Dear Tricia, I need to find a way to use up everything when I buy a lot of veggies.
I got this question on my Facebook fan page (thanks, Erin) when I opened up a little conversation about vegetables. And its a good one, because no one likes to throw food away, unless you're a waster... and no one likes a waster. On a side note, I can totally relate to this because when I lived in San Francisco, I used to go the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market every Saturday and come home with a bag full of random produce that I had no intention of cooking within a week. It all just looked too pretty not to buy. Some people splurge on shoes, I splurge on pretty vegetables.
When I need to use up random veggies, (which never happens anymore, because feeding my husband is like feeding a 14 year old, garbage disposal stomach of a boy) I always make them into an easy enchilada casserole. I've written about this before too, when I was writing about how to eat your feelings without getting cellulite, but I'm happy to share it again. You'll need said excess veggies, a package of corn tortillas, two cans of enchilada sauce, a can of refried beans, and shredded cheddar cheese. (I like to use non fat for everything, but you can use whatever you want.)
To start off with, cut up your veggies into bite sized pieces. Steaming them without any gadgets is easy; just get a saute pan really hot (and seriously, wait until its really hot or this trick won't work), throw the veggies in there, pour in 1/2 cup of water and put a lid on it. When the water is completely evaporated, your veggies will be just about done. You don't want to crowd the pan and dump like 2 pounds of veggies in there because that's too much to cook at once. So do it in batches... just enough veggies to cover the bottom of the pan. When you're done, put all of your veggies together in a bowl.
Next, get a casserole dish ready. Put two tortillas in the bottom. Using a spatula or a knife, spread a healthy layer of refried beans on the tortillas. Then put a layer of vegetables on top. Pour about a 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce on the veggies. Repeat this until you've filled up the dish. You should use up the entire can of enchilada sauce. Once you've finished, put two last tortillas on top and pour the other can of sauce on them. Top it with a layer of shredded cheese and throw that sucker in the oven at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. When its melted and gooey, its ready, and you can eat your feelings, not get cellulite, and use up your vegetables. Congratulations, you just killed 3 birds with one stone.
Bird murderer.
4 comments:
LOVE this idea!! I especially like that I can "eat my feelings without getting cellulite"! A recipe I can ALWAYS get behind... Oh I am too freaking funny.
I was thinking about this recipe this morning... What if instead of Tex-Mex style (which we ALL know and LOVE), the recipe went Italian style?? Like with favorite jarred pasta sauce and whole wheat lasagna noodles and added a low-fat mozz and some farmers cheese -- your thoughts?
That sounds delicious! Why not? This blog is all about helping you feel more comfortable in the kitchen. It sounds like you're well on your way.
Another good recipe to use up your veggies is to make Puchero. It's a soup that is popular in Argentina. You can make it with potatoes, celery, carrots, parsley and other things that blend well with that. To make it you also need to buy a special cut of meat from your butcher that is about %50 percent bone cut from the area near the spine. I guess it is the spinal column haha. Anyway, you cook the soup for about 2 hours and when it is getting closer to done you can add in some rice and cook it until the rice is to your liking. At the end you remove the meat pieces and the vegetables and you eat a little rice and broth first and then the veggies and meat 2nd or change this and just eat it how you like ;-)
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