squeaky wheels and shiny round things

It's a thing of beauty, isn't it?
That, friends, is the All-Clad d5 Stainless Steel 4-qt Saute Pan after which I have been lusting for the better part of 18 months (at least).  I've had a longing in my heart for All-Clad cookware since I was planning my wedding (you'd better believe they bought full-page ads in every bridal magazine published in the Northeastern part of the USA).  That yearning only grew more intense as I watched my mother-in-law preparing sauces and roasts and whatnot with her All-Clad cookware - now I could see how beautiful it is in real life and what a pleasurable cooking experience it appeared to offer.

If you clicked the link, you know that All-Clad is definitely not a bargain brand.  One of my favorite past-times has become asking Mister if he'll buy me a $4,000 27-piece set of All-Clad for Christmas, my birthday, Valentine's Day, or Tuesday.  (Hurry! It's on sale!  Only $2,800!)  I've made comments, half-joking to Mister, my mother, my father, Angst, and anyone else who will pretend to listen to me, just so everyone possible is aware that I would be eternally grateful if anyone ever felt like blessing me with at least a piece of this cookware.  That's right - just one item, because that would be enough to know if the "hype" is true.

If you've been reading for a while, you've had the privilege of seeing multiple snide remarks directed toward my faithful but insufficient CuisinArt 3-qt Saute pan, which has helped me make dinner since I got it for our wedding 4 years ago.  Actually, it was piece of a cookware set that I got on sale and I got what I paid for, so 4 years later, we're down to about half the original set and I've been replacing pieces bit by bit as needed.  I shared my initial dilemma here, where I was trying to decide whether to dig a deeper hole of debt to get a nice cookware set or just buy nice pieces as I was able.  Actually, looking up that post made me realize I've been complaining about my 3-qt saute pan for over two years.  On with the show!

For Christmas this year, Mister got me.....

Not All-Clad.  But he did get me a new cookbook, which is awesome, since I'd run out of creativity with my old ones (one of the many reasons I've been so neglectful in my posting).  I've been cooking from it all week, but tonight's meal was particularly colorful and attractive: Vegetables Provencal on basmati rice.

Why am I posting this after completely ignoring pretty much all month that I cook and eat dinner on a nightly basis?

The answer is very simple and even more gratifying.

My mother reads my blog.  On Christmas, she asked me what my inaugural meal would be...

in the All-Clad 4-qt saute pan she got me for Christmas...

I am a happy and very blessed lady.

The pan is a lot heavier than my "old" saute pan and I'm having trouble figuring out exactly where it's going to live.  It was so easy to cook with and it's so beautiful it makes me smile involuntarily.  I knew the real test would be washing it.  I haven't had stainless steel cookware since my generations-old RevereWare bit the dust, but I remembered that being a huge pain in my butt to scrub clean.  Since we have nonstick cookware, we don't have a scrubby thing.  I accidentally got too wrapped up checking Facebook and looking at happy pictures and let the pot sit on the stove with leftover tomato-based sauce for about an hour.

Washing it felt like petting satin.

So, ask and ye shall receive, eh?  My 1-qt sauce pot is starting to show its age....

Anyone?

a tribute to a supermom

I'm getting old.  I don't mean that the way I usually do, when I'm looking at my gray hair in a mirror and having an existential crisis about wasting my life.  My body is getting old.  Unlike birthdays and gray hairs, people don't feel the need to tiptoe around that one - with each day that passes, each holiday we celebrate, each wedding we attend, each baby that is born, there is someone there to remind me that if we want a baby, we need to get on it because my body has only a few more "safe" fertile years left in it.

Nice, huh?

As I approach my mid-thirties, with only a soon-to-be 11-year-old cat to call my baby, I am reminded of all the things Mister and I have said over the years, regarding procreation and why we really have no interest in it.  For most of our time together, Mister has traveled extensively for work.  Babies would interfere with that in multiple ways - I didn't want to explain why Daddy was away so much and I didn't want to resent my offspring for preventing me from going with him.  That is a tangible example of the underlying theme of Mister's and my decision to remain childless - we are just too selfish.  Neither of us has come to a point in our lives where we can see children fitting in - rather, for us and our lives, children would be an interference of sorts.

Before you decide I am the worst human being ever and take my uterus away, hear me out.  I have a very high opinion of mothers, which is the primary reason I am not one.  I think mothers (generally) are the most selfless, loving, patient, amazing humans on the planet.  From the moment of conception, a mother gives and continues giving until she finally takes her last breath.  A mother cares about your hurt no matter how mean you were to her in the midst of it.  A mother works solely so her children can have what they want, since their needs are more than met; or, a mother stops working so her children can benefit from her attention and love as they grow.  A mother is always thinking of what is best for her children (okay, maybe not always, but it sure seems like it sometimes) and doing whatever it takes to show her love to them.

I admire those qualities.  I think if I needed to, I could cultivate them because I can feel them lying dormant inside me.  I just have no desire right now to be that person.

Believe it or not, although I do love my mother with all my heart, she was not the inspiration for all that mushy.  Believe it or not, that was all to build up to this ridiculous idea I had: to cook a whole night of recipes from Mama Pea.  I admire the way she raises her children and if you read her blog for just one week, you will be as hopelessly hooked as I am.  Lucky for you, she just revamped her recipeas page so all of her awesome is easier to find.  You want easier?  She has a book coming out soon - you can (and should) pre-order it on Amazon.

Anyway, for my first trick (AKA Dinner), I made her Meatless Meatloaf.  This was actually on last week's menu, but I chickened out last week.  I made it tonight by sheer force of will and at this point, morbid curiosity.  Now, I'm kicking myself for ever having doubted Mama Pea - I've been reading her blog long enough to know better.

It's really not very attractive...but then again, neither is "real" meatloaf.  What matters is the extraordinary taste.  No offense, Mom (I love you!), but this loaf of mystery meat was far more flavorful than the gray loaf of ground beef we ate in my childhood.  Of course, I'm inclined to think chickpeas taste better than cows, but I know my mother and I differ there.

To go along with the theme, I sauteed some Yukon Gold potatoes in a mixture of olive oil, vegetable broth, garlic, and Mediterranean seasoning from California.  They were good, but were far overshadowed, flavor-wise, by the 'meatloaf.'

Turns out, though, that together, they complemented each other - the intense flavors of the loaf enhancing the potatoes while they calmed the seasonings in the loaf.  I think Mister might have preferred that both components of dinner not be smushy, but he seemed to like it nonetheless and thanked me for making "funny dinner."

For my next trick, I decided to make this amazing recipe for Apple Spice Coffee Cake that Mama Pea just posted over the weekend.

It looked amazing going into the oven, although I made a huge mess of everything putting it together!  There are a lot of ingredients, possibly more than I had bargained for, so it took me quite a bit longer than I had anticipated.  If I realized how inefficient I was in my kitchen (after all, I am still getting used to it), I would have started at least a half hour earlier than I did.

Nevertheless, it was fun putting it all together - I rarely make things that have a crumb/streusel topping because it's such a pain in the you-know-what.  My "small" bowl was way too small, so I had to upgrade before smushing in the Earth Balance, and my fork was frustrating me - I had run out of patience at this point, so I just rubbed it all together with my fingers.  This is not the best idea when you have long fingernails.  So, after I had coaxed the last bits of topping from under my rings and fingernails into the sink, I finally got this sucker in the oven.

One of the reasons I love making spice cakes or cookies is because they start smelling good when you are mixing everything together and the aroma only gets better throughout the assembling and cooking process.  Most of the time, by the time I get to remove my treasure from the oven, I'm almost literally drooling.  There's also something about the scent that fills my kitchen while baking these delights that is just so patently "homey."

To borrow a phrase... oh. my. peas!

My pictures aren't as pretty as Mama Pea's, but I haven't taken any seminars on how to do anything more than point-and-shoot, and my camera is adequate, but nothing "special."  Regardless, I certainly hope my cake tastes as good as Mama Pea's because I can't imagine it getting much better!

The pain-in-the-butt streusel topping was absolutely worth every sliver of Earth Balance that got stuck beneath my nails, trapping with it some cinnamon and brown sugar and maybe a piece of oat for added comfort.  What was the most amazing thing, though, was the way the two textures came together.  The top was undeniably crunchy, almost crisp, but the cake itself was light and pillow-soft.

Speaking of pillows....

I'm really bad at going to sleep by a reasonable hour.

Good night, folks!

twice as thankful

I love holidays.  Yesterday marked the beginning of my favorite time of year - "the holiday season," or as I like to call it, Christmastime.  I have a strong desire to do my meager Christmas decorating tomorrow because I know me and I know what my schedule looks like between now and the blessed day, and if I don't decorate before Monday, it won't happen.  There is a minuscule part of me that even wants to hit up some of the Black Friday madness, only because I know that if I don't start soon, I'll end up doing all of my shopping on Christmas Eve again and that really doesn't allow me to enjoy my favorite time of year much.  Minuscule.  As in, maybe I'll make it to Borders but probably not.

Anyway, my parents are counting their blessings for having raised a child who loves holidays enough to sit on an overcrowded train for nearly an hour to come out for Thanksgiving the day after celebrating it with 100 of our closest Greek relatives.  Okay, there weren't 100, but there were times it felt that way! (if I haven't said it before, the movie is absolutely true)  My mother had come up with this awesome idea; ordinarily (see last year), she cooks a turkey breast and two sides at her house and I cook tofu turkeys and two sides at my home and then we join together.  This year, Mom says to me, "Why don't we cook together?"  So I sent her a list of ingredients for the Savory Vegetable Cobbler and when Mister and I had settled in, hung up our coats, and after Dad and I opened the Beaujolais Nouveau, Mom and I got to chopping and steaming and mincing and laughing and simmering and smushing and finally...baking.

look at all those pretty fresh herbs!

Mom, with her adorable mini-cutting board, mincing sage

after artfully smudging the biscuit batter over top of the veggies-n-gravy, I decided to sprinkle a garlic-herb blend over top for extra fun

came out looking pretty rustic, don'tcha think?

pretty caramelized almonds my mom makes for the salad

So, that was dinner: Savory Vegetable Cobbler, salad with mandarin oranges and those killer almonds, and an apple-yam-walnut bake that made my mouth happy.  Even though I've been pretty good about not eating my way into the much-talked-about "food coma," I still feel like Marilyn Monroe had the right idea and I feel some celebrity emulation coming on:

prettier without plastic

I've been trying to figure out what to write for about an hour.  I really want to see if I can post something every single night of VeganMoFo, but I don't want to babble about boring stuff since my stats page tells me folks are actually reading my rambling.  Pardon me if I get a little random, but it's definitely starting to be That Time of Year again (look back a year on the right side --> if you want some fun reading).

Poor Mister has some kind of stomach bug.  Initially, he was trying to blame it on my Jambalaya, but I assured him that the stuff that tasted like seitan really was seitan and not some tempeh dressed up for Halloween.  As a result of his Angry Belly, he had no interest in whatever scrumptious feast I was gearing up to make...so I pulled my tall, narrow Tupperware out of the fridge and ceremoniously dumped some of my mom's stew into a pot to warm up.  I thought it deserved a prettier presentation than the glamour shot in plasticware, so here it is, all ready to be eaten:

look how pretty your stew is, Mom!

For some reason, it really disturbed me that there were no discernible flecks of herbs on there, so I thought I would add some "flavor."  I sprinkled it generously with powdered garlic (last night was not a All-This-Work-Just-For-Me kind of night) and a dash of sea salt.  I thought I detected a more adventuresome taste, until I warmed up a second bowl and forgot to season it and discovered that the enhanced taste was actually a function of it sitting in the fridge for a couple of days, and not anything that I did.  So, Well Done, Mom!

I almost did my chocolate round up, but I don't have enough "testing" done yet.  Don't worry - chocolate (and red wine) is my comfort food and the stress is being kicked up into high gear at work, so I should be ready soon!  I was ready to make my own chocolate sandwich treats by 1:30 this afternoon, so I'm pretty darn proud that I lasted until dessert time.

mmm....dessert

It's Beaujolais season and any day now the Beaujolais Nouveau will hit the shelves (not that I'm waiting...checking in....stalking...).  I discovered a perfect partner for the dark berry notes of this perfect Autumn wine - Bug Bites dark chocolate squares by Endangered Species.  A full review will be included with my chocolate round-up, but here are a few highlights:

• when I opened the wrapper, I was greeted by a small square picture of a bug with bug trivia on the back.  I'm not a big bug fan, but it was a clever idea.
• the texture is so smooth it was hard for me to believe it wasn't made with cream or milkfat, but it's not.
• one .35 oz square is the perfect size to satiate my craving for dark, bittersweet chocolate, and only sets me back 50 calories, 4 g fat, and 2.25 g sugar.  I may need to buy these in bulk!  They are the perfect replacement for my Ghirardelli addiction and [ironically] might just get me through the prep for Diet Season!

a delicata situation

My sister has accused me of having a strong personality.  Actually, she meant it as a compliment and that's exactly how I took it.  It came as a bit of a surprise to me, though, after what felt like a lifetime of being "the girl with."

The girl with?

You know, the girl with Kara, the girl with Mandy, the girl with Mindy.  The girl with.  I wasn't Natalie or anyone really - I was Michael's girlfriend, Scott's girlfriend, Annie's friend, and occasionally, when I was lucky, That Girl Who Sings.  My personality was smothered by my friends' bigger personas, prettier faces, or just my own personal weaknesses and fears.  So when my sister told me I have a strong personality, I loved her more than ever before, and I loved me, too.

Unfortunately, there is a downside to having a strong, confident personality - people who are still who I used to be: uncertain of themselves, lacking confidence, thin-skinned.  So, I have recently found myself pussy-footing around the insecurities of entirely too many people for my own comfort. 

When I was younger, I was the target of many pickings-on at school.  I wouldn't ever say I was bullied, but I was definitely terrorized a little by my classmates.  I used to come home and cry to my mother and beg her to intervene somehow that wouldn't make people laugh at me or to send me to a different school where I could start over.  She almost relented and I know it hurt her to see me so sad, but she said something to me that helped me to become who I am, who I love now.  She told me I was too sensitive and needed a thicker skin.

She was right.  If she hadn't said that to me (and believe me, I didn't appreciate it at the time), I might have become one of the people I'm busy trying not to offend now and I wouldn't have liked me nearly as much as I do.  Now, if only someone would tell my colleagues/"subordinates" to toughen up a little.

As long as we're talking about delicate situations, let's talk about my new Wednesday Night Adventure:

Broccoli, Delicata Squash, and a sweet potato, all scrubbed and ready for roasting.  I've never had delicata squash before, but there was a whole basket of little, pretty delicatas at Essene the other day, and I thought they were pretty when I read this post, so I thought I'd give them a try.  On a Wednesday.  Because Mister hates squash.
 
I came up with a new recipe when I picked up the squash, because I was also craving tempeh, so I figured I'd really do it up this week on One-Serving Wednesday since I slacked off last week and shoved vegan pizza in my face instead of cooking (one plain cheese and one with sausage and avocados).

 

Tamari Tempeh with Roasted Vegetables

2 large or 4 small servings

8 oz tempeh

1 small winter squash (I used Delicata)

1 small jewel yam or 2 medium carrots

1 head of broccoli, cut into florets

2 Tbsp tamari

1/4 cup water

olive oil

sea salt (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Cut the yam and squash into generously bite-sized pieces (remember, they'll compress a little while roasting), toss with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with sea salt if desired.  Spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for 35 minutes, stirring every 7-10 minutes.  Add the broccoli florets and more oil in the last ten minutes, stirring to combine. 

Meanwhile, cut the tempeh into four equal pieces and place in a large skillet with sloped sides.  Combine tamari and water, then sprinkle liquid over tempeh.  Heat over medium heat until liquid has been absorbed by the tempeh, flipping once or twice with tongs.

   

I stopped at Whole Foods on my way home from the train tonight because I was one breakfast away from running out of fruit.  After selecting one of each variety of apple (because I live to make life difficult for the cashier), a bunch of almost-ripe bananas, and a couple of kiwis, I also picked up a new-to-the-shelves jar of apple butter.  I spread some on a slice of bread while the veggies were roasting and realized that I probably would have been perfectly happy to make a meal out of that, so it was a good thing I'd already set the wheels in motion for my roasted dinner.  

 

Happy October!  (again)

because I said so

I don't think my mother ever tried that line on me, which is surprising, because I'm pretty sure I always wanted to know WHY I wasn't supposed to do something or was supposed to do something. Granted, I think she tried really hard to explain it to me because somewhere along the long line of my adolescence, we both realized that I would respect her and her rules more if I understood why she felt the need to repress me at every turn.

Why can't I go to a dance club?
Because 14 year olds have no place at a dance club.
But it's meant for teenagers - it's all-ages.
That means there will be people there who are older than you.

Fast forward 5 short years to when I was 19 and there wasn't a darn thing she could do to prevent me from going dancing with my friend. I remember seeing some 14 year old girls at this all-ages club and thinking to myself "Oh my gosh, they have no place here! My mother was right!" Talk about a stunning discovery.

There were a lot of similar discoveries. Enough of them that my sister told me once that telling me about her misadventures was only a step away from telling our mom because I reacted the same way she would. That led to a completely useless attempt to explain to her that it was only because Mom was actually right about it. I'm not entirely sure she ever believed me...not that she pretended to.

So speed through a decade or more and we get to today's events at work, which led to my reminiscent ponderings. I am at least somewhat convinced that the reason I haven't been fired yet, and have actually been promoted a few times, is because when someone in a position of authority over me says "do this," or "don't do that," I obey. Why? Because someone with the power to tell me what to do told me what to do and I figure (silly me) that they have that power for a reason. Apparently, I'm not of the same mind as at least one of my team members.

I say to him "don't do this." He says "Why not?" I explain it to him - multiple times with different wording each time, hoping to penetrate his rock-hard skull, but no dice. I say, "Regardless of this entire conversation, do not do that again. It will get you fired." In my mind, if I were him, that would end the conversation. Nope, not with him. It's exhausting - no wonder I don't have children! Whatever - here's your shovel, holler when you hit the bottom.

Speaking of shovels, yesterday was an icky cold and rainy day, which made it the perfect night to have one of my two soup dinners. I made the Tortilla Chip Soup, but I set a bowl full of tortilla chips in the middle of the table for dipping and scooping, rather than following the recipe instructions. Well, perhaps I'm arguing with my own point, but I know my Mister and if I put a few tortilla chips in a bowl and then covered those chips with soup, resulting in soggy tortilla chips, it would be a sad dinner indeed. So this isn't about insubordination, it's more an effort to adapt the Why.

Why are there tortilla chips at the bottom of the bowl? Probably because the name of the soup is Tortilla Chip Soup and the chips are playing the part of the "crouton" in French Onion Soup. Point taken, but that doesn't change how much Mister would hate to find several soggy sad tortilla chips at the bottom of his soup bowl.
It was really a lot better than I thought it would be, and I was pretty sure it would be great. Halfway through simmering time, I tasted the broth and determined it needed just a little more something. That something (I guessed correctly) was a splash of white wine vinegar. It enhanced the kosher salt I had sprinkled in earlier while embracing the acidity of the tomatoes. It was delicious without the tortilla chips, but I've really grown to love scooping up my dinner with a nice salty [multi-grain] tortilla chip.

Tonight, we had Punjabi Peppers and Tofu. To my great delight, the hearty sprinkling of cumin and accidental dumping of (probably a teaspoon of) coriander balanced out the cardamom so prevalent in my Whole Pantry Garam Masala. I tried really hard to replace it with the McCormick Gourmet Garam Masala but I couldn't find it anywhere. When I do, I'm buying all of them.
Also, I needed three peppers when I headed to Whole Foods last week - one orange, one red, and one green. However, peppers are not exactly in season and I couldn't tolerate the knowledge that if I actually hand-picked those three peppers, I would probably end up paying a little more than $2 apiece for them, so I grabbed one of those tricolored pepper bags where they just give you three peppers. So, the point of this ridiculous story is that if you look at my previous post on this dinner, you'll see red and green peppers, but tonight I made it with a yellow pepper in place of the green. I'm sure that revelation just rocked your world.

In other news, to my great surprise, I had a killer salad from the salad bar at work today. Normally, it's just some sorry looking lettuce (iceberg, of course - nothing but the best), cucumbers if you're lucky, and some indistinguishable mush that's probably supposed to be either tuna or chicken salad, as well as some drying out shredded cheese. Mmmm....heaven in an aluminum buffet. Today, though, I made a happy little plate with mixed greens, baby spinach, broccoli florets, chopped black olives, mandarin oranges, and sunflower seeds. For me, the mark of a good (well-constructed) salad is that it doesn't require dressing. That is why I am completely in love with Wawa's new Build-a-Salad option (thanks for the gift cards, Dad!) and I am pleased as punch to tell you that my pre-lunch salad did not require dressing. Which is good, because I fear those big carafes of goo.

vegan version fusion

Today I discovered a glimmer of courage I had not previously observed in my mother - she fed my father tofu! I didn't believe she'd do it and she proved me wrong and I just wish I could have been there to see the faces my "if it's not meat, it's not food" father made. She called me last week to ask if she could find tofu in a "normal" grocery store and where to find garam masala and I so didn't believe she would really feed my meat-and-potatoes father the Punjabi Peppers & Tofu but she did! Well done, mom.

Last night I made my Pomegranate Saute on Cinnamon Bulghur again. I guess it's a good thing when you like your own recipes enough to reprise them? It didn't look any different from the first time, so if you want to see what it looks like or get the recipe, look here. I did substitute pineapple juice for the apple juice in the recipe because I have better things to do with my time than chase down a small-serving bottle of apple juice. It didn't really taste any different, though I did need to add a little bit of salt to counteract the sweetness.

Tonight, however, I went out on a limb... it creaked a little, but it didn't break and I'm not sure I'll push my luck with this one, though I like the idea enough to try to modify it further in the future (I dare you to say that 5 times fast - further in the future...). I made Fusion Enchiladas from Clean Eating Magazine. I made a couple of substitutions and omissions, since the recipe in the magazine may contain quality ingredients, but one of them used to run around on 4 legs and we're not down with that. Anyway, I'm not going to give you the recipe, but I'll let you know about some of the fun bits of making it.

Okay, okay...I'll give you the recipe. By the way, if you aren't into magazines but still want to learn about the tenets of clean eating, Tosca Reno has published The Eat Clean Diet as a cookbook full of other helpful tidbits.

Fusion Enchiladas from Clean Eating, Sept/Oct 2009
"REFRIED" EDAMAME (pronounced eh-dah-MAH-may)
1/2 small onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, smashed (I pressed 4)
1 cup frozen shelled edamame beans
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
2 tsp fresh lime juice (I just squeezed a whole lime)
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

"BEEF" FILLING
1 1/2 tsp olive oil, divided
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
8 oz sirloin beef, thinly sliced*
1 cup corn kernels
1 medium red bell pepper, finely diced
2 cups baby spinach (I just used a whole 5 oz bag)
1 1/2 cups all-natural, low-sodium tomato sauce, divided (I used a 14.5 oz can of tomato sauce - I wouldn't do that again - not enough sauce and not enough flavor)
Sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
8 small whole wheat flour tortillas (about 6-8" in diameter) (I used 6 medium sized)
1/2 cup low-fat mozzarella cheese, shredded (omitted)

*I used Amy's All American veggie burgers. I cooked 3 burgers for 2 minutes in the microwave (sacrilege) then cut them into strips to saute in step three. It really didn't go as I had planned and in the future, I will either use seitan like I thought I would originally or I will use a different veggie patty - these just didn't hold together very well.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Prepare "refried" edamame: Bring 2 cups water to a boil over high heat. Add onion, garlic, and edamame, bring back to a boil and cook for 4 minutes. Drain onion-bean mixture, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid. Pour bean mixture and reserved liquid into a food processor and add cumin, chili powder and lime juice. Puree until almost smooth and season with salt and pepper. Scrape into a bowl and set aside.
Prepare "beef" filling: In a small bowl, combine 1/2 tsp oil, garlic and cumin. Add beef and mix well to season.
In a nonstick saute pan, heat remaining 1 tsp oil over medium-high heat. Add beef and saute for about 1 minute, until lightly browned. Add corn, red pepper, and spinach, and mix well to combine. Add 1/4 cup tomato sauce and cook for 1-2 minutes, until heated through. Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat.
Spread 1/2 cup tomato sauce over the bottom of a 9x13" baking dish and set aside.
Spread tortillas out in a single layer on a flat work surface. Scoop 2-3 Tbsp edamame filling and spread in the center of each tortilla. Top with 2-3 tbsp "beef" mixture and roll tightly. Place enchiladas seam-side down on top of tomato sauce in baking dish. Cover with remaining tomato sauce, top with cheese (if using) and place dish in oven. Bake enchiladas until hot throughout and cheese is melted, about 8 minutes.