Monday, October 13, 2014

vegebles

Our girlie is a vegetarian. Not a militant one, and she has made exceptions over the years (beef jerky....). She's 17 (OMG) and prepping for her college career. She has a subscription to Vegetarian Times and we look over the recipes and sometimes make them.

Last night, she had a friend over. I made a riff on the Roasted Cauliflower Chilequiles -- made as a large casserole with pepper jack cheese. Her friend stayed to dinner--I have not fed teenage boys often, but they inhaled it. I liked it, too!

Mister Smartypants is not able to deal with cow cheese. I had pulled a recipe for Beef/Bean tacos from the recent Costco mag, and adapted it thusly for the three of us tonight: (no photos, sorry, we inhaled them)

1 shallot
2 tbsp olive oil
2 smallish yellow tomatoes (a bit larger than golf balls)
1 can Trader Joe's Fat-Free refried beans
1 can Trader Joe's black beans
1 roasted Hatch chile (peeled, seeded, chopped--a small can would work if you don't have any frozen from the summer bounty at Whole Foods)
1 pkg 12 Trader Joe's taco shells
Pepper jack/cheddar (shredded)
Goat cheese crumbles

Garnishes; salsas, lettuce, radishes, guacamole, whatever floats your boat.

Preheat oven to 350. Warm the oil and add the shallot and tomato. Add the refried and black beans and stir to mix. Add the green chile and let warm, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes.

Place the taco shells in a 13 x 9 x 2 pan. I put them in a long line and then set 3 off to the side in order to keep the cheeses separate.
Spoon the bean mixture into the shells and top with cheese (whichever). Pop into oven for 10 minutes.

Prep desired garnish--we used leftover salad chopped fine, radishes (ditto) and guacamole (Costco's individual cups of Good Foods Tableside guac is superb). Grab from oven, and give everyone a bowl (in order to catch the good stuff that falls out). Allow folks to dress their tacos, then put on a Late Night with Craig Ferguson show that you've taped and dig in.

Voila! A quick, reasonably healthy veggie meal that we all enjoyed!