Mexican Salad

I love salads. Especially ones with lots of flavors and goodies. I have never been one of those people who has enjoyed the "house salads" of iceberg and boring dressing served at restaurants, though I haven't come across too many of those since becoming vegan. Since one of my favorite styles of foods is Mexican, I decided to take the flavors that I love in those foods, and make them into a salad! This salad consists of home made pinto beans cooked with bay leaves and cloves of garlic, cooked frozen corn, cherry tomatoes cut in half, and diced avocado over chopped romaine lettuce. A spicy lime vinegarette is then drizzled over top. The recipe for that is:

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice

1 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons chili powder (I prefer a hot blend)

2 teaspoons cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

Mix the first five ingredients in a bowl or a glass cup measure (as can be seen in the photo below). Once blended, drizzle in the oil and mix until combined. 

Most of the time I end up adding more of the spices depending on how spicy I want the dressing to be on that particular day. I then drizzle it over the salad by the tablespoon full until I have reached the desired dressing amount. Usually two or three tablespoons. I LOVE this dressing. It is so fresh from the limes, and I love how the chili powder and cumin make the salad so much brighter. 

Now for a montage of salad pictures: 

Served with an ice cold Corona with lime, and this is the perfect dinner!

Leftovers: Quesadilla and Fidello

Since my enchilada recipe only used five of the six tortillas I had, I ended up with an extra, as well as some Daiya and veggie mixture. So while my husband had the last enchilada, I made myself a quesadilla. I heated up the leftover veggie mixture...

And then warmed the tortilla. Once the tortilla was nice and soft I added the remaining Daiya. On top of that went the veggie mixture...

And then on top of that just went some salsa I had in the fridge. 

I then folded the tortilla in half and browned on both sides and until the cheese was nice and melty. 

I served that up with some freshly cooked fidello. 

Served with a nice cold Corona, this was the perfect leftover meal. Enjoy!

Mushroom, Bell Pepper, and Pinto Bean Enchiladas with Fidello

     Mexican is one of my favorite types of food to eat. I am mostly of Italian descent, but I love me some mexican! I try to make it at home as much as I can but I tend to eat it out at restaurants more often. As it so happened, I had some homemade enchilada sauce and pinto beans in the freezer, and since I have been trying to use up the contents of my freezer I decided to make some enchiladas. I used to make them more before I went vegan, usually filling them with just cheese and onions or ground beef, but I have only made them a handful of times since becoming vegan, probably because I mostly associate enchiladas with cheese and just haven't had any better ideas with what to fill them with. For this meal, I decided to fill them with lots of veggies and some vegan cheese.

     I started with two yellow onions, three green bell peppers, and about a pound of button mushrooms. I chopped them into a large dice and sautéed them with olive oil until soft and just starting to brown. I then added two jalapeños and lots of minced garlic, and cooked until fragrant.

The steam gets in the way but you get the idea

Then I added about three cups of homemade pinto beans and just warmed them through.

It tasted so good just like this, it was hard not to just grab a bowl and get down. I had to remember what the ultimate goal was, so this is when I started to build the enchiladas. I like to use the Ezekiel 4:9 whole grain tortillas for just about everything I need a tortilla for, so I used the burrito sized ones here. I added a large helping of the veggie and bean mixture and then topped it with some cheddar style Daiya.  

I then rolled them and put them into a glass baking dish that was lined on the bottom with the homemade enchilada sauce I had. I did this five times (since that was all I could fit in the dish) and then topped the entire thing with more sauce and Daiya. I baked it at 350 for about 20 minutes covered in foil, and during the last 5 minutes I removed the foil and turned on the broiler to get the cheese on top nice and crispy. I forgot to take a picture of it before I stuck it in the oven, but here was what it looked like when it was done.

YUMMMMMMMMM

     So while this was baking in the oven I started the fidello. I start with one whole yellow onion, cooked in canola until soft and starting to brown. Then I add lots of chopped garlic and cook that until the garlic just starts to get browned as well. Then I add one package of fidello (I use the La Moderna brand since that is the only kind I can find, and I get it at Fry's for 3 packs for $1) and cook until the noodles start to get browned and crunchy.

Next I add about one cup of tomato sauce plus 2 cups of water plus some salt, which I then let simmer on medium low until the noodles are cooked and the sauce is thick. You might need to add a little more water while its cooking depending on how long it takes the noodles to get soft. Just keep an eye on it. Then serve yourself and enjoy!

After Cooked

Before

The end result, not the most attractive looking meal but quite tasty all the same.