I Can't Follow Recipes: Vegan, Not-vegan Butternut Squash Enchiladas

For some random reason, I decided to abandon meat this week.  Well, not entirely, I did have two pieces of general Tso's chicken that Matt gave because I was really craving protein.  Or meat.  But that's just me trying to  listen to my body and what it wants.

However, this recipe I found on the internet when looking for things to do with squash and pumpkins.  And oh man, y'all are in for a treat.  Why can't I follow recipes?  I did not feel like buying canned tomatoes pumpkin if I had most of a butternut squash lying around.  Since it wasn't enough for the recipe, I also added a sweet potato.

The colors go, it's okay.

The rest of the filling, I kept the same. Wait, that's a lie.  I have a pecan allergy, so I added almonds because I think those are similar in texture.  I also don't have spinach in the house right now, so I skipped those.

Almonds are the best

Sixteen tortillas went into this meal.  Six were Trader Jose's and ten were La Banderita.  The La Banderita tortillas help up a lot better after filling and wrapping, so I might exclusively buy those from now on.  Layering was creative because those 16 did not neatly fit in a row.

GUESS WHICH ONES ARE LA BANDERITA

Since I also could not come up with a pounds of salsa verde, I mixed it with some hot goya salsa to make the 16-ounces of salsa.  It tasted so good though, highly recommended.  Before popping these into the oven, I sprinkled some non-vegan shredded cheddar.  Hence the non-vegan part of the meal, but honestly, those could have been omitted all together.

Look at my food, my food is amazing.

Put a dollop of sour cream.

And now for the outfit.  I always associate vegans with edgy-dressed girls who may or may not like other girls, I tried to emulate that look with some cargo pants and combat boots.  I thought this look was awesome.  Except for the people who asked about my cleavage.  Screw you guys.

Shirt (American Eagle), red shirt (Abercrombie), pants (uniqlo), and boots (doc marten's)

On Sunday, I might not get around to blogging because I'll be out of town (Ithaca-town), but regardless, the entry will be about navigating cuisines that are inherently not gluten-free (I'll be at a Ukrainian restaurant for brunch and those meals are typically sandwich and flour-heavy).

Keep it yummy,
Jo

The Melting Pot

So I'll be working on my four-part (yeah, decided it'd be 4 parts) series on Chinese food in China which will be posted every Sunday as I work on just uploading the pictures.  Why did I do this?  So I can make entries that happening in real time too!

Today, I decided to dress up a little americana.  Bandanas and denim are, what I like to think of, as cowboy staples and if the bandana is red, the tank top is white, and the shirt is blue, it makes the American flag.

Duh.

Yay for awkward mirror pics.  So what goes with an americana outfit in terms of food?  Of course something that represents the amurrican spirit!  The first thing that came to my mind, being an immigrant myself, was the idea of the melting pot.  And what better way to blend flavors together than to do a stir fry.  The recipe from Martha Stewart calls for more Asian flavors, like Chinese cabbage and ginger.  But we used beets leaves and string beans instead.  And the pork was not ground, but pre-marinated in chunks.  The rice noodles remained the same, but I changed the sauce to a soy, lime juice, ginger powder, and sriracha sauce mixture.

Look at all these fresh ingredients, guys

I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture of the finished product.  But the self-made sauce definitely added a bit of a punch.  The noodles stir fried perfectly (something I was worried about) and they are amazing because they grab on to flavor so well.

So that was dinner last night.  I will post again in the next few days about some other stylishly delicious idea.  Have suggestions?  Feel free to comment or email.

Keep it yummy,
Jo