Vegan Cream Cheese Enchiladas: How A Vegan Is Born (And Knitting Olympics)

My old school cream cheese enchiladas came creeping back with an even better tasting vegan twist. I didn't think it was possible. I think I first got this menu idea from a Pace Picante cookbook. The flavor and creamy taste of the filling was not lost one bit on my vegan substitutions! We loved them! 

This is what your filling will look like after you've mixed all the cheeses and salsa into the tempeh and veggie mix. I like a really full enchilada, mine looks a bit full--it still rolled up nicely!

My Knitting Olympics cardigan. (Even though I started my Olympics project in December.) It has taken me forevah' to finish one sleeve on this little precious. I fondly refer to this as my "Longest Mile" Diminishing Rib Cardigan because each darn section of ribbing feels like I've just knitted a mile. My goal: To finish this before the Olympics are over! Then, begin my next project because I do not like having UFOs lying around (unfinished objects).

Oh Happy Day--my new Spring Interweave Knits mag arrived yesterday. I am using iron will to not peek inside yet because it may cause me to abandon The Longest Mile and I would hate myself for doing so--I have enough stress in my life for now!

Last night I had a flashback to BV (before vegan). I used to make these killer cream cheese enchiladas--we'd have this dish at least once a month, sometimes twice. I have no idea where they've been for the past two years. I was ready for them again is all I can say. (Minus the fowl used in them prior).

When I was in the hospital, the days were broken out into six hour increments. . . for seven days. Within those increments were scheduled events like: nurses popping in for vitals, nurses popping in with pain meds (I only took Tylenol--except for that incident where my face was cut open again while I was wide awake--that, my friends, required a pinch of morphine--(and it made me sick all over again plus provided me with a vivid dream that involved Wynona and a concert and my getting to meet her--seriously), plus doctors making observations, phone calls from friends. . . and meal ordering time.


Meal ordering was the most fun. First of all, in case you were wondering, vegan options don't appear anywhere on a hospital menu. Maybe kosher, and vegetarian, low salt, diabetic, liquid diets--all available. But vegan menu, nope, nadda. Nurses were curious. "So what do you eat?" "Plants." "Oh, that must be hard." Oh for crying out loud! So I had to have a mini-conversation with my meal order person each time prior to placing my order. Then I had to take a nap it was so draining. It was a stretch for me to figure out what might be edible in terms of "vegan". They worked with me. And if I questioned an ingredient, like a white bean chili one day (I swore there was chicken in it). So I asked for a reading of the ingredients from someone in the cooking department. The woman was very kind and enlisted the help from a staff member saying it's soy protein--she swore. I was like, okay, bring me the chili. As for taste, well I pretty much wrote that part off. For example, I stuck with Cream of Wheat (made with water) every morning. Then, for lunch, I went crazy and ordered the veggie burger and fries one day, (hold the cheese). Dinner--I had the veggie pizza with red sauce and chopped veggies (like four nights in a row). Then, one night, I went out on a limb and ordered the "Mexicali Burrito". It sounded promising. This was a wrap stuffed with white rice and ten black beans--ten, I counted them.

The other night--when my home health nurse visisted to hook me up--she arrived right in the middle of our dinner prep. (I know I mentioned this once already, but the story gets better.) I was sort of distracted in that I had Mr. Thyme working the stove--managing the entire meal with my oversight, me with my arm splayed out and getting instruction on how to manage the tubes myself. My nurse stayed to have dinner with us--never having had a vegan meal herself, I assured her--you won't be disappointed. (She then honestly admitted: There aren't a lot of homes I visit where I'd actually sit down and eat dinner--I totally understood--but she had to wait an hour for my IV to run its course, why not break bread with us?) I showed her my blog. Plus added, Hey, if you don't like what you find here--scroll down and visit some of my food blog friends. Well, two days later I received a message from her stating she'd taken notes, made a grocery list and was going to give a vegan meal a try and serve it to her family! I was both thrilled and humbled. Now, I will wait to see how it goes over--I hope she emails me back. That was the whole point of my blog in the first place: try vegan, you'll like it, I swear!

So last night's meal was totally yummy! The only set back was that I am on the last three jars of my homemade summer salsa--this made me sad when I went to the basement to fetch some. I must have canned around twenty jars--both large and small, thinking I'd never go through all of these? Ha! I will need to can forty jars this summer. We love the stuff! But the dinner itself I made with my eyes closed--it came so naturally to me. As I said earlier, this meal usually involved fowl--so I subbed with tempeh which worked perfectly. (I mean, honestly, I never ever thought chicken really had a taste.) The meal as a whole is quite simple: You have your basic stuff for the enchiladas and in two other pots you have some canned refried beans warming and in another pan, you start your basmati rice and throw in a small can of diced green peppers for a kick after the rice cooks. I also add a lot of garlic in most of my cooking. I believe garlic has healing properties and is magical--same for onions. So, just know, if you see my "five" cloves of garlic and freak out--just know--it's personal, and you can make your own adjustments. But I swear by garlic. Nothing major taking place here. Good, honest, Mexican vegan grub--what family wouldn't love this?

Vegan Cream Cheese Enchiladas

1 package whole wheat tortillas
1 package tempeh
1 tablespoon Braggs Liquid Aminos
1 large onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
5 garlic cloves minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried cilantro
2 teaspoons chipolte seasoning or your fave chili powder
juice of half a lime
1/2 cup tofu cream cheese
1/3 cup vegan sour cream (divided)--save some in other words to make your lime cream for drizzling
1/3 cup salsa
1 can enchilada sauce (I used Old El Paso)
1 can sliced black olives
shredded vegan nacho cheese

First preheat oven to 400. Lighlty oil a 9x13 baking dish. *If you will be serving rice and beans with this or guacamole--prep this now. Next, take tempeh and slice it into four pieces. Place these into a medium sauce pan with water and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and allow to simmer for about ten minutes--this gets rid of the "taste" unboiled tempeh can have. Meanwhile, prep your veggies. Heat about 2 tablespoons of canola oil in a large saute pan. Add onions, garlic and peppers, and seasonings, turn heat to medium low and allow to cook for about ten minutes, stirring now and then. Drain tempeh from water and allow to cool a bit. Then, dice tempeh up into little squares. Place the tempeh in a plastic bowl and, here is what I did--I drizzled it with lemon olive oil, then added some paprika and a shake or two of chili powder and then added 1 tablespoon of Braggs Liquid Aminos. I put the lid on this and shook it really well to coat. Then, I added this to the pan with the onions and peppers. Now, let this all cook for about another ten minutes--stir every so often. Next, add the cream cheese, half the sour cream and salsa. Mix well to combine and allow the cream cheese to melt. Remove this from the heat. Allow to cool a bit. Take a tortilla (as in the photo above) and fill it with the mixture, roll it up and place seam side down in your baking dish. I was able to get five enchiladas filled. You don't want to crowd them. Take your can of enchilada sauce and pour over the enchiladas. Then, spread with vegan nacho cheese and top with the black olives. Bake uncovered for about 25 mnutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool a bit, then serve up! Whisk some vegan sour cream with lime juice and drizzle over the top. YUM!