Mexican spiced tofu & beans

My co-op meal this week was a Mexican spiced baked tofu with blazing pinto beans, tortillas and guacamole. It was a simple meal due to the fact that we were very busy. I was pleased with the tofu and loved the beans. The pinto bean recipe came from a book I am currently cooking from for a review I am writing. Guacamole is always tasty when it comes to Mexican food and we love tortillas around here.

Chik'n Fajitas with fixins

Tonight was one of our favorite summer recipes: Fajitas!

I used chik'n style seitan with onions, peppers, & cherry tomatoes, generously coated with fajita seasoning. Served with all the usual stuff: tortillas, guacamole, and salsa. I also made some refried beans to eat on the side, or on your fajita, whatever floats your boat.

This is one of our summer staples, and I keep meaning to get a griddle for our grill so I can cook it outside. It can really heat up the kitchen during July, but David adores them (and, I admit, I do too,) so we make them at least once a week.

This meal was also one of my more expensive ones (about $30), the priciest ingredients being the frozen organic peppers & avocados. Frozen peppers are actually one of our biggest food costs around here! David uses them in quick stirfries for lunches, I use them in fried rice or in pepper "steak," and they are about $3/bag. Bell peppers are high up on "pesticide residue" lists, so they're one of the few foods that I always buy organic.

White beans with greens

I improvised a recipe based on a simple idea off of VegWeb that was simply lightly boiled greens sauteed with white beans, garlic, shallots, oil, salt and pepper. My garden had a lot of mustard greens and spinach and I wanted to use that before it went to seed.

So, I love that the greens were fresh. I served this with brown rice, though I wonder if it might have gone better with pasta. But white beans just always make me think pasta. I think I could have used even more greens and probably should have harvested some of the chard I had in the garden too.

This was the first meal for which I didn't have to go shopping - I had the greens growing in the garden and I always keep canned white beans and rice on hand. Since I have spent a fair amount on some of my coop meals lately, I wanted to make this one more economical. In that spirit, I tapped my current resources for a side for the bean and rice dish. I wanted to make something bread-y to go with the meal, which is pretty complete with protein, veggies and grain. I had some Hodgson's Bran Muffin mix in the pantry which I have made vegan before and had it turn out well. I would say these turned out "okay". I was out of ener-g egg replacer, so I used flax seed instead and they were pretty chewy. Also, I didn't add enough oj to add to the flavor too much so they're still pretty branny. At least I added plump raisins and they are incredibly healthy. So, there's that. I think the worst offense of all? They simply don't go with the white bean/rice mix. We certainly didn't eat them with dinner, just munched on them as a snack.

Well, not every week's a win I guess.

Southern Style Mustard Greens & Blackeyed Peas

This week for my co-op meal, I served a Southern style mustard green and blackeyed pea dish. When I was cooking this dish, Josh tried a bit and informed me that it was spicy. After eating it last night, I did not find it spicy at all. Flavorful but not spicy. I added tempeh to the recipe. I think I will try seitan in it next time. I was not very fond of the tempeh in this dish. The greens and peas were served over brown rice with a side of sweet cornbread. It was a recipe I created using mustard greens from our garden. Yay for food travelling zero miles! I liked the dish but think that it would have been better a little more spicy. Maybe a jalapeno would have been nice. The cost for the meal was low, around $12.

Simple spring meal

Tonight's meal was pan-fried mushroom & asparagus with herbed polenta wedges. I served a baked garlic tofu on the side (but I added a splash of red wine vinegar.) All of the parts of this meal were very simple, but I liked the look of it! Polenta always looks so elegant.

Next time I'll figure out how to get more garlic flavor in the tofu. I think some of the slices might have been overdone, so sorry for that!

This meal cost about $19.

Enchiladas, jicama/mango salad, chips y salsa

I used vegweb's soyrizo and potato enchilada recipe and I thought it turned out pretty good - not too spicy and with a similar consistency to a shredded beef enchilada. I used organic wheat tortillas, which I thought might be a little heavy, but they turned out okay. The enchilada sauce was freeform made with whatever tomatoes I had on hand plus onions, garlic and spices. I even threw a jar of eggplant tomato sauce in there so there were some extra veggies in the dish.

I served the enchiladas with a jicama/mango salad, which we really liked and found to be a nice, cooling side to a Tex-Mex dinner, and store-bought chips served with homemade salsa made with fresh cilantro from my garden.

Butterbean Curry

This is a recipe I created some time last year. I like butterbeans and wanted to do something unique with them. I decided to make a curry. The recipe is simple and calls for easy ingredients. I added baked tofu to make it a bit more hearty and served it with a green vegetable for a side. Easy and tasty.

Meal cost: under $20