When I was a new blogger I’d constantly try to take baked casserole meals like this one out of their dishes and photograph them on a plate, presenting one of the most homely meals possible to my readers.

I have found the light in both respects.  Chili powder is something that really, really can be wonderful or be pretty sub-par depending on your source.  Moreover, when recipes call for two types of chili powders, you’re really missing out by not making the recipes as specified!

And casseroles pretty much always look much more fantastic in their baking dishes than slopped onto your plate.

I’ve made meals such as this countless times.  Generally, I wing it.  This time, however, I followed a recipe from Vegetarian Times.  This meal was really excellent which is why I’m sharing it with you!  I added it to my meal plan because it used up more of the corn tortillas I had purchased for my tacos.

Tortilla Pie – Mexican Lasagna (adapted from Vegetarian Times)

This recipe was in Vegetarian Times as an alternative for macaroni and cheese.  I wouldn’t go that far.  Is it great?  Yes.  But it is cauliflower.  Not mac.  Maybe you could had some macaroni and sort of make a ‘cut’ mac and cheese to quench your cravings.

I was drawn to the recipe especially because it used both nutritional yeast, the token vegan cheese substitute, and shredded cheddar cheese.  I don’t know why I never thought to combine the two – I always treated them as if they were mutually exclusive.

I guess you could add 1/2 cup extra shredded cheese and eliminate the nutritional yeast but that stuff really does have a nice flavor and plus I’ve got other recipes on the blog for you to try with it.

The original recipe also called for breadcrumbs to be added to the top which may have helped mimic mac and cheese a little more but I find their addition more annoying (in a preparation way) than gratifying.
Mac and Cheese Style Cauliflower (adapted from Vegetarian Times)

I served this dish with simply sauteed squash but I think it would be a great accompaniment for salmon, or any fish really, or chicken.  Or beans.  Or anything.  Or nothing.  Just alone.  Yum.

Green Rice (adapted from The Natural Cookbook)

These are, without a doubt, the best waffles I’ve ever made at home.  I’ve made a lot of great tasting waffles here at home, but none of them ever had that snap that a good waffle has with a slightly crisp exterior and a fluffy, steaming interior.

What’s better is the fact that the batter for these guys was whipped up in one bowl in less time than it took for the coffee to brew.  By the time I’d had a cup of coffee, walked the dogs, and heated the waffle iron, the better had sat its requisite 30 minutes and was ready to be cooked up.

Although there’s a bottle of real maple syrup lurking in the background, I’m a waffle purist and take neither butter nor syrup on my waffle.  As a result, it is super important that the waffle taste wonderful without these extras.  This one did.  I think it was the vanilla.

Wheat Waffles of Insane Greatness (adapted from Food Network)

I was planning to make some sort of pasta with cream sauce, spinach, and mushrooms when I got totally overwhelmed at that thought, realized I needed something quick, and was inspired by a pack of soba noodles in my pantry.  The sauce consisted of three ingredients and it was just perfect.
Soba noodles with spinach and mushrooms

I cooked the first package and after dinner when my husband simply said it best: “Never make those again.”

It didn’t hurt my feelings because he was right.

I had washed my hands at least 3 times.  The kitchen sink was covered in a fatty, slimy, film.  Every bite we took seemed to be laced with the same gelatinous feeling.  The flavor was good but the fat was….bad.  BAD.

And when he said ‘never make those again’ I knew I was in trouble – I had another 2.75 pounds of short ribs sitting in my freezer.

I’m one of those unlucky ladies whose husband travels for work.  Back in the day, I was okay with it.  I was working a low maintenance job that I could leave at the office, had two well behaved dogs, and a maid.  Now I have a high maintenance job, three dogs, one cat, and two horses and I don’t think any maids live in the same county as I do.  So when he’s gone, my needles are pinned.  But I knew I could only rid ourselves of these short ribs if I cooked them while he was gone and recovered from the fatty mess on my own.

I put on my thinking cap to develop a cooking method that significantly decreased the amount of fat left in the final product.  The recipe was so good, in fact, that I saved just a little bit to serve him when he came back from his trip.  He, of course, with his super fast metabolism, ate his over pasta.  As you can see above, I ate mine over shredded yellow squash ‘noodles.’

The truth about this cooking method is that it takes more time than the other.  This isn’t a “a feel like short ribs for dinner!” recipe.  It requires planning.  If you’ve ever wanted to love short ribs like I have, however, but couldn’t get past the fat then this is the method for you.  I’ll include the recipe I used as well but I think this method can be used for a variety of recipes.

Greek Style Short Ribs (inspired by Elly Says Opa)

I guess that’s a good way to transition yourself from the ways of eating meat to the ways of not eating meat.  New vegetarians may suffer from the panicky thought of “where’s my main course!?” when they remove meat from their diet and rightly so: meat is generally the center of attention in most meals.

Before I became a vegetarian my husband and I didn’t eat a lot of meatloaf.  After I became a vegetarian, we ate a lot of meatloaf.  This meat-free lentil-loaf quenched my desire to have a main course and it is something I would whip up along side the Omnivore’s real meatloaf.  I’d bake them off side by side in the oven and when we would sit down for dinner our plates would look remarkably similar (something that was sort of important to my husband!).

Eventually I got to a point where I was tiring of cooking two main entrees and since I was doing the cooking the meaty entree was on the chopping block.

My husband is the first to confess his love of ‘loaf’ (he refuses to call it anything other than simply loaf).  Though I’m back into eating meat, this is one recipe that I make time and time again.  I first blogged it way back in 2009 so if you feel like you’ve seen it before, you have.
Lentil Loaf – vegetarian meat loaf

And then we heard about a horse farm for sale in SC, sort of decided over night to put in an offer on it without really considering what we’d do for work down in SC or actually even considering what it would even be like to have horses.

Turns out the Omnivore didn’t need some office job anyway (his book is getting him independent work!) and working as a vet technician for a few years actually prepared me to take a job as a high school biology teacher.

Yeah, I’m not sure any prediction would have placed me where I am today in terms of career or home location, but I’m 100% happy!  One thing I’m sure of, however, is that any prediction would have placed my life with animals.  Having pets and helping ones in need is truly a life choice of mine and that’s why I am holding my Charity Souper Bowl, so don’t forget!  We have about two weeks until the deadline and unfortunately entries are sort of dribbling in…

Here’s my soup for the event.  I already have a favorite cauliflower soup recipe but this one really gives it a run for the money.  It is definitely different in flavor profile and texture.  Lovers of roasted garlic come in; this soup is for you!

Roasted Cauliflower and Garlic Soup

1. I don’t make side dishes when we have tacos for dinner
2. I have serious portion control issues
3. The Omnivore forgets to eat so is often starving by dinner

But I’ve stopped buying taco boxes and have started baking taco shells.  Until I take this endeavor 100% homemade, I’m forced into buying little baggies of 36 corn tortillas.  Even our issues don’t allow us to consume that many tacos in a single night.  That means multiple varieties of tacos are needed in a single week, people!

I got up in the middle of dinner to refill my water glass and began to spontaneously take these pictures.  Super casual, I know.  I wasn’t sure how the meal would turn out nor was I sure about how the pictures would turn out but I’ve decided they’re both good enough to share!  I could have done without the tomatoes in the cabbage salsa and I think that exchanging scallions for the red onion would make these tacos pretty as a picture!  There’s cilantro buried somewhere in there but you’d never guess it based on these pictures.
Thai Chicken Tacos (adapted from Clean Eating Magazine)

It is about being a musician or a waitress or whatever and going into a bar or a music  scene and NOT being the one performing or waiting tables.

Taco night used to be my night off.  Husband would do the chopping (which is mainly what tacos consist of around here, chopped lettuce, scallions, tomatoes, shredded cheese) and I’d waltz in just in time to heat up boxed taco shells for dinner.

But now that I’ve started making these baked taco shells I am definitely back on duty for dinner on taco night.  I use a really nifty taco rack but I’ve read that you can achieve the same affects by draping corn tortillas between the bars of your oven rack.

You can make these in advance and then reheat them as a batch by placing them in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes.

Baked Taco Shells

Ingredients