Eggplant and Almond Enchiladas?

Yep, you heard me right. Eggplant and almond enchiladas. And they.were.awesome. (My photos of the process are nowhere near as delicious. Sorry about my lack of skills/would this be a bad time to mention I was a photography major?)

After my "New Year's Intention" (get it? Better than a resolution!) of eating more whole foods, I dusted off my Moosewood Cookbook that my mom bought me when I was a teenager. (After two years, she realized being vegetarian wasn't a "stage" I guess.) Unfortunately, years of living in a sorority house and working in restaurants  knocked my ability to cook down to about 0. Now that I live in Charlotte, our tiny (but perfect!) apartment has a nice sized kitchen that I decided to use for more than microwaving take better advantage of. 

My first experiment: Eggplant and Almond Enchiladas, because who doesn't love a good Mexican dish? (Ok, so I really just like tequila, but I find that the food complements it well.) And if I'd actually read the part of the recipe where it said to make the Mexican Red Sauce ahead of time, I would have been golden! (It's the paying attention part that really gets me in trouble.)

I linked to the recipe above instead of giving you the blow by blow here (mostly in case you aren't that interested). But here are the highlights:

Note to self: make less of a mess.

Dipped the tortillas in water, then added a 1/4 cup of filling

Voila! Literally hot from the oven. Look pretty good, don't they?

The only modification I would make is removing the cheese, not because of my attempted vegan-ism but because you can't really taste it. So what's the point? Save the calories for your margarita. Overall, the eggplant has a nice texture and the almonds give it a good crunch. I served them with Refritos, as suggested in Moosewood. (I didn't take any pictures because refried beans aren't very photogenic.)

Refritos (Refried Beans)
2 cups pinto beans (they said to use dry beans and soak them, but who am I kidding? I used canned)
2 Tbs olive oil
2 cups minced onion
5 to 6 (or even more) medium cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp. cumin
1.5 tsp salt
black pepper
optional: 1 small bell pepper, minced

-Heat olive oil in large skillet. Add onion, half the garlic, cumin, and salt. Saute over medium heat about 10 minutes, or until the onions are soft. Add (or don't) the optional bell pepper and saute another 5 minutes. Add remaining garlic; season with black pepper.

-Turn heat to low, add beans and mix well. Mash with a fork or potato masher and cook for just a few minutes more.

It's a good thing I loved these, because it made 6-8 servings. So...basically I've been eating this for a week now. Worth it!