VEGANMOFO: Why Jessy Is My Hero!

So we're down in Portland visiting my parents (and for those of you in Portland, we're actually in a teeny tiny town called Warren, in between Scappoose and St. Helens on Hwy 30 - it's about 35 miles West of Portland, way past Sauvie Island). And I was hungry. And in this tiny outlying area of Portland there are still a few vegan options - a mexican place that does a pretty good job with the no cheese and lots of veggies, Burgerville, the best fast food in the nation, and well, that's about it. But we're figuring we're going to be eating out a lot over the next few days just because of the schedule (relative's wedding, random relatives, blah blah blah) so I wasn't inclined to go out for lunch and even declined the lure of the aforementioned delicious Burgerville.

So my parents are not vegetarians but my mom is good about trying to keep a pretty well stocked pantry for us, which is nice. So I started snooping around in there, trying to see what was on hand, what she had going in the land of vegetables (bag of lettuce, some onions, shallots, garlic, carrots, a stick of celery), scoped out the fake meat options, and finally decided that it was going to be a mexican fiesta.

Black Beans
+
Can of Ro-tel Mexican (lime and cilantro tomatoes)
+
Some Canned Green Chiles
+
Cooked Brown Rice
+
Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas (!!)
+
Cheesy Sauce from VegNews Mac and Cheese
=
WICKED AWESOME!!!


I recently wrote about the awesomeness that was the nooch-free, salty mashed-potato-like cheesy sauce from the VegNews mac and cheese recipe and I really really wanted that cheese, but not necessarily mac and cheese. So I started my brown rice cooking, and peeled and chopped my onion, carrot, shallot and potatoes for the cheesy goodness. Opened the cans of beans, rotel and chiles and dumped them in a frying pan to heat through. After blending up the cheesy sauce I moved onto the freakishly simple task of making my own galldanged homemade tortillas (!!). So. Freaking. Easy. And delicious!!!!

And Jessy told me how. Which is one of the reasons she is my hero. She is also my hero for making so many other things on her own that I would never try my hand at - such as these amazing potstickers! OMGWTFBBQ!!! Amazing. I want those potstickers, NOW!

But anyway, back to MY lunch - it was really freaking super fantastic. Lunch construction went:

Slather a fresh tortilla with cheesy sauce, spread on some brown rice, top with chili-bean-tomato mix, and dab on some more salty cheesy goodness.

Life would have been even more perfect with an avocado, but we were working with pantry supplies, so you know.

My mom was really impressed with the food (she's a good sport) and ate her whole tostada-like pile of food, while exclaiming, "This is so good! And I never eat this much for lunch!!!" Silas sat still long enough for like 4 bites, and Chad was a huuuuuge fan and even said that this combo might just replace his usual gruel-like go-to meal (which is too disgusting to even describe, but this is a huge concession on his part, so yay!).

We will definitely be making cheesy bean tortilla madness again so. And you should try it too. Go pantry challenge! And go Jessy for being an inspiration!!! superw00t!