Stacked Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas

This was incredible!! It did take a bit longer then expected because roasting the veggies takes a while. But this would be awesome for veggies that are starting to turn or if you were hanging out one day with a bit of the extra time. I would probably roast the veggies one day and then assemble/cook the next day.

Picture didn't come out so well because I didn't wait for it to slightly cool before cutting :)

Stacked Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas
Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Serves 5-6

Ingredients:
1 large red pepper, chopped, seeds removed
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 medium yellow squash, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup corn
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeño, minced (optional)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups red enchilada sauce (canned el paso)
9-10 small corn tortillas
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (Mexican cheese)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place red pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, and onion on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and toss until vegetables are coated. Season with salt and pepper. Roast vegetables for 30-40 minutes, or until tender, stirring occasionally. Remove vegetables from oven and let cool to room temperature. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.

2. Grease an 8x8 square baking pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine roasted vegetables, black beans, cumin, chili powder, garlic, jalapeño, and cilantro. Stir and season with salt and pepper.

3. Spread 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce into the bottom of the baking pan. Add a layer of tortillas, to completely cover the bottom of the pan. You might have to cut the tortillas to make them fit. Top with 1/3 of the vegetable/bean mixture and 1/3 of the cheese. Make a second layer of tortilla, enchilada sauce, vegetables/beans, and cheese. Top with with a layer of tortillas, enchilada sauce, vegetables/beans, and cheese. Spray a sheet of aluminum foil with cooking spray and cover the pan.

4. Bake enchiladas for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and the enchiladas are bubbling. Remove enchiladas from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Cut into squares and serve warm.

Balsamic Glazed Steak and Veggie Rolls

Was this fancy looking? Was it labor intensive? Was it yummy? Will I make this again? Yes for all!

I updated the instructions below to be a bit more efficient. It took me about an hour and I had some downtime while I was waiting for things to cook.

To make this faster you can prepare the veggies the night before or purchase the pre-cut veggies. It also could be made with leftover veggies or the random veggies wilting in your drawer.

Remember that the smaller you cut the veggies the quicker they will cook. My veggies were a bit bigger and I crowded the pan and it took about 10-15 minutes until tender.

veggies all sliced

Rolled meat and kept closed with a toothpick

Topped with the balsamic sauce

Balsamic Glazed Steak Rolls
Adapted from Picture the Recipe
Yields 8 rolls and fed 2 hungry grownups

For the Steak
1 lb sliced skirt steak or top round cutlets
Salt & Pepper
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil

For the Veggie filling
1 carrot
1 bell pepper, any color
1/2 a zucchini or summer squash
5-6 green onions
2 cloves of garlic or 1 heaping tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp Italian herb seasoning

For the Balsamic glaze sauce
2 tsp butter
2 tbsp finely chopped shallots
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup beef broth or red wine or water

Steak
Cut the steak into 3 inch wide strips or separate the steak cutlets.
Season the steak pieces with salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce.
Marinate for 1/2+ hours.

Sauce
While the steak is marinading... Melt butter in a large saucepan on medium heat.
Add the shallot and saute it for a minute or 2 until they turn soft and translucent.
Add the balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and beef stock and stir.
Bring sauce to a boil and then simmer until reduced by half, stirring occasionally. It will become thicker and syrupy. Turn the heat off and transfer the sauce to a bowl.

Veggies
While the steak is marinating and sauce is reducing...Cut carrot, bell pepper and zucchini into matchstick size pieces, little longer than the width of the steak strips.

After the sauce is put into a different bowl, add a little olive oil and the garlic to the same pan.

When hot add add veggies, Italian herbs, and salt. Stir fry until tender. The smaller the slices the faster it will cook. (aka true matchstick size will cook quickly, mine took about 10 minutes...oops!).
Transfer the veggies to a bowl.

To assemble the steak rolls...
Lay out the strips of steak and place the veggies on one end and roll! Secure it with toothpick. Repeat the same with the other rolls.
Add some oil to the pan and heat for a couple minutes
Put the beef rolls in the pan, seam side down and pan fry for a couple minutes. Then turn roll and cook it on all sides in the same way. Cook until you’re desired done-ness.

Remove the toothpick and serve with the balsamic glaze sauce spooned over the top of each roll.

Crispy Baked Zucchini Fries

Chicken on the left, Zucchini on the right

Here was some tender and savory baked zucchini fries. The recipe comes from The Lean Green Bean and Chocolate Covered Katie.

I used the same process and dredge for chicken strips too. I did the chicken after the zucchini to prevent any contamination of the ingredients too.

Crispy Baked Zucchini Fries

2-3 small zucchini, sliced into fry shapes

¼ cup flour

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp paprika

1 egg

1 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450F.

In one bowl combine flour, salt, garlic powder, and paprika. In another bowl scramble an egg in a separate bowl. In a third bowl pour breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese.

Dip each zucchini stick in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs.
Place on a cooling rack or silpat mat on a cookie sheet. Bake 18-19 minutes. Check at 10 minutes to see if you need to flip them.

Savory Roasted Vegetables

Tis the season of summer bounty! Yay fresh veggies!! This will take about an hour to prepare and cook. The most time consuming part of this recipe is chopping up all of the vegetables.

Roasting veggies can be done in big batches with little effort and can be stored for a week. They can be served hot or cold, as a side dish or part of the main meal. I have served the veggies over rice or in a homemade tortilla flat bread. But also in a sandwich with hummus, on a pizza or in a quesadilla!

You can use whatever veggies looked good at the market, were on sale, or you had extra laying around! I used oregano because I like that herb, but you could also use parsley, thyme, basil, etc.  Also, the amount of oil will change based upon how many veggies you are cooking and need to cover.

PS Someday I will invest in a better camera beside my phone and I will work on my presentation skills! I swear this was tasty and I will be making it again!

Roasted Veggies
Serves 3 (as a main dish)
 
1 zucchini, circle slices
1 med eggplant, sliced into sticks, salted and let sit in a strainer for 30 minutes, rinsed
~1/2 cup Carrots, sliced into sticks
1/2 red pepper, sliced
1/2 orange pepper, sliced
~1 cups chopped broccoli, large chopped
1/4 lg onion, large dice or sliced

1/4-1/2 cup Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
1/4 tsp Oregano (optional)
1/4 tsp Red pepper flakes (optional)

Combine olive oil, salt & pepper to taste, oregano, red pepper flakes (optional).

Toss veggies in olive oil. Spread onto a cookie sheet in one layer.  Use more than one sheet if necessary. Roast in oven at 425F for 20-35 minutes. They should start to get a little crispy but not burning.

If you want the veggies to be softer and are at the amount of "crisp" that you want, continue to cook at 350F.

Hearty Vegetable Lasagna

Wow! Life can sure get hectic! Kind of dropped the ball on my 100th post and celebrating the blog's 1 year! Hope you enjoy post # 99 and stay tuned for 100!

Here is a veggie lasagna which used the Hearty Vegetable Lasagna recipe for inspiration. I added in extra veggies and followed some of the reviews ideas for flavors. This was very filling and straightforward to make. Easy make ahead meal as well. Be cautious when freezing veggie based lasagnas because they produce a lot of liquid and can get soggy. If anyone has any tips for making them freeze better, please let me know!

Previous Vegetable Lasagna using zucchini, squash, eggplant, and spinach.

Veg!

Spread some sauce/veg in the bottom

Layers of noodles, ricotta, veg, and sauce

Continue and top with cheese

Golden bubbly goodness!

Hearty Vegetable Lasagna 
makes 12 slices

 1 (16 ounce) package lasagna noodles

2 tablespoons oil

1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

¾ cup chopped green bell pepper

½ cup carrots (or whatever is left over in your fridge)

¾ cup chopped onion

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp oregano

Salt and pepper

½ zucchini, sliced

½ bag baby spinach

2 (26 ounce) jars pasta sauce

1 (15 ounce) container part-skim ricotta cheese

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook the lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling water for 10 minutes, or until al dente. Rinse with cold water, and drain. (OR use no cook lasagna noodles)

In a large saucepan heat oil. Cook and stir mushrooms, green peppers, carrots, onion, garlic, and oregano, season with salt and pepper. Cook until softened. Add in zuchini and Wilt several handfuls of spinach over the warm veggies, stir to combine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spread 1 cup tomato sauce and some of the veggie mix into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer on top of that: noodles, veggies, sauce, and ricotta until nothing remains. There will be approx 2-4 layers. 

Top with the mozzarella cheese.

Bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes (but keep an eye on it, if it starts to get too brown cover with foil and let it continue to cook). Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Chicken & Veg soup

I'm on a soup kick if you hadn't noticed. I also adore veggie soups, the veggies add so much flavor to the chicken broth.

I find this to be a very filling soup and also can be assembled quickly. One of the changes in timing is the chicken. If you have left over, rotisserie, chicken in smaller bits... it shortens the time. I generally start with a frozen chicken breast, so that increases my cooking time.

Spices can be easily adjusted. I use 1 heaping tsp poultry seasoning and a bay leaf, as well as salt & pepper, but you can be specific with the thyme or rosemary too, I just don't...Sometimes I add in a tsp of oregano too.

Green beans, zucchini, broccoli, celery, carrots, cut them up!

 Cut veggies. Heat oil in a large pot. When hot add in carrots, celery, and kale stems. Let them soften for a few minutes. Add spices and chicken now.

 Add broth, green beans, zucchini, broccoli and cook for about 5 minutes.

 Add beans and kale when everything is cooked. These ingredients just need to heat through. The zucchini could be added in here if you want too.

Serve over pasta, rice, or as is!

Bacon, Broccoli, and Zucchini Quiche

I was looking for tasty and easy breakfasts to make for when friends came over. I thought quiche would be a good idea. I didn't know what recipe to use, but I figured you can't go wrong with Paula Dean's recipes!

Of course I made a few changes, most unplanned. I was out of eggs, so I used 5 instead of 6. I used broccoli and zucchini instead of spinach since the spinach was expensive. I considered kale but the store was out. Instead of heavy cream I used light cream and reduced it to 1 cup. I swapped Swiss cheese (which is a weird cheese) to mozzarella cheese (according to my friends, its not a real cheese). I read a review that said to add in a dash of nutmeg. I added it in, but I couldn't really taste it.

Refrigerated pie crusts sometimes come in packages of two, but you can always freeze the other. To defrost, I left it on the counter, it took about 30 minutes and rolled out fine.

The egg mix was delish! I would recommend trying different veggies to change the whole meal up.

To reheat: Preheat oven to 350F, heat slice for 10 minutes, turn off oven, let it stay in the oven for another 10. This heats it up nice while keeping the crust crispy.

Bacon and Veg Quiche
Makes 1 pan, 6-8 slices

5 eggs, scrambled
1 cup light cream
salt & pepper
dash of nutmeg (a very small pintch)
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
4 pieces of bacon, cooked than crumbled
1/4 of a small onion, diced
1 cup of chopped broccoli
1 small zucchini, sliced
1 refrigerated pie crust

Cook bacon, drain frying pan as needed. Don't wash the pan, cook the onions for a few minutes. pull off the burner if the pan is too hot and onions start to brown. Add broccoli and cook approx 4-6 minutes.

In a bowl, combine scrambled eggs, cream, salt & pepper, nutmeg, bacon, and cheese.

Put the pie crust in the 9 inch round pan. Place zucchini in the bottom. Pour the egg mix over the top. Bake for 35 minutes at 325. I did the last 10 minutes at 350. Take it out when the top is set and starting to get a little golden.

Morning Glory Muffins

Continuing on the zucchini binge (Zucchini Bread with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts)...

These are some of my favorite hearty muffins. Its a regular moist quick bread with lots of tasty things such as coconut, raisins, walnuts, pineapple, etc. I have no idea where I found this recipe but it is a fast go to recipe for me. I substituted in zucchini for the grated carrots. It also calls for 1 apple but I don't include that since I generally don't have apples hanging around. I normally make jumbo ones and freeze them. This time I was feeling lazy so I make them in 8x8 pans.

While there are a lot of ingredients, it is a basic recipe. Wet ingredients + dry ingredients, and mix until just combined.

Preparing the pans (if you aren't going to use muffin papers) is just spraying the tins with non stick spray, then taking a tbsp of flour and tapping it around until all the surfaces are covered.

This makes two 8x8 pans (40-45 min), or 1 8x8 and a loaf pan (50-60 min), 16 jumbo muffins (20 min), and 14 regular muffins (15-18 min) and 24 mini muffins (13 min).

Morning Glory Muffins

Ingredients:

3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil (used ½ apple sauce ½ oil)

1-1/4 cups sugar
1 cup (8 ounces) crushed pineapple, drained
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups grated carrots
2-1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut
3/4 cup raisins, light or dark

1/2- 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnut

Directions:
Position a rack in lower third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin pans with paper liners. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, oil, and vanilla.
Whisk together sugar, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Add to dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Add coconut, raisins, pineapple, carrots, and nuts, and stir to combine.
Spoon batter into muffin tins, filling to top of each cup. 
Bake until a toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean (see above for timings).
Cool muffins in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto a rack to finish cooling.

Zucchini Bread with Chocolate Chips & Walnuts

Nate's mom brought me a 5-6 pound 18 inches large zucchini. This zucchini was the equivalent of 12 cups of grated.... NOW WHAT?!

What I didn't do and what you should do when dealing with giant zucchini is peel the zucchini first, the skin is very tough. I just hacked away until it was pieces small enough to fit into my food processor.

 

So here is a Zucchini Bread recipe! (Here is the Morning Glory Muffin recipe). I found this on AllRecipes here Zucchini Bread. I used 3 cups instead of 2 cups of zucchini, reduced the sugar and used 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 white sugar, also I used 1/2 apple sauce and 1/2 vegetable oil.

 Combine wet ingredients.

 Add dry ingredients.

 Add in the toppings: shredded zucchini, chocolate chips, and walnuts.

Pour into prepared pans: spray with cooking spray and sprinkle tin with flour. Tap it around to coat all the corners and sides.

The 8x8 pan took about 45 minutes.

Zucchini Bread
makes 2 8x8 pans

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups grated zucchini

1 cup chopped walnut
1 cup chocolate chips

Grease and flour two 8 x 8 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini, chocolate chips, and nuts until just combined. 
Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

Pasta Verde (plus summer squash & eggplant)

I have a bunch of veggies remaining from previous dinners so I decided I wanted to make a primavera. I searched a few recipes but they need milk or cream and I didn't have that. Then I saw Martha Stewart's Pasta Verde here. I even had all the ingredients (and a few extra)!

I prepped the eggplant. Sliced or cubed the veggies (summer squash, zucchini, onion, snap peas).

Eggplant: Slice, Salted, Sits for 30 minutes, Rinse, Squeeze liquid out

Heated the frying pan, added oil, and then some garlic powder. Added the onion. When the onion started to look translucent I added the other veggies.

Meanwhile I cooked some pasta.

When the veggies were just about tender I wilted in some spinach and added in the snap peas into the pan.

Combine ingredients for dressing

Then I added the dressing. The dressing was ok, I just don't really like Dijon mustard. I tossed the pasta in with the veggies and served.

Next time I would try using less Dijon mustard. And maybe more vinegar.

Pasta Verde
makes 4

Dressing
1 tbsp Olive Oil, 2 tbsp Dijon Mustard, 2 tbsp Cider Vinegar, Salt & Pepper

Pasta
Olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Onion, diced
Eggplant, salted/strained then sliced/cubed
Summer Squash, cubed
Zucchini, sliced
Spinach
Snap Peas

Cook pasta according to directions
Combine ingredients to make dressing
Heat olive oil and garlic powder in frying pan. Add onion. When translucent add veggies. When tender add a handful or two of spinach and snap peas.
Combine dressing, veggies, and pasta.

Enjoy!

Vegetable Lasagna

Girls night! And I'm still on a zucchini kick, so I decided to make a hearty vegetable lasagna and talked Kelly into it. It is full of zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, and spinach and then layered with ricotta and mozzarella cheese and a tomato basil sauce.

Fairly fast dinner, takes about an hour with 20 minutes waiting for eggplant prep, 20 in the oven and 20 actively cooking and assembling.

You can also sub in other veggies or add in more veg. Others could include mushrooms, peppers, onions....

 

Chop up the veggies to about the same size and thickness. They will be sauteed and baked so about 1/4 inch.

I also salted the eggplant and let it sit in the strainer for about half hour to let the bitter out of it.

Heat oil and spices (oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder) for a minute. When pan is hot add in veggies. Toss around in the oil. After about 4-5 minutes, when veggies are still al dente, wilt in spinach and chopped fresh basil.

Layering begins! I put down some sauce in the bottom of the pan, then some veggie mix, then pasta sheets. Not really sure why I put the veggies on the bottom, a little sauce would have been good... but it didn't really make a difference with the veggies. Anyways, a dollop of ricotta cheese, some tomato sauce, more veggies, a handful of mozzarella cheese, then more pasta sheets!

Layering in action!

 Cover dish with foil and cook at 350 for 20 minutes. I cook it for a shorter time because the veggies are already hot. Take foil off and broil for another 5 minutes. Keep an eye on it though, it gets brown fast!

Golden cheesey topping!!

 

 Let it cool a minute or two, then cut and serve. Tender veggies in every bite!

 It was soo tasty. Highly recommend this and will make again!

Vegetable Lasagna
Makes 4 servings

olive oil
1/2 tsp each of oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder
1/2 a zucchini, a squash, a eggplant; sliced and quartered (approx 1 cup or a little more of each)
1/2 of a 6 oz bag of spinach (could add more though)
1/4 cup basil leaves
15 oz ricotta cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese
12 oz jar of tomato sauce (I used tomato basil flavor)

Slice veggies
Salt eggplant and let sit for about half hour, then rinse

In frying pan add a tbsp of olive oil, 1/2 tsp of oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder.
Add zucchini, squash and eggplant, cook about 5 minutes
Wilt in spinach and basil leaves

Put some sauce in the bottom of the pan
Add some of the cooked veggie mix
Put down the pasta sheet... then Ricotta cheese, Sauce, Veggies, Mozzarella cheese then another sheet of pasta. Continue another 2-3 times ending with mozzarella cheese.

Cover with foil, cook 20 minutes at 350 degrees
Cook additional 5 minutes under broiler - but keep an eye on it!

Stuffed Zucchini with Turkey, Tomatoes, and Basil

I'm on a zucchini kick and I found a new recipe on Pinterest and decided to test it out on my book club! This was called "Pizzucchini" you can find the original recipe here. I must say, this recipe sounded great, and it was good, however it isn't a substitute for pizza. It was zucchini stuffed with ground turkey, tomatoes, onion, covered in cheese and then baked. Tasty, but not pizza.

I heated up a pan with a little oil and then added some onions. I used about 1/3 of a cup diced onion. Then I added some garlic powder and oregano. I let that soften for a few minutes. Next I tossed in the ground turkey and let that cook entirely.

Meanwhile, I washed the zucchini and then sliced them lengthwise to create little boats out of them.

Once the turkey was cooked I added in tomato sauce and the zucchini guts. I let this cook together for about 5 minutes. I used jar tomato sauce it was garlic and onion flavor I believe...I also tossed in some fresh basil that I chopped.

I took the zucchini and placed them next to each other in the baking dish. I tried to fill the boats with the mixture but it spilled all over the dish. Then I thought of making this next time with almost lasagna style... just an idea... So I filled the boats the rest of the way and then covered it with cheese. I put it in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes. I broiled it for the last few minutes so the cheese was golden and gooey.

Verdict? Tasty stuffed zucchinis! This was a very filling meal and would be great for a side dish or part of a potluck.

If I wanted to make these more pizza like I would omit the turkey, use pizza sauce, maybe real mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, oregano... etc.

Stuffed Zucchini
serves 4
2 Large zucchini, cut in half
1 lb ground turkey (I had a little left over)
1/4 cup diced onion
basil
1 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper
2 cups tomato sauce
1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees.
2. In frying pan soften onion and garlic. Add ground turkey and cook together until done.
3. Make zucchini boats by scooping out the middle of the zucchinis. Put the boats in the baking dish.
4. Add the sauce and zucchini guts into the frying pan and simmer for about 5 minutes.
5. Spoon mixture into the boats. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
6. Bake for 10 minutes until cheese is melted and turning golden brown.