<p>For NJTheatreMom and anyone else who likes this sort of thing. At the end, I’ll note how I changed it.
Mediterranean Brown Rice Vegetable Bake
Source: Carolina Rice/Cooking Light
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced; 3 garlic cloves, chopped; 1 c. chopped fennel*
2 c finely chopped mushrooms; 1/2 c sun-dried tomatoes, chopped*
1/2 c. low-fat ricotta cheese*
2 eggs
1/4 c. chopped fresh basil; 1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley*
2 c. brown rice, cooked
1/2 c. roasted almonds, chopped<br>
1/2 tsp each: salt, pepper,crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 c. shredded Parm cheese<br>
Directions:</p>
<p>Heat large skillet over medium heat. Swirl the oil to coat. Add onions, garlic and fennel; saute 6 minutes. Add mushrooms and tomatoes. Cook til all of liquid evaporated. Cool completely.
In a large bowl, mix ricotta and eggs. Add cooled veg mix and the final ingreds, including the brown rice. Mix well.
Lightly coat a 1.5-quart baking dish with oil. Place mixture in dish and cover with foil. Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.
Yield: 8 servings
This calc was estimated by a food blogger: per serving: 226 cals; 14.1g fat (5.1 sat; 1.7 poly; 6.3 mono); 364mg sodium; 18.2 carb; 13.7 protein</p>
<ul>
<li>I skipped fennel, SD tom, ricotta, parsley. Substituted 1/2 c canned chopped tomatoes (liquid squeezed out,) 1/2 c cottage cheese and probably added lemon pepper. I baked it in a meatloaf pan. Made a gravy. DH likes with salsa or sriracha. This sort of dish lends well to any variations, as long as you get the moisture balance- not too wet, not too dry. Worst case, if it doesn’t hold, you call it a crumble.</li>
</ul>
<p>I used that 10-minute sort of easy brown rice- if anyone needs me to look up the type, I can do that.</p>
<p>Okay, I just went through this entire post and I printed several recipes! Can’t wait to try the Crash Hot Potatoes, they look awesome!</p>
<p>Blueiguana: Perfect ideas, thank you. Maybe I’ll make it easy on myself and just cut up a Costco chicken for the chicken salad, this way it’ll be nice & moist. Maybe make a quiche too. Vandygrad: I noticed your family likes quiche: I’d love a easy quiche recipe that’s vegetarian if anyone knows of a good one…maybe I’ll look up one with fennel or something like that…</p>
<p>Do I need the couscous and quiche? Yeah, it doesn’t hurt to have both choices…I usually make this couscous and serve cold…and I’ll make a nice green salad with lots of toppings…I think I’ll skip soup for this occasion but chicken tortilla soup sounds yummy. </p>
<p>Fruit salad and a couple of easy finger type desserts and I’ll be all set!</p>
<p>PS: Blueiguana: I’d love the chicken tortilla soup recipe, but I don’t own or never used a crock pot! Can it be made without? I did notice someone else had a recipe for the same soup, so I could try that too…thanks!</p>
<p>This is the easiest recipe for quiche I have seen. I make it at least weekly. It’s a huge hit in my family. My non-broccoli eating S3 loves it! Do pre-bake the crust as it keeps it from getting soggy. I use a stoneware pie plate and it works beautifully, but it’s not necessary. Also I find fresh broccoli makes a huge difference and isn’t any more trouble then frozen. I microwave it a few minutes with a small amount of water to cook. I use a pie crust shield to keep the edges from burning but you can use foil also.</p>
<p>Broccoli Cheese Quiche</p>
<p> 1 ½ C cooked broccoli
1 ½ C cheddar cheese
4 eggs
1 ½ C heavy cream
¼ tsp salt
Dash pepper
Dash nutmeg
Pie crust dough (roll out style)</p>
<p>Roll pie crust dough into pie plate. Pre-bake 7-8min @ 375
Arrange Broccoli and Cheese in shell. Beat eggs, cream & spices. Pour over broccoli & cheese. Bake 35-40min @375.</p>
<p>• 1 pound shredded, cooked chicken / 3 frozen breasts
• 1 can petite diced tomatoes
• 1 can rotel (mild if you don’t want the ‘heat’)
• 1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce (red, not green)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
• 2 - 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4C chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn
• 1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro </p>
<p>DIRECTIONS
Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a crockpot. Pour in chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn, beans and cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 4 to 5 hours. If using frozen chicken breasts remove 1 hr before serving, shred, & return to crockpot.
Serve with tortilla strips, shredded cheddar or co-jack cheese & sour cream as toppings.</p>
<p>Notes: I add a second can black beans. The corn package is 16oz I think, so I just use all of it.</p>
<p>Actually, BI, that’s perfect. Everyone likes Broccoli and the recipe is nice & easy. I definitely would prefer to use fresh vegetables as often as possible. Maybe I’ll throw in a bit of Spinach too…</p>
<p>Usually this time of year I start baking Pumpkin Bread (from Jane Brody “Good Food” cookbook -excellent). But this week I was inspired to bake a pie from the current Cooking Light magazine instead. It was a Maple-Bourbon Pecan Pie on page 168… I liked it!</p>
<p>**Sweet Potato French Fries <a href=“if%20this%20has%20already%20been%20posted%20I%20missed%20it”>/b</a>
Made it twice last night, because it’s so good ,and healthy football -watching snack food.</p>
<p>Peeled and Cut up into French fry slices -
about four sweet potatoes (the dark orangy ones, not yellow ones)</p>
<p>Put in plastic bag- coated them with about 2 tablespoons olive oil
Lined a baking pan with foil -AND OILED THE FOIL - or they will stick</p>
<p>Sprinkled with Kosher SALT— and pepper. (some people put cayenne pepper, sugar, brown sugar, all kinds of seasonings) I prefer the simplicity of sweet potato!!! </p>
<p>Baked 400 degrees- for 15 minutes
Flipped- baked another 15 minutes. </p>
<p>(got this from ALL recipes.com -
and read the readers suggestions for modification to the original recipe)</p>
<p>For all those of you dealing with early snow, this has a bit of heat. It was in Bon Appetit about 15 years ago so it is not new, but it is super yummy for a once every so often treat!</p>
<p>Sweet Potato, Corn and Jalapeno Soup</p>
<p>¼ cup unsalted butter
1 small onion finely chopped
1 ½ lbs. sweet potatoes peeled and chopped
6 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt broth
1 ½ cup fresh corn kernels or frozen whole corn kernels, thawed
2 tsp. fine chopped jalapeno chiles with seeds
½ cup whipping cream</p>
<p>Melt butter in heavy large sauce pan over medium heat.
Add onion and sauté till tender, about 6 minutes.
Add sweet potatoes and stock and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.
Strain soup through coarse sieve, reserve sweet potato and stock mixtures separately.
Return stock mixture to sauce pan.
Transfer sweet potatoes to processor and puree.
Whisk puree into stock mixture.
Add corn and jalapenos and simmer 5 minutes (can be made 1 day ahead; bring to simmer before using).
Add cream to simmering soup and stir until heated through.Season to taste with salt and pepper.</p>
<p>We mix milk and whipping cream, rather than ½ cup whipping cream. We use slightly less butter than recommended, in a no-stick pan!!</p>
<h2>I haven’t tried this yet but I’m tossing it out there as an idea that would be a quick time saver. I pulled this from the Hillbilly Housewife website- great thrifty ideas and recipes there.</h2>
<p>Lots of recipes call for cream of type canned soups. This could be cream of mushroom, cream of celery, cream of chicken, cream of potato etc.
Instead of continually buying the cans, why not make this frugal cream of anything soup mix and use it anytime a recipe calls for the soup. Its quick and easy to put together and quite a bit cheaper than buying canned soup. It also takes up less room and lasts for up to a year.</p>
<p>Cream of Anything Soup Mix
4 c. powdered milk
1 1/2 c. cornstarch
1/2 c. instant chicken bouillon granules *
4 tsp. dried onion flakes
2 tsp. dried thyme
2 tsp basil crushed dried
1 tsp. pepper
For a vegetarian version of this soup, use vegetable broth bullion instead.
Measure all ingredients and pour them into a container with an airtight seal. I like to use a tupperware type container, but a larger freezer bag will work as well. Be sure to label your container.
To Use The Mix:
Combine 1/3 cup of the mix with 1 cup of water and heat it over medium low heat in a small saucepan until it starts to thicken. This is the equivalent of one can of soup.</p>
<p>Blueiguana–SJCM - I’ve had these at restaurants. I’m anxious to try this!
Me, too, and yesterday I had a lot of SAMS sweet potatoes, so I gave it a try.</p>
<p>Re-posting this terrific recipe from Vandygrad. I made it to take to friends in the aftermath of a death in the family and it looked so wonderful that I made it the next night for us. Ridiculously easy and tasty. I used the Costco organic chicken breasts and thighs and Trader Joe’s salsa. I made a black bean and corn salad and Mexican rice. My family thought it was brilliant.</p>
<p>Tried this last night after seeing a variation of it on the Food Network:</p>
<p>Brown crushed vermicelli noodles in some butter, chopped onions and EVOO. When the noodles are light to medium brown, and the onions translucent, add an equal part of raw rice. Stir to heat. Pour in twice the amount of chicken stock or broth. Boil until the fluid is almost gone. Turn heat way down and cover.</p>
<p>Absolutely delicious and a welcome change from ordinary rice. My husband who is NOT a fan of rice had it for leftovers for lunch today. Could probably do this in a rice cooker :)</p>
<p>Made a batch of chanterelle-pear stuffing muffins on Saturday to test this recipe prior to incorporating it into my Thanksgiving menu. I think it is a keeper (I used unseasoned Franz white bread croutons from QFC instead of drying bread and chicken stock from a package). Also, next time I make it, it will be baked in a casserole dish - although single-serving muffins look cute, baking the stuffing this way is more hassle.</p>
<p>In a small bowl, add the Seasoning mix, together with the salt, pepper, and paprika and mix well. Liberally sprinkle the pork-chops on both sides with the seasoning mixture.</p>
<p>Arrange the chops on a baking sheet. Bake the pork chops for 20 minutes, turning once until browned or an internal temperature of 160ºF is reached. Serve immediately.</p>
<p>I did use regular paprika, but next time I’m going to try using some smoked paprika for some added flavor. </p>
<p>I tried this with chicken breasts…loved it…and cooked it twice in the same week…ok…2nd time only for myself…H would have thought I’d gone mad…I did slice the chicken into thin strips rather than leaving it whole and adjusted the cooking time accordingly…anyway it was delicious.</p>
Can’t wait to try the Crash Hot Potatoes, they look awesome!</p>