Tampa, (Fl) -- Hello people, it's been a while since I wrote something here; I been trying to find a little bit of my self over the last year and I found out up to the point I had become more comfortable on my own skin and knowing what I want to do to; at least with this blog I want to focus on simple organic based cooking with vegan and vegetarian ideas.





Today we are going to do a simple Vegan Taco which we are going to use:





1) Any Mexican salsa of your preference. 2 Tablespoons for half a pound.

2) Tofu Crumbles (Any brand you like is OK).

3) Taco Shelves where you can get at any supermarket (I got mine at Publix.)

4) Vegetables of your choice.

5) Vegan cheese slices.

6) (Optional) Vegan meat; in the case of mine I like to add "fake" Bologna.

7) Taco seasoning





The first thing we are going to do is to pre-heat the oven 350 Fahrenheit degrees (but all the temperatures can change so you better know the heating point of your oven as mine is electric) in order to cook the ingredients properly, but also one beautiful thing about cooking is that you can do the way you like to create fantastic results.





Two methods for cooking tacos are making the shelves hard independently from the ingredients and cook the ingredients separate in order to create a perfect stir but also to create the marinade of the ingredients and cook them in the oven together to create a perfect symmetry and a more gourmet approach but the setback with the oven is that you have to be careful to not overcook them.





When the oven is set, it is time to start assembling the tacos, depending on the container you are going to use leave at least an inch apart between the tacos. The first step is to add the cheese in the bottom; my ideal cheese is the Go Veggie! as is completely lactose and dairy free.





Another addition I do enjoy making is to add some extra "meat" that is meatless and Lightlife is a nice option to add some extra flavor to the combination which I place above the cheese but in between the crumbs or as in the Colombian Spanish we say El Picadillo; which I think is the proper term in this case. So with El Picadillo we are going to use the Marjon Tofu Crumbles.





















What is fantastic about these tofu crumbles that you can find within almost any variety is that you can adapt them to make hamburgers and to use them for filling or anything and in this case they are going to be the body of the taco itself.





The tofu crumbles we are going to use you can find them at any major supermarket in the vegetarian section or near that one around the produce cold items. I got mine at Publix for US$3.99 and I ended up preparing a marinade with them that I will use later for another recipe with linguine.





At the moment of making the marinade use the rule of thirds to make them extra spicy or extra mild depending on your case of preference and try to center the meat so it won't crumble down on the sides (since we are making the tacos in the oven as a whole) when you are making the picadillo also use the taco seasoning of your preference, I tend to to add two teaspoons of seasons on every third of my recipe but the flavor is up to you.





Since this tacos don't have any meat the cooking time is less than the ones with real meat crumbs, the proper time to make them crunchy is about 10 to 15 minutes, beyond that point there is a risk that they will end flabby and not that tasty. I hope you enjoy this simple and easy recipe, and don't forget to add any veggies you like at the end.