Baked Black Bean & Tofu Tacos

Ingredients:
15oz can black beans
1 block extra firm tofu
taco seasoning (recipe for homemade seasoning below)
medium salsa
romaine lettuce
tortillas



Taco Seasoning:
1T Chilli Powder
½T Cumin
½t Paprika
½t Garlic Powder
½t Onion Powder
½t Oregano
½t Red Pepper Flakes
½t Natural Iodized Sea Salt
½t Fresh Ground Pepper (I just eyeballed it with a pepper grinder)

Preheat oven to 400° F. Drain, press, and crumble tofu and put in 8x8" baking dish.  Drain and rinse can black beans and pour over tofu.  Sprinkle taco seasoning of choice over beans and tofu to taste (about ¼c or all of the mixture above).  Bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 15.  You can warm up the tortillas in the oven for the last 5 minutes on a baking sheet.

Add black bean & tofu mixture to tortilla with salsa and lettuce and eat!

Crock Pot Sweet Black Bean Chili

Crock Pot Sweet Black Bean Chili

Ingredients:
2c black beans (soaked overnight.  3/4c dry)
½ Red Onion, chopped
½ Jalapeno, seeded and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1¼ c Organic Vegetable Broth
1c water
1 bay leaf
½T Dark Chili Powder
½t Cayenne Pepper
½t Cinnamon
¼t Cumin
½T Raw Sugar

Directions:
Saute onion, jalepeno, and garlic in ½ T olive oil for 3-5min on medium-low.

Add black beans, vegetable broth, water, onion, jalapeno, garlic, and spices to the crock pot. 

Cook in your crock pot for 8 hours on low. (I cooked 6 hrs with with the last hour on high to speed it up.  Seemed to work out OK.)

Makes 2 servings.  Double or Quadruple for larger batch. 


Forgot to take a photo and just ate it right up!  I ate mine over some brown rice pasta.   I'd say it turned out pretty well for just winging it.  Next time I'm going to try to cook the beans right in the pot without presoaking per advice from The Vegan's Husband. 

Mexican Rice

Today is another "left over mash-up"! 

Throughout the week I have accumulated left over: Black beans, diced tomatoes, and enchilada sauce. I thought: What is a quick and easy meal I can make and combine them?

I decided to cook up some brown rice and toss it all together and voila! 

Mexican Rice

Ingredients
2c cooked Brown Rice
1c Black Beans, drained and rinsed
1c Diced Tomatoes, drained
1c Enchilada Sauce
1Tbsp Chili Lime Seasoning or Taco Seasoning (or more to taste)

Not bad for leftovers!  Lately too many things have been going bad in my fridge because I don't know what to do with them, and my goal is to have bad food no more; so expect many other "experiments" in the kitchen coming soon!

Black Bean Burgers v2

I came across an episode of The Vegan Zombie the other day for some Spicy Black Bean Burgers.  Having bought a 108oz can of black beans from Sam's Club decided I needed to use them. 

Not having all the ingredients The Vegan Zombie called for, I decided to "wing it" using his recipe as a base.

Ingredients:
¼-½c + 2tbsp oil (I used peanut)
1 large potato
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1½c Black Beans
1tsp thyme
1tsp rosemary
1tsp creole seasoning
1tsp fresh ground pepper
½ sage
½ salt

Directions:
Cube the potato.  Add to pan with spices and 2Tbsp oil and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.

Next, add garlic and mix, cooking for another 10 minutes, tossing every few minutes. 

Add black beans and cook until soft.  Approx another 5 minutes and mash with a potato masher.

Remove from heat and place in a bowl until cool.  Once cooled, form into patties. 

Dredge in a little bit of flour.  Add oil to pan until the bottom is completely covered.  Add patties and
cook for 5-7 minutes on each side until it appears crisp.

Black Bean Burger v2

 
Mmm! 

BBQ Sloppy Joes

BBQ Sloppy Joe on Easy Vegan Bread

Chef Assistant Paul and I found this amazing BBQ sauce and I decided to try BBQ Sloppy Joes.

15oz can Black Beans, drained and rinsed
¼c Quick Oats
¼c BBQ Sauce of choice

1 Green Pepper, chopped

½ Onion, chopped

Chop up the onion and pepper and saute on medium in a small amount of water until softened.  While those are cooking, put the black beans in a bowl and mash them.  Add the black beans, oats, and bbq sauce to the pepper and onion mixture and heat until warm.  Serve on bun or bread of choice.  

Home Made "Chipotle"

Some time ago I came across a website called Chipotle Fan that lists how to make different Chipotle style meals.  My roommate, Cory, has been wanting to try it for some time, so we finally did.

My burrito bowl consisted of rice, black beans, guacamole, and chipotle style chik'n.

Ingredients:
Chipotle's Basmati Rice
Black Beans (warmed up in sauce)
Chipotle Chik'n (minus ancho chilis)
Chipotle Guacamole

I opted to scoop my burrito bowl with chips.

Verdict:  Pretty close to the real thing and quite tasty!  I'll definitely make it again.

Black Bean Sloppy Joes

Can I say again that I love The McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook? Go pick up a copy and try some recipes for yourself! Super fast, tasty, and healthy meals!

I subbed the honey for Madhava Light Agave Nectar and I served on Arnold Select whole wheat bunes, which appear to be vegan (tell me if you know otherwise).

Another new recipe to add to my "love" list. Hubby loved it too!

Day 10: Confetti Beans & Good News

Good News: Our oven is FINALLY fixed! Our awesome neighbor gave us a part and fixed it. What an awesome guy! He's definitely getting a gift card or an awesome home cooked vegan meal very soon!

Tonight was Confetti Beans again from the McDougall Cookbook (p228). I love this guys book for the simple fact that it's vegan (minus the occasional honey he ads, but I sub it for Agave Nectar) and the ingredients are cheap and easy to find.

We put the beans over pasta and it worked rather well. I did a slight variation.

Ingredients I used:
1 can Black Beans, drained & rinsed
1 can Kidney Beans, drained & rinsed
1 can Garbanzo Beans, drained & rinsed

1/2 Onion
1 Green Pepper
1 Red Pepper
3 Cloves Garlic

1 15oz can Italian Stewed Tomatoes
2 Tablespoons Chilli Powder

Cook the beans in a pan until soft. While beans are cooking sautee onion, peppers, and garlic until soft.

Combine beans & sautee mixture with tomatoes & chilli powder. Cook for another 10 minutes covered on low.

Makes quite a bit! Recipe only called for 3 cups of beans, but I wanted a variety and since the cans were already opened, I used them. Just more leftovers and less I have to cook.

With so many leftovers, I may have to hold off on cooking tomorrow, but I have a guest coming Wednesday through next Tuesday and I plan on cooking her wonderful vegan meals every night we are home (I even snuck in a recipe for dessert!).

Day 6: Pancakes & Getting creative with Toaster Ovens

Back to making interesting foods again!

Breakfast: This morning I made some very tasty Vegan Pancakes! I used the recipe below:

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/breakfastrecipe1/r/veganpancakes.htm

The pancakes cooked very well, but I put it on a little lower of a temperature for a little longer so it didn't brown as much.

After watching Cory eat his pancakes with peanut butter, I had an idea: Adding Peanut Butter & Co's Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter and making a pancake sandwich! It reminded me of a place I loved in North Carolina called Stack 'em High. My new favorite breakfast!


Lunch: A bit of leftover Tofu Scramble

Dinner: For dinner it was time to get creative. I had a recipe for 'cheesy' enchiladas, but realized I used the last of the nutritional yeast on the tofu scramble. So instead I mixed a few different enchilada recipes I had.

I used this recipe to make refried black beans http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=20765.0

For the enchiladas I used:
1/3 cup tomato & green chilies
2 cups instant mashed potatoes, cooked
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
Refried black beans from previous recipe
1 10oz can enchilada sauce
4 tortillas

Seeing as my oven still does not work, I had to use the toasted oven. I used a 6x6in (I think that's what it is) pan and covered the bottom lightly with enchilada sauce. Mix the mashed potatoes, corn, and tomato & green chilies together. Spoon on an even amount of the potato mixture and the refried beans onto a tortilla and wrapped it up, placing it in the pan. Repeat 3 more times to fill the pan and pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the burritos (I could have used another can of enchilada sauce, but apparently I only bought one instead of 2). Place the pan in the oven (or toaster oven in this case) and bake at 350° for 30 minutes.

For a toaster oven meal, it turned out pretty well and still one leftover for lunch tomorrow. Hoping to hear about the oven soon, but the toaster oven works well in a pinch.

Day 3: Black Bean Burgers

Another lazy morning/afternoon with quick and easy and leftovers.

Breakfast: Great Value Rice Chex and Silk Original Almond Milk

Lunch: Leftover Mac & Cheez... mmm! I was craving it so bad I went to the store JUST to get elbow noodles to use the leftover 'cheez'. One of my new favs!

Dinner: For dinner I attempted to make Black Bean Burgers from scratch. I used this recipe:

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/01/hash-browns-and-black-bean-burgers.html

However in my hurried cooking for a hungry hubby, I used a whole green pepper instead of half and forgot to add the rice. For missing and too many ingredients, it didn't turn out too terrible. In it's current state, not one of my favorites, but we'll have to see how it goes when it is cooked correctly!