Day 70 - Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas

Have I mentioned that I am always changing up recipes? Well, it's true. This time I changed up my own recipe...the one for Black Bean Enchiladas. It was yummy, though.

Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 of a (16 oz) bag of frozen sweet corn
• 3/4 cup salsa
• 3 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 pkgs frozen chopped spinach, thawed, and squeezed dry
• 2 (10 oz) can green enchilada sauce
• 24 corn tortillas

1. Spray 2-11 x 7-inch baking dish with cooking spray. In a 10-inch skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cumin; cook and stir 4 to 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Stir in corn, salsa, beans, and spinach. Remove from heat.
2. On microwaveable plate, stack tortillas and cover with paper towel. Microwave on high 1 minute to soften. Place 1/4 cup bean mixture along center of each tortilla. Roll up tightly and place seam side down in baking dish; spoon remaining bean mixture on top. Pour enchilada sauce over enchiladas, spreading to coat all tortillas.
3. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 25 to 30 minutes or until sauce is bubbly around edges. Garnish with toppings of your choice (olives, avocado, tomato). OR Freeze now. Do not thaw and then cook. Cover with foil and freeze. Bake from frozen in preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Remove foil and cook until sauce is bubbly around edges, 10-15 minutes.

*This actually makes enough for 2 pans of enchiladas. Cook one now and freeze the other one for later. You will be thankful when life is crazy and you need something for dinner ASAP.

Day 8 - Minestrone Casserole

I didn't actually cook this last night. We ate leftovers and I went to Book Club. But I did make this last January for my Dinner Club swap. Sadly, we are no longer swapping dinners...but that is probably ok since I have sworn off meat this year.

I wonder if I can get anyone to swap vegetarian frozen meals with me?

This is a really good recipe. And one I've been thinking I need to make again. I love having meals in the freezer for those nights when I forget to take my vitamins am tired and not in the mood.


Minestrone Casserole

• 2 cups uncooked mini lasagna noodles (4 oz) -I used something called Wacky Mac from the local grocery
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion (1 large)
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 2 medium stalks celery, sliced (1 cup)
• 1 medium bell pepper, chopped
• 1 medium zucchini or summer squash, quartered lengthwise and slice-1 used a small one of each
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped (I pressed)
• 2 cans (15 oz each) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes with Italian herbs, undrained
• 1/2 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese, divided
• 1 teaspoon salt (oops! forgot this)
• 1/4 tsp pepper (forgot this too)
• 1/4 cup refrigerated basil pesto

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook and drain pasta as directed on package using minimum cooking time.
2. Meanwhile, in large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, celery, and bell pepper; cover and cook 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until carrots are just tender. Uncover; stir in squash and garlic. Cook and stir 1 minute more.
3. Place pasta in uncreased 3-qt casserole. Stir in carrot mixture, beans, tomatoes, 1/4 cup of the cheese, salt, pepper, and pesto. Cover casserole. Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until hot in center.Top each serving with remaining cheese.

How I freezerized it: Place 2 cups uncooked pasta in a quart sized ziploc bag. Place 1/4 parmesan cheese in a snack sized ziploc bag. Cook vegetables as directed. Remove from heat. Stir in undrained tomatoes, beans, salt, pepper, and pesto. Place in a gallon sized freezer ziploc bag. Place all 3 bags in another gallon sized ziploc bag. Freeze.

This recipe is from one of those little Pillsbury cookbooks you can pick up each month at the grocery store. Not sure which one, but I am pretty sure that's where I got it.

Day 7 - Zucchini Parmesan

I'm up to my eyeballs in zucchini. Well, not really, but all the same, I do have a lot. And I thought I would get rid of it all with this great Zucchini Parmesan recipe I can up with (inspiration from here), but, alas...it's not to be.

But I did use two of them up. Which is nice. Of course, I still have leftovers of both the Zucchini Parmesan and the zucchini. But that's ok, because I have book club tonight and very little time to be creative. So it's leftovers for dinner.

Zucchini Parmesan

• 2 medium zucchini, thinly sliced longwise
  
• 12 oz spaghetti
• 1 cup Italian-seasoned Bread Crumbs
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (or egg replacer)
  
• 2/3 cup Parmesan cheese
• 3/4 cup six cheese Italian Cheese mix
• 16 oz jar marinara sauce (**or you can punt, like I did)

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Cook spaghetti al dente according to package directions.
2. Place 1/4 marinara sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan. Place cooked and drained spaghetti in baking pan. Top with an additional 1/4 of the sauce.
3. Place almond milk in a shallow bowl. Place bread crumbs in another shallow bowl. Mix Parmesan cheese with bread crumbs.
4. Dip zucchini slices in almond milk and then dredge both sides in Parmesan bread crumb mixture. Place on top of spaghetti in baking pan. You will probably have to overlap the zucchini pieces. Continue until you run out of room (or you use all the slices *Ü*).
5. Spread remaining marinara sauce over zucchini. Sprinkle Italian cheeses over the top. Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until zucchini is cooked through.

*Based on eggplant parmesan experience, I believe this will freeze well. I did not make enough to freeze here because I didn't have enough ingredients to make two.

Apparently I forgot to take a picture of the final product. But trust me
when I say...it looked GOOD.

**In a pinch Punt Marinara: Here's what I did: I had no sauce in the pantry (I used the last of it on the gnocchi), but I did have a 15 oz can of Italian diced tomatoes, a 6 oz can of tomato paste, and a pkg of Laurie's Kitchen Puttanesca Sauce Mix that I bought from my Boy Scout son during one of his fundraisers. The directions on the sauce call for mixing the sauce mix with a 28 oz can of tomatoes. Instead I mixed together the sauce mix, the tomatoes, the can of tomato paste and two tomato paste cans of water. I am pretty sure the "very expensive but I bought it because my son was selling it" sauce mix is really just a good italian seasoning mix with some kind of thickener (like cornstarch), so if you don't have the sauce mix (and if you don't, call me and I'll send my son over to sell you some) you should be able to use italian seasoning and cornstarch.

Day 6 - Zucchini Corn Enchiladas

For whatever reason, in the middle of winter, zucchini is abundant (and cheap) at the Mexican market close to my husband's work. And since we love zucchini, he has been bringing it home for me to cook. We've already had stuffed zucchini, zucchini parmesan is on the horizon, and last night I created a zucchini enchilada dish.

Which is muy sabrosa.

Zucchini Corn Enchiladas

• 2 medium to largish zucchini
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
  
• 1/2 of a 16 oz bag frozen corn
  
• 1 (4 oz) can diced green chiles
• 12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
  
• 1 (10 oz) green chile enchilada sauce
• 1/4 cup mexican cheese mixture (optional)
  

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Shred both zucchini.
2. In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute onions until translucent. Add garlic, corn, and shredded zucchini. Cook until zucchini has released water and water has mostly evaporated. Stir in diced green chiles.
3. Place tortillas on a microwave safe plate and cover with a paper towel. Microwave on high for 1 minute to soften.
4. Place a scant 1/4 cup of filling in each tortilla, rolling up. Place seam side down in 13x9 casserole pan. Sprinkle any remaining filling over the top of the rolled tortillas.
5. Pour enchilada sauce over the top of tortillas, making sure that the sauce covers all the enchiladas. If using cheese, sprinkle over the top of the enchiladas.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until enchiladas are heated through.

The cheese is really an unnecessary addition to these enchiladas. I don't even really like cheese, but my family does. This plays lip service to that want from them...but it really is an unnecessary addition. :)

And while I haven't frozen this particular recipe (I only made one), I am pretty sure that this would freeze just fine. I would have made two, but I wanted to have zucchini left for the zucchini parmesan that I am making tonight...

Day 2 - French Onion Soup

Well, on the 1st I got a bit frustrated. I was planning on making cottage cheese and spinach pierogies, and mushroom pierogies, but the dough recipe I was using was tooooooo sticky. I ended up putting it away because I was getting so frustrated, and we had leftover soup instead. This is a pretty basic recipe--onion soup in the crockpot.

This is adapted from Robin Robertson's "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker".

I love onion soup, but I hate to stand there and cook the onions. It takes forever...like an hour! Who has time for that (well, me...but that's another story)?

Robin slices hers into the slow cooker and pours olive oil on them. I made a couple of minor changes to her recipe, and this is what I came up with:

• 6 large yellow onions (sweet onions are best, such as Walla Walla or Vidalia, if you can get your hands on them)
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 4 (15 1/2 oz) cans vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce (or use this recipe, this recipe, or this recipe)
• 6 slices french bread
• 6 slices provolone cheese

1. Slice ends off of onions and remove papery skin. Slice in half from root end to top, so that when you slice, the rings will already be cut in half. Slice each onion and place in slow cooker.
2. Pour olive oil over onions (use however much seems appropriate to you--I used the lesser amount and the onions were fine). Place lid on slow cooker.
   
3. Cook on high heat for 4-6 hours, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft and well caramelized.
4. At this point, I removed half of the onions and placed them in a marked freezer bag. That is so the next time I want soup, all I have to do is add the stock.
5. Add vegetable stock and Worcestershire sauce. Cover and cook on high an additional 30 minutes to an hour.
6. To serve, ladle the soup into ovenproof ramekins. Place a slice of french bread and provolone cheese on top of the soup and place under the broiler until the cheese is melted. Alternatively, place bread slices and cheese on a baking sheet and put them under the broiler. When cheese is melted, remove from oven and place in a bowl of onion soup.
   

We got about 6 servings from this.

Day 1 - Black Bean Enchiladas

Of course it is the New Year, and things are fresh and exciting! Hopefully things will stay that way throughout the year. :)

I haven't decided what I am making for dinner yet, but I am sure it will have spinach and mushrooms as I have both of those items in the fridge. The spinach was grown locally at our local high school farm. This is near and dear to my heart, and something I am happy to support.

So as I plug in my ingredients to Google, I will leave you with a favorite vegetarian recipe of mine--Black Bean Enchiladas. I made two meals of this earlier this week and stuck one in the freezer. Yum!

Black Bean Enchiladas

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cup frozen sweet corn
3/4 cup chunky salsa
1 can (15 oz) black beans
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
1 (10-oz) can enchilada sauce (I prefer green, but red is fine, too!)

Spray 11 x 7-inch baking dish with cooking spray. In a 10-inch skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cumin; cook and stir 4 to 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Stir in corn, salsa, beans, and 1 cup of the cheese. Remove from heat.

On microwaveable plate, stack tortillas and cover with paper towel. Microwave on high 1 minute to soften. Place 1/4 cup bean mixture along center of each tortilla. Roll up tightly and place seam side down in baking dish; spoon remaining bean mixture on top. Pour enchilada sauce over enchiladas, spreading to coat all tortillas. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup of cheese.

To cook and serve now--Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 25 to 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly around edges. Garnish with toppings of your choice (olives, avocado, tomato).

To freeze and serve later--Freeze now. Do not thaw and then cook. Cover with foil and freeze. Bake from frozen in preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Remove foil and cook until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly around edges, 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

So, this is the closest I could find to a picture of black
bean enchiladas. But it isn't mine. And these aren't even
corn tortillas. But it looks good, and that's what counts,
right? ;)