom again, this time with more flowers! I have had beautiful flowers since December!

Now that a year has passed, it is important to re-pot the flower. This is done by simply changing the medium. Also, you'll need to make sure the medium is always moist so the plant doesn't die between blooming!

Summer Vegetable Soup

Ah, summer. Finally, you can put away the winter coats and break out the sandals. Is there a better way to celebrate than making soup? I think not...but I have a weird thing for soup.

Summer Vegetable Soup is super easy and so fresh! I also love this recipe because it has a creamy feel to it!

Here's what you'll need:

2 medium potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 cups of water
1/2 medium yellow onion
4 large cloves garlic (more or less to taste)
3 stalks of fresh celery
1-2 medium carrots
1 cup of chopped cauliflower
1 cup of chopped broccoli
1 bell pepper (any color), cut into strips
1/2 a pound of fresh green beans, chopped
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 10 ounce can of corn (fresh corn works too)
Extra virgin olive oil
Oregano, basil, dill, chives, salt, and pepper to taste.


Instructions: 

1. Brown onion and garlic (both coarsely chopped) in medium sized pot in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil for about 10 minutes on medium heat.
2. Add water and chopped potatoes into pot. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer until potatoes are tender. 
3. Break out the blender! Pour water/tater/onion mixture into a blender and puree! After it's creamy enough for you, pour it back into the saucepan, add chopped celery and spices to taste, and set aside. 
4. Steam SOME of the vegetables. I used a microwave because it is 10x easier. Separate the veggies into these combos and steam separately: 
1. Carrot, broccoli and cauliflower 
2. Green beans 
3. Zucchini and bell pepper
5. *Reheat potato base if it has cooled, then stir in all of the steamed vegetables. Also add the corn. 
6. Enjoy!

*You can prepare the vegetables and the potato base the day before. When you're ready to serve, complete step 5.
Adapted from: Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook 2nd ed. 1992

Easy Vegan Banana Cookies

This recipe takes almost no time at all - and will get a ton of compliments! It's basically banana bread in cookie form!

Here's what you'll need to make about 2 dozen cookies: 

         2 ripe bananas

         2/3 cup canola oil 

         2 tsp vanilla

         3/4 cup sugar

         2 cups flour

         2 tsp baking powder

         a pinch or two of salt

And here's what to do:

1. Preheat oven to 350º 
2. Mash and beat bananas with a fork until somewhat creamy. Some lumps are ok. 
3. Mix in all other ingredients.
4. Drop 1.5 inch balls onto an un-greased cookie sheet.
5. Press each ball down lightly to flatten (you may want to wet hands first).
6. Cook for 10-12 minutes or until golden-brown.
7. Enjoy