Deb's Night - Engine 2 (Joyful and Exciting!)

Greetings, ye readers of blog.  We're here at Bridebville, making a vegan Mexicanish meal inspired by the Engine 2 diet.  This diet is the plant-based superdiet championed by hot firemen.  When I think about hot firemen, well, I'll use the result from a google image search for you:

Suffice to say, this man did not write a cookbook.

Today, Deb is going to take the Engine 2 diet's first FAQ, and try to address it.  Here we go, internet...

IS EATING PLANT-BASED FOODS JOYLESS AND BORING?

Tonight's meal, well, we're going to really taste the flavors!  Things aren't going to be muddied by oil, not one bit!  But don't worry, you'll get your fat from the avocado...

Hmm.  We shall see.  So here's our menu!

• Guacamole
• Salsa
• "Tapas" (they might have been called nachos in a cheesier life...)
• Enchilada casserole
• The Great Wooden Bowl Salad
• Berry cobbler

Joyless and boring?  Well, do these tomatoes look joyless and boring?

That's what I thought.

So...cobbler.  Well, in Deb-ville, we've been having a communication...uh...learning.  So, when you see a crossed out thing in the recipe, you might think "Hey!  That's crossed out!  I'm not going to put that in!"  But actually, you should have thought, "Hey!  Deb didn't need to buy that at the store!"  Therefore, maple syrup should go into the cobbler.  Great!  In fact, since the cobbler topping got mixed into the berries, we're just going to...uh...make another one!  There you go!

Joyful and Exciting!

Our enchilada casserole is filled with hash browns (the recipe actually calls for starting from frozen) and some fat-free spinach and mushrooms.

These came from a bag.  Hm.

It's Janet!

Um, in the meantime, we went ahead and read the Engine 2 Diet guy's motivation spiel.  Which included losing 7 toenails from running an Iron Man triathlon.  Deb, by the way, yells at me when I exercise for like, forty minutes, and thinks that I should probably just embrace being a pedestrian for better health.  Mr. Rip Engine 2 Guy went ahead and exercised for like 8 hours without stopping.  AND HIS TOENAILS FELL OFF.  And now, she takes nutrition advice from him.  I find this really...uh...unexpected.

Also unexpected is the amount of chili powder called for in this recipe, at 2 tablespoons (!) - so Brian is crying a little bit.

Collaborative Enchiladas! Joyful!

Enchiladas, pre-oven

Janet is here just in time to prepare tofu for the salad.  As Brian says, "Memphis-style tofu"!  We'll dry-rubbing the tofu with garlic powder and nutritional yeast.  The recipe calls for dredging, but massaging, well, that's the order of the day.

Memphis-style tofu

Pan-fried tofu!

We are making "Tapas", which we're calling instead of Nachos, because, well, they look like this.  Maybe they're kind of like baked tacos?  It's really ambiguous what these are.  Brian doesn't like beans, and Jim doesn't like peppers, so...uh...here we go.  Afterwards, we're going to put the guacamole and salsa on them.

So, while things are cooking, there is a Toronto mayor that uh...smoked crack in a drunken stupor.  This is pretty outstanding in an internet sense.  Furthermore, there was a video leaked with this fine quote:

"When he's down, I'll rip his fucking throat out," Ford says. "I'll poke his eyes out. I will, fuck, when he's dead, you help make sure that motherfucker's dead."

As if that weren't good enough, there is another scandal attributed to Rob Ford called, simply "Assgate".  Oh dear.

Oh hey!  Food is ready!

Tapas and enchilasagna!

Tapas

Deb - They were a little limey and fell apart, so...it was very bitter.  They had potential but we did the tortillas wrong somehow.  Maybe we should have fried them in oil... C-

Janet - B.  I thought they were my favorite things, but I wanted more avocado.

Brian - C-.  I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by how they tasted!

Jim - B-.  I put plenty of guacamole.  When I put some of Brian's cheese on it, it was so much better.

Alex - C.  It was hard to eat, the guac was just ok, it tasted plain and wanted cheese really badly.  Or lard.

Salad

Deb - I loved the salad.  A-.  I used green goddess and liked the apples.

Janet - C- I usually love salads.  This bored me.  It tasted like lettuce.  No oil in the dressing?  Fuck that.

Brian - NA

Jim - C.  It was a salad.  It was like unto every other salad.

Alex - B-.  I like the dressing.  It was mustardy and nice.  I thought the tofu, while bland, was a nice complement.  And it could have used some nuts (like the recipe calls for) or maybe even some grapefruit...

Enchilada

Deb - Kind of a bitter taste somehow...I'd say B-.  It was...y'know...it's healthy.

Janet - I felt like it was tasty enchilada with no cheese, so it was too sweet from the tomatoes and sometimes too salty and some nuts or cheese or avocados would be good.  I liked the corn tortillas!  B-.

Brian - B-.  It was bland.  Maybe even a little joyless, but...it was more potatoey than I expected, and I like potatoes.

Jim - C-.  I thought it was murky.  I was shocked at how salty it was.

Alex - C.  I thought it had potential, but it tasted mostly really healthy.  I didn't love the sauce.

Cobbler
Deb - B-.  I think it was...um...the idea was great.  Execution was not perfect.
Janet - B.  Healthy desserts make me feel good about myself.  And then I eat a lot of candy.
Brian - NA
Jim - C-.  It needed more sugar.  And it was undercooked.
Alex - D+.  It needed more sugar.  The topping was terrible.  It was not delightful.

Why did you give me that candy?