Vegetarian Quesadillas

So yesterday a friend posted a link about burgers made from beans and rice.  The picture was tempting enough to click on it, and I discovered a blog with some yummy recipes.  One that caught my eye was this one: Vegan Quesadillas from the Everyday Vegetarian.

I had most of the ingredients, and what I didn't have could easily be remedied with subsitutes, so I got busy making dinner.  As we are no longer buying tortillas due to the plethora of preservatives and unhealthy, modified oils in them (not to mention the high cost in our area), I had time to mix up enough dough to make six tortillas while the beans were cooking.  In the end, I made enough modifications to the original recipe that it seemed best to write it out here to share with you guys, and my version was no longer vegan.

 It's yummy, healthy, and filling.  The amount I made provided enough for my husband and I each to have our own quesadilla, for our son to have a cheese quesadilla, and to have half of a quesadilla for lunch today.  If I'd had the ingredients for a salad, it probably would have stretched even farther.

INGREDIENTS:
6 Tortillas (I'll share how I make mine at the end of this recipe.)
1 can Organic Pinto Beans, drained (I used Trader Joe's, and it provides about 1 and 3/4 cups of beans.)
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
1/2 Yellow Onion, diced
1 c. Water
1 can Fire Roasted Tomatoes that have been mostly drained (leave a few tablespoons of liquid)
1/2 tsp. Ancho Chili Pepper (Chipotle or Adobo would be good too)
1 Sweet Bell Pepper, sliced (they used red; I had yellow on hand)
4 Mushrooms, sliced
1 T. Oil
1 T. Balsamic Vinegar
1-2 Avocados
3 T. Lime Juice
1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt
1/2 c. Shredded Cheese

INSTRUCTIONS: (I followed the ones in the original recipe fairly closely.)
1. Place beans in a sauce pan with garlic and onion and 1 cup of water.  Cook, uncovered, over medium heat until water is evaporated.  Add tomato with its remaining liquid and the Ancho Chili Pepper.  Cook a few more minutes until liquid is evaporated, stirring occasionally.  Set aside to cool.

2. Saute mushrooms in oil of your choice for about 5 minutes.  Add in sweet bell pepper slices and saute another 5 minutes or so.  Add the balsamic vinegar at the end and stir to coat.

3. Mash bean mixture with a fork.  It doesn't have to be fully mashed, just a bit to provide some creamy texture as if they were refried beans.

4. Mash avocado and add lime juice and kosher salt to make a simple guacamole.

5. Take one tortilla and spread 1/3 bean mixture, 1/3 mushroom and peppers, 1/3 of the avocado, 1/3 of the cheese, and top with another tortilla.  Cook in a skillet over medium heat 1-2 minutes each side, flipping carefully one time.  Repeat with the remaining tortillas.  Serve with your favorite salsa and plain yogurt or sour cream.

Inkling's Tortillas That Would Never Pass Mexican Inspection But Are Tasty Recipe  =)
(Real Mexican tortillas would never be a mixture of corn and flour.  They would be either one or the other.  And they'd never have baking powder in them either.  Most of the time they would be made with lard instead of butter.  One day when I learn how to render ethically farmed, pastured lard, I may try it instead of butter.)

INGREDIENTS: (This is enough to make about 8 - 8-10"tortillas.)
1 c. Maseca (Corn treated with lime - different from cornmeal.)
1/2 c. Unbleached All Purpose Flour
1/2 c. Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Baking Powder
scant 1/4 c. cold Butter, cut into pieces
Room Temperature Water (maybe 2/3 - 1 cup)
Organic Cornmeal for rolling

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. In a large mixing bowl, mix maseca, flours, salt, and baking powder together with a mixing fork.

2. Add in butter pieces.  With clean hands, mix butter into the corn/flour mixture until completely combined and distributed evenly.

3. Adding in only a few tablespoonfuls at a time, pour water into flour mixture and mix with fork until dough begins to form.  You don't want it too dry, but you don't want it sticky.

4. When dough is moist enough to shape into a ball, bring it together with your hands and knead for at least five minutes up to ten minutes.  (It's important to do this by hand.  And quite frankly, it's kind of therapeutic.)

5. Divide dough into 8 even pieces and shape into balls.  Cover with a tea towel.

6. (At this point, I have a big dinner plate and several tea towels out.) Sprinkle work surface with cornmeal and flatten one ball onto cornmeal with hands.  Roll into a circle at least 8 inches in diameter. You want the tortilla to be less than 1/16th of an inch thick, but not so thin that it's tearing.  Put the first tortilla on the plate; cover with a tea towel, and continue layering them in between tea towels.

7. (When I make beans and rice, I cook these as needed so that they don't harden up.  And I cook them a bit longer so that they have a few tiny brown spots.  They can be stored uncooked and tightly covered in the refrigerator for a day or two if you have leftovers.)  For quesadillas, cook tortillas in a dry skillet over medium heat for a couple of minutes on each side.  Because you are going to cook them a second time once they are filled, you don't want to get them browned.  As each one is done cooking, put it on a plate and carefully cover it with a tea towel until they are all cooked and ready to assemble into quesadillas.  Now you are ready to pick up with step 5 on the quesadilla instructions.

Asian Veggie Wraps & Artichokes

We had some serious leftovers to deal with in the veggie department, so I got creative. It was absolutely yummy and incredibly healthy. Because everything was naturally low in fat and high in fiber, the dip we made for the artichokes wasn't even a cause for guilt. I'll share it all below.

Asian Veggie Wraps for two or three...
INGREDIENTS:
Butter Lettuce Leaves, washed and crisped whole (I buy living lettuce, which actually comes with roots in a bit of soil enclosed in a plastic box that you just water and keep cool until ready to wash and use.)
2 c. Butternut Squash, cut in large chunks
1/2 c. Brown Rice
1.5 c. water
1/2 c. Eggplant, cut in small bites
1/2 Portobello Mushroom (or whole, whatever you have on hand), cut in small pieces
1/4 c. Red Onion, chopped
2 Cloves of Garlic, chopped fine
1 T. Fresh Rosemary
3 T. Asian Ginger & Sesame Sauce (I use Trader Joe's Goya Sauce, but anything Teryaki Flavored will work. The key is boldness.)
1 T. Olive Oil

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Prepare the Lettuce leaves as above, and set aside in the frig for later. (Butter lettuce is sometimes called Boston lettuce or Bibb lettuce.)

2. Prepare Brown Rice and water. I put both in a pot with a glass lid, bring to a boil for a few minutes, and then turn down to a simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Then I turn off the heat and leave it covered for another 35 minutes to finish steaming. If you do it this way, you just have to make sure the water does not completely evaporate while the stove is still doing its thing. So if your brown rice comes with other instructions, do whatever it says to do for 1/2 c. of dry rice.

3. Steam the squash until tender enough to mash by hand. Mash with a fork or potato ricer and add to finished rice.

4. Meanwhile, saute onion, garlic, eggplant, and portobello in olive oil until tender. The onion will be nearly translucent. Add the rosemary and Asian sauce in the last couple minutes of cooking, stirring in well. When all is tender and combined, add to squash and rice mixture, stirring in well. (It will look weird, but it is totally delicious.)

5. Serve by spooning into the lettuce leaves and rolling up like a burrito, or you could serve it on/in pita bread. It's savory and deliciously healthy. We loved this experiment, and are so glad we tried it.


*This dish does NOT need any added salt since the Asian sauce has plenty of sodium.

Steamed Artichokes & Dip
INGREDIENTS:
1 Large Whole Raw Artichoke
Juice of one lemon
1/3 c. Mayonnaise
1 tsp. White Sugar
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Herbs de Provence
1/2 tsp. Dried Thyme
1/8 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
Dash Black Pepper

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Prepare artichoke by cutting fresh end off of stem, cutting tips off of leaves, and cutting whole artichoke in half. Using a spoon, scoop out the choke - that's the "hairy" part in the middle - and throw away. Brush lemon juice (or cut lemon half that is slightly squeezed to release some juice) all over the artichoke to prevent browning.

2. Place artichoke halves cut side down in steamer pot and steam on medium low heat for around 40 minutes, or until heart and leaves are tender.

3. Meanwhile, mix the rest of the lemon juice and all other ingredients in small bowl. Taste to see if you think it's to your liking, and stick in frig until ready to serve.

4. To eat the artichoke, remove leaves one at a time; dip into mayo mixture, and eat by scraping the fleshy inside part of leaf against your bottom teeth. Discard the tough part of leaf in bowl reserved for that use. Keep removing leaves until you get to the stem and heart. This can be eaten in its entirety.

5. You may have some dip left. It will keep a few days in the frig and is great to add to sandwiches, as a veggie dip, or to use with rice or potatoes to add zing.

*If your artichokes are on the small side, you could serve a whole one for each person. It's not too hard to gently open center of leaves to scoop out the choke without having to cut the whole thing in half. Then you would just steam upside down for same amount of time or a bit longer.

*These recently got press as being the top Super Veggie. (Don't know if they can fly though.) So it's worth trying. And the fiber from these yummy treats is a whole lot tastier than metamucil!

mushroom sauce for beef roast

I made my very first oven-baked top sirloin roast yesterday. I rubbed it in a garlic/ginger rub, and added salt pepper, and worscestshire sauce to it before sticking it in the oven at 325. Pretty standard. It turned out a tad dry, but it was only a 1.3 pounder.

Anyway, since it was a bit dry, I decided the sauteed mushrooms and red onions needed to be in more of a broth or thin gravy.

I sauteed them as normal (lots of butter, about 1 tsp minced garlic), then I added about 1/2 c vegetable broth, 1/2 c Sutter Home Merlot, and a little water. I used flour to thicken it just a smidge. I also added salt and pepper and garlic powder to taste.

Sorry it's not more of a recipe format, but that's what happens when you throw something together. Anyway, hubby and I were pleased with the results, and Baby Bear LOVED the mushrooms.