Tag Archives: dinner

Roasted Vegetable Stacked Enchiladas

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Roasted Vegetable Stacked Enchiladas

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Ingredients:

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

*This is optional but I added the zest and juice of 1 lime to mine 🙂

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place red pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, sweet potato, 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.

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2. Grease an 8×8 square baking pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine roasted vegetables, black beans, cumin, chili powder, garlic, jalapeño, lime zest and juice(if using) and cilantro. Stir and season with salt and pepper.

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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(See my picture before for a trick!). 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.

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My mom taught my this trick to cut off two sides of the round tortillas. This makes them fit perfectly in the corners of pans with minimal overlap so you have a perfectly even layer. She’s a genius 🙂

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.

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This is another beautiful meal. I served this with some Salsa and chips and we had a delicious light meal. Hope you enjoy and of course thanks for reading my blog. I’m blown away at how many views and comments I get in a day. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that so many people would visit my site when I started this. Seriously you all make me so happy! 🙂

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Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

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Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Hi everyone! Ok I’ve been a busy cooking bee- but a lazy blogger. (for real it’s embarrassing how little I’ve blogged lately- there is reason for it but I’ll save that for a later post!)Needless to say,  I can’t wait to share some of my creations with you 🙂 This particular recipe is one of my favorite recent ones! So tasty, easy, and healthy. The perfect trio for an awesome recipe. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

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Gorgeous right?!

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cooked quinoa
  • 1 (4-ounce) can green chiles
  • 1 cup corn kernels
  • 1 cup black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 cup diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
  • 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves (I love cilantro so I always add more)
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion or garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, or more to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon smokey paprika, or more to taste
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 6 bell peppers, tops cut, stemmed and seeded

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9×13 baking dish with tin foil.
  2. In a large bowl, combine quinoa, green chiles, corn, beans, tomatoes, cheeses, cilantro, cumin, garlic, onion and chili powder, paprika, salt and pepper, to taste.
  3. Spoon the filling each each bell pepper cavity. Place in prepared baking dish, cavity side up, and bake until the peppers are tender and the filling is heated through, about 25-30 minutes.
  4. Serve immediately and enjoy!  🙂
  5. PS. I only cooked 4 peppers since there fewer people I was feeding but then I put the extra quinoa mix in a baking dish, topped with a little more cheese and baked along with the peppers. This was great for lunch throughout the week 🙂 As you can see there was quite a bit of extra “stuffing” so I think you could do more than 6…but experiment! 🙂

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I just love how pretty this dish is! So colorful and fresh looking and not to mention out of this world delicious. This is a recipe you could seriously have so much fun with and experiment with different flavor combinations and ingredients. Also easily could be vegan with some small adjustments. Please stop back and share your own concoctions 🙂

As always, thanks for stopping by!

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Spaghetti Squash Vegetable Bake

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Spaghetti Squash Vegetable Bake

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I hadn’t tried spaghetti squash until this past winter. I was soooo skeptical that it was just soooo easy to cook like everyone said. How in the world could it just string apart like that?!? It HAS TO BE some sort of special technique that people are under playing, has to be, c’mon how could it be easy?! Well I finally decided to give it a try and I’ll be damned- it’s freaking easy! Seriously you heat it and it use a fork to scrap out the insides and it’s just like noodles. I even told Jake they were a special kind of noodle in an attempt to get him to eat them- he believed me but even once I told him the truth, he STILL liked it! If you haven’t tried it people, you MUST! This is a great recipe to ease into the squash because there are so many other flavors, but I sometimes just eat the squash alone. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

1 whole spaghetti squash
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red pepper, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 carrot, shredded
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tomato, diced
16 ounces tomato sauce
4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan

DIRECTIONS

    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
    2. Cut the squash in half length wise (be careful), place in a microwave safe dish and cook in the microwave for eight to 12 minutes until soft. If you don’t have a microwave, place the squash halves on a baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes. While that’s cooking, add the oil, garlic, pepper, zucchini, and carrots to a pan, cooking over medium heat.
    3. Once the squash is done ( and I let it cool a bit so you don’t burn the sh*t out of your hands) use a fork and scrape the flesh from the peel. It should flake off easily in strings, resembling spaghetti. Place the spaghetti squash flesh in an oven safe casserole dish. Add the cooked veggies, diced tomato, sauce, and most of the cheese and mix well. Sprinkle leftover cheese on top and bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.
    4. Allow to cool for five minutes, serve, and enjoy! I also added some chopped basil on top, but thats just because I’m obsessed with it 🙂

Thanks for checking out my blog!

-G

Mediterranean Cauliflower ‘Stew’ with Cous Cous

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Mediterranean Cauliflower Stew

(pretty much Vegan)

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Ingredients 
1 32 oz carton vegetable stock
1 cup couscous
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 sprigs each mint and parsley
1 shallot, chopped
2 to 4 large garlic cloves (to taste)
1 cup canned chickpeas
1 cup frozen peas
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes with juice
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 small cauliflower, cut into florets
1/2 cup black olives, pitted and cut in half (I used cured back olives)
1 6 oz container plain Greek yogurt

Directions
1. Boil the entire carton of vegetable stock in a pot. Measure 1 cup couscous in a bowl and add 1 1/2 cups of stock. Cover for ten minutes. Reserve remaining stock  in the pot to use later in recipe.(Personally I just microwaved the stock in a big Pyrex cup so I didn’t have to wash a whole other pan 🙂 )

2. Meanwhile while couscous is ‘cooking’, do your prep work: chop the mint and parsley, dice the onion and mince the garlic, separate the cauliflower into little flowerettes, and rinse and drain the chickpeas.

3. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan on medium heat. Add the onion, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes, then add the garlic. Cook together for about 30 seconds then add the can of tomatoes(with juice). Continue to cook, still stirring frequently, until the tomatoes are beginning to fall apart a little, about 5 to 10 minutes.

4. Add the tomato paste, leftover stock, and cauliflower to the saucepan, and bring to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat and cover and simmer 10 minutes until the cauliflower is tender. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Add the peas and chickpeas to the stew and cook for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and add the olives.

6. Fluff the couscous and serve it in wide bowls or mound onto plates and top with the stew. Garnish with mint, parsley and yogurt.(Meal would be totally vegan if you don’t use the yogurt!)

Enjoy!

xoxo

-G

See the post that inspired me here on Sharon’s blog.

Summer Veggie Pasta

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Summer Veggie Pasta

HI 🙂

So I know that I have created something similar to this before but I saw summer squash and zucchini on sale and saw asparagus next to it and just had this idea pop in my head:

I mean tell the truth- how good does that look?!?!?! SO good, I know.

So I totally made this up. I am a very experimental and “eye-ball it” chef, I realize that a lot of people really need a recipe to follow in order to feel comfortable so I will try my best.

INGREDIENTS

Olive Oil

1 Fresh Tomato (Chopped)

1 Small Onion(Cut into small strips)

1 clove of Garlic(Minced)

1/2 Zucchini (Halved and Sliced)

1/2 Summer Squash(Halved and Sliced)

8-10 Pieces of Asparagus(Cut into 1-2 inch pieces)

Pasta of your choice

DIRECTIONS

1) Heat water in pot and cook your pasta once it starts to boil

2) Heat some olive oil in a sauté pan, add Garlic and cook until softened through. Add your Onion slices and cook until softened. Next add the Asparagus pieces. Cook for about 3-4 minutes and add the squash and zucchini. Lastly when everything is mostly cooked to your liking add the tomatoes(basically just to heat them through).

3) Serve over the pasta of your choice and Bon Appetite!

Seriously you guys, Jake was honestly in LOVE with this meal. Couldn’t stop saying how good it was. It makes me feel so good to cook food that he loves. I look forward to the moments of praise for my favorite thing I do; create culinary masterpieces..haha joke, simply cooking.

Hope you enjoy! As always, thanks for reading!

xoxo

-G