Not again!

YES! Again! I make this when I want something easy and super satisfying. This quinoa and black bean tortilla casserole dish never disappoints. I make it so much I should really start referring to it as "The Casserole". This time I added Daiya vegan cheese to create a nice melty top.

Quinoa and Black Bean Tortilla Casserole

Filling:
2 TB olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 zucchini, chopped
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1 14oz. can diced tomatoes, drained with juice reserved
1 14oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups water
3/4 cups quinoa
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup Daiya cheese
Sauce: 2 - 8oz. can tomato sauce or you can use 2 cans of EL PATO sauce (yum!)
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. chipotle chili powder or plain chili powder
pinch of cayenne
1/3 cup Vegenaise
8 flour tortillas (to make it gluten free, use corn tortillas!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat olive oil in a medium sized pot and saute the veggies and garlic until they are soft. Stir in the cumin, taco seasoning and oregano and then add the drained tomatoes, black beans, water and quinoa. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to medium low and cover. Let simmer for 20 minutes or until quinoa is tender. Season with salt and pepper. Prepare sauce: Mix the cans of tomato sauce and the reserved tomato juice in a bowl. Season with 1/2 tsp cumin and 1/2 tsp. chipotle chili powder. Add a pinch of cayenne and stir until combined. Prepare drizzle by combining vegenaise and about a TB of the reserved tomato sauce. Cut tortillas into 4 wedges each. Spread a little bit of the red sauce in the bottom of a baking dish. Layer some tortillas wedges on bottom of dish. Spread with half the filling. Top with more tortillas. Pour half of sauce and sprinkle half of the Daiya cheese. Layer with more tortillas, spread rest of filling, top with more tortillas. Pour remaining sauce on top and the drizzle with vegenaise mixture. Top with other half of Daiya cheese. Bake covered for 30 minutes.

Amazingly Good Gluten Free, Flourless Chocolate Cake!

Aaaaaah, this is so good! This is my second time making this and I can already see myself making it again and again. It's rich, decadent and will cure your chocolate craving. I am enjoying a slice right now alongside a hot cup of tea. I'm in heaven. It's very dense but in a good way. It's almost silky in texture and very moist, not so much cake-like, more brownie like...a very moist and velvety double chocolate brownie.. Ugh, can't explain it well! Just try it, you'll see what I mean. The glaze is a simple powdered sugar, cocoa powder, margarine, vanilla and soy milk concoction that I boiled on the stove for a few minutes.

Eat this. RECIPE HERE!

Spicy Stir Fry.

Nothing too fancy today, just a quick stir fry with tofu, cabbage, green beans, zucchini, onions and orange peppers. I flavored it with garlic, ginger, sweet chili sauce, thai red curry paste, soy sauce and a veggie stock cube.

Japanese, Thai and Korean deliciousness.

These lovely morsels of curried perfection are called "curry croquettes" which are made up of mashed vegetables, breaded and fried. We got these at the japanese market called Mitsuwa in their prepared foods section. They were so good, I could have eaten more!

My version of thai style noodles vegan style flavored with ginger and mushroom soy sauce. Add to it, lots of tofu and vegetables, fried garlic, chili oil and sriracha sauce. So comforting and so good.

A spicy and sour kimchi I got at Whole Foods that happened to be vegan. I can't remember the brand right now. It was great.

Eggplant Caponata, Cashew Cheeze Spread and Banana Bread

I like to make snacks that I can eat all throughout the weekend. I made the caponata yesterday after coming home from work because I wanted all the flavors to meld overnight. I used a recipe from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen cookbook. The recipe asks you to roast the eggplant which I was too lazy to do, so I just threw everything in a pot and cooked it slowly. Came out yummy. I plan to use the leftovers (there are lots) to serve over pasta. The cashew cheeze is just raw cashews soaked overnight that I blended with garlic, tahini, oil and salt in my new Blendtec.

Banana bread with chocolate chips and dried cherries. This is to have with hot cups of tea.

Everything is better with chocolate!

Spicy Noodles with Tofu and Veggies

I really loves these noodles which I based off of a "Szechuan Noodles" recipe I found on about.com. My recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:
canola or peanut oil to cook tofu and vegetables
chopped garlic, ginger and onion (for vegetables)
1 box of fettucine
1 14oz container of firm tofu drained and cubed
1 red bell pepper and 1 small head of broccoli, chopped
Sauce ingredients:
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/3 cup soy sauce (I used low sodium)
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 TB Sriracha hot sauce
2 TB ketchup
1 TB Sweet Chili Sauce (Mae Ploy brand), optional
1 tsp. sugar
1 TB vinegar
1 tsp. cornstarch
cilantro and sesame seeds for garnish

Method:
Boil water and cook pasta. In the meantime while pasta is cooking: Stir fry cubes of tofu in oil over high heat in a NON-STICK pan along with 1-2 TB of soy sauce, garlic powder and black pepper for seasoning. When tofu is browned remove from pan and set aside. In same pan, stir fry the vegetables along with chopped onion, garlic and ginger until tender. Remove from pan and set aside. To make sauce: Stir together in the same pan the vegetable broth, soy sauce, sesame oil, Sriracha, ketchup, sweet chili sauce, sugar, vinegar and cornstarch. Turn on heat and let it simmer while stirring. It will get bubbly and thick. Turn off heat. When pasta is done, drain it and return to the pot. Add the veggies, tofu and sauce and toss together. Stir in chopped cilantro and sesame seeds.

Saturday Comfort Cookin'.

Nice to get back in the kitchen on the weekend instead of going out to eat all the time. Today I wanted comfort food so I made my standby. It's my quinoa-black bean tortilla casserole, adapted from a stuffed pepper recipe from Vegetarian Times magazine. It has layers of flour tortillas, quinoa, black beans, veggies and spicy tomato sauce with a creamy vegan mayonnaise topping. I love this thing and could probably eat the whole pan by myself. CLICK HERE FOR RECIPE. You can be creative and add any kinds of veggies you want. Today I used red bell pepper, corn and zucchini.

Along with the casserole, I made sweet corn cake which is a recipe I got from The Tropical Vegan Kitchen cookbook.

All together now. After a few shots of Tapatio, I was ready to dig in.

I also made banana bread because of some overripe bananas I had lingering in my kitchen. Who doesn't like banana bread?

I took a break from guitar practice to have a cup o' tea and a slice. So good!