Open minded Omni's for dinner!

I recently had some friends come over for dinner that were very open minded omni's who assured me that vegan food was fine for them all. So by the fourth reassurance that they ate meatless frequently I put together a menu for seven; myself, my friends C & M and the guests of honor B & K with their two teenagers.

Because its my favorite cuisine I went with Mexican food. When they arrived my table already had veggies, dip, salsa, chips, and sangria on it.

White Sangria
Ingredients:
1 bottle of white wine
1 can 7 up or other lemon lime soda
1 cup Orange Juice
1 peach
2 plums
1 pink Lady apple
1 orange

Mix the beverages in a large pitcher. Peal the orange and cut out premiums. Cut these in half or smaller if you have a large orange or sections. Squeeze the left over pulp over the pitcher for all the juice you can get out of it. Dice up the fruit and add to the mixture. Chill and serve in wine glasses but with small forks so one can nibble on the tipsy fruit at their leisure.


I then put together enchiladas with some quickly fried lime and cilantro marinated tofu, lime & chili sauted veggies and tomatilo sauce. Once these came out of the oven I served them with cilantro lime black beans, salsa rice and avocado salad.

For the enchiladas I simply diced tofu the night before and marinated it in the zest and juice of 2 limes and a handful of cilantro. In the afternoon I removed the tofu from the liquid and shallow fried it to make it crispy before draining and setting aside. Then I sauted up huge amounts of onions, celery, carrots, zucchini, bell peppers, jalapenos, broccoli and cauliflower. Sprinkling each batch in the pan with lime juice and chili powder. Then I mixed everything together, rolled it in corn tortillas and slathered it all with green enchilada sauce and baked for 45 minutes at 350.

The black beans were simply one (large) can of beans, drained and rinsed before being tossed in a pan with the juice of two limes and a handful of cilantro leaves. Sprinkle with salt and pepper once its warmed up and serve. So simple yet delicious.

Salsa rice is best made by cooking the short grain rice in veggie stock until done. Then add in salsa and cover for 5 minutes to warm the later up. You can use spicy or mild, saucy or pico as your salsa of choice. Just be sure you love the salsa you are putting on top because if you dont, the result will not be quite to your liking. I typically do the 1 cup dry rice fully cooked and add 1 cup of a deli salsa that straddles the line between pico de gallo and jarred salsa.

The avocado salad is a Ina Gartner recipe available at the Food Network web site. Its always a hit. Trust me! Make it. Make it now.

I did also whip up some guacamole at the last minute but the salad kind of impresses everyone more. All in all, it was a great hit!

For dessert there was plenty of chocolate chip cookies but mostly people were stuffed. I do wish I had taken pictures. Next time they come over, its Italian!