Vegan Grain/Gluten-Free Bean & Veggie Enchiladas

My copious amount of beans led me into a bean dish frenzy!  Everything is beans right now!  I remember loving cheese enchiladas back in the day, but now the idea of a corn tortilla stuffed with cheese makes my stomach kinda turn :/.  To make this unhealthy dish healthy I used my un-fried beans and an assortment of veggies and some cashews!!!  This was so delicious, I'm not sure how I ever survived without these!!!

Vegan Grain/Gluten-Free Bean & Veggie Enchiladas
1 Zucchini, sliced on a mandolini slicer into french fry strips
1 Small Red Onion, sliced on a mandolini slicer into french fry strips
1/4 cup shredded Red Cabbage
2 Scallions, sliced
Un-Fried Beans
10 corn tortillas
1/2 cup Cashew halves, pulverized into a meal
1/4 teaspoon Herb Stop's Himalayan Salt
1/2 tablespoon Nutritional Yeast
1 tablespoon Herb Stop's Southwest Mix
1/2 tablespoon Herb Stop's Minced Garlic
1 packet Vegan/Grain-Free Enchilada Sauce Mix
2 tablespoons Bionaturae Tomato Paste
2 cups Water
1 teaspoon Herb Stop's Southwest Mix
1 Scallion Diced
Grapeseed Oil

Lightly grease a rectangular baking dish with grapeseed oil.  Set oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium pot, add enchilada sauce mix, tomato paste, water and 1 teaspoon southwest mix.  Heat until boiling and reduce to simmer.  Cook until slightly thick, about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and pour into a pie plate.

In a large bowl, add zucchini, onion, cabbage, 2 scallions (diced).  Set aside.  In a seperate bowl, mix cashews, salt, nutritional yeast, 1 tablespoon southwest mix and minced garlic. Combine zucchini mix and cashew mix and stir until well mixed.

Dip one corn tortilla into enchilada sauce to coat both sides.  Add 1/8 cup un-fried beans to the middle.  Top with 1/3 cup zucchini/cashew mix.  Roll each side in to make a rounded enchilada.  Place in pan seam side down.  Continue with the rest of the tortillas and vegetable mixture - this should make 10 enchiladas.  Pour remaining enchilada sauce over the top. Bake for 40 minutes.  To garnish, sprinkle with the remaining scallions.

ENJOY!!!

veggie mix

cashews with nutritional yeast

veggie and cashew mix

beans on a tortilla

veggies and beans on the tortilla

all rolled up in the baking dish

with the extra sauce poured over the top

fresh from the oven

Vegan Grain/Gluten-Free Salad Tacos

With my new Un-Fried Beans, my creative juices were flowing!  To add to that, I went to get my salad from Costco the other day and they didn't have my organic romaine hearts!!?!?!?!?!?!?!  Eeeeeeek! What was I to do?  Luckily they had this bag of 6 organic petite heirloom lettuces.  I get home from my costco adventure and there's all these lettuces that are definitely not romaine.  We have a multicolored leaf (which actually was like romaine), a leafy crazy looking red one and a cup like lettuce.  Now, my mom can attest to this, I am a strictly romaine kinda-gal.  As I'm looking at this lettuce I realize, hey! this is really pretty!  Then my mind went into art mode and I made a funny design on the plate.........then my crazy mind went to tacos but with salad!  It turned out delicious and very yummy!  ENJOY!!!

Vegan Grain/Gluten-Free Salad Tacos
5 leaves of Romaine-like Lettuce
5 leaves of Red Leaf Lettuce-like (I really have no idea what it was called, lol)
Un-Fried Beans (as much as desired), room temperature
1 Avocado, diced
2 Scallions, sliced
6 Grape/Cherry Tomatoes, diced
Lemon juice
1 teaspoon Nutritional Yeast

Lay romaine-like lettuce in a star pattern on a plate.  Decorate in between the leaves with the red lettuce. Scoop beans onto the lettuce down the center.  Layer avocado chunks, then tomatoes then scallions on top.  Squeeze some lemon juice over the top. Sprinkle nutritional yeast over the top and ENJOY!

If you want to further the decoration, cut a lemon in half then into sections - but do not cut all the way through - and place a tomato in the middle.

Pretty lettuce design

with added beans

added avocado

added tomatoes and scallions

so pretty!

Vegan Grain/Gluten-Free Un-fried Beans (refried beans)

So how exactly do you make beans look pretty in a picture?  Apparently I do not know :/.  Well, honestly these are so yummy and I've made a few dishes out them that turned out unbelievably good, so don't let my lumpy pictures fool you!  hehehhehe.....

I started off wanting to make refried beans, but after these were done, I didn't want to add oil and fry them.  Needless to say we have un-fried beans instead of re-fried beans!  YUMMMMMMMM!

This also makes a wonderful dip!

Vegan Grain/Gluten-Free Un-fried Beans (refried beans)
3 cups Pinto Beans, soaked overnight
6 cups Filtered Water
1 bottled Bionaturae Tomato Paste
1 Yellow Bell Pepper, diced
3 Sweet Peppers, diced - I used Yellow, Orange and Red
1 small White Onion, diced
4 cloves Garlic, minced
1/2 tablespoon Herb Stop's Dark Cocoa Sugar
1 1/2 tablespoon Herb Stop's Southwest Spice
1/2 tablespoon Herb Stop's Smoked Paprika
1/2 tablespoon Herb Stop's Smoked Hot Paprika
1/2 teaspoon Herb Stop's Himalayan Salt
1 teaspoon Herb Stop's Smoked Alderwood Salt
2 tablespoons Herb Stop's Mexican Seasoning

Mix all ingredients into a large crock pot.  Cover and cook on low heat for 16-24 hours, until beans are soft.  Using a handheld stick blender, puree beans.  ENJOY!

Vegan Grain/Gluten-Free Avocado Delight

Avocados are so yummy, refreshing, creamy, delicious.....I'm sure there's a thousand adjectives I could use to describe these yummy fruits!  I love to make guacamole, but it's never the same ingredients!  Here is a fun avocado appetizer, or if you're crazy like me and can eat the entire thing (lol) a nice meal when you put them on to toast or a GF and Vegan safe snack like these wonderful Corn Thins made by Real Foods.

Vegan Grain/Gluten-Free Avocado Delight
1 Avocado, diced
1 Scallion, sliced
a handful of Grape/Cherry tomatoes, diced
1 large fresh Garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
1/4 teaspoon Herb Stop's Minced Green Onion
lemon juice

Add avocados and garlic to a bowl and mash well, but leave some chunks.  Add tomatoes, scallions and most of the minced green onion, and mix well. Add desired amount of lemon juice and mix well.  Scoop mixture back into the avocado shell halves and serve in the shell.   Sprinkle minced green onion over the top.  ENJOY!!

you can also serve these on top of the corn thins  decorated with the minced green onion.

Yummy fresh veggies....well technically mostly fruits :)