Taquitos

Normally, I'm not one for Mexican food. While I love tomatoes, cheese, avocados, and spice, I'm not a fan of beans and of course I don't eat meat. When going out to Mexican restaurants every meal is either centered around meat, or beans.  I brushed off Mexican food for a while thinking it just wasn't for me. Then I wised up. I may not be able to go out to enjoy Mexican food, but there is nothing stopping me from cooking my own Mexican food and adding in, or leaving out exactly what I want.  I sought out ground beef taquito recipes, swapped it for soy crumbles, and tailored them to my tastes. I think I ended up with a pretty awesome result.



What You Need:



1 box of Smart Ground Soy Crumbles
1 Can of corn
1/2 cup of salsa
12 6-inch tortillas (as you can see I only had 10, and I had some filling left over)
1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons of taco seasoning

What do to:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Heat up some oil over medium heat and cook the soy crumble according to the directions on the box.
Stir in the corn, salsa, and taco seasoning and continue to cook the filling mixture.
Place the tortillas on a plate and cover with a damp paper towel.
Microwave for 45 seconds to make them soft and pliable.
Scoop about a 1/4 cup of the filling onto the tortilla and sprinkle cheese on top.



Carefully roll up the tortillas and place on a greased baking sheet, seem side down.
Continue until all of the tortillas are filled, rolled, and placed on the baking sheet.
Optional: brush the taquitos lightly with olive oil and sprinkle on more cheese.
Bake for 10 minutes, until the edges are slightly browned, serve hot.







I ate mine with a side of Salsa Rice, inspired by The Garden Grazer.





Oh my goodness, I am obsessed with these! The soy crumbles were meaty and the tortillas were so soft and chewy. I loved how the tortillas were perfectly crispy and crunchy on the edges The salsa made these taquitos tomatoes and added that authentic Mexican flavor. The melted cheese added a nice, sharp flavor and the corn was sweet and mild. They were a little lacking in the spicy category, so I added a splash of hot sauce afterwards. Adding salsa to the rice took it to the next level. It went from plain, boring rice, to a great Mexican side dish!

Have you ever made your own vegetarian taquitos? What would you add to yours?

Bye From the Veggie Side!

Sausage on a Bun

Now that I go grocery shopping for myself, I have discovered lots of gems that I never knew existed. There are so many awesome foods tucked away and I want to try them all.  Sadly, they are usually on the pricier side, but that doesn't stop me from indulging once in a while (plus I feel like I deserve it after buying 77 cent pasta).  I am often buying foods in the small soy section of the supermarket, and while I usually just stick with tofu and soy crumbles, they have lots of other foods that I would love to try.  I saw a package of Lightlife Smart Sausages Italian Style, and my mind instantly wandered as I tried to figure out all the ways I wanted to eat them.



I decided to go with sausage on a bun sandwhiches.  I have seen Ben make them before, so I turned to my resident meat-eater to figure out what else to put on the sandwich. I had to ask Ben what people eat with sausages, because I honestly didn't know! He said usually peppers or onions...both of which I'm not a fan of. After thinking a while I decided on sauteed spinach. I thought it was kind of like onions and peppers...right?

I love sauteed spinach, its so easy and fast to whip up, and its a great way to use up the not-so-fresh spinach you might have left over.



All you need is spinach, a little olive oil, a couple cloves of garlic, and some salt & pepper.

Heat up the oil in a pan over medium heat, add in the garlic and spinach. Saute until spinach wilts.



Then I cooked my sausage according to the directions on the package, put it on a bun with the spinach, and topped with mustard.





I ate my sausage on a bun with a side of potato chips, for that All-American cookout effect.





The sausage itself had a nice texture, and a mild, meaty flavor filled with Italian spices.  The flavor of the sausage went really well with the garlicy spinach. The garlic complimented the sausage and the spinach added a great veggie flavor.  Everything was tied together with a nice, toasty, crunchy bun and a bit of mustard for some heat. This meal actually made me happy. It was so good and I loved trying something new!

Have you tried these Lightlife Italian Style Smart Sausages? What is your favorite thing to add to a sausage on a bun?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Meatless Messy Joes

Oh technology. You either love it...or it ruins your life. Not too long ago I have a minor computer hiccup, and the resulted in me losing a few recipes I had saved. It really saddened me for three reasons. First of all, I am sad that I can't recreate to perfection the amazingness that I cooked. Second, I wont be able to give proper credit to the person that initially invented the recipe. And finally, I can't share the recipe with all of you lovely followers.  I will do my best to share with you the parts of the recipe that I remember, and if I find the original copy, I will post it right away so I can give credit where credit is due!



Today's lost recipe is for vegetarian sloppy joes. I felt weird calling them sloppy joes, when they were 100% meat free. I decided that I will dub them Meatless Messy Joes!

What You Need:



1 Package Smart Ground soy crumbles
3/4 tsp Mustard
1/2 cup Ketchup
2 1/2 tsp Brown suagr
3 cloves Garlic
Onion powder
Salt & Pepper to taste

What To Do:

Like I said, I lost the recipe, so I don't remember exactly what I did. But I'm pretty sure I just cooked the soy crumbles according to  the instructions, then mixed in all the rest of the ingredients.
Plop it all on some bread, and you got yourself a Meatless Messy Joe!









I could not get over how good this was! It instantly took me back to eating sloppy (turkey) joes as a kid. The sauce was the perfect mix of tomatoey from the ketchup, and a hint of sweetness and spice from the brown sugar and mustard. I even had Ben try it and he said it tasted almost exactly like a real sloppy joe! As a vegetarian cook, that is one of the best compliments I can get!

Do you like making Meatless Messy Joes too? What is your favorite recipe?

Bye from the Veggie Side!

Taco Day

Hello everyone!  Today I have the perfect meal for vegetarians and meat-eater alike! I personally am not a huge fan of Mexican food.  Most of it is meaty, and whats vegetarian is basically beans, and if they aren't done right, I don't like them. But I love making Mexican food at home! I can add what I like, and leave out what I don't. My favorite at home Mexican meal is Taco day.  I love the crunchy shell, and all the bowls filled with veggies to stuff into them. The best thing about tacos are that they are completely customizable  making it perfect when you have people over that don't all like the same foods. That's why I love having Taco day with my boyfriend, Ben.  He doesn't like most veggies, and the ones he does like, I don't. This way we can sit down for a meal together, and can both be happy with what we are eating.  Ben is a meat eater, but he will eat the soy meats in our tacos, however for bigger parties, you can make real and soy meats and keep everyone happy with any dietary restriction.

Philly Cheesesteak Hamburger Helper with Original Smart Ground

I have often been haunted by Hamburger Helper commercials.  Everything just looked to good, and easy to make when I want to pretend I'm cooking, when really you can't call that cooking.  I would think "oh I can just make the box without adding the hamburger meat." Then I would just have...pasta?  I was determined to make a Hamburger Helper (since, as you know, I like to pretend I am an All-American meat-eater haha).



Ok, Philly Chesesteak..pasta.  I don't really get it. But I did finally decide how I was going to make my Hamburger Helper like the real thing.



Lightlife Smart Ground in the Original flavor. LOVE this stuff! My mom makes me meat loaf, meat sauce, and nachos with it.  Its looks and crumbles just like real ground beef and tastes great!  Lightlife also makes the Smart Ground in other variations, and also other meats like chicken strips.  So far I have only had the Smart Ground, but I am excited to try the other kinds, and of course tell you all about it!



I got all my things needed to make this Hamburger Helper, vegetarian style.  Everything you need, and all the instructions are on the back of the box.  Then it was time to get to work.



First add in your Smart Ground crumbles.  I used 2 packages for one box of Hamburger Helper.  Here is the one BIG difference when cooking with these instead of real meat. The box tells you to cook the meat on the pot for a while, since the meat will be raw.  With the Smart Ground, it is already cooked, so you just need to heat it up on the stove for a couple minutes before you continue to the next steps.  Don't cook it for as long as the Hamburger Helper box says or else it will try out.  You also don't have to cook it as long as the Smart Ground box suggests, because they are assuming you are going to eat it right away.  The crumbles will sit on the stove while the pasta cooks, so it will be completely cooked once everything is done.



Then add the milk. You can try soy milk if you'd like, I haven't done it, but It might be ok.



Then add the pasta and flavor packet.

Mix it all up, and let it simmer based on the instructions.  Every Hamburger Helper is different.  So depending on the one you get you might have to mix in different ingredients, and cooking times might vary.

I love how easy it is to make, and you get a pretty large amount, about 3 meals worth. I thought it tasted really good.  It was nice and cheesy, and you could taste the flavor of the Smart Ground.  I added some dried hot peppers, because It definitely needed something to spice it up!





Have you had Hamburger Helper before? What is your favorite flavor? Are you going to make it vegetarian next time?

Bye from the Veggie Side!