Hi there =)
We had a really tiring and physical day, but we also had a fun time today. We spent a couple hours in the basement sanding (no pics yet, too much dust) and then almost 4 hours doing yard work. Weeding, mowing the lawn, pruning, removing dead shrubs/vines, etc! Eric said I did a great job today. I beamed with pride (usually I have no confidence with renos and yard work type endeavors!)
A weed-free garden is a peaceful garden!
The weeds were out of control as we haven’t had any time to weed in over a month!
I think these beds need some flowers! All the perennials have come and gone this season. It is sad when their bloom is complete!
Blue Jay feather…we have lots of Blue jays around here.
I also discovered a love for pruning…
I went a bit crazy, as you would expect.
I sculpted, I designed, I made art. I love pruning because it appeals to my artistic side. I also love symmetrical objects. Very feng shui. Eric kept walking by and chuckling to himself because he said he’s never seen someone have so much fun while pruning before. What can I say, I whistle while I work!
While I was busy weeding and pruning, he was pulling out half dead shrubs and vines covering the house.
Even though the work was hot and sweaty and not ideal for a day off, we made it fun by enjoying each other’s company. We actually had a great time out there. Many hands make the work light, or however that saying goes! ;)
After admiring our work, we came in and were starving, so I got started on dinner right away.
I made a vegan version of my favourite 7 layer tortilla pie (aka Mexican Lasagna!). It is delish both ways and I highly recommend it!
Mexican Tortilla Pie
Adapted from 7 layer tortilla pie.
Ingredients:
- 2 (15 ounce) cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup salsa, divided
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 (15 ounce) can refried beans
- 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
- 7 (8 inch) flour tortillas
- 1/2-3/4 cup Mae’s humnut cheese sauce
- Dried parsley, to garnish
- Enchilada sauce (I used for top layer)
Mae’s Humnut Cheese* (adapted)
- 2-3 tbsp hummus
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- A pinch of turmeric if you like your cheese yellow
- water to thin
[*Note: I tripled her humnut cheese recipe.]
Directions: Preheat oven to 400F. In a large bowl, mash pinto beans. Stir in 3/4 cup salsa and garlic. In a separate bowl, mix together 1/4 cup salsa, cilantro, refried beans and tomatoes. Place 1 tortilla in a greased pie plate or tart dish. Spread 3/4 cup pinto bean mixture over tortilla to within 1/2 inch of edge. Top with 1/4 cup humnut cheese, and cover with another tortilla. Spread with 2/3 cup refried beans, and top with 1/4 cup humnut cheese. Repeat layering twice. Cover with remaining tortilla, and spread with remaining pinto bean mixture, humnut cheese, and enchilada sauce. Cook for about 35 minutes. Serves 6.
I didn’t have 7 tortillas or refried beans, so I made an adapted version, but it still worked out!
I had two slices and Eric had THREE! We were hungry monstaaaaas. In our case, it did not serve 6 as the recipe suggests! lol. It depends on how hungry you are I guess.
Eric said ‘If you keep cooking like this I won’t ever need to eat meat again!’ , as he shoveled in the pie.
I’m not so sure that will ever happen, but he has cut down meat about 75-80% and he says he doesn’t really miss it. I get a TON of questions about Eric’s diet- in fact, it is probably one of the most frequently asked questions as of late. I think he needs to start a blog! ;)
Eric does love a good beef burger, so I don’t think he would ever give up meat entirely (or maybe I am wrong here)… and that is fine by me. I will support him, just like he supports my choices. I don’t think that everyone needs to be 100% meat-free to make a difference. The fact that he is now making healthier choices than he once did, is a positive step and makes a huge impact on the system and his health. Small changes add up to something big! I truly believe this. I don’t think that everyone’s ‘end goal’ should be a vegan diet, but I do support awareness and consciousness about our food choices and the opportunity to feel our best with what we put into our bodies. I guess you could say I am pro-educated choice!
Do you live with someone and if so, do you share the same ‘diet’ or do you have different eating habits, opinions on what you eat, and different taste preferences? Is it difficult, easy, fun, creative, annoying?
Girl, that Mexican Lasagna looks SO GOOD. And it sounds pretty easy, too. Love that it uses tortillas. It makes the dough-challenged ones out there (like me!) very happy :-D
So funny – I was just thinking about this subject this morning – wondering if you ever cooked Eric meat to go along with the veggies. Does he just eat meat on his lunch at work or out at restaurants?
Luckily my fiance and I both eat healthy and he loves everything I cook – especially all the OSG recipes! But we are also major foodies and love to splurge at nice restaurants–
He travels often and I find that when he’s not home to cook for I eat very sparsely and usually vegetarian naturally. For example he was just gone for 10 days and I didn’t eat meat the whole time he was gone, but yesterday when he got back all I wanted to do was go have a burger!
Alot of women who eat healthy I know have to often times make separate meals for their husband and another meal for the kids – don’t think I would be as accommodating!
He has meat probably once a week, typically at lunch (with veggies lunches the other 4 times) we keep organic meat in the freezer and he will occasionally BBQ
My husband is an at home vegetarian. He doesn’t bring meat into the house put of respect for me and I don’t say anything when he orders a Bacon cheese burger when we go out. He has switched to soy milk in his cereal on his own accord and he doesn’t buy soda at the store anymore either. He is pretty amazing.
I share extremely different eating habits than my parents now. They snack through the day and don’t have big meals while I prefer to have 3 big meals and a couple of small snacks between them. This causes problems when they want to have breakfast at 11, lunch at 3:30 and dinner at 8. Cause I’m hungry! lol.
I don’t live with anybody but whenever I go home to visit I usually end up making my own meals seperate from the rest of the family’s. Every now and then they’ll ask if I’m making enough to share in which case..of course!..but other than that it’s meatloaf for them and veggie brgers for me. :P
That tortilla lasagna looks SO GOOD. :)
Everyone in my family except my mom is a big meat eater. I’m sort of at the same place Eric is. Even though I eat mostly veggies, I’m not a eating a vegan diet.
How is it possible that you make yard work look FUN!! Nice work today! My husband and I have very different diets. I am vegetarian with vegan tendencies (ha!). The husband is very omnivorous. I try to be a positive influence without being the overbearing, nagging wife. We make it work! Though he does refer to me as a ‘hippy’ more often than not. I don’t mind! It’s all in good fun!! :-)
Oops. I meant my husband is carnivorous! That’s what I get for multi-tasking. *blushes*
That tortilla pie looks so good. I don’t blame you two for almost polishing it off! I find that recipe servings are rarely accurate for me. Serves 4? Puh-lease. More like 1!
I live with my roommates during the school year and we have pretty similar eating habits. But during the summers I live with my parents and we’re on complete opposite ends of the spectrum. My dad is a ribs and potatoes kind of guy who turns up his nose everytime I make tofu or “weird, healthy food” haha! It makes it a little frustrating since it’s so hard to have family meals!
Unfortunately my boyfriend and I have very different eating habits. He is getting much better with his eating, but we usually eat different meals :(
Looks delicious! I totally agree with the pro-education!
I don’t live with my boyfriend, but we are with each other most of the time. He’s very focused on weightlifting, so his diet is different than mine even though we both try and focus on healthy clean eating. It’s hard because we both LOVE food, and we miss all the cooking we used to do. We’re slowly incorporating healthy meals that fit both of our goals–that way we get to cook and eat together and still stay on track. We might have to give this tortilla pie a shot! :)
Anything that can be made Mexican should be! I’m all about transforming dishes into something like this. It looks amazing!
oooh I really like this dish! What a great job!
I am lucky that Mr BBB loves to eat healthy foods – and doesnt mind being my taste tester in the kitchen!
I could probably be vegetarian very easily, as I have been reading your blog and cooking from your recipes, I feel sooooo good! My husband is very very bent on a high protein diet, so he eats alot, alot of chicken and turkey. But I do cook very healthy meals for us and I will cook meat for him and lots of veggies and I forgo the meat. He is very supportive and thinks its totally cool the way I eat and that is very important!! Even my 23 month old daughter LOVES GREEN MONSTERS!!!!
My husband and I eat pretty much the same thing meals wise. He used to be the main cook w a “let’s throw all this together and it ends up amazing” talent but now I cook more and collect different things and receipes to try. He still can stomach stuff like frozen corndogs that I can’t but he hates chickpeas so I guess we’re even for the most part.
Chrysanthemums = fall flowerbeds! I’m planning to plant a few in some flowerpots around our place.
I don’t think my husband will EVER stop eating meat. I know most wives can say that, but really…I can’t ever see it!
This Mexican lasagna looks so delicious – I’m anxious to give it a try!
I made your Blueberry Carob pancakes this morning and thought they were fabulous! Thanks for sharing it. I even did a blog post about it and referred my readers to your post (especially since your photos were so much more amazing than mine…I wasn’t concentrating on the photo shoot as much as devouring these yummy pancakes!).
Delicious looking dinner- I’ve made something similar before and loved it! I live with just my mom, and I am a vegetarian while she isn’t but we make it work pretty easily. She likes bean dishes and cheese, so when we’re having something like mexican or curry or bean-burgers and the like, we eat the same thing for dinner. She’s not a fan of tofu, tempeh or seitan, so usually when that’s on the menu we do what she likes to call “simo-cast cooking” (what a cutie- basically just side by side frying pans!) and have the same dish but mine with tofu/tempeh/seitan and hers with chicken/salmon. It works really well for us, and each of us gets to enjoy what we want. We get really creative about things for sure :)
Wow, that looks seriously amazing. It’s funny when I was reading that I was like I really don’t think that would serve six…haha looks like I was right :) So delicious though. Must try it.
Also my husband and I do NOT eat the same, sadly. We basically cook different dinners every night. It’s pretty dumb, but I don’t think it’s changing any time soon, so it works for now :)
Thanks for sharing your pie recipe! My husband, said wow–that’s looks and sounds really good! I’d give that a try! The minor detail? He’s a meat eater while I on the other hand an veg/slowly going vegan. Thanks Angela (and Eric) for the inspiration and yummy recipes…
~Stacie
P.S Your weeding turn out glorious. The weeds probably didn’t know what hit them ;) Ever thought of mulch around your bushes instead of flowers? Good for the environment and less work than flowers….though not as pretty I suppose.