Convenience Food Guilty Pleasures

What else are we going to have as our dinner default than tacos? We’re in Austin – the taco mecca. Plus, we got a 100-count package of corn tortillas from Fiesta the other day and we have some taco-making to do. I will find other things to do with the tortillas, no doubt, depending on how inspired I feel. I’m thinking it would be nice to make my own tortilla chips one of these days.

These tacos had pretty much the basics – Morningstar Crumbles, avocados, tomatoes, cilantro and Valentina sauce. We were out of onions unfortunately, but they were delicious regardless. It’s hard to stray from something so consistently good. Still, I think I’m going to make my own taco filling next time. The meat crumbles are nice (and Nathan is addicted to them), but expensive. Plus it’s weird that the only place I can find them is at Target. Why? Oh, I guess I haven’t looked at Central Market, but they are probably more expensive there! Still, I don’t like buying food at Target. It doesn’t feel right, if that makes any sense.


BUT, speaking of Target, for about a week Nathan and I have been going through these Simply Limeades like they was water (very aware of my grammar discrepancies, thankyouverymuch). Seriously. And we can’t find them any cheaper than in Target. So there you go. We actually have gone on two trips to Target where we only purchased Morningstar Crumbles and Limeade. Thankfully, the Limeade phase has passed, but I make no promises once I have more spending money. Times are too tough for Limeade and Morningstar sprees. Next time I will not only make my own tortilla chips, but I WILL make my own vegan taco filling! Poverty is inspiring the DIY'er in my lazy cooking. Yay. I'm going to go learn a new origami fold now and think about decorating the apartment!

Vegan Tex-Mex Bowl

This bowl puts together some of my all-time favorites in the tex-mex food genre: avocados, corn, brown rice, tomatoes, cilantro, those damn Morningstar Crumbles, lime and corn tortillas. I also had chips and salsa with this. Delicious. You know, it was incredibly simple to put this together. Really, not much needs to be done. Just chop the veggies, heat up the fake meat (I've never heated it in the microwave because I like making it just a tiny bit crispy on the stovetop), and cook the beans and corn. Nice to put some spices in with the beans, like paprika, salt, cumin, garlic powder. And Valentina sauce at the end! And warm the tortillas. Always warm the tortillas. It is ALWAYS worth the effort.

That is all from me. I just got home from an incredibly intoxicating Thai dinner (Titaya's - way better than Thai Kitchen), treated by Nathan. I'm going to go eat some pie now and veg like I have never vegged.

I Did Not Have Tacos For Thanksgiving

Hi. How was your Thanksgiving? Mine was excellent. Easily my favorite holiday, though I had to work a little harder to make this one as delicious as could be (for someone as anti-suburban Thanksgivings as I). The last 7 years I've been having Thanksgiving away from my family, with friends, which, I have to say, is a whole lot more delicious and vegetarian-friendly. I love my family, and I had a great time yesterday, but as far as the food they eat...it's just a different world from what my taste buds ("taste bud" is such a cute word) have come to love and appreciate. Well, I'll talk more about that in a week. I still have some pictures on my camera to catch up on.

Nathan and I have been eating a lot of tacos since we've been in Austin.

I had to put this second picture in just because I think both pictures look sooo delectable. Like, that second picture is downright sexy, no? That crispy (but not burnt) corn tortilla, the innocently curled and haphazardly chopped cilantro...the fresh tomatoes...smooth avocado slices...mmmm...*drool* I want one now! Can you tell I haven't eaten dinner yet?

The "meat" is Morningstar's Veggie Crumbles. I've been into them since I first became vegetarian when I was a naive little high-schooler and didn't know any better. Really, I had no idea what I was doing. I ate way too many meat substitutes, not enough vegetables, and too much starchy stuff. I felt horrible physically but proud of my anti-meat stance in a very meat-centric city. But I digress - these "crumbles" are effin' good. There are few meat substitutes I stand by, but these are tasty in and of themselves. I've gotten Nathan slightly obsessed with them. Unfortunately, they are one of the many things I'll have to give up if it turns out I'm gluten intolerant. I read somewhere that some people are intolerant only to certain amounts of gluten...I have to make sure about that. These tacos didn't make me feel bad at all, but if I ate a bagel or had a beer, I would have killer cramps shortly after. These are things to note.

Oh, and we are having a BLAST with the access to cheap avocados we're having here. Jeebus - this particular week at Fiesta avocados were three for a dollar! THREE for a dollar! The store should have had those wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man things waving out in front, cuz that was just crazy.

And these tacos were mos definitely topped with Valentina sauce.