Nomads Go West: Part I

My ex-husband's family calls us "The Nomads" and I can see why. We seem to have an unquenchable wanderlust, so in some ways, this trip isn't a surprise. We began planning last spring - a cross-country trip to fetch some of Kara's things left behind in California combined with a trip to see my oldest daughter, Kat, in Costa Mesa, California. When surgery and vacation time (of lack thereof) intervened, we put off the trip until winter break at the college and then it just grew from there. One of the few perks of working in higher education is winter break which meant that we only needed to take 9 vacation days to get 23 days off. This proved to be enough time to cross the country twice from Jacksonville to Costa Mesa and back...approximately 6800 miles in total.

The South

We left Jacksonville promptly at 6:17 a.m. - only 17 minutes later than I wanted - on Friday, December 13th. After a stop at Dunkin' Donuts for those of us who need sugar and caffeine to get started in the morning, we had an easy drive through downtown Jacksonville to the start of I-10. We breezed through and hit up the Waffle House in Tallahassee by 10 a.m. What do vegans eat at Waffle House? Why tea and hash browns that are smothered (sautéed onions), diced (grilled tomatoes), peppered (jalapeño peppers), and capped (button mushrooms), of course! Then back on the road to our first stop in New Orleans, LA.

Neither David, Kara nor I had ever been to NOLA and it seemed a perfect stop for the end of the first day. I had reserved a room at the La Quinta in Slidell which is about 30 minutes north of NO. I was a little hesitant about staying at the LQ, but they have a liberal pet policy (pets stay free) and, as they say, the price is right, so I decided we would try it. I shouldn't have worried! The room, although a little small, was bright, clean, and very nice. I'm not a stickler about having the latest decor (I don't even think I would know if it wasn't), but this seemed nice.

Since it was a long drive (528 miles), we cooked in our room that night. To help keep expenses down, I packed our rice cooker and our small crockpot plus 2 bags of groceries (mostly rice, canned beans, lentils, and diced tomatoes) so that we didn't always have to eat out. I also have an awesome tin of tiny spice containers that my friend, Sandra gave me one year, so we didn't have to eat bland food :) That first night we made black beans and rice in the rice cooker. We also steamed some bagged broccoli, cauliflower and carrots in the room microwave. Who says you can't cook in a hotel room?

Black beans and rice with steamed vegetables made in our hotel room

The next day, Saturday, we spent in NO or rather in the French Quarter. We found parking near the French Market and worked our way westward. We didn't really have a plan (big mistake!), but we found some beignet and fresh coffee after wandering around a bit. After walking some more, we saw a river boat tour that really interested me, but it took a while and a lot of walking to decide we wanted to do it for sure. Before the tour, we used our America the Beautiful pass to visit the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve.

French Quarter Market entrance

Yummy beignet and coffee

As the day went on, it started to get kind of dreary and drizzly, so we finally decided that we would get on the river boat and what a dandy river boat it was! The Natchez  is the only steam paddle wheel boat in NO. We started our vacation with a drink - mine was too many kinds of rum mmmmmmm....

Look closely...this guy is playing holiday music on a calliope

Rum drinks to warm this rainy Saturday afternoon

Believe it or not, David was drinking coffee :)

Dixieland band

DC with gray hair. Oh what we have to look forward to!

After the boat ride, we were cold and damp, so we hunted down some warm "Lucy-Anna" cooking to warm us up. In the French Market we found a place that advertised "Vegans eat here", so we did. I had a wonderful veggie jambalya with lots of squash, mushrooms, and tomatoes and just enough heat. Kara had a veg po' boy that she still claims was her best meal of the trip - next to In-N-Out that is.

Kara's vegan Po' Boy

Vegan Jambalaya

The next day, we headed out at a slower pace with only 350 miles to cover that day. Since we had some time, we stopped by the Big Branch Marsh NWR in Lacombe in search of a last chance Red-cockaded Woodpecker which we eventually found. This brought my year bird list to 257 - just 7 species short of my 2007 year list record of 264 species.

Red-cocaded Woodpecker (female)

Belted Kingfisher

Eastern Bluebird

We got into Houston around 4:30 p.m. and made plans with Kara's dad for dinner at Fadi's Mediterranean Grill. I wasn't too pleased about turning around and driving back into the city after we drove all the way through Houston, but I'm really glad we went because, although the way you get your food is kind of crazy here, it was really good. I especially enjoyed the cabbage salad and the red beet salad - both of which were raw and tasty. No problem eating vegan here!

On Monday David and I got up early and headed about 40 miles west to the Attwater Prairie Chicken NWR hoping to see the endangered Attwater's Lesser Prairie Chicken of which there are only about 200 left, but with such small numbers and it not being breeding season, the chances were extremely slim.  A very helpful ranger gave us a map and some back country directions to try to see them, but even after braving dirt farm-to-market roads, we didn't see them. We did find our first Snow Geese of the year and a beautiful Caracara.

Looking for Attwater Prairie Chicken west of Houston

Kildeer

Our first Snow Goose flock of the year 

Not sure what this is. Any suggestions?

Eastern Meadowlark

A whole gang of turtles vying for the sun

Northern Bobwhites crossing the road.

Crested Caracara

Ring-necked Ducks

Northern Shrike

American Bittern trying to hide itself while crossing the road. He walked slow and low to the ground

American Pipit

Our plan for the rest of the day was to head as far west as we could in Texas before we stopped for the night. We didn't actually head out until around 3:30 p.m. and we got into San Antonio during rush hour. I thought (and I will take full responsibility here) it would be best if we took the upper loop around San Antonio and stopped for dinner somewhere along there instead of going downtown. So I had Kara and David look up "vegetarian Mexican" on Yelp and we headed on the northward 410 loop. Sounds like a plan, right? Well, it couldn't have been worse! There was major construction compounded by pre-Christmas shoppers at a major mall on top of rush hour traffic. It took us over an hour to travel 15 miles, however once we got to Guijillo's Short Cut to Mexico we were pleasantly rewarded. I had Calabaza con mole verde (zucchini with green mole sauce) which was wonderful! The sauce was a thick and pungent, like a green sauce made from tomatillos only thicker. It worked wonderfully with the corn tortillas. Finally some real Mexican food!

From Guijillo's, it was just a short hop back onto I-10 and westward until we dropped. And we dropped in a little place named, Junction, Texas. Uh-huh! As we got closer we stopped to call ahead for a room and there being no La Quintas in sight, we settled on a Days Inn with a $20 pet fee :(

As we opened the door to the room, there was an immediate, overwhelming odor of fresh paint. UGH! I can still smell it now! On first glance, the place was just stark and bare, but then, our eyes adjusting to what was in front of us, we saw the floor lamp on the dresser - no bulb or shade, just the lamp. It was sitting on newspaper and had been painted white with a brush (we could see the brush marks). In fact, ALL the metal in the room had been painted in the same fashion and was still sticky which is why the room smelled so strongly of paint. David immediately went back to the office and asked for a new room. He was told that all the rooms were being remodeled and, oh by the way, the paint might still be wet, so please don't touch or move anything. In hindsight, we should have left right then and there or at least asked for a steep discount on the room, but we were so tired and we had already dragged all our things up to the room, so we just settled in as best we could for a fitful night's sleep. We left Junction, Texas in our dust at 6 a.m. the next day, but not before trying to get some coffee, but even the milk was spoiled in this place! This night was the lowest point of the trip. It could only get better...and it did!

Smokin' Chickpea Gumbo

A while back, my book club read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and we had a theme of "Southern cooking" for the pot luck. Not being a southerner in a Northeast Florida book club, I was shaking in my boots about what to make. How could I be authentic (and vegan) and not walk away like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oab78cM9SOF-Ek

Well, long story short, I looked to my vegan heroes, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero's Post-Punk Kitchen  and Veganomicon. I found 2 delightful gumbo recipes (Okra Gumbo with Chickpeas and Kidney Beans and Smoky Red Peppers 'n' Beans Gumbo) that sounded great, but which one to make? I loved the idea of using chickpeas to add a heartiness to the dish, but that smoky flavor was too good to pass up, too. I agonized for days while the book club date got closer and closer. Finally, the day before, I decided I would make both...well, one dish that combined the best elements from both recipes. The result was a hit! Poor Denise has been dogging me for the recipe for months and I couldn't tell her I had actually forgotten which recipes I used. So this afternoon, I finally pulled it together and figured it out.

Tonight I made the gumbo using the 2 recipes, but I paid a little more attention to what I was doing. I made a few adjustments - less tomatoes since DC isn't too keen on really tomato-y stuff. I used half the amount I had originally planned on using and it worked out great. The amount listed below is the amount I used. I used a little less green pepper this time and I think last time I must have added some Cajun seasoning which I've left out here. Feel free to add in a 1 teaspoon to The Spices.

We ate this tonight with short grain brown rice and The Best Damn Vegan Biscuits I pinned the other day. It makes a LOT so get ready for some great left overs!  Let me know how you like it.

Smokin' Chickpea Gumbo

The Roux

3 tablespoons oil or vegan margarine. This recipe has less fat than a traditional roux. Add more oil (about 3 Tbsp) if you want a more traditional roux
1/4 cup flour

The Holy Trinity

1 large-sized onion, diced
1 green bell red peppers, diced
1 roasted red pepper, diced
1 stalk celery, sliced thin

The Spices

5 cloves garlic, minced 
2 bay leaves 
2 tsp. smoked paprika 
1 tsp. dried thyme  
2 tsp. oregano 
¼ tsp. allspice  
a grind or two of freshly ground nutmeg (or a pinch) 
pinch of cayenne (or more if you like your gumbo hot)
2 tsp. salt
fresh black pepper

The Liquids

1 cup chopped tomatoes or 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
3 Tbsp tomato paste
1 1/2 to 2 cups vegetable broth at room temperature
1 cup ale-style beer
½ tsp liquid smoke

The Veggies
2 cups okra, sliced (or use a 10-ounce package of frozen pre-sliced okra)
1 1/2 cups cooked red or kidney beans (a 15 oz can, rinsed and drained)
1 1/2 cup cooked chick peas (a 15 oz can, rinsed and drained)

The Garnish

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Freshly cooked white or brown rice
Hot sauce

Making the roux

First make The Roux: Preheat a wide, heavy bottom pot over medium-low heat. Add the oil and sprinkle in the flour. Use a wooden spatula to toss the flour in the oil and stir constantly for 10 to 14 minutes, until the flour is carmel colored and smells toasty. Don't let it burn! If it burns, start over. No joke, start over.

Add The Holy Trinity and toss to coat the vegetables completely in the flour mixture. As the vegetables release moisture, they will coat more and more. Cook it this way, stirring often until the vegetables are soft. Add The Spices and stir for a minute or so until everything starts to smell wonderful.

The Holy Trinity and the roux

Next, add the tomatoes and cook them down for about 10 more minutes. As the tomatoes break down, the mixture should become thick and pasty. Then add the rest of The Liquids (add the broth very slowly and stir while you're adding it) and then The Veggies and turn the heat up and cover to bring to a boil. Stir occasionally.

Red beans and chickpeas

Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and let cook uncovered for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally until the stew is nicely thickened and the okra is tender. If it’s too thick, thin it with some vegetable broth. If it’s not as thick as you like, just cook it a little longer.

Right before serving, add the lemon juice and adjust the seasonings to your liking. Let it sit for 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and serve in a big, wide bowl, topped with a scoop of rice and some Frank's.

Just before it simmers

I used NewCastle Werewolf Ale tonight. 

BYOH(eat) with Frank's Red Hot sauce
(or Tabasco if you must)

Vegan Red Pepper Dressing/Dip

Wow! It's been a super long time since I've updated and this won't be a long one either. Lots of stuff to catch up on, BUT Duval Audubon Society gets started again this weekend, so maybe, just maybe there will be pictures :)

Soooo, because I wasn't able to find a suitable recipe for what I had a hankerin' for, I created this dressing to put on our vegan fish sandwiches tonight. I'm also planning to use it as a salad dressing this week. It makes plenty, so if you just want to try it, you may want to half the recipe. It is super tasty!



Roasted Red Pepper Dressing/Dip

1 cup raw cashews (soaked in water until soft and drained)
1/2 c. water (NOT the soaking water)
1 clove garlic

2 roasted red peppers, skins removed
2 Tblsp. white balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. capers
1 very small sweet gherkin pickle
2 tsp. salt

In a blender, blend the cashews, water, and clove of garlic until it's super smooth and creamy. Add the remaining ingredients and blend again until even smoother. Adjust for salt.

Crooked River State Park (Our first camper trip)

-->

This past weekend we took our new (to us) mini camper out for a trial run. We (I) wanted to go someplace fairly close to get the hang of hauling a trailer, little as it is, for the first time. Kara thought it would be cool to go to Georgia since she’d never been there except to drive through and since it’s less than 40 miles from our house to the GA border, I thought that would be a good distance – a few miles, but not too many.

First a little about our camper… ever since July when I saw this great tiny teardrop trailer while visiting my friend, Jenn, I’ve been looking at small trailers that might fit my car and my wallet.

Handmade tiny teardrop trailer I saw in Roanoke, VA this past summer.

One day while browsing Craigslist, I found our little guy (not a “Little Guy”) at a nearby pawnshop for a very reasonable price! It was about half what I expected to pay and is just last year’s model.  It’s a Signatour Venice model, which is about the middle of the line.  There’s no kitchen or bath facilities, but it’s got electricity, a folding queen-sized foam mattress, and a cabinet along the back wall which has proved very handy for storing our sleeping bags and pillows.  There’s also a small storage space in the front where we’ve been putting the camp chairs and stove.

Our Signatour Venice towed by the Matrix.

Of course, before we camped in it for the first time, we had to  buy a few necessary things for car camping and pimp it up a bit! I think the coolest thing I found was this stringof Coleman lantern lights. I only got one string, but we def need more! While I was at it, I bought us a “real” Coleman lantern, too so we could play cards or games at night.

Another cool thing we got, although it’s not nearly as cool as the lanterns, is a roll up table. There are a bunch of tables out there, but I picked this one because it got really great reviews and seems to be really stable. 

Pre-camping also included going through all my old camping stuff and sorting out the things we could take car camping and what stuff is strictly for backpacking, think tent, sleeping pads, water filter, etc. I bought 4 large, clear (so we could see the contents) Rubbermaid containers to put the “kitchen”, food, bathroom/first aid, and recreation stuff (games, cards, field guides, Frisbee, etc.). Kara and I had a lot of fun finding foodstuffs that would keep forever so we would have “emergency food.” So now we have food in case of a hurricane or Zombie attack as well! David installed some “D” rings on the sides of the camper so we can secure the containers with bungy cords while we’re traveling.

OK, OK, on with the trip! We arrived at Crooked River State Park off Exit 3 (!) in St Marys, Georgia on Friday afternoon right around 1 only to be informed that the campground would be full up that weekend. Luckily we had made a reservation and had gotten there early! We got a decent campsite, but it ended up being not as quiet as we would have liked. Much to Kara’s chagrin, the campsite next to us had 2 pretty hyper kids who were LOUD at 6am.  (As we got everything together, Kara decided that sleeping in the camper would be too confining for her, so she slept in the 2-person tent.) Luckily for the entire campground, they were fisher..people?, so they were gone most of the day Saturday! 

  

We pretty much just hung out Friday and Saturday, taking short walks to explore.  Here are some of the pictures we took around the campground:

Honest they were happier than they looked for the camera!

I should say here, that anyone who knows me knows this isn’t necessarily my kind of camping (showers and flush toilets, really?), but I did want our first experience in the trailer to be pleasant enough that David and Kara would want to do it again sometime. If they had to dig cat holes, I don’t think that would happen again in this century! As it was we played Scrabble and Uno, read and had awesome campfires complete with vegan s’mores. Our dinners included the infamous Velveeta and shells, veggie dogs, stir-fry noodles with veggies, and roasted asparagus. We certainly ate well! Here's one of our awesome campfires:

On Sunday, we traveled about an hour west to the OkefenokeeNational Wildlife Reserve near Folkston, GA. We took a 90-minute boat tour that should have been awesome, but with the weather only so-so, we had only a few birds and gators. The highlight for me was 2 red-shouldered hawk juveniles chasing and screaming at a red-tailed hawk. Those were quite some aerials that the pictures don’t do justice. We also got a very close look at 2 gators – the biggest I’ve seen in the wild yet! 

Spanish Moss

Red-shouldered Hawk

Great Egret

Gator! Yes, goodbye, head on out!

A beautiful Anhinga specimen

Yellow-bellied- Slider (I think - don't blame me, it doesn't have feathers!)

After a picnic lunch of vegan potato salad and cold veggie chick’n, we headed to down the road to check out the drainage ditches (more gators) and a green heron (apparently quite rare here at this time of year).  At the end of the road is the Chesser Island homestead. It was fun teasing Kara that we were going to buy this place and make her do all the cooking, cleaning, water pumping, canning, smoking (of tofu), feeding of animals, and making of syrup!

We then made our way back toward the campground. I won’t expound on the migraine I had, but let’s just say that my night was ruined. Monday morning saw a light drizzle – enough to make everything wet enough so that we packed up a few hours early and headed out. The consolation prize was breakfast at Waffle House with hashbrowns smothered, capped, and peppered! 

Tropical Storm Comfort Food

Last night Tropical Storm Beryl blew right through the heart of Jacksonville - the first major storm to hit JAX directly in over 100 years. If the sustained winds were just 5 miles an hour stronger (75mph), she could have been classified as a Category 1 hurricane and would have had the honor of being the first hurricane EVER to hit Jacksonville directly. As one of the many lucky ones, I awoke with power still on while the wind and rain continues. I've never done well on rainy days as some of my dear friends can attest and I woke up today with a passion for some comfort food. Not the mac and cheese kind, but the warm and cinnamon-y kind. It had to be apple-cinnamon muffins.

Of course, the first place I also run for great recipes that won't kill my lifestyle/diet is Fat Free Vegan Kitchen by Susan Voisin. I just love, love, love everything she does and I have honestly never found a bad recipe. While I couldn't find exactly the muffin I was looking for, I did find this Berries and Spice muffin recipe that sounded like it could be the base of what I craved. I adapted her recipe in a couple of ways. First, I nixed the margarine in the crumb topping. I don't even keep margarine (or butter) in the house and the only oil in my cabinets is a oil spray and some olive oil which we use sparingly in rare cases (like when DC cooks LOL!). However, I did like the idea of the topping, so instead of dropping both the oil and water as Susan suggests, I doubled the water. OK, maybe that wasn't such a great idea. I probably should have just put in the half tbsp that recipe called for, but I was able to turn it around by adding a little more flour to the mix. What I ended up with was a crumbly mixture of flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. I also nixed the nuts in this recipe as I don;t keep those around either. I subbed in the cinnamon instead since that's what I was craving.

I increased the lemon juice a bit from 2 tsp to 1 tbsp because...are you ready for this? I had half a lemon in the refrigerator and when I juiced it, I got about a tablespoon (or 3 teaspoons). What waste it, right? After all it's the acid from the lemon juice that combines with the baking powder and soda to make the bubbles that make these little guys rise up, so if 2 teaspoons is good, 1 tablespoon is better :)

Finally, instead of the berries, I added a chopped apple and some raisins. They turned out really great! The little crumbs of flour, sugar and cinnamon turned out different than if I would have used margarine with it. They weren't the soft crumbs I'm used to. They took on a crunchier texture which worked well since there were no nuts in the topping. I was really pleased with how tall they got! I guess that extra tsp of lemon juice did make a difference!

Here's my recipe (shameless adapted from Susan's):

2 T brown sugar
2 T unbleached white flour
1 t cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon water (I used more, but start with this much and go from there)

1 1/3 c soymilk
1 T lemon juice
1 apple chopped
raisins

2 c whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sugar (I used a scant 1/3 cup, but you'll probably like more sugar than I do)
1 t baking powder
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t ginger
1/8 t salt

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Mix the first 3 ingredients together, then ad water a few drops at a time and stir lightly with a fork to make crumbs. Don't add too much water, just enough to get a few fine crumbs started. Set aside to use as topping.

Mix the soymilk with the lemon juice in a 2 cup measuring cup. It will curdle somewhat - that's good! Add the chopped apple to the cup and enough raisins to push the liquid to the 2 cup mark.

Mix the dry ingredients, flour through salt, together. Make a well in the middle and pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir just until moistened (overstirring will make muffins tough).

Spoon the batter into muffin cups that have been oiled or lined with silicon muffin cups. (do not use paper liners with oil-free muffins–they stick!) Top each muffin with an equal amount of the cinnamon mixture. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pans on a rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pans and cool slightly before serving warm.

Sping is here and so are nopales!

Last weekend, DC and I found the Jacksonville Farmer's Market just a bit north of our office. Along with some late winter citrus, early strawberries, and other bargains, we found a basket of nopales - prickly pear cactus pads. The young Hispanic man minding the stall looked at us quizzically and asked, "you eat these?" Then he scrunched up his face when I said "Yes!" Maybe he only knows abuelas who eat them or maybe his family does something non-edible with them. Who knows? Anyway, I've been hooked on nopales after visiting Sian Ka'an near Tulum, Mexico. There were also a few places in Tucson that would reliably serve nopales (or nopalitos) with enchilada sauce and tortillas, namely Tonia's 33 and La Indita - oh man I miss those!

One word of advice: don't want to do the cactus too far ahead of time. Like okra, it gets a little slimy. That's not a bad thing, in fact, it's the slimy substance that has been found to help regulate blood sugar. Be sure to check out this episode of Scientific American if you want to learn more about the regulating properties of desert plants.

Tonight I seared the nopales on top of the stove and paired them with a spicy jalapeno mango salsa since mangoes were on sale and a little Daiya cheddar-style in whole-grain tortillas.  I served this with my "amazing" black beans and Brazilian orange rice on the side. At the last minute I remembered the ultra-ripe plaintain and made muduros (fried sweet plaintains) which couldn't be easier.  Finally, no Latin American meal (or any meal for that matter) is complete without some chocolate, so I'm baking up a batch of No Meat Athlete's Black Bean Brownies. However, after this filling meal, I think the brownies will make a better dessert throughout the week. Well, maybe just a little piece tonight...to be sure they're OK :P

First I de-spined the nopales. I don't think I did a beautiful job, but we didn't get any spines in our mouths either! This, of course, is essential if your nopales are fresh and not already de-spined (sometimes they are or if you buy your nopales in a can, it's that much easier). Then I rinsed them thoroughly and put them aside to cook later. Next I made the salsa, the beans, and the rice in that order. When the rice and beans were cooked, I grilled the nopales, warmed the torillas and made the plantains. The recipes below reflect the order in which I made them, however, since I'm opposed to giving away recipes that others spend their time creating and put into cookbooks, you'll have to check out Viva Vegan to get the rice recipe. Buy the book, it's totally worth it! You can also check out No Meat Athlete's Black Bean Brownies on the website which has TONS of other great recipes as well!

 
Amazing Black Beans

1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
2 Tablespoons sofrito (or 2-4 cloves garlic, chopped)
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano, crushed
1 bay leaf
1/2 can chopped tomatoes with habenero peppers (use plain tomatoes for something a little less hot)
1/4 c. water
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
salt and hot sauce to taste
2 Tablespoons to 1/4 c fresh cilantro, chopped

Use a little non-stick cooking spray in a 2 quart saucepan. Add the onions, pepper, and sofrito (or garlic) and steam-fry until the onions are clear and the pepper is soft. Add a little water if you need to keep it from sticking. When the onions are cooked, add the spices and continue cooking for another minute or two until it's really fragrant. Add the tomatoes and the water and stir everything together well. Finally add the beans and cook for 30 to 45 minutes. Adjust the salt and heat. These can wait on the back burner while you do everything else. Add the cilantro just before serving.

Spicy Mango Salsa

1 small onion, chopped fine
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped fine
1-2 fresh jalapenos, chopped fine
2 very ripe fresh mangoes, peeled and chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
juice of 1 lime

I used my small food processor to chop everything up, but you can do it by hand if you like. Mix it all together in a bowl and try to avoid eating it all before dinner!





Grilled Nopal Burritos

2 prickly pear pads (nopales), de-spined and rinsed
1 Tablespoons cheddar-style Daiya
2 Tablespoons spicy mango salsa
1 tortilla

Lightly spray a griddle pan with oil and until very hot. Sear the nopales until brown on both sides. remove from heat and cut into thin strips (about 1/2" x 2").

Warm the tortilla on the hot pan turning to warm both sides. Remove from heat. Place the nopales on the tortilla and top with Daiya and salsa. Roll, cut and enjoy!

Here's how the nopales looked on the griddle:

 And then a little browner:

Here's how the burrito looks before it's rolled up:

And one last picture of the whole enchilada, I mean burrito!

 

Let me know if you try this!