Vegan Mexican Food Feast

As promised, here is my menu for a family dinner we hosted for Joel's family. It was a birthday party of sorts. I was in charge of the dinner part and Joel took care of the cake. We always start with appetizers, of course. I have to admit, since it was our first time hosting Joel's family, it wasn't entirely vegan, but the dinner and dessert was. Joel's mom always makes an effort (a great one at that) to make my meal vegan when i'm at their place, so i thought it was only fair to have 'real cheese' to snack on! But i can't bring myself to use non-vegan items when i'm cooking.

Appetizers
Mexican style Tostada chips
Guacamole (made by me)
Salsa
Olives with garlic, or feta & red peppers
Cheese plate (2 kinds but i don't know what they are)
Mill St. coffee beer
fresh coconut & pineapple juice - rum optional

Dinner
Vegetarian Enchiladas (recipe to follow)with Mole Sauce (Vegetarian Times February 2006)
Refried Kidney Beans (made by me)
Rice salad with corn, peppers, olives and cilantro with lemon garlic dressing (made by me)



Dessert
Banana cake with Chocolate Peanut Butter icing and Soy Good vanilla ice cream (Joel added 3 tbsp cocoa and soy milk to the icing to make it chocolaty)
Coffee & tea

Vegetarian Enchiladas
1 cup ground TVP
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 celery sticks, diced
1 yellow zucchini, diced
Following spices: 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp chili powder, 1 tbsp basil, enchilada mix (if you have it), salt & pepper
1 can chopped tomatoes with sauce
1 can black beans
1 cup spinach leaves, washed
8 large tortillas
Mole sauce
1 jar salsa
1 cup vegan mozzeralla cheese, grated

1) Follow steps on TVP package to soften it - mine says 1 cup water to 1 cup TVP. Set aside for 10 minutes. While it is softening, put oil in a large pan. Fry onions to golden brown. Add celery and garlic. Fry for additional 5 minutes. Add zucchini. Cook until zucchini is getting soft. Add TVP to brown it. Mix thoroughly. Add cumin, chili powder, and basil now. 2) Heat oven to 350 degrees. 3) Now add tomatoes, black beans and spinach. Heat thoroughly and cook until liquid is dissolved. Pour mole mixture into veggies, saving about 1/2 for later. Warning: this is spicy! 4) Get a 9 x 12 casserole dish and pour 1/2 cup into bottom. Making them on at a time, put a tortilla onto a plate, and then add 2 large spoon fulls into tortilla. Fold on long side up, the 2 sides, and then the last side to close the enchilada. Put into pan, folded side on the botton. Do with rest of tortillas. 5) Pour some mole sauce onto top of enchiladas, as well as the grated cheese. Bake for 20 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes and then serve with more mole sauce or vegan sour cream.

I completely forget to take pictures of these before we all ate them. Oops!