Lazy Girl Easy Vegan Enchiladas

Easy Vegan Enchiladas PinThis Easy Vegan Enchiladas recipe is fast and easy to make. Why spend time trying to wrap and bake tricky enchiladas when you can do them open-faced?

I love our Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas recipe, but we never have it because it’s such a pain to make. When we first made them for the website, it took us 3 tries to get them to come out good enough to be photographed. And we haven’t made them since!

So I asked Amelia if we could do them a different way that would be easier. After all, it’s the ingredients that taste good; not the shape. I suggested we sauté the filling in our cast iron skillet and then bake it covered in our Vegan Enchilada Sauce, but Amelia’s way was even easier. We served them open-faced on corn tortillas and poured the enchilada sauce over them. Then we topped them with some baked corn tortilla strips.

These “lazy girl” enchiladas, as Amelia calls them, are by far the easiest and fastest way to make delicious enchiladas.

Easy Vegan Enchiladas

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Tortilla Soup

Vegan Tortilla Soup PinEven though I just finished eating lunch, my mouth is watering just thinking about this Vegan Tortilla Soup recipe! It’s that good!

While conventional tortilla soup typically uses chicken as the protein, we used white beans instead. Beans are loaded with protein and fiber, but contain no cholesterol nor measurable saturated fat. They’re also a good source of iron, magnesium and potassium.

There are several different types of white beans: navy beans, great northern beans, cannellini beans and butterbeans. We like navy beans in our soups because the starch gets released during cooking, making the soup creamier. However, you can use whichever beans you prefer or have on-hand for this recipe.

For the tortilla strips, we used two small corn tortillas made with only two ingredients: whole corn and water. Whole Foods carries organic corn tortillas that are made with corn, water and a hint of lime. When eating a whole-food plant-based (WFPB) no-oil diet, it’s important to look for minimally processed foods without added oils and sugars (or other mystery ingredients).

We cubed some avocado as a topping for our vegan tortilla soup, but if you’re trying to lose weight or lower your cholesterol, you may want to skip the avocado until you’ve reached your goal. Saturated fat, regardless of whether it comes from a plant or animal, will raise your cholesterol and can contribute to heart disease and weight gain.

This recipe pairs well with a nice Side Salad or some Corn Tortilla Corn Chips and Salsa.

Vegan Tortilla Soup Cooking Video

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Mexican Lasagna

Vegan Mexican Lasagna PinWe love our vegan comfort food, and it doesn’t get any better than this Vegan Mexican Lasagna! It’s savory, satisfying and muy delicioso!

Amelia found a recipe using tofu, salsa and a few other ingredients mixed together to make a crumbled tofu Mexican dish, but it had one major flaw. While it tasted delicious, it wasn’t very appetizing to look at. In fact, it looked a little gross.

After a few comments from the peanut gallery (me) about its lack of visual appeal, Amelia had the brilliant idea to use it as the “cheese” filling for a Mexican Lasagna. It kind of has a ricotta-y texture and tons of flavor, so that seemed like a good use for it.

Using our Vegan Overnight Lasagna as a guide, we created this super delicious Vegan Mexican Lasagna. In place of tomato sauce, we used salsa. In place of lasagna noodles, we used torn up corn tortillas. In place of cashew ricotta, we used Mexican tofu ricotta. And in place of Beyond Meat’s Beefy Crumbles, we used refried beans. We also didn’t let it sit overnight since the tortillas were soft and didn’t need to absorb the liquid like the lasagna noodles do.

We cooked it covered with aluminum foil for 30 minutes and uncovered for another 20 minutes and that seemed to work fine. It would be great topped with some vegan shredded cheese, but we wanted it to be an oil-free recipe so we skipped it and just added a little extra salsa when we dished it out.

Serve it with some diced tomatoes, avocado or a small side salad. Maybe even some extra refried beans. This is a great recipe to feed to friends and family. They won’t know it’s vegan.

Vegan Mexican Lasagna Cooking Video

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas

These Vegan Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas are so deliciously amazing we can’t get enough of them! They’re sweet, spicy, savory and oh so flavorful!

If you’ve ever cooked your own enchiladas, especially without deep frying the tortillas in oil, you’ll be able to sympathize with us on how challenging it is to get them to look pretty. We had to cook this recipe 3 times to not only perfect the ingredients, but to get the pictures to come out well enough to post on our website.

But it was SOOOO worth it!

The trick was to steam the tortillas in a steamer pot for about 1o to 15 seconds before assembling them. Kind of like how they do it at Chipotle. That made the tortillas very soft and pliable. We also used Mi Rancho Organic Corn Tortillas with Guar Gum, which also helped hold them together through the steaming and assembly process.

We actually took these photos before we baked them, though. So yours might not look the same when they come out of the oven. You can see in the prep photo below what they look like in the casserole dish fresh from the oven.

These Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas pair well with a little shredded lettuce salad on the side, along with some Corn Tortilla Corn Chips  and some of my Grandpa’s Dipping Hot Sauce. We used grandpa’s hot sauce in our enchiladas, too. If you plan to do the same, be sure to make it ahead of time.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Fajitas (Oil-Free)

Vegan Fajitas PinThese Vegan Fajitas with roasted portobello mushrooms and sautéed onions and peppers is absolutely delicious, and very nutritious!

Three corn tortillas topped with all the fixin’s has 450 calories, 11 grams of fiber and 17 grams of protein. Add to that: 70% RDA of Vitamin A, 315% Vitamin C, 76% Calcium and 24% Iron. And this doesn’t include the optional avocado, brown rice or refried beans!

Looking at these stats for one vegan dish, it’s hard to understand how the protein and calcium deficiency myths gained traction and continue to be two of the most common questions vegans get asked.

We used corn tortillas in our recipe because they’re made with only corn and water. They contain no refined flour or oil. Most flour tortillas we’ve found here in Ecuador have either oil or lard, and we haven’t found any whole wheat tortillas, so we opted for the healthier non-GMO corn tortillas. If you can find oil and lard free whole wheat flour tortillas, feel free to use those instead of corn.

Vegan Fajitas

We like using my Grandpa’s Vegan Dipping Hot Sauce on our vegan fajitas, but you can use your favorite salsa. Just be sure to get a salsa without oil or a lot of added sugar, as most store-bought brands contain one or both.

The avocado, brown rice and Refried Beans are optional since this is already a filling and high calorie meal without them. However, they make great companions for these Vegan Fajitas! These are also fantastic topped with a little Vegan Cashew Sour Cream!

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Corn Tortilla Corn Chips

Corn Tortilla Corn Chips PinThis Corn Tortilla Corn Chips recipe was inspired by Amelia’s Plant-Based Nutrition Certification program. Nearly all store-bought corn chips are highly processed and made with oil, and they’re not very healthy.

Organic, oil-free corn tortillas, on the other hand, have very few ingredients, are not highly processed, and contain no oil.

In addition to the health benefits, homemade corn tortilla corn chips are also a LOT cheaper! A package of Whole Foods 365 Everyday Value® Organic Corn Tortillas contains 12 tortillas and only costs between $1 and $2 depending on where you live.

That’s enough tortillas to make an entire bag of corn chips for less than a third of the cost of a pre-made bag of corn chips. And the only ingredients are Organic Whole Corn, Water and a Trace of Lime.

These corn chips are a bit thicker than most of the store bought brands, so they’re also more filling and don’t break off in your dip. Just be sure to cook them long enough or they’ll come out chewy instead of crispy, but don’t overcook them or they’ll burn.

Enjoy them with Grandpa’s Vegan Dipping Hot Sauce.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Huevos Rancheros

Vegan Huevos Rancheros PinThis delicious and easy Vegan Huevos Rancheros recipe will have you looking forward to breakfast. It’s loaded with protein and healthy carbs, but it’s oil free and gluten free.

You can use regular refried beans or mash up some pinto beans, but we prefer the refried black beans for a little extra flavor. Use organic corn tortillas instead of flour to keep it gluten free, but also because organic corn has more fiber than flour.

If you’re concerned about the carbs, you can use one tortilla instead of two, but it won’t have as much fiber and won’t be as filling. That means you’ll probably be hungry sooner and feel the need to snack.

You might also enjoy our Tofu Scramble.

Vegan Huevos Rancheros Instructional Video

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Cauliflower Couscous Tex-Mex Tacos

Cauliflower Couscous Tex-Mex TacosThese Cauliflower Couscous Tex-Mex Tacos are a favorite in our household. They’re not only super fast and easy to prepare, but their also filling and nutritious with 10 grams of fiber and 8 grams of protein.

You can eat the cauliflower couscous mixture as a side dish without the corn tortilla. It would pair well with a Mexican Salad, Roasted Green Beans or Roasted Asparagus.

Some diced avocado would also be a delicious topping for these tacos. We were trying to shed a few pounds when we made this recipe so we skipped the avocados to reduce the fat calories.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Tacos with Acorn Squash and Black Beans

Vegan Tacos Acorn Squash and Black BeansVegan tacos acorn squash and black beans might seem like an odd combination, but this recipe has just the right mixture of sweet, salt and spice. Your tastebuds will thank you.

Thanks to the squash and black beans, this recipe packs a nutrient punch. It has 15 grams of fiber and 11 grams of protein with only 353 calories for two tacos. You can reduce the calories and fat by cutting out the avocado and reducing the olive oil to 1/2 tbsp.

You could add some vegan shredded cheese to the tacos, but we didn’t feel it was necessary. They have so much flavor without it.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Tostadas

Vegan TostadasThis is a super quick and easy vegan tostadas recipe that’s full of flavor, color and a variety of nutrients. It’s one of my favorite lunch recipes because I can throw it together in a few minutes and there’s virtually no cleanup.

Most tostada recipes call for the tortillas to be deep fried in oil, but we all know how unhealthy that is for us. Baking them not only removes the calories and fat from the oil, it makes cleanup a breeze since you won’t have oil splatters everywhere.

This recipe makes two vegan tostadas, but the serving size is only one tostada. You can eat both, but realize that’s over 500 calories. You can reduce the calories and fat even more by skipping the cheese and avocados. Removing the cheese also makes this recipe oil free if that’s important to you.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.