Exploration 1: The First Vegetarian-ish Day..WIN!**

Before I begin, question...does anyone else, when eating broccoli, still imagine themselves as dinosaurs devouring small trees, like when we were kids? Because I do, all the time. I realized this while chopping up the florets into "bit size" pieces as the instructions detailed. I also realized that I have no real idea what a floret is. Also, I don't know the proper way to cut vegetables so every time I'm chopping up dinner I question if there's a better way to do it. Probably.

This blog is a late entry and for this I apologize. I intended to whip up tonight's dish last night in order to post it this morning, but my sister made some good looking sloppy-joes so I figured I'd join the fun. Then I was on a role tonight when it comes to the office, behind the scene stuff, so I had to force myself to step away from the computer to begin preparing dinner. Knowing that I promised you an entry today, I wanted to follow through with it and declined an impromptu invitation to the cabin tonight where family is gathering. It sounded like a lovely time, but a promise is a promise.

Honestly, tonight's dish nearly was burriots because it sounded easier and I wasn't much in a cooking mood. But once I got the spices out, music in the background going, and the onions doing their magical thing in the skillet I was in chef mode. (I really would like to get an apron.)

On Sunday we had some friends over for dinner - Navajo Tacos or Indian Tacos. If you've never have one before they are as if you placed taco toppings on a Mexican sopopilla (*sp). Enchiladas, a great way to use up some of the left over toppings.

There are two parts to this recipe, there's the sauce and there's the enchilada. I started with the sauce since I need it for the second part. You actually don't need to start here. With time management, you can get your veggies doing their thing in the skillet while you whip together the sauce. It looks and sounds more complicated than it is. It's actually really easy - mix dry ingredients, heat up oil, dump in dry ingredients, whisk well, add tomato paste until it's as good as it's going to get then your broth. Simmer. Turn off heat. Dump in a little vinegar and pepper. THUMBS UP! DONE.

The first obstacle I ran into, I thought I had tomato paste, turns out all I had was sauce. And because I was certain the local grocery store didn't have vegetable both, I used chicken broth (gasp!) I didn't want my sauce too watery though, so the can measured 2 cups and the sauce measured one cup. Paste isn't over saturated in water so to balance it out, I dumped just under a cup of both out. It seemed to have worked as I had hoped.

SPOILER ALERT: The final product came out exceptional. I'm rather pleased with it and don't even care I made some creative modifications to the recipe. I will DEFINITELY COME BACK to this one. It's worth having. It's so good, I was halfway through the first plate (yes, I went back for seconds) before I realized I didn't put on any hot sauce. I LOVE hot sauce.

Yeah, that good.

The recipe says that cinnamon is optional - I would encourage you to use it. I'm sure it would add a nice edge to the dish that you'd hardly notice, but would miss it if it were gone. It's like the tuba in a marching band. I wouldn't know though because while measuring out my spices, I thought I grabbed the cumin and dumped a teaspoon of cinnamon into the mixing bowl...the recipe calls for only 1/4 teaspoon. Oops!

Ran with it! :-D

I also didn't have any bell peppers, but that's just a formality.

Bringing the "small trees" back into the picture...the recipe doesn't really specify HOW MUCH to use. I guess if you really loved broccoli you can just have at it. Personally, I wanted a nice balance so found concern with this. I ended up chopping up about 2 cups worth and I think it was enough. I may have been able to go with another 1/2 cup, but it worked.

Also a concern, that the "meat" of the enchiladas would be to little so I played with the idea of adding rice. I'm glad I didn't do this. I used medium sized tortillas and the filling was just enough. Anymore and the tortilla wouldn't close and it was in fact filling as is.

The presentation looked fantastic until I dropped it into my plate. But that didn't matter because again, it's paced full of flavor and texture that I honestly don't even miss the meat. Honestly. I actually feel like a vegetarian today.

So aside from the chicken broth and the beef flavored Ramen Noodles for lunch [Hey, I love Ramen Noodles and they don't exactly make vegetable flavored ones. I guess I could try the shrimp but I've never been a huge fan of it.] today was successfully my first all vegetarian-ish day.

After long self-debate, I've decided that I'd set aside my dietary restrictions tomorrow and endulge in some turkey and ham. If all goes as hoped, it will be my last meat-permitted Thanksgiving so I might as well enjoy it. It's also my Thanksgiving here in the South so I feel like I owe it to myself and my new family and friends to experience it to the fullest.

Before I sign off, here's where you can find the recipe to make your own. I'm positive that you will enjoy it as much as I did.

How to make Enchilada Sauce

How to make Veggie Black Bean Enchiladas (They are SUPER YUMMY!)

Alright, again I do apologize for putting this entry up so late. I'll do my best to avoid that in the future. But, From my heart and kitchen to your heart and kitchen - Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for reading.