Cheat With Meat Day

There are two days a week I allow meat for myself.  Today was one of them and only for one meal.  For lunch I made a mock casadilla with hummus, tomato slices and baby spinach.  It was real good.  You don't miss cheese when you slather on hummus.  Yum!  I found tortilla shells in the refrigerated isle at Costco that has just the necessary ingredients and nothing more and they are really good.

For dinner I decided to make chicken, black bean enchiladas.  I would have taken a picture if I had thought about it cause it looked and tasted great.  I pre-made the enchilada sauce from here and used vegetable stock in place of water.  Then used this recipe for the enchilada stuffing but cut out the tofu and replaced it with shredded chicken.  I also added kale leaves as I was putting each enchilada together.  I didn't have any cilantro but it still worked out just fine plus I added 1 cup of thawed corn and 2 cups black beans to the mixture.

So you might be asking me why one sauce recipe over the other, well I do my best to find recipes that cut out oil and I didn't add oil to the enchilada mix.  Onions make their own moisture when sautéing so nothing scorched or stuck anyway.

I was able to get 9 enchiladas from these recipes.

Udon Miso Soup

Leaning heavily towards vegan since I've decided to get my body healthy, I've added some new recipes to our menu.  I watched video after video on this one to make sure I get as authentic as possible and I'm loving this soup.  It's a Japanese version of chicken noodle soup.  The US has chicken noodle soup, Japan has miso soup.  It is extremely comforting and from what I understand packed with nutrients.  I highly recommend buying the ingredients from an Asian market.  I originally purchased my ingredients from Whole Foods and believe me you will save a boat load of mullah going to an Asian market.  So far this is the only recipe I eat tofu with as this soup introduced me to this soybean.  I'm still a little cautious as there is so much controversy over it.  Processed is processed, right?  

Here is what you will need for Dashi base (soup stock):

(2) four inch square pieces of Kombu (dried seaweed)

2 handfuls Bonito flakes (not interested in processed bonito flavoring). These are fish flakes from the bonito fish.

6 cups water.

This video will show you how to make stock:

How to make miso soup

This webpage is great as well.  How to make Dashi

Once you have your stock you will need:

White miso paste (the lighter the paste, the sweeter and milder) I like Kabuto

Veggies (I use carrots, julienned)

Udon noodles (I found already cooked, refrigerated organic udon noodles at Costco)

Mushrooms, sliced, stems removed

Baby spinach

Green onions

Soft tofu

Add carrots to stock and mildly boil to just crisp.  Turn to low and add udon noodles, mushrooms, tofu, and baby spinach, and yes, in that order.  Take a ladle of broth and put it in a bowl and sift miso paste in broth till well blended and not lumpy, return to stock.  Add green onions.  Heat through and enjoy.

Serves 4

Here is another good video on making miso soup.  You will find if you go to YouTube and type in miso soup there are a plethora of videos for you to learn from.  I would suggest staying away from using bonito flavoring myself.