Burritos, Beans and Tofu

With the weather getting warmer, it seems like my computer time is definitely decreasing. I guess I don't really consider that a bad thing, though. Tomorrow is our 9th wedding anniversary. Nine years, Sleek and I have been married! Wow. We've been living together for nearly thirteen years, and that really throws me for a loop. Heavens! I was but a 20 year-old child when we got together. LOL I'm not cooking tomorrow, so we're taking the kids out for dinner at Black Bear for our anniversary. We're going to the Radiohead show on Sunday too, so that will be part of our celebration as well. OH MY GOD, we're going to see Radiohead on Sunday! In honor of that, I listened to both discs of In Rainbows today. Twice. Oh, and the photo at the top was taken by Sleek at the Hemlock Trail. He and the kids went hiking there with some friends last weekend.

Okay, Monday was Cinco de Mayo, and I wanted something resembling Mexican for that. I made the Garlicky Broccoli and Bean Burritos from ED&bV. While it's actually more of an Asian-style burrito, it worked. It was super-easy to put together, and that scores major points with me. Very interesting flavor for a burrito. I know, I know--burritos seem to come in every possible ethnicity these days.



I had a lot of BBQ sauce left over from my BBQ tofu sandwiches last week, so after much thought about what to do with it, I decided on BBQ beans. I thought I'd heard of them before, and after searching the web I found out that they do indeed exist. I couldn't find a recipe I liked, so I winged it. I used an unknown amount of cooked pinto beans. I would guess 5-6 cups? I mixed them up with the remaining 3(?) cups of BBQ and a jar of Newman's Own Pineapple Salsa. I baked them, covered, at 375 degrees for an hour. Then I uncovered and baked for 30 more minutes. Dang. They were some good stuff. So easy too. A fantastic way to use leftover BBQ sauce. Oh, I sauteed a green pepper and half a diced onion to add to them. Almost forgot that.



To go with the beans, I made some macaroni salad. Almost a tradition in my family. If you're having any kind of baked beans, you have to have either mac salad or homemade mac and cheese. I made my family's traditional mac salad recipe, except I vegan-ized it. Here goes:

12 oz. cooked macaroni, cooled
1 1/3 cup Vegenaise
6 oz. soy milk
1 scant cup of sugar
1/3 cup cider vinegar
4 tsp. yellow mustard
1 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. salt
1 yellow onion, diced
2 carrots, grated

Blend together mayo, milk, sugar, vinegar, mustard, celery seed and salt. Pour over cooked macaroni and stir in onion and carrot.

Tonight I made Cumin-Lime Tofu from ED&bV. I made coconut rice to go with it. (Coconut rice is becoming very popular around here!) Served it up with a side of broccoli. The things on the tofu are chopped, raw pepitas. (aka pumpkin seeds.) The tofu was a nice change of flavors. Very, very easy and really tasty.


I probably won't post again until after Radiohead, so I look forward to telling y'all how freakin' awesome it was! Actually, I made some really kick-ass, healthy granola bars this evening. I may do a quick post tomorrow for those. They're really amazing! Oh, and check out what's on our front porch. On top of the porch light. Not a great photo, but I have to stand on a chair and just hold the camera up and point it down without being able to see what I'm shooting.