Vegan Mofo Day 12 Spicy without heat! - Mexican Baked Mushrooms

Today's mofo prompt is "Spicy without chilies".

Mexican food is often made with chilies and yet for those who don't like heat 

Mexican food also had a lot of flavour.

Here I show you how to enjoy some Mexican flavours without adding any chili..... 

and for those of you who do like heat you can always add some chili in!

This is a meal idea without exact quantities stated. The reason I do this is because I always like to encourage people to get experimental in their kitchen and enjoy the cooking process. It a wonderful way to realise that creative meals don't have to be time consuming or difficult to make. Whenever I make meals like this I make a comment to my husband "It's not that hard to make quick, easy yet enjoyable vegan meals! Why do some restaurants find it so difficult!"


MEXICAN BAKED PORTOBELLO'S

                            You'll need:

                                   Large portobello mushrooms

                                   Cooked black beans

                                   Can or tub of diced tomatoes

                                   Mexican spice mix/taco mix or

                                       - paprika, cumin, coriander & oregano

                                   Avocado

                                   And a batch of my basic cheese sauce

Remove the stems from the mushrooms.
Place them in a microwave proof container with 1cm of water and heat for 2 mins. This helps to soften them and significantly reducing oven cooking time.

In a mixing bowl combine the black beans, tomatoes and spices.
Drain the water from the mushrooms and place them in an oven proof dish.
Fill the mushrooms generously with the black bean/tomato mixture and bake in a preheated 200°C oven for 15-20 minutes until mushrooms have cooked through and the black bean mixture is hot. 

Pour a freshly made batch of cheese sauce over the top of the mushrooms 

and serve with slices of fresh avocado.

I feel like this meal looks a little fancy and if I got served this 

at a restaurant I'd be more than happy! 

What do you reckon!!! Does it look fancy enough to be a restaurant meal?

Question of the day: 

What meals do you make at home that are a little bit fancy?

Refried Bean Dip with Corn Crisps

Brace yourself --> I bring you fabulous news!!!
It is possible to make delicious Corn Chips that haven't been deep fried!

Here's how:

Layer half a can of creamed corn onto a lined dehydrator tray.
(You can use as many cans and trays as you like.)
Dehydrate for 8-10 hours, time will vary depending on your dehydrator. You can tell when it is done as the colour will have changed completely and the corn will be crisp.
Note: You can stir into the corn some paprika or taco flavoured spices if you desire.

 Gently pull the lining away from the corn crisps, being careful not to split them.

Using a large knife, slice into pieces (or you can do it with your hands if you'd rather!).

Serve! 

Yes, it's really that simple!  
The hardest part is waiting for the dehydrator whilst a delicious aroma fills your home!

Now for a perfectly paired dip.


Mix a can of re-fried beans with 1/4 cup diced tomatoes (either canned or freshly chopped). Stir until the re-fried beans are now more spreadable.
Pour bean mix into a serving container.
Chop 1/2 red capsicum into little pieces, sprinkle over the top of the dip along with 1/2 can drained corn kernels and 1 chopped spring onion. You can put a dollop of salsa in the middle if you like for presentation purposes.

 

Would you like an invite to our home for pre-dinner snacks???

Kids Lunchbox Club - Quick Mexican Quinoa Salad

My daughter has decided that she quite loves quinoa! This is thanks to her testing out a Dreena Burton recipe. So this means now she requests it for her lunchbox salad. We don't often eat quinoa, but I had a batch made up this week and with a few leftover bits and pieces from a Mexican-inspired meal we had prepared earlier in the week this delicious salad was created.
Nevermind the kids! I reckon this lunchbox meal would please any adult too!

QUICK MEXICAN QUINOA SALAD

To serve one you'll need:
1 cup cooked quinoa
2 Tablespoons of salsa
1/4 cup black beans
1/4 cup corn kernels
1/4 small capsicum - chopped
1/2 small avocado - diced

Stir a tablespoon of salsa into the quinoa and mix well. 
Add the other ingredients and stir through. Top with the remaining tablespoon of salsa.


 

Submitted to Healthy Vegan Fridays
You can add your recipe on these blogs:
Vegan Dollhouse 
Rock My Vegan Socks

Slow-cooked Mexican Stew

Monday nights are slow-cooker night in our home.
I must admit that for the first few years of owning a slow cooker I used it for nothing other than soup.
I am discovering that there is so much more than just soup that can be done in the slow cooker. I regularly make dried beans and love that on the high function it takes only 2-3 hours to cook them from scratch, even without pre-soaking if I haven't had the chance to do that.

Here's a way I make a complete meal that isn't soup:

SLOW-COOKED MEXICAN STEW

You'll need:
1 cup brown rice
1 can black beans
1 can red kidney beans
1 onion
1 green capsicum
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 can tomatoes
2 cups vegetable stock
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon taco spice mix of choice

Chop all the vegetables and drain the beans.
Add all ingredients to slow cooker. 
If you have the option, saute the onion & garlic first. If not, don't worry because it will still work out and be delicious.
Cook on slow for 6-8 hours.

Serve.

The rice will fluff up to be lovely & thick. It will absorb all the liquid so that this isn't the consistency of a soup.

Meatless Monday - Queso

Welcome to another Meatless Monday.

I must admit I felt a little overwhelmed by the idea of the letter "Q" coming up..... and that feeling intensified when I discovered that I had no idea what Queso was!!! When I found out that it simply is Spanish for "cheese" I didn't feel quite so overwhelmed!

So here I give you a Vegan Mexican version of 'cheese':

Cheesey-Salsa Sauce

1/4 cup salsa

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

2 teaspoons cornflour

1 teaspoon cumin

1 cup plant milk of choice

 
Blend til smooth.
Pour into a jug and put in microwave for 1 minute til warm and thickened.

This is delicious poured over roasted or mashed potatoes, on nacho's, tacos or wraps.



Want to see how I host a Mexican Dinner Party??
Then head over to the Pink Vegan blog to see my guest post.

WIAW - Triple grain breakfast

Welcome to What-I-Ate-Wednesday
It's been a while since I posted for WIAW. Life seems to be somewhat back in a regular routine now so with that comes a WIAW post. 
Wednesdays for me mean a packed lunch to take into work.
Today's Bento box style lunch:

 Green salad with bean salad and rice salad. Not more leftover from Christmas - just made again since then!!!

I have the wonderful blessing of my husband making our Wedensday evening meal.
Today was a taco plate with brown rice, red quinoa, black bean mix, veggie mix, carrot and lettuce:

I had pre-made my breakfast so that my morning routine was somewhat quicker.
And in the Summertime I definitely prefer oats to be cold instead of warm.

TRIPLE GRAIN BREAKFAST

3 Tablespoons quinoa flakes

3 Tablespoons Rye flakes

1/4 cup oats

1/2 mango

1 passionfruit

1/2 cup water

Put all ingredients into a bowl. Cover and keep in the fridge overnight.

Question of the day:
Have you experimented with soaked oats?

Christmas meal and using leftovers

Sorry I didn't post this sooner after Christmas. I have been enjoying spending time with my family whilst we are on a break from work and school! 

I guess I feel like this post isn't really about a traditional 'Christmas meal' as such, but more about using up leftovers - regardless of what they are left-over from! Its about finding different ways to use what you have, instead of just reheating it and eating it.... again!

And also to share a few salad recipes that I love, which are quick & easy to make when large family gatherings require a variety of dishes! 

Let me start by sharing a picture of our Christmas dinner table:

As I saw it all sitting there it truly felt wonderful! Such healthy food! I love being able to host eating occasions and Christmas is no exception to the rule!

A huge range of salads always makes me smile!

I have mentioned before that I'm a huge fan of this couscous salad from PCRM.
It's really delicious and seems to be like equally by omni's and herbies.
 
 





 


A garden salad never goes astray! I love to add fresh basil leaves from our garden and I love the added colour that a red onion gives. 

I really enjoy making a rice salad too. 
I'm a big brown rice fan so I enjoy turning it into a sweet salad.

Here's how:
Simply combine
2 packets microwave brown rice
2 chopped spring onions
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup seed mix (pumpkin & sunflowers seeds and pine nuts) 
2 teaspoons dried cumin
1 teaspoon  dried coriander
juice of one orange

Serve with the zest from the orange.
 

We made veggie kebabs for the BBQ which worked out way better than I was expecting! I enjoyed them even with the tomato!!! The veggies cooked really well and they were very tasty, even without oil or any dressing/marinade.
Corn pieces on the BBQ always work out exceptionally well too.





















There were quite a few kebab sticks leftover.
So I just used a fork to remove the vegetable pieces and warmed them in the microwave. Added them to leftover garden salad along with some dressing I had made to be a 'leftovers lunch'.

 Another PCRM recipe that I regularly make is this three bean salad (I just use whatever canned beans I have on hand, picture shows butter beans and a four bean mix).

The leftovers from the bean salad turned into a pasta meal for our family.

I just boiled some pasta and added the salad along with 1/2 cup tomato paste.

Super simple meal but totally delicious!

I also made my carrot salad recipe, just with the added addition of a grated apple too. This salad is quite sweet which makes it great for getting children used to enjoying some salads.

Leftovers also make wonderful carrot cake simply by combining wholemeal self-raising flour, a flax egg and some soymilk to the salad!!! ;-)

I made 3 kilograms of spiced wedges!
Clearly I over-catered when it provided our family with a whole other meal. Though, I'm grateful for that really! We LOVE potato nachos!
Our toppings were the leftover carrot, peas and corn mix with refried beans and salsa!

Super easy and tasty meal :-)

This brings me to the last salad I'm sharing today.
Mexican salad. One of my favourites lately. 
Lettuce, red kidney beans, tomatoes, capsicum, corn, spring onion and avocado. Topped off with home-made tofu sour cream.

It makes a great fresh burrito filling!

Particularly nice on warm days when a heated filling isn't necessary.

I can't finish this post without mentioning dessert of course!
Chocolate coconut whipped cream with dark chocolate shavings.
Everyone loves this and its so super quick & easy to make.
A few cans of coconut cream left in the fridge overnight. Scoop out the top thickened layer being careful not to add the water below. Whip the cream using beaters. I add Your Inspiration at Home chocolate powder but cocoa powder works too.

I was so very very pleased with how well my trifle worked out.
I made a basic vanilla cake (like this cake minus the cocoa), whole and blended raspberries, made soymilk custard and assembled them in layers. Topped with fresh berries to make a delicious vegan trifle :-)
Everyone agreed it was super yummy!
 
And I don't think you need to know how to use up leftover dessert! You just EAT IT! ;-)

Question of the day:
Do you enjoy eating leftovers? Do you re-purpose them or just reheat and serve how it originally was? 

Mexican Chickpea Filo Pie

All this talk of pie has made me cave in.....

Yep that's right, I'm finally making a recipe with pastry!

Well I did promise the occasional treat right?!?!? ;-)

Mexican Chickpea Filo Pie

You'll need:
1 can chickpeas
1 onion
1 capsicum
1 zucchini
1 cup corn (either fresh, frozen or canned)
1 tsp each paprika, cumin, oregano
1/2 cup salsa
4 sheets filo pastry

Chop the onion, capsicum and zucchini. Combine in a large frying pan with the drained chickpeas and herbs. Dry fry until veggies are mostly cooked through. Stir through the salsa.
Line a pie tin with the sheets of filo.

Pour the veggies mixture into the pastry and gently fold the pastry over the veggies. Brush the top of the pastry with plant-milk of choice. 

 

Bake in a preheated 200C oven for 20 minutes until lightly golden brown on top.

Slice & serve :-)

Mexican Meets Italian

Another recipe that eventuated when my hubby felt like something different than me! 
He wanted pasta, I wanted Mexican.............. so we decided to merge them!

One word.....
       YUM

Oh, and another few words too.....
       TRY IT!

To serve 2 you'll need:
200g spaghetti
1 cup black beans
1 red capsicum, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup corn kernels
1 teaspoon cumin
1/4 cup cashews
1 teaspoon chili
1 teaspoon garlic
1 teaspoon lime juice
2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 avocado, chopped into pieces

Cook spaghetti per packet directions.
In a large frying pan combine the black beans along with the chopped vegetables, corn kernels and cumin. Dry fry til veggies have softened, approx ten minutes.
While the spaghetti and bean mixture is cooking make the sauce.
In a blender combine the cashews, chili, garlic, lime juice, nutritional yeast, and water. Blend until smooth.
When the spaghetti is cooked, drain & return to the pot. Pour the sauce over the spaghetti and stir until all the strands are lightly coated, warm over gentle heat just so the sauce is warmed through.
Serve the spaghetti in a bowl with the bean/veggie mix spooned over, a large spoonful of salsa and some chopped avocado pieces.

What do you think.....?
Can Mexican and Italian be mixed?!?!?!?!?

Submitted for Healthy Vegan Friday. You can add your recipe at these blogs: 

carrie on vegan                    veggie nook                    greenthickies