Quesadillas and black bean enchiladas with mango salsa

Mmmm... Dang tasty. The quesadillas are just some store bought black bean and white corn tomato salsa with ranchero and soy cheese, garnished with cilantro, and baked in the oven til the ranchero melted.
Black beans:
This recipe courtesy of Taste of Home magazine

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chicken broth
• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained, divided
• 1 1/2 cups picante sauce, divided
• 12 (6 inch) flour tortillas
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 3 cups shredded lettuce
• 6 tablespoons fat free sour cream

1. In a nonstick skillet, cook and stir onion and green pepper in broth for 2-3 minutes or until tender. Mash one can of black beans. Add to the skillet with 3/4 cup of picante sauce and remaining beans; heat through.
2. Spoon 1/4 cup mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up and place, seam side down, in a 13-inch x 9-inch x 2-inch baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Combine tomatoes and remaining picante sauce; spoon over enchiladas.
3. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with cheeses. Bake 5 minutes longer. To serve, place 1/2 cup lettuce on each plate and top with two enchiladas. Garnish each serving with 1 tablespoon sour cream.

My modifications: I used dried black beans (soaked then simmered), a red pepper too, and used ranchero cheese.

Mango salsa, my recipe

1 mango, chopped
1 serrano pepper, finely diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1/2 cucumber, chopped
1/4 red pepper, diced
1/4 C cilantro, chopped

Combine and enjoy.

The enchiladas were good but a bit dry. Mixing the mango salsa in with each bite made it delicious!

My drink was ice water.

WW pts on core: I couldn't find ranchero cheese listed, but it's similar to ricotta (except it melts), so I calculated 1 tsp of that to be 0 pts. The tortillas are half a point each, and I had three, so 1.5 pts. Not bad for an amazing dinner.

Corn Chowder

It's kind of cool and cloudy today, so I thought soup would be a nice lunch. (My boyfriend is enjoying the leftover chili today). I found this recipe searching the web, called quinoa corn chowder, on fatfreevegan.com. I'm out of quinoa (gotta add that to the grocery list!), so I just made corn chowder.

2 cups vegetable broth
1 large potato, cubed
2 Tbsp. carrot, diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1 1/2 cups corn
1 cup plain soymilk
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup parsley, chopped

Simmer potato, carrot and onion until tender (about 15 minutes). Add corn. Bring back to boil and simmer another 5 minutes. Add soymilk. Bring just to boil. Season to taste. Garnish with parsley.

Now, I like my corn chowder to be more of a puree than a broth and veggie soup, so I scooped up about 2 cups worth of the soup and stuck it in the blender on low, then added the rough puree back into the pot. The soup was then nice and thick! I also added a fair amount of fresh ground pepper, and garnished with grated carrot as well as the parsley.

Upon tasting, I thought it was a bit bland, so i added a lot more salt and pepper into my bowl. If I made this again, I'd sautee the onion and celery, add some garlic, then deglaze with the veggie broth and add the potatoes and carrots. I might add some red pepper too.

I also had another one of those corn muffins, with a bit of earth balance vegan margarine, and some chocolate soy milk.

WW points on core: 2.5 for the soymilk and .5 for the earth balance. 3 pts total.

edit: Note to self: check nutritional info on packages- my chocolate soymilk, from soy slender, is sweetened with splenda, so it's only 1 pt for 8 oz, not 2.5 pts! :-)

Penne with Roasted Vegetables

After eating, my comment was: Holy Monkey, that was good!
The recipe, courtesy of lowfatlifestyle.com is as follows, with my own modifications in parentheses.

• 2 medium red bell peppers cut in 1/2" chunks (1 large pepper)
• 1 small eggplant, cut in 1/2" chunks
• 1 yellow crookneck squash, cut in 1/2" chunks ( 2 small zucchini)
• 1 cup peeled and diced butternut squash (omitted)
• 1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3/4 pound penne pasta
• 2 small tomatoes, cored and diced (I used one at first, but after eating it, went back and added the second)
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
• 4 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced (3 cloves, I like garlic!)
• 1/3 cup reduced fat Parmesan cheese (They only had full-fat at Henry's, and I refuse to use the green-can stuff)

Preheat oven to 450°F. Spray roasting pan with cooking oil spray.

Combine peppers, eggplant, yellow squash and butternut squash in roaster. Spray lightly with cooking oil spray and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast vegetables (about 20 to 25 minutes) until tender and they began to brown. Stir occasionally to keep from burning on bottom.

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but al dente. Drain, reserving 1/3 cup liquid.

Toss vegetables, pasta, tomatoes and basin in large bowl. Add garlic, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. If too dry, add up to 1/3 cup reserved pasta liquid. Correct salt and pepper seasoning. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

I really enjoyed this. I will definitely be making this one again. Usually I make pasta with a sauce, but this way, you don't really need one. My beverage was 2 buck Chuck Merlot. A wonderful meal, and lots of leftovers for lunches!

WW pts on core: 2 pts for the wine, 1 pt for the cheese.

Chili and cornbread, reprise

I "borrowed" batteries from my roommate's tv remote, so i could take a picture of my lunch. The chili was even better today, spicier! I put a bit of earthbalance vegan margarine on the heated corn muffin, which took care of the dryness. My drink was chocolate soy milk.

Chili and cornbread

no picture tonight, my camera batteries are dead. :-(

Almost vegan, core and no points. MMMMMmmmm. I found a recipe on the WW message boards for cornbread:

1 cup yellow or white cornmeal
3/4 cup ff milk
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup sweetner

bake at 425 for 20 mins

-- earthsister, WW

I chose to bake it in muffin cups, so took the cooking time down to about 12 mins, and also added some whole corn kernels for texture, as well as using plain soymilk instead of cowmilk. The recipe turned out quite tasty, but a little bit dry. I would up the applesauce next time.

The chili was my own recipe:
1 can black beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can chili beans
1 roasted green chili, diced
2 cups veggie broth (or to desired broth/veggies ratio)
cumin (I like this spice a lot, I used probably 1.5 TBSP)
onion powder to taste
garlic powder to taste
black pepper to taste

I let it cook for about an hour on the stove on low. I took out about a cup worth of the chili and blended it up in the food processor for a thicker, smoother texture, just to give it more body- I dislike really broth-y chili. I garnished it with some veggie shreds and fresh cilantro, and had a corn muffin alongside. Yumm!!

My beverage was Tazo Passion Iced tea, sweetened with Splenda.

WW pts on core: 0!

Soup and Salad

I made my sandwich on Trader Joe's fat-free Multigrain bread. I spread both sides with fat-free mayo and on one slice, two pieces of fat-free american cheese. On top of the cheese went 2 pieces of Fakin' Bacon, peeled sliced cucumbers and those Vlasic sandwich stackers pickle slices. Bread goes on top, and sliced in half diagonally, and the rest of the cuke slices as garnish. The soup was just Safeway select Enlighten brand black bean soup (comes in a cup, add hot water), but it's quite good and very healthy. (170 cals, 1 g fat, 14 g fiber, 10 g protein!) I put some cheddar veggie shreds on top, and a tsp of fat-free sour cream. My drink was about 1/4 C Odwalla Tangerine Juice, most of a can of lemon-lime diet soda, and the juice of a very small lime. Yum! I was afraid the sandwich would be a little bland, as the fakin' bacon tends to be, but the pickles and the mayo made up for it. It would have been really good with some sliced tomato, but I didn't get any at the market, whoops. The soup was also good, but I only ate half of it, and am currently enjoying the rest of my beverage.

WW pts on core: 1 pt for the bread, 1.5 for the bacon, .5 for the fruit juice. Total: 3 pts for a wonderful, satisfying meal.