Quesadillas and Cava

This is one of my family's favorite meals.  We have it about once a week (the cava is for the adults only).  It's a fun way to spend a Saturday night at home making dinner together and a great way to use up any leftover vegetables in the fridge.  And, to my family's delight, each person's quesadilla can be personalized.  See my suggestions in the variations section.    

Serves 4.  In a medium pan, sauté together:

            1 medium onion

            1 medium bell pepper, any color

After 4 minutes or so, add:

            ½ cup fresh or frozen corn kernels

After 1 - 2 minutes add:

            2 big handfuls of spinach leaves

When the spinach has wilted (usually 1-2 minutes), remove the vegetables from the heat.

On large tortillas (we used up the last of our Ezekiel sprouted grain tortillas and also some Stacey's organic flour tortillas), spread some refried beans.  Top each tortilla with some of the sautéed vegetables.  Add some shredded cheese, any kind and as much or as little as you want.  

Fold tortillas in half and place on a preheated griddle.  I don't use any butter or oil on my griddle to keep calories down, but you certainly can.

Other variations:  Instead of shredded cheese, we often substitute several tablespoons of delicious Fiesta Queso, which is the best off-the-shelf grocery store queso ever. It's better than most restaurant queso.  David adds sliced Pederson's buffalo sausage and pickled jalapeños into his quesadilla.   You can toss in a handful of any leftover vegetable you have around in the fridge - sliced zucchini, other types of greens.  Mushrooms work nicely  -- although our daughters don't like them.

Serve quesadillas with salsa, guacamole (or just smashed avocado as shown here) and a nice bottle of chilled cava -- or any bubbly will work.  Ole!

Grilled Romaine Salad

Or... How to Rescue Your Wilting Lettuce 

I like to buy heads of beautiful bright green, crisp romaine lettuce. Within a week, they are still in the vegetable crisper, not so crisp, slightly wilting, losing their yummy crunch.  This salad solves the problem of what to do with lifeless romaine that has seen better days. (It works really well with fresh lettuce.)

Salad:

1 package of 3 heads of romaine lettuce 

1/3 - ½ cup shredded parmesan (you can add more or less depending on your preference)

Fresh ground black pepper

Dressing:

Juice of one lemon

2-3 Tablespoons of olive oil

One garlic clove, finely chopped.

 

Spilt each romaine head in half lengthwise.  Place on a preheated medium grill (you don't even have to oil the grill.  The grill doesn't need to be super hot).  Grill each side of lettuce for 3-5 minutes, until you see grill marks, but the leaves are not all black and crispy.

Chop lettuce into bite size pieces and place in a salad bowl.  While the lettuce is still warm, add the dressing and parmesan.  Toss salad and add black pepper to taste.  

And now I don't feel guilty about wasting a head of lettuce.  We hope you enjoy!

Time for Dessert!

Jenny is not allowed to have any.  But that doesn't stop her from trying.

Chocolatey Almond Chocolate Chip Cake

My family and I love chocolate cake.  Actually, we love just about anything chocolate.  So I picked up a carton of chocolate almond milk.  Sounds good, right?  How could you go wrong with the combination of chocolate and almonds?  Turns out, unsweetened chocolate almond milk didn’t satisfy anyone’s chocolate cravings around our house.  Here’s a recipe I came up with to use up the almond milk.   This one DID satisfy everyone’s chocolate cravings without being overly sweet or decadent.   

Preheat oven to 350.  Prepare a 9x9 cake pan with cooking spray.

In a stand mixer (or a large bowl and hand mixer), combine:

3/4 cup plus 1 TBL sugar

1 cup flour

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. baking powder

Add:

¼ cup canola oil

¾ milk unsweetened chocolate almond milk

1 tsp almond extract

Beat on high for 2 minutes.  Add:

1 egg

Beat on high for another two minutes.  Fold in:

½ cup chocolate chips (we like Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips)  Pour batter into prepared baking pan.  Bake for 25-30 (if the top cracks or if the edges look hard, remove from the oven immediately!).  Cool in pan and serve. 

Variations:  if you don’t have any almond milk, regular cow’s milk works fine!  If you don't have any almond extract, vanilla extract works fine, too.  Here's the difference.  You won't have an almond essence to the cake.

Kale and Tortellini Soup

We look for ways to add more vegetables, especially greens, into our every day meals.  When I read that kale is one of the “world’s most healthiest foods,” I gave it a try.  I was most familiar with kale as a garnish among the containers of vegetables and toppings at the salad bar at work and as an ornamental crop in gardens.  At first, I tried steaming it; no one liked it.  Even a sauté with garlic and olive oil didn’t convince my family to eat this robust vegetable.  Knowing I had to soften the tough kale leaves, I tried them in soup.  Since I almost always have a bag of frozen tortellini in the freezer for quick dinners, I combined the two.  Here’s the recipe that delivered the kale.  We hope you enjoy!

In a large pot, place about a tablespoon of oil olive. Sauté:

            1 carrot, chopped

            1 stalk of celery, chopped

            1 small onion, chopped

            2-3 garlic cloves, chopped

When the vegetables are slightly softened, add:

            1 bunch of kale, washed, stalks removed and roughly chopped into large pieces

When the kale leaves turn bright green (in about a minute or two), add:

            4 cups of low-sodium vegetable or chicken stock and 3-4 cups of water

Bring to a boil and simmer for about 10-15 minutes.  Add:

            1 can of chick peas or cannellini beans, rinsed

            1 bag of frozen tortellini (I use Whole Foods brand frozen cheese tortellini) 

Continue cooking until the tortellini are ready (about 3-4 mins – a taste will tell you).  Serve with a sprinkle of red pepper flakes (if you like) and grated parmesan.  Serves 4-6. 

Variations:  When I’m in a hurry, I skip the sautéed vegetables and begin sautéing garlic in olive oil adding in the kale and stock and let that simmer for about 10 mins.  Then add the beans and ravioli.  If you don’t have any beans at home, you can omit them.  If I have some crushed tomatoes (about a cup or so) leftover from another recipe, I sometimes throw them in when I add the stock/water.  I’ve also used frozen ravioli instead of tortellini if that’s what I have in the freezer.  If I have frozen turkey dogs in the freezer, I’ll slice a few of those up and add, too.  The red pepper flakes can go in when the garlic is added during the sauté. 

Roasted Spaghetti Squash and Beet Greens with Pasta

Every winter, I buy a spaghetti squash. I'm not sure why. No one in my family likes it. I remember how excited my kids were the first time I bought one. They thought it would taste like real spaghetti. They were terribly disappointed when they tasted it.  Another bait and switch vegetable. Since then, I've tried to prepare spaghetti squash many different ways - with tomato sauce, with parmesan, baked, steamed, etc. Nothing has worked. Until tonight.

This time, I roasted the spaghtetti squash that had been sitting on my counter for several weeks. I decided to combine with some beet greens saved from David's recent beet purchase. It always seems like such a waste to throw out those greens.  Here's what I made:

1 spaghetti squash - I cut the squash in half, drizzled each face with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. I roasted them face side down in a 425 oven until soft (about 30-35 minutes)

1 bunch beet greens - I sauteed 4 chopped garlic cloves (we love garlic -- cut down to 2-3 if you like a less garlicky taste) with a half an onion in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil with a little salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

1 cup of pasta (I used Barilla Plus macaroni - any small pasta shape or type would work, I think)

1/2 - 1 cup cannellini beans (We like Eden brand)

Toss all together and add more olive oil if you'd like (David added about a tablespoon, but I thought there was enough oil from the greens and the squash) and Parmesan cheese. You could also add more red pepper flakes, salt, and/or pepper to taste.  This served two people.

Enjoy!

Note: if you don't have beet greens at home, you could use any green you may have lying around or in your freezer - spinach, kale, chard, etc...