As a vegetarian I struggle to find foods that are healthy, quick and relatively inexpensive to prepare. This is one of my favorite recipes and even my carnivorous friends and family have been surprised to find they love it. There are many ways to “spice up” the recipe with  different cheeses,spanish/mexican rice or guacamole but the original recipe is a necessity for any collegiate vegetarian. Happy cooking!
Vegetarian Tostadas
Cost: Roughly $15
Yield: About 4 tostadas
Prep time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
1 cup water
Tostada shells
Taco seasoning (bulk or ½ of a packet about .75 oz.)
Morningstar Meatless Veggie crumbles (Only half of a bag is needed)
Can of Vegetarian Refried Beans or Black Beans
Bag of Shredded Lettuce or one whole lettuce head shredded
Bag of shredded cheddar cheese or about 2 oz cheese grated
*guacamole, avocado or salsa/pico de gallo lime are optional and add additional expense.
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Instructions:
1. Open can of beans with can opener and place in microwave safe bowl.
2. Microwave on high for 1-2 minutes stirring occasionally and covered to prevent them from splattering. You can also heat these in a pot but what busy college student has time for that?
3. Place a medium saucepan on high heat and pour exactly half of the bag of frozen Morningstar veggie crumbles in immediately. They will simmer as they heat and are hard to burn.
4. Crush and mix Morningstar veggie crumbles with a spatula until they reach a moist consistency, not frozen at all.
5. Reduce heat to medium for Morningstar veggie crumbles and add one cup of water and half a packet of seasoning or about .75 oz
6. Let water boil off for about 5-7 minutes or until the taco seasoning thickens. You don’t want the veggie crumbles to absorb most of the flavoring and most of the water to boil off. If you cook it too long you can always add a little more water.
7. Take a tostada shell out and cover it with the veggie crumbles, cheese, beans and lettuce and whatever else you like! I usually let everyone serve themselves because (it’s less work for you and it allows room for everyone to customize their own tostada).
*You may notice that you still have half a bag of veggie crumbles left over and a half a taco seasoning packet as well as probably some cheese. I always save mine for the next time I make tostadas as the frozen crumbles last well in the freezer and the seasoning does too on the shelf.