Cheese and Vegetable Enchiladas

I love enchiladas and usually make them with chicken but since I gave up meat for Lent, I decided to try throwing together a vegetarian version. These were really good! I might just make these for myself from now on. :)

Makes 2-3 large enchiladas (depending on how much you stuff in the tortillas! They make good left-overs!)

**I didn't take a photo because, from the outside, they looked exactly like the chicken ones I made DH! (ooh, actually, these ones didn't have the cilantro on the top... other than that, they look exactly like the linked ones ;)

Ingredients:
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 cup onion, chopped (red or white)
1 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/8 cup sour cream
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
3/8 tsp. dried parsley
1/8 tsp. dried oregano
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/4 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 of a fresh tomato, seeded and chopped
1/4 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup black beans (I used the canned ones - drain and rinse)
1/4 cup corn kernels (I used frozen - just dump them in!)
1/8 cup black olives, sliced
1/8 cup bell peppers, diced
4 button mushrooms, chopped
3/4 tsp. chili powder
1/2 cup enchilada sauce
2-3 flour tortillas
1 tbsp. water

Method:
1. Heat oven the 350 degrees F.

2. In a medium skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and cook until tender. Add the cream cheese, sour cream, 1/4 cup of cheese, parsley, oregano, and black pepper. Stir until the cheese melts. Stir in canned and fresh tomato, black beans, bell peppers, olives, mushrooms, corn, jalapeno, water, and chili powder.

3. Roll even amounts of the mixture into the tortillas. Arrange in a baking dish. Cover enchiladas with enchilada sauce and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Cool 5-10 minutes before serving.

Tomato-Parmesan Strata

I'd never made, or even tried, a strata until tonight so I really wasn't sure what to expect! The ingredients in the recipe I used all sounded yummy so I figured I'd try it out. It was a success and this has officially been added to the "vegetarian meals to eat when DH isn't here" rotation. ;)
I also got to "baptize" my Le Creuset oval baking dish that I got for Christmas so that was a nice little bonus!

The original recipe was from Cooking Light but I changed just a couple things. Those changes included subbing broccoli for the spinach (out of spinach) adding mushrooms, and using 2 whole eggs in place of the 1 egg plus 3 egg whites (I admit, I was being lazy!)
Here's my version.

Serves 2 (yum - I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow!)

Ingredients:
2 slices whole wheat bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
Cooking spray
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup broccoli florets
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs
1 cup chopped, seeded tomato
3-4 white button mushrooms, chopped
2 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Place the bread cubes in a baking dish coated with cooking spray.

3. Coat a non-stick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute until tender. Add the broccoli and garlic; saute an additional minute or two. Remove from heat.

4. Combine thyme, salt, black pepper, and eggs in a medium bowl; stir with a whisk. Stir in the broccoli mixture, tomatoes, and mushrooms. Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes in the baking dish; sprinkle with cheese.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until set. Yummy with a salad.

Reference:
The original recipe was from the June 2007 issue of Cooking Light magazine.

Orange-Cranberry Wheat Germ Muffins

My goodness, these are tasty! I've sort of nicknamed them "Super-Food Muffins" since they are packed with antioxidants from the fruits and vitamin E and folic acid from the wheat germ. :)

I wanted to try these out since I love all combinations of orange and cranberry and thought they would be a yummy breakfast treat. The nutmeg and cinnamon add a nice spiciness which goes great with the fruity flavours. I'm very lucky to have parents with a great organic garden who live very close by so I had lots of yummy navel oranges that I got to use in these! Mmmm...

The recipe is from Cooking Light but I changed them a bit. I made these vegan by substituting mashed-up bananas for the eggs. I also used apple-sauce in place of the oil but feel free to use eggs and oil if you'd like. Either way, they are super-healthy.

They are very good warm so plan on giving them a quick zap in the microwave the next morning :) Or just eat them all fresh from the oven! hee hee ;)

12 muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat germ (the original recipe called for raw but I used the toasted stuff) - it adds a great nutty flavour
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I used light brown)
1/4 cup apple-sauce or canola oil
1 tsp. grated orange rind
1/2 cup freshly-squeezed orange juice
1 banana, well mashed or 2 eggs
Cooking spray
1 tbsp. turbinado sugar

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (original said 375 but I bake everything at 350!)
Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray or fill wells with paper or foil cupcake holders.

2. Combine flour and next 7 ingredients (through nutmeg) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in the center of the mixture.

3. Combine brown sugar, oil or applesauce, orange rind, juice, and eggs in a separate bowl; stir with a whisk.

4. Add the juice mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Spoon batter into the muffin cups. Sprinkle the batter with turbinado sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean.

Reference:
The original recipe is from the January/February 2008 issue of Cooking Light magazine.

Vegetable-Bean Soup

**Excuse the really yellow photos! I had to take them with my phone and I think the flash is a bit funny...**
This is one of the yummy vegetarian recipes I've had tagged for a while! I guess one good thing about Lent is that I'm finally getting to try them all :) I found the original recipe for this in a magazine - the original actually called for chicken broth but I switched that out for veggie broth. It also mentioned you can the soup with a little grated Parmesan - it's a vegan recipe if you leave the cheese off.
You can use whatever veggies you have on hand. I thought about adding some mushrooms and sweet corn but completely forgot - next time! Add those at the last minute with the spinach, salt, and pepper if you do any "softer" veggies like that. Carrot or celery could be added with the squash so it will have time to soften.

Enjoy!

Enough for 6 (I made the whole recipe - I'll freeze the leftovers)

Ingredients:
1 tbsp. vegetable oil (I used olive)
1 large onion, chopped (can I just say thank God for food processors! lol)
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups cubed squash - I used half zucchini, half something else - I think it was an acorn squash (long, thin, light yellow - I'm a bit squash-illiterate!)
1 32-oz can/box vegetarian vegetable broth
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 10-oz package frozen spinach
1 15-oz can cannellini or navy beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Method:
1. Heat the oil in a heavy large pot over medium heat until hot. Add the onion and cook 4-6 minutes until soft. Stir frequently.

2. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Stir in the squash, broth, tomatoes, thyme, and oregano. Increase the heat to medium-high; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium or medium-low and simmer 15-20 minutes or until the squash is tender.

3. Stir in all remaining ingredients and simmer five minutes until heated through.

Here's the non-vegan version with cheese ;)

Reference:
The original recipe is from the October/November 2005 issue of Cooking Pleasures magazine.

Weekly Menu

Here's my all-vegetarian menu for the week of February 10-15 - I'll also post what I'll make for the meat-eater ;)

Sunday - Chunky Vegetable-Bean Soup; Hubby will have chili with beef. I have some cornbread in the freezer which I think will go great with my soup so I'll warm that up, too.

Monday - Tomato and Parmesan Strata, salad, cooked baby carrots. Margarita salmon, salad, carrots for hubby (actually, carrots do not go with that salmon at all! I'll have to come up with plan B).

Tuesday - Cheese enchiladas for me (I'll probably add bell peppers, tomato, etc to fill up with something other than cheese); chicken enchiladas for hubby. Probably a salad with those.

Wednesday - Calzones made with Trader Joe's pizza dough. This will be my first attempt at calzones so I'm excited :) I'm going to make home-made sauce and fill mine with cheese, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, and bell peppers. Hubby will have pepperoni, cheese, and turkey (shhh! He doesn't have to know it's turkey!) Italian sausage.

Thursday - I'm stealing someone's idea for Valentine's Day dinner :) I'm afraid I didn't write down the name but it was a woman on the Nest. I thought this had to be about the cutest thing ever... Living Room Picnic :) We will have crusty breads, cheeses, some nice deli meats for hubby, grapes, strawberries (I may make some chocolate-covered ones if I'm feeling adventurous), crunchy veggies, and some champagne. I'm also planning a key-lime pie for dessert.

Friday - Cannelloni with salsa verde for me. No clue what hubby will have :) Maybe tacos...

Portobello Parmesan

So I gave up meat for Lent this year. I'm Episcopalian (I was raised in the Church of England) so I'm really only "Catholic Light" but I do Lent every year. :) It's really only hard since my husband is such a carnivore - sort of tough to come up with two things to make every night (there are weeks I have a hard time just coming up with one thing! Oh well... we'll see if I last 40 days! :) Oh the other hand, this is a great reason to try all these yummy vegetarian recipes I've pulled out of magazines and cookbooks!

Serves 1 (you could always double, triple, whatever it)

Ingredients:
1-2 portobello mushroom caps (I only made one since I had a HUGE lunch and wasn't very hungry. I think next time I'll make two).
Cooking spray
Marinara sauce (I used the recipe I have in this blog - I make a ton at a time and freeze it so I always have it available)
1 tbsp. Parmesan cheese
1/8 cup mozzarella cheese
*The original recipe calls for salt and pepper to sprinkle on the mushrooms before adding the sauce/cheese. I completely forgot but didn't miss it so I've left it off this version. :)

Method:
1. Preheat broiler

2. Remove the brown gills from the undersides of the mushroom(s) using a spoon; discard the gills. Place the mushroom caps, undersides down, in a baking dish coated with cooking spray. Broil for 5 minutes.

3. Turn mushroom caps over and top with marinara sauce (you probably one need a couple tablespoons) and the cheese. Broil 3 more minutes or until the cheese melts.

Serve with hot spaghetti and additional marinara sauce.

Reference:
Adapted slightly from the Portobello Parmesan recipe from the October 2007 issue of Cooking Light magazine.

Better-Than-Sex Cake

Well, I'm not sure I'd say it was that good! ;) This was another thing I decided to try out for the Superbowl party. Again, I got this from a post someone left on the Nest but I can't remember her name (same person who posted the crack dip last week - they were in the same post!) Oh well... I was never accused of being perfect ;)

Here's how I made it (it is slightly different to the original version)

Ingredients:
1 chocolate cake (recipe below)
3/4 cup caramel topping (I used jarred caramel ice-cream topping. I'll try just melting some caramels and using those next time)
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk (I'm really not sure why I needed this. I'm going to skip it next time)
1 Symphony bar - the one with toffee bits and almonds
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Method:
1. Bake chocolate cake according to recipe below.

2. Leave the cake in the baking pan. While it is still warm, poke small holes in the cake using a toothpick. Drizzle the caramel sauce over the cake.

3. Let the cake stand to cool. Whip up the heavy whipping cream and then coat the top of the cake with the whipped cream. Sprinkle with chopped up pieces of the chocolate bar.

4. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve the cake. It's great with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream :)

Here's the chocolate cake recipe I used. It's the cake base from "Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting" from the Land O'Lakes Baking book.

Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/3 cups milk

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
1. Grease and lightly flour a 13x9x2-inch baking dish (a lasagna dish works perfectly!)

2. Combine the sugar and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or other large bowl. Beat until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla; continue beating until well-mixed. Add flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to butter mixture alternatively with the milk (I put all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl then added the dry and the milk a little at a time). Beat just until blended.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 30-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.