Shabbat Cooking: Tamale Shepherd's Pie

I wasn't really planning on cooking this Shabbat. I was out for dinner and then home for lunch. The thought of simple rice and beans was perfect but then I had a friend over last minute and thought, I can't serve her rice and beans! The same friend has had all my incarnations of tofu so even though I had some in the fridge for the coming week's recipe, I decided to go with something else. Since the next couple of months I'll be cooking through Isa Does It, I looked there for a good recipe. I found this recipe in the Sunday Suppers chapter and thought it would be perfect. I have never made a shepherd's pie (even though I've really wanted to) because I always thought that it was wayyyy too much work. This recipe isn't quick, but isn't intimidating either and I took advantage of these long Fridays to put it together. 

Now, this recipe wasn't that cheap. I didn't have most of the things around, as I'm avoiding tomatoes and potatoes. I also needed some chips, some mushrooms and cilantro and wine. I think it turned out to about 20 dollars. But I also shopped at an overpriced convenience store. I will say that I was proud of my thriftiness in freezing the leftover wine in half cup portions instead of throwing it away. (I am not a wine drinker, not even a little bit!) I also used the rest of the overcooked black beans that I had frozen ages ago and some frozen corn I have on hand so I can say I shopped the freezer! Even though it was a bit pricey, I have tons of leftovers and will be having it for lunches the rest of the week instead of my usual salad and sweets, so that works out well.

I loved this recipe! I really really loved it! So so good! A layer of mashed potatoes on top and a mixture of mushrooms, corn, tomatoes and black beans with a Mexican flavor profile... Yum. A while back, when I was in the beginning of my plant based journey and trying my hand out with new recipes, I tried out a layered enchilada casserole recipe that had a similar profile. It flopped miserably. This pie recipe is everything that wasn't and a whole lot more! It holds together wonderfully when cutting and serving and is nicely filling. Served with a nice size salad and you have a perfect meal! 

Meal Plan Feb 1st-Feb 5th Part 2: Fresh Corn and Scallion Cornbread

This recipe, in my humble opinion, was the star of this week's meal plan. Maybe I just love corn, maybe I just like quick bread type things, I don't really know- but it was just.so.good and it really hit the spot.

I had all of the ingredients on hand for this recipe except for the scallions. I didn't realize how pricey they were and seeing as their flavor wasn't pronounced in the final product, I'd probably leave them out next time around. I used frozen corn as that's what I had, as well as soy milk and coconut oil as my chosen milk and oil. Not exactly McDougall friendly, in terms of the oil, but we all have our weeks.

There really isn't that much more to say about this recipe than that I loved that the corn flavor came through nice and sweet and that it reheats nicely. I'll be making this again and again. And again.

Meal Plan: Jan 25th-Jan 29th- Part 1- Baked Spanish Rice

This week's meal plan included two recipes. I saw someone review this recipe for Baked Spanish Rice and when I saw that it was in the Thug Kitchen cookbook, I decided to make it to accompany the dish I had been meaning to make for a while.- the Beer and Lime Roasted Cauliflower Tacos. I figured I'd leave out the tortillas in the recipe and serve it over a more healthful brown rice.

First things first- my grocery bill for the week was 64 shekels. I bought peppers, tomatoes (finally found some decent ones!) cucumbers, a bag of frozen cauliflower, carrots, avocado, a can of beer (for the roasted cauliflower), a new set of containers, and a bottle of soft drink (for my Shabbaton this weekend). Not bad at all!

Back to the baked rice.

I'm pretty familiar with baking rice- I learned the technique from Alton Brown ages ago, and it's pretty convenient. The Thug Kitchen recipe calls for blending up a sauce in the blender, heating it with some broth on the stove and then pouring it over the rice. You cover the rice, bake and then add some peas and corn and lime juice when it's done. I like to get things done in advance so I decided to make this Saturday night.

I gotta say, this recipe was quite underwhelming. I didn't find it to have much flavor aside for the peas and corn. It made a good base for the cauliflower, but I could have just as well saved myself some dishwashing by just making plain rice. Not terrible, just pretty bland. Adding the lime juice does help, but I got very little tomato flavor here.

You can find the recipe here.

Let me know if you disagreed, or how you changed up this recipe.