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.

Spicy Avocado Sauce

Spicy Avocado Sauce PinWe made this Spicy Avocado Sauce to go with our Cauliflower Tacos w/ Lentils recipe and it was delicious! It’s so rich and creamy. And the jalapeño gives it a little kick, although this is optional if you don’t like spicy things.

This recipe is also great as a dip, sandwich spread or salad dressing. It almost has a ranch dressing flavor. Several important phytonutrients in salads are fat soluble, which means they need to be consumed with a healthy source of fat like nuts, seeds and/or avocados in order for our bodies to effectively extract all the nutrients.

Avocados have been shown to contain a lot of fiber and many beneficial phytonutrients of their own, and the fat found in avocados also helps our bodies get the most bang for our salad buck.

It doesn’t take much fat for our bodies to harness the power of fat soluble veggies, though. You only need about 1/4 of an avocado in your salad OR five walnut halves to get the benefit from the greens, so don’t load up your salad with a lot of nuts, seeds and avocado or the calories and fat will skyrocket. A little is good for you, but a lot is bad for you.

We like our foods spicier than most, and Amelia likes them spicier than me! If you have a bland palette, feel free to skip the jalapeño.

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.

Easy Vegan Asian Stir Fry [Oil-Free]

Easy Vegan Asian Stir Fry PinThis Easy Vegan Asian Stir Fry that’s oil-free is one of our staple recipes. We eat this one usually once and sometimes twice per week. We typically serve it over healthy brown rice, but sometimes we eat it plain or over some boiled yellow potatoes.

We almost always have the main ingredients on-hand: broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, mushrooms, onions, red cabbage and garlic. But feel free to use whatever you have on-hand or need to use before it goes bad, like green peas, snap-peas, carrots, sprouts, spinach, etc. Be creative!

This recipe has lots of protein, fiber, iron and enough vitamin C for 3 days RDV. With the soy sauce and salt, it’s a little high in sodium, so feel free to skip the salt and/or use low sodium soy sauce.

Like most of our recipes nowadays, we don’t use any oil in this steam fry. Without the rice, this recipe only has 155 calories, but add 1 tbsp of olive oil and you nearly double that. There’s simply no need to add all those extra calories from a liquid that’s 100% processed refined fat. Besides, lots of evidence suggests oil is “The Vegan Killer.”

Instead, we sauté using our homemade Easy Vegetable Broth from Scraps. It doesn’t add many calories, but it does add a lot of delicious flavor.

Since this recipe is so low in calories, but high in nutrient density, it’s a great weight loss recipe. Skip the brown rice and eat it plain to reduce the calories even more.

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 Refried Beans

Vegan Refried Beans PinAmelia’s Oil-Free Vegan Refried Beans are so good you won’t be able to stop eating them! They require very little effort to prepare and they’re amazingly delicious.

And did I mention they’re oil-free? That means no empty calories from oil, which is commonly added to canned refried beans.

This recipe calls for canned pinto beans, but it’s also delicious with black or canary beans.

If you’re using Dried Beans, soak them for at least 4 hours, then rinse and drain. Cook over low heat for about 2 hours in enough water to cover the beans. You want the beans to be soft. We usually do this the day before we want to make the refried beans so they’re good to go. You don’t need to rinse and drain your cooked beans…you can use the liquid from cooking previously for your refried beans.

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 Black Bean Soup

Vegan Black Bean Soup PinThis Vegan Black Bean Soup recipe is like a party in your mouth! It’s loaded with savory flavors and lots of protein. Top it with a little diced avocado for some extra deliciousness and you’ve got one delicious bowl of soup!

Beans are a great source of protein, calcium and fiber. That’s why they’re such an important part of a plant-based diet. It can take your body a few weeks (or months) to adjust to the flatulence caused by beans in some people, but the short-term discomfort is well-worth the long-term health benefits.

Before we transitioned to a whole-food plant-based (WFPB) diet, I never ate beans because of the horrible stomach and intestinal discomfort. Within a few months of switching our diet, I slowly started adding beans into the mix. Now we eat them every day and only occasionally do they cause gas. I’ve found that red beans still seem to be the worst offenders, while black beans, chickpeas and lentils are now fine.

According to the Harvard Health Letter, “A little bit of extra flatulence could be an indication that you’re eating the way you should!” So if you accidentally let one slip while waiting in line at the bank, just smile and say “Hey. I’m plant-based.”

This Vegan Black Bean Soup pairs well with a salad or cornbread.

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.

Vegan Broccoli Soup

Vegan Broccoli Soup PinBroccoli is one of our favorite veggies, and we created this Vegan Broccoli Soup so we can eat more of it! At only 75 calories per serving with 5 grams of protein, 3 grams of fiber and 116% of your daily Vitamin C, it’s also a nutritional powerhouse!

You can make this recipe with 2 small heads of broccoli or one big head. Since you’re going to blend the ingredients, you can use the broccoli stalks, too. It’s a good use for them so they don’t go to waste. You can also save them for your homemade Easy Vegetable Broth from Scraps. Set aside 2 cups of the broccoli florets for garnish to give your soup a little more visual appeal and texture.

We used unsweetened almond milk, but feel free to use your favorite non-dairy milk. This gives the soup a creamier texture.

Our recipes are very flavorful…sometimes too flavorful for tender palettes. We used cayenne pepper to spice it up a little, but you can skip that if you want. You can also reduce or eliminate the salt if you’re avoiding 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.

Tex-Mex Jackfruit

Tex-Mex Jackfruit PinThis Tex-Mex Jackfruit recipe is a veganized version of the old standard Tex-Mex Pulled Chicken. We served it over rice but it would go great wrapped up in a tortilla. It’s savory, satisfying and delicious!

The key to getting the jackfruit to mimic the look and texture of pulled chicken is to steam fry it until it’s soft, and then use a fork to pull it apart. This will string-a-fy the jackfruit.

Once you add in the remaining ingredients and serve it over rice or in a tortilla with some extra salsa, it’ll fool just about anyone. Our non-vegan family loved it! Amelia’s dad honestly thought it was chicken! He was shocked when we told him it was a fruit!

A lot of vegans don’t like the idea of eating things that mimic meat, but if you’re trying to get someone to taste new cruelty-free foods, or you’re cooking for non-plant-based eaters, these types of recipes really help bridge the gap. They also show people just how tasty and creative plant-based foods can be.

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 Cajun Red Beans and Rice

Vegan Cajun Red Beans and Rice PinThis Vegan Cajun Red Beans and Rice recipe was inspired by an old non-vegan recipe I used to cook for my daughter and me before I went vegan. Cajun red beans and rice with sausage was a favorite on our regular rotation, but my family requested a sausage-free version and I was more than happy to oblige.

This recipe uses dry red beans instead of canned. Dried beans take more prep work, but they’re a lot cheaper and we think they have a lot more flavor. They’re also more environmentally friendly due to reduced processing and packaging.

If you’re in a hurry or don’t want to mess with dry beans, you can use three 16 oz cans of red beans with the juice and reduce the vegetable broth to 1 cup.

This Vegan Cajun Red Beans and Rice dish pairs well with Vegan Cornbread and a Hearty Side Salad.

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.