Dinner Plate #44

 

I was still feeling lethargic after my vaccine, but I managed to make a pretty great meal! Here we have refried black beans, an improvisational Mexican-style rice with lots of veggies, some salted avocado mashed with lime juice and cilantro, homemade pico de gallo, and half a "walking tamale" with enchilada sauce, non-dairy cheese, and non-dairy sour cream.

I doctored up canned refried beans as usual, with onion and garlic. It was pretty good--I do find I enjoy the refried black beans with jalapenos Wegmans has.

The rice was partially to use up half a can of tomatoes I had in my fridge, but I took it a bit further by adding some veggies that needed eating--a small carrot, some onion, half a red bell pepper, some yellow squash, garlic, and peas. I blended the tomatoes before putting them in, and they gave the rice its distinctive color, though I also boosted that with some tomato paste. I seasoned the rice well with salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, and a bay leaf. It was pretty great!

I knew I needed to find a way to eat my walking tamales when they weren't what I'd hoped they'd be. So I made them into something amazing. I put half of one in a tiny casserole dish, covered it with canned red enchilada sauce, topped that with some non-dairy cheese, and baked it in my toaster oven until bubbly. I then added a dollop of non-dairy sour cream. It was delicious, especially with the homemade pico de gallo and "guacamole." I wouldn't buy these tamales again, probably, unless they were super cheap (and probably not then), but I do look forward to finishing them off this way.

However, the salsa verde one (which is what this one was) was a lot better than the one I had before, so this might actually be something I took on a road trip; hard to say.