Veggie Nachos

Being a food blogger, one thing that I sure don't do is post recipes ahead of a specific holiday/ festival. I wish I was more planned in that aspect. Coming from apparel retail background, I've seen companies start working on a season at least 9 months in advance, ie., designers start working on Summer designs (that will be in the store some time in April) some time in September of the previous year.
In the same way, there are quite a few bloggers who start posting recipes for summer before the end of spring. While they are thinking ahead, I am usually posting recipes I made at the end of winter (!!!!!!), that is how organized and planned I am.
Well today's dish was meant for Super Bowl Sunday and of course it is a week late. I saw Rachael Ray make this on her show and the use of veggies on nachos sounded tasty and I wanted to make it for my nacho-loving son. I actually served it for lunch (!!!) along with cilantro-lime rice.

These are infact a healthier version of traditional cheese laden nachos. Most of the cheese is replaced with sauteed veggies. My son liked them quite a lot and I'm sure I'll be making these often in the future.

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Vegetarian Tacos with Pinto Beans & Cheese

Blogging Marathon# 28: Week 1/ Day 3
Theme: Kid's Delight - 5 Ingredient Fix
Dish: Vegetarian Tacos with Pinto Beans & Cheese

Today's dish for Kid's Delight - 5 ingredient fix is my son's latest favorite. My 5 year old is slowly getting better at trying ingredients and dishes these days (knock on wood). I was surprised when he wanted me to order 'tacos' at Chipotle and surprised me even more when he liked them a LOT. He especially loved the corn salsa they put on his tacos and now he says that corn is his favorite veggie (not sure how long that will last). Anyway, right now I'm a happy camper because at least he's willing to try something new instead of just saying 'no' for everything.

I wanted to make tacos for him at home and what better day than today, 'Cinco de Mayo' (5th of May) to post them here for Valli's Kid's Delight event being hosted by me this month. 

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Vegan Burger made with Refried Beans

Vegan MOFO Day 2: I planned to cook today's vegan lunch in 30 minutes and post it under '30 minute meals', but little did I know that my 3 week old had her own plans. I was hardly in the kitchen for 10 minutes, she started to cry and wanted to be fed and so my 30 minute meal ended up being more than an hour meal. Even though I wasn't able to make the meal under 30, but I'm sure it can done if there are no distractions.

One of my favorite things to do while on maternity leave is to watch tons of TV. Feeding time is the best time to catch up on Law & Order: SVU marathons and loads of cooking shows. One of the cooking shows I've started watching is Bal Arneson's Spice Goddess on Cooking Channel. I'm not too thrilled with her Americanized Indian accent and her over using of spices, but this Veggie Burger did catch my attention when I watched it. She used canned refried beans as the base for the burger and I thought that was a pretty genius idea.

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Chickpea & Pinto Bean Chili

Its still a little chilly in our part of the world and this chili is right for those nights where you just want something to warm you up.

Ingredients:

Chickpeas – 1 cup, cooked
Pinto beans – 1 cup, cooked

Onion – 1 medium, chopped

Celery – 1 stalk, chopped

Green Pepper – 1 medium, chopped

Garlic – 2 cloves, minced

Crushed tomatoes – 1 14 oz. can (I used crushed tomatoes with basil)

Bay leaf - 1

Vegetarian bouillon cube – 1 (optional)(I used 1tbsp vegetarian chicken base)

Chili powder – 1 tbsp

Cumin powder – 1tbsp

Salt & Pepper – to taste

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp oil in a sauce pan; add onions and garlic and sauté until translucent.
• Add celery and green peppers; cook until veggies are tender, about 10 minutes.
• Add the beans, crushed tomatoes, bay leaf, chili powder, cumin powder, bouillon cube (if using), salt and pepper; simmer for about 15-20 minutes on medium-low flame. Adjust seasoning and serve warm.

Mexican Millet with Spicy Pinto beans

Mexican millet is a dish that’s been our staple for sometime now. Recipe is from Veganomicon. I made it in the pressure cooker this time and it was much quicker and easier.

Ingredients:
Millet – 1 ½ cups
Onion – 1 medium, chopped
Jalapeno – 1 medium, chopped fine
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
Tomato paste – 2 tbsp
Tomato – 1 medium, chopped
Salt, Pepper, Lemon juice – to taste

Method:
* Pressure cook millet with 1 ¾ cups water for 2 whistles. Keep aside.
* Add 2 tsp oil and minced garlic to a large pan, heat on medium low until the garlic starts to sizzle.
* Add the chopped onion, jalapeno and sauté till the edges start to brown.
* Mix in tomato paste and chopped tomato and sauté until the tomatoes are cooked, but not mushy.
* Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the cooked millet, mix well and cook for another 3-5minutes for the flavors to mingle. Check seasoning and serve along side any Latin flavored dish. I served it with spicy pinto beans, store bought salsa and guacamole.

Chimichanga with Pinto Beans

Chimichanga is a deep fried burrito usually stuffed with rice, beans, vegetables and cheese. Wiki says “According to a legend, Monica Flin, who started the restaurant El Charro in 1922, accidentally dropped a burrito into the deep fat fryer. She immediately began to utter a Spanish curse-word, but quickly edited herself to say chimichanga, the Spanish equivalent of thingamajig”.

Instead of deep frying my chimis, I baked them and I have to say that I didn’t miss the fat or the calories in the baked version.

Ingredients:
Dried pinto beans – 1 cup (or 1 can)
Salsa – ½ cup (home made or store bought)
Lime juice – 1tbsp
Cheddar cheese – 1 cup (I used reduced fat cheddar and monterey jack blend)
Salt and pepper – to taste
Flour tortillas – 5

Method:

• Cook the beans (pressure cooker makes life easy here, but canned beans are far better). Mash the beans and let them cool.
  
• Preheat oven to 400°F.
  
• Combine beans, salsa, cheese, lime juice, salt and pepper in a bowl. Spread the bean mixture on one half of a tortilla, tuck the tortilla over the mixture; fold the sides; roll the tortilla to make a wrap. (Use a toothpick to tuck the loose end if needed.)
  

• Arrange them on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray (cover the sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean up).
  
• Bake for 10-15 minutes per side or until the chimis are golden brown on all sides.
  

Serve warm with guacamole, salsa and sour cream.

Spanish rice with Pinto Beans

I just love all kinds of beans and I try to keep my pantry full with both canned and dried beans (ya.. I agree I go a little over board and buy more stuff than I need. It’s always better to have them when you don’t need them, but not have them when you need them doesn’t feel right).

I had of bag of pinto beans (bought a while back), that I finally decided to cook. Dried beans need planning, time and energy to cook(all of these are missing in me on a weekday) , but I decided to finish this bag and swore not to buy anymore dried in the near future.

I soaked about 2 cups of beans and used one cup each in 2 recipes; Spanish rice and Chimichangas.

Ingredients:
Dried pinto beans – 1 cup (or 1 can)
Brown rice – 1 cup
Bay leaves – 2
Onion – 1 large, chopped fine
Green peppers – 2, medium (you can use any color peppers)
Jalapeños – 2 , chopped
Garlic cloves – 3, minced
Tomatoes – 2 medium
Tomato paste – 1 tsp
Lemon juice – 1tbsp
Cumin powder – 1tsp
Chili powder – 1tsp
Salt and pepper – to taste

Method:

• Sort through the beans, soak overnight. Rinse and cook along with brown rice in a pressure cooker with bay leaves. (Beans cook faster in pressure cooker. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, then cook rice and beans separately. Pinto beans take almost 1 – 1½ hours to cook.)
• Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large pan; sauté minced garlic and onions till onions turn transparent and pink, about 6-8 minutes.
• Add peppers, jalapeños; cover and cook till veggies are tender.
• Add tomato puree and chopped tomatoes, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper; cover and cook for 5 minutes.(If using canned pinto beans, add rinsed and drained beans to the veggie mixture at this stage, let them heat through, then rice to this mixture.)
• Add the cooked rice and beans to this mixture. Squeeze lemon juice; mix well. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Garnish with green onions and serve hot with guacamole, cheese (cheddar, Monterey jack or pepper jack cheeses would taste awesome) and sour cream.