I have been ultra busy, but as always, I have been cooking and eating.  This post will be a round up of some of the dishes I have made over the past week or so.  We will be talking a lot about leftovers today.

I hate to waste food.  The only dish in this post to use ingredients that were specifically purchased for a recipe is the green bean casserole I made.  The rest are odds and bits that were hanging around in the fridge, too small to make a meal, but perfect to add to a few other morsels to make a great meal.  When ever I pull like that off, I am very proud.

I made a delicious green bean casserole using this recipe.

My only adjustments were to use two tablespoons of flour, white mushrooms, and a 16 ounce bag of frozen french cut green beans.  I added more flour, because the recipe wasn’t thickening the way I wanted it to.  I would highly recommend making this casserole.  I have never liked the one that uses  canned soup, but this dish is amazing.

As you read in a previous post, I made so-so enchiladas. I had a little leftover enchilada sauce that I hated to waste, so the Sorta Enchilada Pie was born.  Here it is before it went into the oven:

This pie used a lot of leftovers, yippee! I layered three tortillas in the bottom of a greased Pyrex pie plate, making sure the whole bottom of the pie plate. Next, I layered some shredded cheddar cheese on the tortillas, then a layer of my homemade salsa (see recipe below).  Next, I added a layer of chopped, about to be inedible  red and orange peppers and I diced up a tiny hunk of red onion to add to this layer.  I covered the veggie layer with some more salsa.  Next, I mixed the remainder of the enchilada sauce with about 1/2 cup of black beans and spread the beans on top of the salsa and topped the whole pie with more shredded cheese and a sprinkle of chili powder.  I covered the pie with foil and popped it in the oven on 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes, just long enough to warm the pie and melt the cheese.

The consensus on the pie? It needed more cheese.   Also,  I think some black olives and jalapeno peppers would have improved the flavor.

In case you were wondering about my homemade salsa, here is the recipe:

Mandy’s  Fresh Salsa

1 or 2 cups fresh chopped tomatoes ( I prefer to make this in the summer when the tomatoes are fresh, but any tomatoes will do)

1/2 cup chopped red onions

A squirt of lime juice

Salt, pepper, garlic powder, and chili powder to taste

1 seeded and diced jalapeno pepper  (optional, but remember to wear gloves when cooking with fresh jalapenos)

Mix together and refrigerate for a least one hour to let the flavors meld.

My last post mentioned the Celebration Roast.  Since I hate to waste food, I decided to doctor up what was left of the roast along with some other odds and ends in the fridge.  I sauteed garlic and red onions together in olive oil and added the mushrooms, cooking until tender.  I had mushrooms on hand because I bought too many for the green bean casserole.  I sliced the roast into strips and added the remainder of my bottle of a bottle of Pickapeppa sauce (about 1 and 1/2 tablespoons) and a few dashes of liquid smoke.  As you can see here, I let it cook down for a little while in my cast iron frying pan.

The good thing was, all of the other ingredients killed the overwhelming sage flavor. I used a sesame seed bun leftover from earlier in the week and spread on it some nacho cheese jalapeno dip.  I spooned some of the roast and mushroom mixture on the bun and dug it.

It was tasty, but because I don’t think I will ever buy the Celebration Roast again, I would use seitan to make this in the future.

And there you have it, a week or so of meals in review.  I love the challenge of using leftovers, don’t you?  For my next trick, er, recipe, I plan on using the leftover black beans and some sweet red peppers to make some sort of spread/dip.

I hope you all have a great day and keep cooking!

I bought a Celebration Field Roast for Easter dinner, but I didn’t eat much of it because I was too stuffed with all of the delicious side dishes my mom made. Since I am the lone vegetarian, no one shared it with me, but everyone did sample it and said it was tasty. I liked the roast and I smothered it with my mom’s homemade milk gravy. I came home with almost a full Field Roast and I was unsure what to do with it. When in doubt, make sandwiches!

I just love sandwiches. I think they are a wonderful thing to eat. This sandwich was pretty darn good and I might make it for tomorrow’s lunch as well.

What we have here is a sesame seed bun, two slices of grain roast, a slice of Cabot American cheese, a sweet red pepper, some spinach, and special sauce. I think red onions would have been great on this, but I was too lazy to cut one. As for the special sauce, I mixed Vegenaise, horseradish, Chinese mustard, and a squirt or two of Ken’s Lite Accents Honey Mustard dressing. This sauce was extremely tangy and tasty and I think I will use it again on meat analogs again.

All and all the sandwich was a success. I would recommend anyone trying the Celebration Field Roast. Locals, I picked mine up at the North County Co-Op.

Have a great day everyone and keep cooking!

We had some not-so-fresh flour tortillas in the fridge, so I decided to make enchiladas.  I love to make enchiladas because they are easy  to throw together and they are tasty.    I grabbed some Old El Paso enchilada sauce, a can of black olives, some chopped red onions, cheddar cheese, a spice mixture I mixed up, and made enchiladas.

I have made many batches of enchiladas, but the best ones I have ever made were the exploding enchiladas. It is worth your time to click on the link and read the story/see the photo. Those particular enchiladas were the most delicious enchiladas I have ever made.

This particular batch was mediocre. The tortillas were sorta stale, so they didn’t roll as easily as fresh ones would. I ran out of cheese, so they didn’t have the normal, delicious layer of cheese on top. Also, my spice mixture is simply hot paprika, white pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and garlic powder. I sprinkle the mixture inside the enchiladas and on the top of the whole thing. It gives the dish a kick.

Here is a photo of me and tonight’s enchiladas. This is the outfit I wore to work and would have been the outfit I would have worn tonight to the Robyn Hitchcock concert, had it not been canceled for this evening. Also featured, my cat Isabella and my frog potholders.

I hope you are all doing well. Have a great day and keep cooking!

As a rule, I hate veggie burgers. I like the ones I make from scratch with beans…maybe I should post that recipe soon…but I just want convenience sometimes, just like everyone else.

Too many times I have been to a BBQ, subjected to eat crappy veggie burgers (wrapped in foil and then grilled on the grill) just to fit in and experience the whole BBQ ambiance. What can I say? I am a sucker for tradition, but a fuss ass when it comes to food. See previous entry about my hatred of mayo. However, today my life has changed and that is because of Amy’s Kitchen Bistro Burgers. These are delicious, vegan, and gluten free, for those of you who suffer from celiac. This is by far, the most delicious veggie burger I have ever put in my mouth, hands down. I found these in Target, when I went to buy ginger beer. I will come back to the ginger beer later. Anyway, I didn’t want to do a large grocery shopping, but I wanted something for tonight, so I picked these up and I am glad I did. Because I didn’t want to grocery shop, I am also out of bread. So how am I to eat my burger you say? Well, I decided to whip up some avocado spread to spread on top of the burger.

I had two tiny avocados that were just ripe to be used. I am out of tomatoes, so no guacamole for me. What’s a pugnacious veg to do? When in doubt, Sambal Oelek can usually fix anything. So, I mashed up the two avocados, cut up one green onion, shook in some lemon juice, and stirred in about a healthy tablespoon of Sambal Oelek. This was absolutely delicious. Sorry for no photos, kids, it was too tasty and I devoured it. But, if you can find Sambal Oelek at your local Asian market or if you have some on hand, I highly suggest you try this. You won’t be disappointed.

Okay, so back to the ginger beer. For the longest time, I didn’t really like ginger beer, as I am not a big fan of soda. But, I had a Grey Mule at a local place and really enjoyed it. I have some vodka that I would like to use up, so I decided that I will mix up some Moscow Mules. I bought the Archer Farms ginger beer, which I have never had. I hope it is good. I do enjoy Archer Farms Blood Orange Italian soda occasionally, so it should be tasty. But, since I was researching ginger beer online this morning (am I the only one who researches food?) I found a recipe to make my own. I would love to try to make it myself. Have you made it? Any tips?

Well gang, I need to do some house cleaning, so I will say good night for now. Until we meet again, have a great day and keep cooking!