Vegetarian Mexican Lasagna

Serving of Mexican Lasagna, with a dollop of sour cream

Personal Photo 

I’ve recently seen several “Mexican Lasagnas” posted around the web and decided to try one.  Some used flour tortillas, and some corn.  Although I generally prefer flour, I thought they might get doughy, and make it difficult to cut the finished lasagna into wedges.  I bought white corn tortillas.  I layered my lasagna with simple ingredients- refried beans, Spanish rice, black beans, corn, and cheese. 

I had read a Martha Stewart recipe for enchiladas where you fry the tortillas in oil, then coat them with enchilada sauce, so I decided to do that.  I fried each tortilla in coconut oil, then dipped them in sauce for each layer. 

I spread refried beans for my first layer, topped with cheddar cheese and chopped black olives. 

My second layer consisted of black beans and corn.  I spread a little shredded queso fresco on top of the beans and corn (not pictured). 

Layer three was some Spanish rice I had made, which was loaded with sautéed red and green bell peppers and sweet onion.  I topped this with a little enchilada sauce. 

Layer 4 was cheddar cheese and queso fresco. 

Layer 5 was another layer of refried beans, cheddar cheese, and chopped black olives. 

The final layer was another layer of black beans, corn, and quseo fresco. 

I topped the lasagna with a seventh corn tortilla, fried in coconut oil, then dipped on both sides in enchilada sauce. 

I covered my lasagna in foil, careful make the foil domed so as not to sit directly on the lasagna.  

I baked for about 40 minutes at 350°.  I removed it from the oven, topped it with shredded cheddar, then returned it to the oven a few minutes to melt the cheese. 

I let the lasagna cool for about 5 minutes, then cut it into quarters.  I topped it with sour cream.  Guacamole, salsa or pico de gallo would be great too.  I have a lot of friends who would throw on some slices of jalapeño on top.  I live in Texas.  I have friends that throw jalapeños on everything! 

 Personal Photos. 

Spanish Rice

Spanish Rice in cornbread bowl.  Personal Photo. 

I used to love Spanish Rice Rice-A-Roni.  The old version called for a can of stewed tomatoes, and had the rice and pasta.  You would cook the pasta-rice mix briefly in oil in the skillet to brown the pasta.  It always reminds me of Turkish rice pilaf.  Lately I’ve only been able to find the whole grain Spanish Rice, which does not have pasta, and you don’t brown it.  I doctor it up similar to what I’ve always done, and it’s still a favorite.  I add extra white rice.  I like the mixture of the two rices. 

1 box whole grain Spanish Rice-a-Roni

1 cup medium grain rice

1 can diced tomatoes

3 ½ cups water

1 red bell pepper

1 green bell pepper

1 medium sized onion

¼ cup coconut oil

Clean bell peppers and remove stems and seeds.  Chop peppers and onion.  Sauté onion and bell pepper in coconut oil or olive oil. 

Add rice from Rice-A-Roni box, additional rice, tomatoes, water, and flavor packet from the box. 

Cover and simmer about 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  

If you can find the original Spanish Rice-A-Roni with vermicelli pasta and rice, you are essentially going to cook per package directions.  Clean and chop onion and bell peppers and sauté.  Add rice and vermicelli and brown pasta.  Then continue per package directions. 

Personal Photos

My Absolute Favorite Homemade Vegetable Soup

This vegetable soup is basically the same soup my mom made each summer with fresh vegetables, then stored in the freezer to eat throughout the winter. Mom always made it with tomatoes, cabbage, corn, potatoes, okra, and butter beans. I add English peas, spinach, broccoli, green beans, and pureed carrots.

It recently occurred to me that the vegetable soup that I have always loved, is vegetarian and vegan friendly! Although at times I have seasoned it with bacon drippings, or added ground beef, most often I make it meatless, and season it with olive oil or coconut oil. It was very exciting to me that my ‘old faithful’ soup fits in with my new-found interest in vegetarian and vegan cooking.

Although I have discovered many new foods that are vegetarian and vegan friendly that I enjoy, it is likely there will never be a meatless meal I enjoy more than my long-time friend, homemade vegetable soup. So here’s my recipe. To try it is to love it!

  

Bowl of my homemade Vegetable Soup

INGREDIENTS

2 large cans tomato juice, about 1 qt each

1 qt vegetable broth

1 bag raw shredded cabbage, or about ½ head shredded

1 box (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach

1 box (10 oz) frozen chopped broccoli

1 can carrots, pureed with juice

1 large can (38 oz) cut green beans, or 1 bag of frozen

1 bag frozen cut okra

2 bags frozen Fordhook lima beans

2 cans Green Giant Niblets corn, or 2-3 cups frozen corn

2 cans Green Giant Llessur English peas, or 2-3 cups frozen peas

6 potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes, or if you are going to freeze some of the soup, 3 potatoes cubed

Seasoning is very subjective. This is an approximation of what I use:

2 Tbsp oil oil

1 Tbsp Lawry’s seasoned salt

1 Tbsp Lawry’s garlic powder with parsley flakes

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 Tbsp cumin

1 tsp cardamom

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp black pepper

Sometimes I use Italian spices. Skip the cumin, cardamom and coriander. Add 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp rosemary, and 6 bay leaves.

PREPARATION DIRECTIONS

1. Empty the tomato juice into a 15 to 20 quart stock pot. Add chicken broth.

2. Add cabbage, carrot puree, and spices. Stir to combine. Cover stock pot. Heat to a low boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes.

3. Add frozen chopped spinach and broccoli, and green beans. It will take a little time to return to slow boil. Once simmering again, cook for 30 minutes. As vegetables thaw, stir occasionally.

4. Taste the broth to see if you need to add more seasoning.

5. Add okra and vegetable oil to the soup and continue cooking at a low boil for 30 more minutes.

6. Cook lima beans in separate pot until they are tender. Salt the beans as needed. I put a peeled whole onion in my limas. When the beans are tender, remove the onion, but do not drain. Transfer cooked lima beans and juice to the soup mixture.

7. Again taste the soup broth. Add additional salt or spices if needed.

8. Boil the potatoes in water until tender. I use the same pot as I cooked the lima beans in.

9. Just before potatoes are ready, add corn and English peas, with juice from both, to the soup mixture.

10. I usually freeze some of the soup, and separate the soup into two portions at this time. I put potatoes in the portion I am going to eat in the next few days. Frozen and thawed potatoes change texture, and I don’t personally like the texture. When I thaw soup later, I add cooked potatoes.

11. Pour potatoes with the cooking water into soup mixture. Again test for seasonings.

12. Continue cooking, covered, at a low simmer until all ingredients are hot and flavors have blended.

Great Memories

My dad always eats saltine crackers with his soup. All I need for my soup is a spoon! When I was growing up, my mom would make vegetable soup in the summertime, with garden-fresh vegetables. She’d make it in this huge stockpot, and package it in quart and half gallon containers for the freezer. I never ate breakfast when I was young, except “vegetable soup season”, when I ate soup for breakfast.

I love this vegetable soup so much! When I make it, I usually freeze some, but I keep out enough to eat everyday for lunch for a week. It is definitely a family favorite. I hope that my vegan friendly vegetable soup soon becomes one of your family’s favorites.

Benefits of Vegetarian Meals

I have read several articles in which medical experts have sighted the health benefits of adopting a 75% vegetarian diet. There are many reasons for this. For those with high cholesterol and triglycerides, some would argue there may be dramatic decreases in these crucial lab values from a diet sparse in animal protein.

Other benefits to a diet of limited animal proteins may include decreased exposure to hormones and antibiotics given to livestock. Benefits to the environment and the economy from money saved in not processing and transporting meat are cited by some. Many believe scores more humans would be fed by eating grains, rather than feeding that same grain to cows.

Reasons to be “Almost Vegetarian”

There are many reasons to be “almost vegetarian”. 

For lifelong devoted vegetarians, being a vegetarian is often about not killing animals.  Some religions, like Hinduism, mandate vegetarianism, because they consider killing something for food to be a selfish act. 

Personally I’m not crazy about killing animals for food.  If I had to kill them myself, I’m sure I would be a die-hard vegetarian.  For me, it has been hard to completely give up meat, having been raised on meals consisting of meat, starch and vegetable.  If any component is missing, I often feel unsatisfied, like I didn’t really have a meal.  Yet in the last couple years, I have found increasingly more motivation to move in a vegetarian direction. 

I discovered a book, The Body Ecology Diet by Donna Gates, that has really impressed me.  This book describes dietary practices that help restore balance to the body’s internal environment.  Among other things, Donna recommends meals consisting of 20% meat and 80% vegetables, or 20% starch and 80% vegetables.  She specifically discourages combining animal protein and starches in the same meal.  Because the digestive processes are so different, they conflict with each other.  I became increasingly convinced that indeed when I eat meat and starch in the same meal, I have more reflux symptoms.  Since it is particularly difficult for me to give up starch, I figured if I ate more vegetarian meals, preparing vegetarian versions of favorite foods, I would have less reflux. 

Meat is difficult to digest.  According to Donna Gates, it takes about five hours for meat to clear the stomach.  I have thought for a while now that my body does not digest animal protein very well.  I was sick in February, and decided that my system was compromised due to being ill, so I would stay away from meat for a week or two, so as to not put additional strain on my system.  After about a week and a half, I noticed that I had not had any right heel pain in a week. 

Prior to this, I had been having right heel pain for months.  I was convinced that it was biomechanical, from how I sat on my couch when using my laptop.  One of the visiting specialists at my Naturopath’s office had said to me, “Right heel?  In Chinese Medicine, that’s your colon.”  Wow!  What a coincidence.  I have since noticed the return of varying degrees of right heel pain when I occasionally eat a little chicken, fish, or shrimp. 

Many doctors and nutritionists advocate vegetarian meals as being beneficial for people who need to decrease saturated fat in their diet due to heart disease or high cholesterol.  According to the Environmental Working Group, who supports the MeatlessMonday initiative, skipping meat not only lowers the risk of serious health problems, but cuts carbon emissions.  Here is a statement from the EWG: 

“If we Americans skipped meat and cheese just one day a week for a year, we’d cut carbon emissions as much as taking 7.6 million cars off the road would! Cutting back on meat not only helps the environment, it also lowers your risk of serious health problems such as obesity, heart disease, stroke and some types of cancers.”

You can sign a pledge to give up meat one day a week through the EWG Meatless Monday initiative.