Creamy black bean taquitos recipe

This morning I decided to make the tamales and taquitos I had planned for tomorrow for tonight's dinner instead. The taquitos recipe was inspired by one we used to make all the time in our pre-vegan days, and I've adapted it in a few different ways to make it meatless and without dairy. This is a meal we never get tired of. They are SO good! I always make a boatload of them, and if you make extra and freeze them (before baking), you can have a great main dish ready in a matter of minutes. I don't often make enough to freeze because that is a serious boatload around here, but I have done it and they turn out just as good.

Here's my usual version:

1/3 C (3 oz) vegan cream cheese (I like Follow Your Heart best, but I used Toffuti today)

1/4 C green salsa (I use Herdez or homemade)

1T fresh lime juice

1/2 t cumin

1 t chili powder

1/2 t onion powder

1/4 t granulated garlic, or garlic powder

2 T sliced green onions (I just realized I forgot to put these in tonight, and I had them all chopped and ready to go! Argh!)

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 package chicken-style seitan, torn into small shreds (or Yves meatless "hamburger" crumbles work well. I've also used diced potatoes in place of any "meat")

1 C grated pepperjack cheese (we use Daiya)

1 can diced green chilies (I used our own roasted chilies - yum!)

1 package small corn tortillas

olive oil spray

Heat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with cooking spray.

Heat cream cheese in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds so it’s soft and easy to stir. Add green salsa, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder and granulated garlic. Stir to combine and then add the green onions. Add seitan or meatless crumbles and cheese and combine well.

Wet a clean dish towel and place it across a plate. Put a stack of 10-12 tortillas on the towel, and fold the sides up over the tortillas so they are completely covered. Heat in microwave for about 2 minutes to steam the tortillas. Leave the other tortillas covered while filling each one.

Place 2-3 T of mixture on the lower third of a tortilla, keeping it about 1/2 inch from the edges. Then roll it up as tight as you can.

Place seam side down on the baking sheet. Lay all of the taquitos on the baking sheet and make sure they are not touching each other. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray or an oil mister and bake 15-20 minutes and the ends start to get golden brown.

Serve with vegan sour cream, guacamole and salsa.

Two more documents

Today our certified marriage certificate and Curtis' birth certificate arrived. Since I already mailed off our Colorado reference letter for certification, that means I only have the documents for our state to get certified. And I would love to do just that, if only I had our homestudy. :o( It's been more than two weeks, and I'm starting to get very anxious. A new friend (who is using the same social worker for an adoption of a little boy with Down syndrome in Russia) told me that she knows our social worker is working on our homestudy this week because the social worker mentioned it at their homestudy. At least I know there is some movement! I just want to be able to send in our I800A, and without the homestudy, I can't do it, nor can I send all of our local documents off for certification.

Today I continued adding more homeschool materials to our fundraiser blog. I can't believe how long this is taking me! I work on it for a few hours every day, and I've probably got 30 or so listings to go. I just hope it pays off, because it's literally taken 2 weeks of my life to get this far.

Requested Recipes

Banana breakfast cookies

Here are a few recipes that were requested from this week's menu. :o)

Banana Breakfast Cookies (flour-less, gluten-free, no added sugar - pretty guiltless!)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

2 cups old-fashioned (large flake) oats

1 cup dried cranberries (or dried fruit of choice - I used blueberries)

1 cup chopped, toasted walnuts

1-1/2 cups mashed very ripe banana (about 3 medium)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1-1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1. In a large bowl, combine the oats, cranberries, and walnuts

2. In a medium bowl, combine the banana, oil, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda until well-blended.

3. Add banana mixture to oat mixture, stirring to combine. Let stand 15 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray cookie sheets with cooking spray or line with parchment paper. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets.

4. Bake 14 to 15 minutes or until lightly golden-brown. Let cool on sheets 1 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days (or freeze in airtight bags/containers)

Kale chips

1 bunch kale (the standard curly kind works best)

spray olive oil

seasoning salt

Preheat oven to 350. Wash and thoroughly dry kale. Tear into bite-size pieces and spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Spray lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle with seasoning salt. (Salt and garlic pepper is also really good). Bake kale until the edges just begin to brown, about 20-30 minutes, but don't burn or they will taste bitter. Allow to cool. Once they're cool, you can give them another light spritz with olive oil and then sprinkle on some nutritional yeast (or if you're not vegan, some parmesan cheese). They're really good just on their own, though. I ate an entire head of kale today thanks to kale chips!

Impossible "cheeseburger" pie

This one is a little embarrassing to post, because a) it's just junky comfort food, and b) it's a recipe that I got off the back of a Bisquick box and veganized. ;o) The impetus for planning it this week is that I got some new chorizo-style seitan that I wanted to try in place of the soy crumbles, and I knew I'd be really busy with our adoption fundraiser this week and would need easy meals.

1 lb soy meat crumbles (like Yves or Boca brands)

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese substitute (we use Daiya)

1/2 cup Bisquick baking mix (yes, it's vegan!)

1 1/3 cup nondairy milk (I use unsweetened almond or soy)

And although the recipe doesn't call for it, you can add a little taco or chili seasoning. It's good either way.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9" pie plate with cooking spray.

2. In a large skillet, cook soy crumbles and onion over medium heat until heated through and onions are translucent. Stir in salt, spread "meat" mixture in pie plate, and sprinkle with cheese.

3. In a small bowl, mix remaining ingredients with a whisk until well blended. Pour in pie plate.

4. Bake 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Weekly menu

Today's Bountiful Baskets were certainly bountiful! I got:

• 3 bags carrots
• 3 bunches kale (I'm making kale chips with it this time)
• 3 bunches romaine lettuce
• 3 bunches green onions
• 6 English cucumbers (I will be making refrigerator pickles this week since I still have 6 left from last week, too!)
• 1 head bok choy (my mom gave me hers from her organic basket)
• 40 sweet peppers
• 27 Anaheim peppers (I'll be roasting, dicing and freezing these again - so yummy!)
• 5 bunches asparagus (I gave the 6th to my mom)
• 3 big bunches bananas
• 12 mangoes
• 15 oranges
• 30 apples
• 3 pineapple

I also have 3 cantaloupe and 3 pineapple left from last week, plus several mangoes, pears, bananas, apples and oranges.

Here's the menu for the coming week. It's most easy stuff since we have a lot going on in the evenings.

One certified document down...

Today I got my Texas birth certificate back from the Secretary of State. It feels great to have one document done!

Reference letters

Today I got original copies of all three of our reference letters in the mail. What a cool coincidence! One came from our friends in Colorado, so I sent it off to the Colorado Secretary of State for certification right before I picked up Beck from school. The others are from our home state, so I'm waiting until I have the homestudy in my hot little hands and will then send all of our documents to our SoS office.

There's nothing else I can do right now, which I hate, and our social worker hasn't yet begun on our homestudy. She told us at our last homestudy visit to give her two weeks before she could get going on it, so hopefully early next week she'll be able to get started. I'm SO anxious to get this end of things done and begin our official wait!

Thank you!

I just noticed that our Reece's Rainbow account has grown! We are never told who contributes to the fund, so please accept our blogged thanks for your generosity!