Virginia Beach

So for the Canadian Victoria Day holiday, Rollin and I took off and flew to Virginia Beach to visit my sister in law. The trip was filled with great food, walking, shopping, the aquarium, watching a lot of movies and drinking a LOT of wine. Most importantly, it was fantastic to get away with Rollin and visit my sis in law Lauren.

I was expecting the city to be pretty outdoorsy and perhaps vegan friendly, most beach towns are. VA beach is different. No one wants to be outside. It seemed as though only 1% of restaurants had outdoor seating, and you could barely find a home or an apartment with an outside area to sit. Its more of a drive everywhere kinda town. Thankfully there was a shop called Heritage Food shop/cafe/bookstore. I enjoyed a fantastic smoothie from there. There was a Trader Joe's by lauren's place which made grocery shopping go smoothly.

But I did manage to read a couple books. Oh and one of those was read while seated on a panera bread patio for 4 hours. Once I found a patio, I had to stick around! :)

Easy 'cheesy' 'chicken' skillet enchiladas

There are 2 photos of the same dish. I do not know how to remove it. But this meal was so good, I suppose it deserves 2 photos.
I had to make a fantastic dinner for my dear friend Stew;s birthday and decided to take a recipe from back in my meat and cheese days and make it vegan. The result: super tasty tastiness...and very happy dinner guests. I didn't take a photo of the spice cake I made with the creamcheeze icing, because it tasted WAY better than it looked.

Here is the recipe:
- 1 tbsp oil (I used vegetable)
- 1 pound chicken (I used PC World's Best meatless chicken breasts)
- 1 - 1/3cups broth
- 1/4 cup ranch dressing (see vegan recipe to follow)
- 2 tbsp flour (I used whole wheat)
- 6 small soft tortillas, cut in shreads (also wholewheat)
- 1 cup shredded cheddar (I used daiya cheese, and used more than 1 cup)
- 1/2 cup salsa (or more)

heat oil and cook chicken. I prebaked the 'chicken' and finished the cooking in the skillet.
mix broth, dressing and flour, gradually add to skillet.
add tortillas, bring to boil, reduce heat to med/low, simmer for 3 minutes. ( I usually mix a bit of the cheese in before it simmers to create a cheesier sauce)
sprinkle with cheese/top with salsa (I like the salsa warm in the skillet for a bit, and I still garnish with cold salsa and cheese)

This recipe is good for 2 people, I doubled the sauce and the chicken for 4 people.

Ranch dressing:

1 cup vegan mayo (veganaise)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1.4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp parsley
1/2 unsweetened soy or rice milk
salt to taste

Enjoy. :)