VeganMoFo Day 1 Mexican Layered Casserole

This recipe is form the McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook, and although it's a family favorite I haven't made it in at least a year because I was really trying to lose some weight and started to eat more simply.

Be sure to read the hints and recipe notes to explain how this was made friendlier and healthier than the recipe software's nutritional info says it is.

Because I'm a lazy cook, when I make this I usually just open a jar of McD-safe low sodium pasta sauce instead of going the home made enchilada route. Many times I also just use about a cup of frozen red/yellow/green pepper strips instead of a fresh green pepper.

I might also make cornbread to go with this, too. The recipe for that follows the casserole. I once wrote and asked what size canned creamed corn she uses and it was the 8 ounce one.

* Exported from MasterCook *

Mexican Layered Casserole

Recipe By :Mary McDougall
Serving Size : 8 Preparation Time :0:30
Categories : Beans Casseroles
Main Dish Vegan

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1/2 cup water
1 medium onion -- chopped
1 medium green bell pepper -- chopped
1 clove garlic -- minced
15 ounces canned kidney beans -- drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
4 ounces canned chili peppers -- chopped
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
4 cups enchilada sauce
12 corn tortillas -- softened
4 green onions -- finely chopped

1. Sauté the onion, pepper and garlic in water in a large saucepan until softened, about 5 minutes.

2. Add beans, corn, rice, tomato sauce, chilies, chili powder, and cumin, stirring to mix well, and heat thoroughly.

3. Preheat oven to 350º

4. Pour 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce at the bottom of a 13" x 9" casserole dish and pour the rest of the enchilada sauce in a large bowl.

5. Dip 4 tortillas, one at a time, in the sauce and layer them in the casserole dish. Spread half the bean mixture over the tortillas, then repeat, finishing up with the last 4 tortillas. Pour the remaining sauce over the top and spread evenly. Garnish with the chopped green onion.

6. Bake, covered, for 40 minutes, and allow to rest uncovered at least 5 minutes before serving.

Source:
"McDougall Program for a Healthy Heart - page 351"
Copyright:
"1996"
T(cooking):
"0:40"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving: 369 Calories; 15g Fat (34.2% calories from fat); 10g Protein; 54g Carbohydrate; 10g Dietary Fiber; 37mg Cholesterol; 826mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 2 1/2 Vegetable; 2 1/2 Fat.

Serving Ideas : Serve with salsa.

NOTES : You can dramatically cut the calories by using a fat free enchilada sauce. All the fat and 140 of the calories in this recipe, according to MasterCook, comes from the store-bought sauce.

Here's one from the McDougall's themselves, posted by Puddy to the original McDougall forum on VegSource:

This is from The McDougall Quick & Easy
Cookbook, page 221. Reworded by me. (Puddy)

Enchilada Sauce

Makes 2.5 c
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 5 mins

1 - 8 oz can tomato sauce
1.5 c water
2T cornstarch
1/8 t garlic powder (I use more of all spices)
1/4 t onion powder
1.5 T chili powder

Dissolve cornstarch in water. Add to pot with
all other ingredients. Mix well, heat and stir
until desired thickness. Recipe doubles well.
Just remember to double all the spices too
(I know this from experience!)

I like to dip baked corn tortilla chips in this
sauce when I haven't made any salsa. The sauce
refrigerates and heats up well.

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0


Frying the veggies .................... Ready for the oven



LoriM's Cornbread

1 cup self-rising cornmeal mix
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or other flour)
1 can creamed corn
1/4-1/2 cup soy milk (or rice milk) to batter consistency

I wipe the inside of a seasoned 9" cast iron skillet with a paper towel moistened with vegetable oil (in lieu of a fat free spray). Mix the four ingredients, and bake at 400° F for about 25 minutes until brown. Serves 4. Doubles well, but bake in a larger pan.



The finished product (Sorry about the brightness. I'm still getting the hang of the camera). After the pic was taken my husband grabbed the Daiya and smothered the top with yellow cheezy goodness.

Why Do I Even TRY?

I showed my husband the proposed menu and grocery list for this coming week, and he walked me over to the fridge opened the door, and pointed out containers of leftovers of 3 of Jeff's SNAP meals. He then opened the freezer to show me a few more. In other words, he's sick of SNAP meals.

sigh

Yet he asked me to make a pot of "that delicious tomato soup" today, what he calls Jeff's Longevity Soup.


sigh again

I have no idea what I'm cooking this week. All I know is tonight for dinner I'm eating leftovers of Jeff's Pasta Primavera from Thursday and some soup that's been simmering on the stove all day. As for tomorrow, well, your guess is as good as mine. It could be anything from Mexican Lasagna to Two Bean Mexican Delight to some more leftovers. Stay tuned.

Ouch!

While making up my grocery list for this coming week I was struck by how much more I would be spending to follow those recipes by Mary McDougall compared to the SNAP recipes by Jeff Novick that I've been making these past few months.

Mary uses a lot of little things that I don't usually have on hand, like rice wine vinegar and canned sprouts.

She calls for produce that's deemed exotic in these parts, like bok choy and Napa cabbage. I hit 4 different grocery stores and 2 produce markets yesterday and not one even heard of those last 2 items.

Other times she calls for using items that I've avoided for decades because of their sodium content, like canned red beans and rice (480 mg per 1/2 cup serving) and soy sauce (last time I used the lower sodium stuff my blood pressure shot up to over 200/100 - NOT good!).

Now I remember why I really haven't done many recipes in this book.

So, although I may toss in a recipe or 2 from this book as the month goes on, the main focus of this blog for VeganMoFo will now be Jeff Novick's SNAP recipes. I made out a new grocery list using a handful of those, and it's all available in my main grocery store AND much friendlier to the wallet. It'll still be a fun month, and introduce some of you to a very knowledgeable and funny guy.

Theme for VeganMoFo 2010

Get the drum roll ready, for I'm about to announce the theme this blog will follow for the PPK's VeganMoFo 2010!

Are you EXCITED?

Are you READY?

Here it is . . .

The theme for 2010 will be . . .
.
.
.

The McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook: Over 300 Delicious Low-Fat Recipes You Can Prepare in Fifteen Minutes or Less



Here is the official page for the book on the McDougall web site.

Here is the Amazon page, where you can "look inside" the book.

And here is the Half.com page where you can sometimes find the book as low as a buck plus shipping.


I've owned this book since it was first published, buying it the day it was released. I like it, but really haven't used it as much as I would like, thanks to a family that loves repetition and prefers to eat the same meals week after week without deviation.

Well, next month I'm going to shake them up a little! I'm still going to follow our basic menu plan:
Sunday - burgers
Monday - anything goes (Chili, stew, baked tofu, etc. My choice)
Tuesday - rice and veggies
Wednesday - potatoes
Thursday - pasta
Friday - pizza
Saturday - pasta

but mix it up a little. On Sundays, instead of a veggie burger or leftovers for me and turkey burgers for them, I'll be making various other sandwiches.

Tuesday's veggies and rice will no longer be accompanied with just soy sauce and the occasional fried tofu or TVP.

Wednesday's hash brown meal for the guys was a spin on Clara Cannuciari's Poorman's Meal.


It's either plain hash browns with nooch or a leftover McDougall meals day for me of. Now I'll do other, healthier, things to the hash browns.

Thursday and Saturday have been pasta days for decades. My picky son always insisted on plain old Ragu sauce on his, so after the pasta cooked I would put his in another pot and add the sauce and to ours I would add McDougall friendly additives. These meals are sometimes accompanied by crusty Italian bread, sometimes made with white or semolina flour from the bakery, sometimes home made with white whole wheat flour and oodles of garlic. Now this tradition will continue!

And every Friday will continue to be pizza day. If you look back to last year's VeganMoFo posts you'll see I always had pizza on Fridays, and it was always the same old whole wheat crust, tomato sauce, and some kind of cheezy topping (real mozzarella on my son's). Luckily Mary McDougall has 4 pizza recipes in this cookbook and my husband says he'll eat anything I put in front of him when it comes to pizza. Let's see if he still feels this way when the pizza contains pineapple! LOL

So, I already have my list of recipes I'll be using and still have to type them all up in MasterCook, because except for one or 2 I haven't tried any of these recipes yet. That's the purpose of this challenge, to try new recipes, right? Besides posting them here in this blog I'll also try get them on my Recipes Used in VeggieSue's Veggie Adventures Blog page, plus on the two McDougall groups on , McDougall 12 Day and McDougall Weight Loss Plans, where we discuss how well (or not) our quest for thinness is going. Why not join us in either of those 2 lists for more McDougall talk when VeganMoFo is over? Or now. We're always looking for fresh blood. :)

Post Punk Kitchen Forums

The PPK has finally moved to their new home! It's been more than a year since the move was first announced, and finally last week they made the official move. It's a so much nicer format than the old forums, so stop by, re-register, if you belonged to the old forums, and jump right in.

Jeff Novick's DVDs

I can't believe it's been 10 months since I last posted here! Sorry about that, but I'll be posting more frequently in the near future - promise!

Today I want to remind all the McDougallers out there about Jeff Novick and his DVD collections. He has lectures ranging from nutritional density of foods to his latest, Fast Food, which is all recipes using his SNAP format - Simple, Nutritious, and Affordable Plan. All these meals come together in just a few minutes and are ready to serve in 10 to 15.



I've been making the large batches of these meals for a number of months now and my husband and I love them. It helps that we both love tomato-based dishes, though, because canned (Or boxed, as in Pomi brand) are the base of every recipe. I kind of stopped making them so often but since the new DVD arrived Friday I've made 3 of the meals already and plan on the Mexican Fiesta for tonight's dinner.

As Jeff promises, these meals are quite tasty, make a lot of food, and are very economical!

Now stay tuned for posts regarding VeganMoFo 2010.

Holiday Seitan Loaf

This is what I made for Christmas this past December. I've seen this recipe's video at Everyday Dish TV for a while now and always wanted to make it but thought it was too much trouble. Know what? It's really not!



It's from chef Brian McCarthy from his book The Vegan Family Cookbook, and although it does take a few more steps than just simmering some seitan, it's totally worth it. I'll be making it again for Easter in a few weeks, too.

Curried Indian Potato Stew

Another SNAP recipe from Jeff Novick




Curried Indian Potato Stew

1) 2 cans whole tomatoes
2) 1-2 cans Garbanzo Beans
3) Frozen Cauliflower (1- 1 1/2 lb) , peas (1/2 lb), onions (1/4-1/2 pound)
4) 2 large potatoes
5) Salt Free Curry spice mix

Microwave the potatoes. While they are zapping, put all other ingredients in the pot and heat. When potatoes are done, cut into 1 inch pieces and add to pot. Simmer 5 minutes. Top with fresh cilantro Enjoy.

(can be served with brown rice which you can cook in 10 minutes while potatoes are cooking by using Success Brand Quick Cooking Brown Rice)

McDougall Tamale Pie

I think I doubled the recipe, which is why it's in my big Corningware casserole dish instead of the 8 x8 square pan in the recipe. The single batch really would have been enough for us but we like lots of leftovers for lunches. Don't believe that "eight servings" out of an 8x8 pan - for 8 picky toddlers, maybe! LOL

From The McDougall Plan book:

Tamale Pie

Eight servings. Prep time: 45 min. Cooking time: 45 min.

3 cups cooked pinto beans, mashed. (or 2 cans fat-free refried beans)

1 onion, chopped.

1-1/2 teaspoons chili powder.

1/4 cup tomato sauce.

1 cup corn kernels.

1 green bell pepper, chopped.

1-2 chopped green chilies (or 4-oz can)

1-1/2 cups cornmeal.

2-1/2 cups water.

1/2 teaspoon chili powder.

Place onion in a large pot with 1/4 cup water. Sauté about 10 minutes, add green pepper, corn, green chilies, tomato sauce, and 1-1/2 tsp. chili powder. Cook 5 minutes. Add mashed beans and cook about 10 minutes over low heat. Remove from heat.

Combine cornmeal, water, and 1/2 tsp. chili powder in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens, stirring constantly with a wire whisk or the cornmeal will lump.

Using a non-stick 8" x 8" pan, spread half of the cornmeal mixture over the bottom. Pour the bean mixture over this and spread it out. Then spread the remaining cornmeal mixture over the top.

Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes, or until it bubbles.

Longevity Soup

A SNAP recipe (Simple Nutritious Affordable and (Darn, I can't remember what the "P" stood for!) from Jeff Novick, Dr. McDougall's nutritionist.

Dish 4 - Longevity Soup

1) 1 can whole tomatoes, 1 can pureed

2) Your favorite beans (I use kidney or garbanzo)

3) 1.5- 2 lbs of Your favorite frozen veggies plus 1 lb of frozen collards

4) Your favorite starch (potato, sweet potato rice, barley) cooked separate then added

5) your favorite seasoning (I use fresh ginger, garlic)

Place tomatoes in large pot. Add in 2 28 oz cans of water. Then add in all other ingredients. Bring to a boil and then simmer 15 minutes. Enjoy!

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