Roasted Vegetable Enchilada Bake

Its time for my annual mother/daughter vacation with my Mom and Sister this weekend and this year we are going to Savannah. We absolutely loved Charleston two years ago and are looking forward to Savannah being similar but different. I've picked a bunch of things we want to see and do and hoping we will have time to do everything on the list. We are also taking a quick trip to Hilton Head to see what that's about.  

I made this a few weeks ago but you can still find all the vegetables you need if you want to make it now or you can make some substitutions. This is jam packed with veggies and you will definitely feel healthy eating it. Whenever I feel healthy eating dinner I just make sure to have a nice chocolate dessert afterwards to even things out.  This recipe is adapted from www.twopeasandtheirpod.com.

Ingredients:
1 large red pepper, diced
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 medium yellow squash, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 small container mushrooms, washed and sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 tsp chili powder
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup parsley (or cilantro)
2 cups red enchilada sauce
10 small tortillas
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 avocado for topping
1/3 cup sour cream for topping

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Spread out the diced onion, zucchini, squash, red pepper and mushrooms on the cookie sheets.  Sprinkle olive oil over top and toss to spread evenly.  Sprinkle salt and pepper.  Roast for 25-30 minutes, mixing around occasionally.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Reduce heat to 350 degrees.

Grease a oval baking pan with PAM and pour 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce into the bottom of the pan.  Add a layer of tortillas to completely cover the bottom.  This will mean breaking them into different shapes to cover everything.

In a bowl combine the roasted vegetables, black beans, chili powder, parsley and salt and pepper.

Spread 1/3 of the vegetable/bean mixture on the top of the bottom layer of enchiladas.  Add 1/3 of cheddar cheese.

Make a second layer of the tortillas, enchilada sauce, vegetable/bean mixture and cheese.  And repeat one more layer.  Bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbling.

Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting into square servings.  Top with sour cream and avocado.

Enjoy!!

Grilled Vegetable Quesadillas with Goat Cheese

Fresh local vegetables are a great perk in the summer months. They have so much flavor on their own they need very little prep or other ingredients to make a tasty meal. I often grill a bunch at once and keep them in the fridge to have alongside of burgers or toss them on top of sandwiches and salads. I know women tend to shy away from the grill and leave the outdoor cooking to the men but that's just silly.  I have no problem firing up our gas grill when John's not home to make a great summer meal. Since I've stumbled upon this grilled vegetable quesadilla from Pinterest, I've made it for myself 4 times and served it to my grandma, my mom and my husband. Everyone raves how great the flavors and textures combine together; the creamy goat cheese with the crispy tortilla. The sweet and sticky balsamic glaze with the char from the grilled vegetables. I may just have to make myself another one of these today for lunch!! 

Ingredients for 4 Quesadillas:
2 Zucchini - Halved & Sliced Thick
2 Yellow Squash - Halved & Sliced Thick
2 Red Peppers - Cored and Sliced into Large Pieces
2 Large Onion - Sliced Thick
8 oz Crumbled Goat Cheese
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
8 Large Whole Wheat Tortillas
Generous Drizzles of Balsamic Glaze

Preheat your outdoor grill, indoor grill or grill pan to medium, wipe it down with an oiled paper towel or spray it with some Pam. Wash and slice your veggies thick so you won't loose them in between the rungs. Grill all your vegetables for about 5 minutes on each side. If you don't like one of the veggies I chose to use another option would be portabello mushrooms. I found it easiest to use tongs to flip and remove the vegetables instead of a spatula. After they've cooled off a bit dice them up into bite size pieces.

In your largest pan that's flat or on a griddle heat up the olive oil over medium. Place one of the tortillas down in the pan. Making a flat layer arrange the vegetables evenly all the way out of the sides of the tortilla. Put down as many pieces as you can fit making sure you get all the different kinds spread out around the whole thing.

Crumble the goat cheese on top of the vegetables. Spreading it out as much as possible, use about 2 ounces to assure it will melt and hold on to the tortilla on the top so the quesadilla doesn't fall apart. The first time I made this I bought a cylinder of goat cheese and had a terrible time dividing up the smooth tube of cheese into chunks so if you can find it already crumbled in a container that works best. 

Place another tortilla on top of the goat cheese and using the back of a spatula press it down hard. After another minute or two it's time to flip it over, being very careful and working quickly flip the  whole quesadilla over so the second side gets nice and crispy. After about 3-4 minutes using the spatula slide it out. Place it on a flat surface, using a pizza cutter slice it into quarters and drizzle it with balsamic glaze.

Enjoy!!

Linked at: http://www.thecountrycook.net/

Pulled Pork Pizza

With Summer right around the corner I'm sure a lot of families will be making Pulled Pork to serve at their backyard BBQ's. I'm assuming like us, most of you will have left over meat. I love a good pulled pork sandwich on a potato roll with creamy coleslaw and pickles but you can only have it so many times before you end up freezing the rest of the meat. This pizza is a great way to use your left over pulled pork.....I challenge you to make this pizza instead!! It's easy, cheesy and ridiculously delicious!!

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese

1 Large Onion - Sliced Thinly (Caramelized)

1 Cup Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce

2 Cups Leftover Pulled Pork

1/4 Flour

Pam Spray

Preheat your oven to 425 F. Cut and caramelize your onion so it is ready to put on the pizza by the time the oven is read y (If you are unsure how to caramelize an onion - See below). Spray your pizza pan with Pam and set aside. Using a little bit of flour roll your pizza dough out into a circle about 1/4 inch in thickness. Spread out into pan so it fit appropriately. Squeeze about a cups worth of BBQ sauce on your pizza crust and spread it out evenly leaving yourself a little bit of crust. We enjoy Sweet Baby Ray's but if you have a sauce you prefer use that one instead.

Spread the shredded meat out evenly over top of the BBQ sauce. Pull larger sections of meat apart so it's not in huge chunks and will be easy to eat. Try and keep the layer of meat as low as possible and to the edge of the sauce.

Top the pulled pork with caramelized onions. For those of you who don't know how to caramelize an onion. In a medium pan over medium, heat up 1 Tbsp of Olive oil and slowly cook the thinly slice onion pieces for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently so they don't stick or burn. S&P them, after a few minutes add some water so they don't stick to the pan and continue to cook until they as soft and light brown. Spread the caramelized onions over top of the pork.

The last layer is shredded cheddar cheese. Then bake the pizza about 15-18 minutes, until the pork has heated through the crust is light brown and crispy and the cheese is completely melted. Allow the pizza to cool at least 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Enjoy!!

Buffalo Chicken Meatball Sliders

It is time for another round of Secret Recipe Club. This month we were assigned Cookin'Mimi. Micha has a lot of great recipes and originally I was thinking about breakfast so I was tempted to try her Breakfast Pot Pie, or the Cinnamon Pecan Biscuit Twists but I ended up picking Buffalo Chicken Meatballs with Blue Cheese Dip. Instead of making them mini and serving them with the dip at a party I made them normal meatball size and served them for dinner as sliders. They were quick and easy to make with very little prep and few ingredients, perfect for a busy weeknight dinner paired with salad and fries.

Ingredients for Meatballs:
1 lb Ground Chicken
1 Cup Panko Breadcrumbs
1/4 Cup Buffalo Wing Sauce
1 Large Beaten Egg
2 Cloves of Garlic - Minced
1 Tsp Salt
1/4 Tsp Pepper
1 Tsp Onion Powder

Slider Rolls
Romaine Lettuce
1/3 Cup Buffalo Wing Sauce

Ingredients for Blue Cheese Sauce:
1/2 Sour Cream
1/2 Mayo
1/2 Cup Blue Cheese Crumbles
Big Pinch of Salt

Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a large bowl combine the ground chicken, panko, garlic, beaten egg, buffalo sauce, salt, pepper and onion powder. Using your hands gently mix all of the ingredients together.

Form into medium sized balls which you will get about 9. Place them on a baking tray that has an rim.Bake 30-35 minutes depending on the size of the meatball. They should look slightly browned with a bit of  a crust. The internal temp should be about 165 F.

While the meatballs are baking you can make the blue cheese sauce. In a medium sized bowl, combine all the ingredients together. Use the back of your spoon to mush some of the large blue cheese crumbles. If you are putting the sauce out as a dip you can make it a little thinner by adding a Tsp or two of milk.

Allow them to cool for a few minutes then toss them in the remaining buffalo wing sauce.

If you are serving them as a slider, place them on a roll that has the blue cheese sauce slathered on the inside and a piece of nice crispy romaine lettuce.

Enjoy!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Lemon & Dill Grilled Salmon

Every week I walk by the Seafood department and see beautiful pink pieces of Salmon. I love almost all seafood but Salmon has never been my favorite so I've never prepared it at home even though John loves it. I decided to take on the challenge and give it a try this week.  I love the combination of lemon and dill on seafood so I made a simple sauce and put it on the grill with some asparagus. It was easy and quick to make plus it tasted amazing, John told me he thought I could serve it in a restaurant and even Owen ate a few bites of it!! The salmon was moist and the sauce was buttery this recipe definitely swayed my thought on Salmon and we will be having it again sometime soon. 

Ingredients:

About 1lb Fresh Wild King Alaskan Salmon

2 Tbsp Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 Tbsp Margarine

1 Tsp Dried Dill

1 Tsp Dried Basil

1 Tbsp Honey Dijon Mustard

1 Tsp Salt

4 Cloves Garlic - Minced

2 Dashes Cayenne Pepper

Adapted from: http://www.inspired2cook.com/

In a small pot combine all of the ingredients for the sauce. Mix everything together stirring occasionally over medium heat. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, allow it to simmer for about 5 minutes.

Using heavy duty tin foil place the salmon skin side down in the middle of  a large piece. Fold all four sides up creating a little boat for the fish. 

When the sauce is done slowly pour it over the top trying to keep most of it on the fish. Some of the oil will slide off into the boat but that's fine. If you need to spread it out evenly over the entire piece of fish with your spatula.

Preheat your outdoor grill to about 400-450 degrees. Place the foil on the grill and close the lid for 10-12 minutes. Conveniently the asparagus take just as long so I chose to grill them at the same time with just some olive oil, salt and pepper, turning them once while they grilled. If you aren't a fan of using a grill or you don't have one you can close the foil packet and bake this recipe in the oven at 350 F for 15-20 minutes.

You'll know the fish is done with it looks opaque, flaky and lighter pink instead of dark pink and shiny. The edges may be slightly crisp from the skin which is fine. Allow it to cool for a few minutes when you get it inside then slice into pieces and serve. Part of the reason I don't usually prefer salmon is the skin and in this preparation it stuck onto the foil so I was pleasantly surprised I didn't have to pick it off my piece.

Enjoy!!

Linked at: http://www.thecountrycook.net/

Greek Turkey Burgers

Even though it's officially been Spring for the last two weeks it didn't feel like it here in New Jersey until the other day. Finally the flowers are starting to come out of the ground and the leaves are beginning to come back. I am certainly ready to welcome the warmer weather and I think after the winter we've had most people would agree with me!!

 This recipes makes 4 large or 6 slider sized burgers. These burgers are full of flavor, the feta cheese and tzatiki sauce keeps them nice and moist and the cucumber topping gives it a fresh crunch. They also pair nicely with some homemade roasted sweet potato fries. Hopefully these Greek turkey burgers will give you the perfect reason to get outside and fire up the grill for the first time this season!! If you aren't quite ready to head outdoors to use your gas or charcoal grill a counter top sandwich press or stove top grill pan works just as well.

Ingredients for Burgers:

1.25lb Ground Turkey

1 Egg

3 oz Frozen Chopped Spinach - thawed & squeezed

8-10 Sun-dried Tomatoes - Diced

1 1/2 Tsp Garlic - Minced

1/3 Cup Crumbled Feta Cheese

1 Tsp Oregano

1/4 Tsp Cumin

1/4 Tsp Coriander

1/2 Tsp Salt

1/4 Tsp Pepper

Ingredients for Tzatziki:

5oz Container Plain Low Fat Greek Yogurt

1/2 Fresh Lemon - Squeezed

1/2 Tsp Garlic - Minced

3 Tbsp Cucumber - Peeled, Seeded and Minced

1/2 Tsp Oregano

S&P

Burger Garnishes:

More Feta Cheese

Sliced Cucumber

Homemade Tzatziki Sauce

Burger or Slider Rolls

Adapted from: http://www.budgetbytes.com/

Preheat and grease your grill. Thaw some of the frozen chopped spinach and squeeze out as much liquid out of it as you can. In a large bowl combine the ground turkey meat, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, egg, feta cheese and spices.

Using your hands mix all of the ingredients together until you feel that all of the spices are mixed in and the cheese, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes are spread out evenly. You can score the meat and try to divide it in equal parts as best you can. I got 4 large burgers ready to grill but I realized that I had purchased slider sized rolls so after taking all of these pictures I reformed my patties to make smaller ones.

When you are forming the patties make sure that they are thinner in the middle and a little bit thicker towards the outside. This will help the burger cook evenly and keep your patties flat. Grill your burgers for about 10 minutes, flipping once. Since it is turkey you don't want any raw meat in the center. 

While your burgers are grilling it's time to make your tzatiki sauce. In a small bowl combine the Greek yogurt with the garlic, lemon juice, oregano, cucumber, salt and pepper. When the burgers are ready to serve put them on the rolls. top them with the sauce, some extra cheese and a few slices of cucumber. The cucumber will bring some freshness and crunch to the creaminess of the other toppings. 

Enjoy!!