Veggie-saurus

It's been a busy week. Last weekend Mike and I were in Palo Alto for a business school sporting competition. My good friend Anna flew into San Francisco and drove back to LA with us where we spent the week on the go. Here are a few food-related highlights from the week:

5. Homemade Chex Mix for the car ride: our secret family recipe, which they have published on the side of the Chex boxes (ha, just kidding. Find the recipe here). I add cayenne pepper to the spice mix. After a few handfuls you suddenly realize that your mouth is pleasantly on fire from the kick of the pepper. Delicious.
4. Garlic Fries: the Braves lost to the Dodgers. I cried a little on the inside. The only thing that consoled me were the french fries smothered in garlic paste. Because who doesn't love garlic?
3. Mile-high coffee cake from brunch in Palo Alto: I can't for the life of me remember the name of the place, but they had the lightest, fluffiest and tastiest coffee cake I've ever had. With a dollop of whipped butter on top, it was my favorite part of the meal.
2. Brioche Bread: Anna and I bought fresh brioche bread from the farmers market Monday and made french toast Tuesday and Wednesday. I didn't have any syrup, so we spread jam on top on Tuesday and I added orange juice and zest to the batter Wednesday. It was quite tasty. Mike and I then used the bread for an open-faced chicken meatball sandwich Friday night. Delicious.

Number one deserves its own paragraph. Anna is a vegetarian (total sidebar - I was watching Jurassic Park last night and the little boy tells his sister "veggie-saurus, Lex, veggie-saurus!" I love that line.) so her staying with us posed a small challenge for our meat-eating house that I was more than willing to take on. I had seen recipe for veggie enchiladas in a west coast magazine where each portion was cooked and served in individual  ramekins so I used this as the basis for my creation. I first sauteed diced onions, minced garlic, and minced jalapenoes in a skillet. Then I added some chopped chipotle peppers (from the can), half a can of red beans and black beans, and half a can of corn. I added some taco seasoning and a bunch of spinach, and let it all simmer together a bit and the spinach wilt down. Anna served as sous chef and helped assemble everything. We took some enchilada sauce (someday I will make my own, but I used store-bought for this) and spread on the bottom of each oven-safe serving vessel so that nothing sticks too bad. Cut up some tortillas into wedges and put a piece or two at the bottom, on top of the sauce. Then layer the veggies, some shredded cheese, more sauce, more tortillas over and over until you reach the top of the dish. Place the dishes on a cookie tray and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or so until the cheese melts and everything heats through.

There are a million variations on this. The recipe called for refried beans, corn tortillas, and green onions, but you could also add roasted or fresh bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes, kale, rice, you name it, you can put it in there. If you would eat it in a Mexican restaurant, you can put it in your enchiladas. And that if you can't forgo the meat, add shredded chicken or pork, flank steak, or ground beef. This will definitely be a repeat recipe in my house.

Question of the day: Do you ever eat meat-free meals? And if so, what is your go-to dish?