Some vaguely-themed vegetable protein for winter

Let's chase away a little of winter's chill with a Mexican menu for winter from The Vegetable Protein and Vegetarian Cookbook (Jeanne Larson and Ruth McLin, 1977). 

I can't say that Mexican Loaf is the most appetizing name I've ever heard for a recipe, but maybe it's tastier than it sounds.

Or maybe it is even less exciting than it sounds. The only thing even close to a spice is poultry seasoning, so it's mostly just a brick of unseasoned beans, stale bread, and onions bound with eggs and cheese that might taste vaguely of poultry if you're lucky. I guess it's supposed to be Mexican because beans are involved? I also feel compelled to note that this is one of those recipes that tells cooks to "add rest of ingredients" to the blender, "Blend until smooth," and then add the cheese and onion, as if readers are supposed to intuitively know that the onions and cheese don't count as actual ingredients for some reason (or as if they're supposed to read the recipe all the way through before starting so at least they'll know that the writers didn't think of them as ingredients).

To go with the Mexican Loaf, there's a Potato and Carrot Casserole.

There's certainly nothing wrong with mashed root vegetables (especially if they're mixed with butter instead of margarine!), but this seems like a pretty random addition to the Mexican Loaf. If Larson and McLin were trying to write a themed menu, they weren't trying very hard.

In fact, the Tender-Crisp Vegetables suggest the authors forgot the Mexican premise entirely and decided to go for a generic Americanized "Chinese" menu instead.

You don't really think of sautéed bean sprouts, celery, peppers, onions, and mushrooms flavored with a bit of soy sauce as Mexican, after all. 

The side of corn muffins (no recipe provided) and Quick Rice Pudding dessert seem to suggest that Larson and McLin said, "Oh, yeah. We were making a Mexican-themed menu" before they finished up, but they didn't care enough to go back and keep the rest of the menu's theme consistent. 

The pudding uses precooked rice and a package of vanilla pudding mix, again showing that the authors were more practical than a lot of '70s health food cooks-- no starting with plain brown rice that needs to be simmered for an hour or more! And this recipe does include a sprinkling of cinnamon-sugar at the end, so it does have at least a bit of the flair of arroz con leche.

Maybe the real theme of this menu is that it's better to do a half-assed job and get it done than to just give up entirely? That's a lesson I could stand to remember in mid-winter.