Enchilada Casserole & Date-Raisin Muffins.

My go to enchilada casserole. I normally use quinoa but goddamn, is quinoa getting expensive or what? I used couscous instead today. Came out great! Pretty much just sauteed onions, celery, peppers and garlic with herbs and spices (cumin, oregano, chili powder, cayenne), then added a can of diced tomatoes, 1 can of black beans, chopped zucchini and asparagus. After the veggies were tender, I added cooked couscous (1/2 cup dry) and mixed it all together. Then I layered the mixture with flour tortillas and tomato sauce in a baking dish, then topped with more tomato sauce, Daiya cheese and vegenaise. I used El Pato tomato sauce which is spicy. Then I baked it at 350 F for 45 minutes.

Topped with guacamole and fresh salsa.

Date and Raisin muffins. The raisins are in there somewhere. The dates are in the puree. I used this no sugar, fruit sweeteened muffin recipe. I chickened out and added a little bit of sugar to the batter. I also added a handful of 10 grain cereal, a bit of blackstrap molasses and sultanas. I'm still on the lookout for a vegan sticky bran muffin recipe. I wanted something like that today but didn't have any bran lying around.

Nepali food, Indian food and cake.

Lunch today was this beautiful plate of Nepali food, namely the moong dal (split mung bean soup) in the little bowl and the hot and fiery tomato achaar (chutney) which you can see on the rice. The Indian element of my meal is the alu matar (potatoes and peas) which was the perfect curried accompaniment to the rice and soup. Just can't get enough of this good stuff.


This is a closeup of the roasted tomato hot and spicy achaar. It's basically roasted tomatoes, green chiles, garlic blended into a puree and combined with fresh garlic, ginger, timbur (szechuan pepper), salt, fenugreek and red chili. The recipe is from the book "Taste of Nepal" which I highly recommend!


This is a boiled raisin "depression era" cake that I've made before. This time I used brown sugar and added orange blossom water and cardamom.

Boiled Raisin Cake, Greek Pastitsio, Potato Tacos

I was looking up depression-era recipes and found this awesome boiled raisin cake recipe. During the depression, things like eggs and milk were scarce so homemakers would come up with easy desserts that didn't require any of those things. And in doing so, they made desserts that are inherently vegan, yay!


I loved this cake. It was moist yet still sturdy enough to spread Earth Balance buttery spread all over it. You'll find the recipe here.


Opened up "The Olive and The Caper" cookbook again which is becoming my favorite cookbook. I made the vegetarian pastitsio which is a layered pasta casserole with a layer of tomato sauce, cheese and vegetables in the middle and a saltsa besamel (white sauce) on top. I used Daiya vegan cheese and plain soymilk for the white sauce.


I took this pic right after it came out of the oven. I didn't let it sit for 15 minutes like I was supposed to so when I went to cut out a piece, it collapsed in my plate.


A while later, I served some to my father and this was his plate. Look at that cheesy crust on top that the white sauce made. Yummy!


My husband was going to his buddy's house for football and requested these mini potato tacos. I said "sure" and an hour later, these were ready to go!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies!

My lovely aunt from Vegas is in town and tonight we got together and made these yummy cookies. These are from "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar". Great book with so many varieties of vegan cookies!