This is what happens when life gives you lemons!

Hello my best bloggy pals!
I hope that you are wearing you PJ's and listening to some fantastic French music!!!
(just like me!!)

So I have been blazing through new recipes I have had since 4 years ago, trying to weed out the bad and keep the good. I have also tried some friends dishes (thank you Vegan Epicurean and Valerie) and created some of my own. I am a cooking machine lately. Especially since I am cutting down on sweets, I am not baking so much, which I miss terribly. For health reasons I shall forge onward! So today I wanted to try a vegan Enchilada recipe that called for use of the crock pot, and a tortilla soup that I have been eyeballing for about a year.

Sometimes in life things go bad...There is nothing we can do, it just happens and we can mope about it or we can gather up our wits and make it work....Today I worked it.....

Ok, so the soup recipe I have been salivating over has all the key ingredients to make an awesome soup. Fresh salsa, bell peppers, black beans, sounds yum, right....Well I do not know what happened, but oh Lord.... it was F.U.N.K.Y I know you are probably reading this and looking at the picture and looking at this and so on...But seriously take my word, this recipe needs a make over...BAD! I am not even going to post the recipe...it is that bad! But hey it is pretty!

This is an enchilada..this is an enchilada.......this is an enchilada? Are you hypnotized yet? Do you see an enchilada all round and beautiful???? What do you mean no! Sigh, ok......
This is an enchilada wanna be that is now a tamale pie, and it is a darn good tamale pie at that!

The recipe was a good one, it is loaded with tons of delicious goodness, but.....Either they did not use super fresh corn tortilla's like I do or they fried them first to make them sturdier, which is not an option with me... There was no way I could roll these bad boys up, so I made a layered pie. I loved the smell coming from the oven, it was tantalizing!
When I took off the foil though, I knew I was in trouble.. The corn tortilla's I use were made fresh yesterday and are delicate and light. When I tried to cut them, they just flopped and slid and melted into the spatula.....Ok, after that review, please still try them, it really is delicious!!!


Vegan Tamale Pie, (formally known as Vegan Enchilada casserole)

Ingredients:

2 cans diced tomatoes with juice.
14 oz. salsa, homemade or jarred
2 cans black beans, rinsed
1/2 bag frozen corn
1 4oz. can green chilies
1 1/2 tbls. cumin
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
18 fresh corn tortilla's
1/2 can large black olives sliced

Brandi's Enchilada sauce for tortilla's
1 can tomato sauce
tsp. cumin
chili powder to taste

Preheat oven to 300 degree's
Directions
In a large bowl, combine everything but the tortilla's and olives.
Dip your tortilla's in the sauce and lay across of a 15x 11 baking pan, top with bean mixture and continue layering until you end with tortilla's, your dipping sauce will almost be gone and you will need to use you fingers to spread around the sauce to cover the tortilla's. Top with olives and cover with foil. Bake for two hours. Top with fresh sliced avocado, soy sour cream and additional olives if desired.
So this is my life lesson for today.
My entire meal tanked. I could have just said to heck with it and not posted it, but this is what life has taught me. Just because something doesn't turn out the way you think it should, that should never ever stop you from making the most out of it!

I plated my disastrous meal like I would any other. With a little decoration and a little love anything can look beautiful!
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So when Life gives you lemons, make Tamale Pie and call it good!
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Life is about imperfections, it is what makes us who we are!