Sheet Pan Ratatouille

Sheet Pan Ratatouille is a great side for chicken or golden halloumi and garlic bread.

This serves 2, double for 4 servings

1 red bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 zucchini, cut into ½" medallions.

1 medium red onion, cut into 1 inch chunks

Bunch thyme, approximately 4 tsp of leaves stripped off the stem.

1 cup cherry tomatoes

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tsp honey

4 cloves garlic, peeled whole

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

2 chicken breasts -or- 200g halloumi

- Preheat oven to 450°

- Line a sheet Pan with parchment.  

- Toss the peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, thyme and garlic with 1 tbsp or less of olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Put in the middle oven rack, stirring halfway through cooking. 14-16 minutes.  Until the tomatoes burst.

- Cook protein of your choice. *CHICKEN* season with salt and pepper, brown in oiled pan 2 - 3 minutes a side and then add to the sheet pan.  *HALLOUMI* cut into 4 pieces, rince halloumi and dry with paper towel.  Heat a non stick pan over medium and dry fry until golden, 2 - 3 minutes a side.

- In a bowl, add 1 tbsp olive oil, honey, and white wine vinegar, mash the roasted garlic add salt and pepper.  Toss the roast veggies in the dressing.  Serve with the protein.

- Enjoy!

Leek and Potato Soup

It is soup season.  This soup came around from finding some huge leeks at a market.

Leek and Potato Soup

2 large leeks or 4 regular leeks

6 russet potato or any other starchy potato

1 tbsp+ chicken better than bouillon

Enough water to cover potatoes

6 rashers bacon

1 to 2 tbsp butter

1 cup grated gouda

Salt and pepper

- Remove dark green leek top and slice lengthwise.  Since the leek and shake off the water.  Cut each half lengthwise again and then slice across the leek.

- Peel potatoes and chop into small cubes. Set aside.

- Cut the bacon rashers into small pieces.  Place in a heavy bottom pot and render the fat out and the pieces are lightly golden. Remove bacon from pan. 

- Add 1 to 2 tbsp of butter to pot and all the sliced up leeks.  Sweat the leeks moving around until they are all started to cook.  Cover for 2 to 4 minutes until the leeks are nice and tender.  Add better than bouillon.

- Add potatoes and enough water until all the potatoes are covered.  Cook until potatoes are soft and mashable.

-Mash potatoes, add cheese and salt and pepper to taste 

- Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Sage Ravioli

Buternut Squash Sage Ravioli

500g butternut squash ravioli fresh pasta

400g butternut squash, cubed

120 g onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely grated.

1 cup sour cream

50g goat cheese

1/4 cup sage, finely chopped not packed

3 tbsp chives, chopped

50g pepitas

2 tsp better then bouillon, chicken or veggie

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

-Preheat oven to 425° and put a 10 cups of water on to boil, adding 2+ tap of salt to the water.

- Cube butternut squash and place on baking tray, toss in olive oil, 1 tbsp sage, salt and pepper.  Bake for 22-24 minutes or until squash gets golden around the edges.

- In a small bowl combine goat cheese and half of the chives, set aside.

- Add ravioli to the boiling water and cook according to the package.  Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water.

- In a non stick pan, toast pepitas and set aside.  Be careful not to burn.

- in the same pan add butter, remaining sage and onions and sweat 2 to 3 minutes, add garlic and cook another 1 minute.

-Add broth concentrate, cooking another 2 minutes then remove from heat and mix in the sour cream (it helps if you let the sour cream warm up a bit before adding.). Season with salt and pepper

-Add pasta and cooked squash to the sauce, then pour into a large serving bowl.  Top with goat cheese and chives, sprinkle pepitas on top or serve on the side.

Vegetarian Dinner

I have been reading a lot of blogs in the last little while and I came across Peas and Thank You.  I am think that I am called a flexitarian, I enjoy vegetarian options some of the time although, I also enjoy my meat as well.  Since I am trying to incorporate more protein into Ladybug's meals, I thought that looking up some vegetarian/vegan options since they are generally very good using none-animal protein source.  Surprising that, ha ha, anyways Ladybug doesn't really like meat but she does like tofu.  So I followed the link from one blog to the next and I find this thing called Mmmm Sauce and there was this Summer Succotash Quesadillas with Nacho Mmmm Sauce so I had to try it.  Unfortunately I didn't have all the ingredients, so I did was I generally do, which is wing it and mod-it until I felt it was done.

So I started with the Nacho Mmmm Sauce since I never made it before, I thought it would be best to get that out of the way first.

Nacho Mmmm Sauce

2/3 cup jarred Salsa

1/3 cup Water

1/4 cup Raw Almonds (or 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp ground almonds

1/4 cup Garbanzo Beans, drained and rinsed

1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast (I used engivita yeast)

2 tbsp Lemon Juice

1 tsp Minced Garlic

1/4 tsp Salt

1 tsp Chili Powder

1 tsp Cumin

1 tsp dried cilantro (which I never use since I almost always have fresh on hand, so 2-4 tbsp of fresh Cilantro)

*Place all the ingredients in the blender and blend to desired consistency.   

This was by far the best saucey thing I have had in a while, I can't say enough about this sauce.  Soooooooo Gooooood!!!

Quesdilla 

Makes 2-4 quesadillas.  Made a lot of filling, just add more tortillas as needed.

1/2 onion (original recipe called for a sweet onion but his is what I had)

1/2 zucchini

1 cup of Corn (I used frozen corn that we had frozen last season)

1 clove garlic

2 tbsp water

1/2 lime, squeezed over the veggies while they cook

1/2 tsp agave syrup

1/2 tsp cumin

1 1/2 small yams, boiled chopped and peeled

salt and pepper

4 tortillas

1 cup shredded cheese (real or fake)

*Saute onions until they start to caramelize over medium heat in a frying pan

*Add zucchinis, corn, garlic, water, agave, and cumin.  Let simmer and thicken for 10 minutes.

*In a large skillet (or crepe pan :)  over medium/high place 1 tortilla and top with 2 tbsp of cheese, and 1/3 cup+ of the veggie filling, some of the yams, top with 2 tbsp cheese and top with another tortilla.  

*Once the cheese has melted on the bottom and the tortilla is golden, flip it over and brown the other side. 

*Then cut and serve.

So my picture taking skills have been lacking so here is the picture of the red onion and nothing else cooking, oh well.

Not done artistically but eventually I just covered the whole thing in that delectable sauce and ate it like it was iced with the stuff.

Here is a lovely shot of the lovely golden quesadilla with the filling.

You can see the zucchini and the yams very well in that shot.  This one is of a quesadilla made with only one tortilla.  Take the tortilla and put it in the pan with 2+ tbsp of cheese all over it and then place the veggie mix and yams only on half of the tortilla.  Once the cheese has melted then flip the non-veggied side over the veggies, remove from the heat and then cut into 4 wedges.  

So good that I took another shot of it.  The next thing I did was dip it and smothered it with Nacho Mmmm Sauce.