What to Make and Eat this Week

It's time to dive into hearty casseroles and skillets

To subscribers of this Sunday meal-planning newsletter, many thanks for bearing with me last week as I navigated my first-ever fracture (just under the elbow of my right arm, not painful but inconvenient) and the fogginess that came with it. I hope you enjoyed the fall soups roundup that was easier to accomplish in place of the usual meal planning format.

With the arm healing as expected, I’m now able to type pretty comfortably with it in my sling and propped on a pillow! So here we go with planning meals for this coming week, which promises to be, even with Halloween behind us, really scary.

After soups, I place hearty casseroles and skillets at the top of the world of comfort foods. And there are so many ways to make them vegan and hearty, perfect for the start of November.

This week, we’ll be making …

• Vegan Enchilada Casserole

• Cheesy Vegan Chick’n or Baked Tofu & Broccoli Skillet

• Lasagna-Like Vegan Pasta Casserole

• Sweet and Smoky Greens & Beans

Bonus recipe: I’ll be linking you to The Vegan Atlas site for a simple, adaptable vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe. I usually put the bonus recipes right in the newsletter but Substack is yelling at me that this one is already too long.

I’ll likely be sending out the regular free Wednesday newsletter on Tuesday morning for a little distraction (both for myself and readers). I have no idea how everyone (at least in the U.S.) will be feeling, but likely it will be crazy one way or another. Sigh …

Vegan Enchilada Casserole

Vegan enchilada casserole is an easy main dish filled with classic Southwestern flavors, and makes a generous amount. It involves throwing together a lot of convenient ingredients like canned beans, tomato sauce, and frozen corn, Yet it’s unbelievably good when you need an inexpensive, tasty dinner that everyone devours.

Complete the meal: All you need to do while it’s in the oven is to make a simple salad. Steaming a batch of broccoli or greens wouldn’t hurt, either. If you want to make something extra:

• Since you have the oven on at 400º F, consider roasting a pan of vegetables; for ideas, see 8 Easy Roasted Vegetable Dishes That Hardly Need Recipes or Classic Roasted Root Vegetables with Lots of Variations.

• Or, roast a pan of diced or fry-cut potatoes or sweet potatoes. A basic tossed salad of lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, olives, and cucumbers with your favorite dressing rounds out the meal. 

This recipe makes 8 servings. For more tips and the printable recipe card, see the full post.

Ingredients

• 15- to 16-ounce can tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 15- to 16-ounce cans pinto, pink, or black beans, drained and rinsed

• 8 to 10 ounces vegan burger crumbles, or 2 vegan burgers
  (or omit and use an extra can of beans)

• 2 teaspoons chili powder

• 1 cup salsa, your favorite variety, plus more for topping

• 2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed

• 2 to 3 scallions, thinly sliced (use a little for topping if desired)

• 1 or 2 hot or mild green chili peppers,
  or one 4-ounce can mild chopped green chiles, optional

• 10 to 12 corn tortillas

• 1 1/2 to 2 cups vegan cheddar or pepperjack shreds (or a combination)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400º F.

2. Lightly oil a wide 2-quart rectangular casserole dish. Pour about 1/4 cup of the sauce over the bottom of the dish and spread around evenly

3. Heat the oil in a large skillet or stir-fry pan. Add the beans, vegan burger crumbles (or the extra can of beans if omitting burger crumbles), the remaining tomato sauce, and taco seasoning. 

4. Stir together and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat for 5 minutes.

5. Stir in the salsa, corn, and scallions. Cook for 2 minutes longer and remove from the heat.

6. Layer in the casserole dish as follows: 5 to 6 tortillas (enough to cover; sometimes it’s easier to cover the surface evenly if you cut them in half), overlapping one another; half of the bean mixture; half of the cheese. Repeat the layers.

7. Bake for 15 minutes, until the cheese is nicely melted. Let stand for a minute or two, then cut into wedges or squares to serve. Pass around salsa to top each serving.