Enchilada mole casserole

Well, crap. I can’t remember why I made this. Maybe it was Lord of the Rings Risk night at Star & Simon’s. I make variations of this all the time, so I can’t remember what exactly is in it. Maybe fake chicken sautéed with bell peppers and onions with a layer of refried beans in there somewhere. Kind of like a Mexican lasagna with tortillas instead of pasta. Oh yeah, and everything is better with tater tots, right? The sauce is the Doña Maria mole sauce that I’ve written about before. Kroger is now carrying it. W00t!

This is low-calorie, right?

Hey, so if I used whole wheat penne in the Pumpkin Baked Ziti recipe from Veganomicon that makes it have, like, negative amounts of calories and fat, right? Right? Sigh, I guess not. It makes an ass-ton too, so I’ma need to freeze some of it. It kind of dirties a lot of dishes and takes a while, slightly less then 2 hours from start to face stuffing, but like the Butternut Squash Lasagna, it’s worth it. I even made the bread crumbs for it from a bread I tossed in my bread machine at the end of last week.

Pretty in the pan. 

pumpkin baked ziti

All messed up on my plate.

pumpkin baked ziti on a plate 

Enchilada Stack Mole

A couple of weeks ago I picked up this box of prepared mole sauce in addition to the regular paste that I buy. It was vegan and I thought it might be good for some future lazy food. Well, the future lazy food is now the past lazy food and finally I’m getting around to posting it. It’s rare that I actually make up a recipe. I usually let other people slave away at testing recipes to see what works. But with this, there’s really nothing to go wrong. It’d lend itself to all kinds of vegetables, for example right now I’m thinking some potatoes would be nice, of course beans could always be tossed in, whatever fake meat you have, or none at all. See what I’m saying? Anyway, here’s what I did this time. I’m sure that’ll change in the future…

 dona maria mole sauce

Enchilada Stack Mole

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1 med. onion, chopped

• 1 med. green bell pepper, chopped

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 cup chicken style seitan, chopped

• 1 med. yellow summer squash, chopped

• ½ cup frozen corn

• 1 box prepared mole sauce, pint size

• 8 corn tortillas

• ½-1 cup grated soy cheese

Spray a medium casserole pan with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Heat oil in a large sauté pan. Once warm, toss in the onion and bell pepper. Sauté until onion starts to soften, about 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and seitan. Sauté for another minute or two. Add squash and corn, sauté another few minutes until onion is translucent and squash is softened. Season with salt & pepper and remove from heat.

enchilada stack mole innards 

 Spread a small amount of the prepared mole sauce on bottom of casserole. Lay down two corn tortillas. Spoon 1/3 of the vegetable mixture on top of the tortillas, spread a spoon or two of mole sauce on top of that. Now do the same with two more layers ending up with two tortillas on top. Pour remaining mole sauce all over the top completely coating the tortillas. Sprinkle top with cheese. Bake about 25-30 minutes or until cheese is melted. If necessary, broil for a minute or so to melt cheese. 

enchilada stack mole 

Butternut Squash Lasagna

butternut squash lasagnaOkay, so this isn’t so much a quick, throw it together on a weeknight after work kind of recipe. But it’s definitely worth all the pieces and parts that go into it. This is also the first time I’ve worked with a vegan béchamel sauce. It came out really nice. I was surprised. Makes me want to revisit some old ovo/lacto recipes I used to make. Oh yeah, I should say it’s from Yellow Rose Recipes. I’m tired or I’d rave more about it instead of just going to bed.