Crepes

Crepes are wonderful versatile. They work as a sweet treat or a savory dinner. The ones I made in this example were full of mushroom, spinach, and mozzarella cheese. They are delicious so get creative with the filling. Recently, I revisited the recipe and did a cauliflower, tomato, and pepper jack filling. You can always go for a breakfast filling with eggs or something sweet like jam or nutella.

Crepes are super easy to make. If you can cook pancakes, you can do this.

Crepes

Ingredients:

2 cups milk
1 1/4 cup flour (add more or less as needed)
2 eggs
canola or vegetable oil or butter for frying
pinch of salt
pepper

Egg Salad Sandwich

I’d never eaten an egg salad sandwich until about a year ago. I know that sounds silly as they’re supposed to be something of a staple sandwich. Or perhaps just an alternative to PB&J? But when I came across this recipe, which was so simple, yet so flavorful, I had to try egg salad.

To my pleasure, this egg salad sandwich rocks. It’s so good, I’ll admit to eating the egg salad even without bread. (If you’re interested in making your own bread to go along, I highly recommend this white bread which I’ve made a dozen times.)

Egg Salad Sandwich

Ingredients:

7 hard-boiled eggs
4 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 tbsp dill or fresh dill, handful, roughly chopped
1/2 tbsp chives or fresh chives, handful, minced
Salt and pepper to taste

Sweet Corn Cakes with Avocado and Salsa

When corn comes into season, these Sweet Corn Cakes are the first thing on my plate. Of course, they’re even better with avocados on top. They probably aren’t the healthiest option. Make sure to pat the grease out of them. They are just delicious. The original recipe is here.

Sweet Corn Cakes

Ingredients:

2 2/3 cups fresh corn kernels, cut from 3 large corn cobs
1 small chopped red onion
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped cilantro or 2 tbsps dried cilantro
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Vegetable oil for frying

Topping suggestions: avocado, tomato, and salsa are some of my favorites.

When you’re cutting the corn from the cob, make sure to use a sharp knife. You don’t want to hurt yourself. I suppose you could use frozen corn, but I think fresh really gives it that kick.

Use your food processor or blender to mix together the corn, onion, eggs, cilantro, flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper. Process until combined into a dough.

Heat about 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in a pan on the stove on medium high heat. When hot, you’ll want to make each cake with about 2 tbsps of batter and cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side.

When done cooking, you’ll want to place the cakes on a plate covered with paper towels to drain the oil. Eat while hot.

Sweet Corn Cakes

Stuffed Artichokes

Stuffed artichokes are tasty. However, they are moderately annoying to clean out to stuff, especially compared to how easy the rest of this recipe is. One artichoke is filling for two people. Of course, that depends on how many germs you’re willing to share because I wouldn’t try to cut them in half.

Stuffed Artichokes

Original recipe, which is cooked in a crockpot.

Ingredients:

2 large artichokes
1 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs
3 tbsp of lemon juice (or 1 lemon)
1/2 cup water

The hardest part of this recipe is cleaning the artichokes to stuff. Be careful, between the odd angles with your knife and the poky parts of the artichoke. You want to cut off the stem. Then you want to clean out the inside, all the hair and other gunk. This takes a while and I recommend rinsing it after you’re done chopping to get any stray lingering bits.

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Mix the oil, cheese, bread crumbs, and lemon juice together. Use a spoon to stuff the artichokes with the bread crumb mix.

Put water into a large pot and the artichokes inside. Cook for 2-4 hours or until tender. Serve hot.

Stuffed artichokes just out of the oven

Stuffed Fried Bread Dough

Stuffed Fried Bread Dough is delicious. It’s really up to you what you stuff it with. I’ve done it with mozzarella, a little basil, tomatoes, and spinach. Jason added some pepperoni to his own. I’m sure you could make some sweet ones too.

Stuffed Fried Bread Dough

Original recipe from Not Quite Nigella

Makes about 10 turnovers.

Ingredients:

500 g plain flour
1 tbsp instant dried yeast
275-300 mls water, lukewarm
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp softened butter

Mix flour, yeast, salt, and sugar together in a bowl. Then slowly mix the water in. The dough itself won’t be completely mixed. Knead in the butter to finish the dough.

Shape the dough into a ball and put the dough back into the bowl. Place a damp tea towel on top. Let it rise for 1-2 hours.

Then punch down the dough. Let it rest for 20 minutes.

Roll out the dough and then put about a tablespoon of your filling inside. Fold over and pinch together. Cut out the extra dough off to use.

Fry the turnovers in a generous amount of oil. Eat hot.

Eggplanet-Almond Enchiladas

Eggplant-Almond Enchiladas

Recipe originally from Moosewood Cookbook: New Revised Edition

Ingredients

1 tbs olive oil
1 cup minced onion
6 cups diced eggplant (approximately 1 large or 2 small)
1 tsp salt
black pepper
4 medium cloves garlic, minced (Didn’t use, allergies)
1 medium green bell pepper, minced (Didn’t use, allergies)
1 cup almonds, minced
1 packed cup grated jack cheese (or similar mild white cheese)
12 corn or flour tortillas
1 can 14oz enchilada red sauce

Optional: I added the rest of the jack cheese I’d grated and a bunch of cheddar cheese on top of it with olives before cooking.

Heat olive oil in a deep skillet or Dutch oven. Add onion and saute for about 5 minutes over medium heat.

Add eggplant, salt, and pepper and mix well. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the eggplant is soft.

Cook eggplant mixture on stove

Add garlic and bell pepper. Stir and cook 5 to 8 minutes or until the pepper is just tender. (I omitted this step due to food allergies.)

Remove from heat and stir in almonds and cheese.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Moisten each tortilla briefly in water, then place approximately 1/4 cup of filling on one side and roll up. Gently situate the filled enchiladas in a baking pan.

All the stuffed tortillas in the pan

Pour enchilada red sauce over the top. (Then I put on the cheese and olives over it.) Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes.

Eggplant-Almond Enchiladas

Spinach-Ricotta Pie

Spinach-Ricotta Pie
Recipe is originally from the Moosewood Cookbook.

Ingredients:

1 tsp butter
1 cup minced onions
1 lb spinach, stemmed and finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
1 tsp basil
1 lb ricotta cheese
3 beaten eggs
3 tbsp flour
1/2 packed cup grated sharp cheese (I used cheddar.)
a dash of nutmeg

Optional topping: 1 cup sour cream and paprika (I didn’t do this as Jason’s not big on sour cream.)

Create pie crust. I used this recipe.

Pie Crust for Spinach-Ricotta Pie. Plus leftovers for more pies.

Preheat oven to 375°.

Melt the butter in a medium-sized skillet. Add the onion and saute for 5 minutes over medium heat. Add spinach, salt, pepper, and basil and cook until the spinach is wilted. Remove from heat.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

Mixing the ingredients

Spread into the pie crust.

Putting the mix into the crust

Add cheese topping here if you choose.

Pie with half of its cheese topping on

Me sticking the pie in the oven

Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until firm to the touch. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

This Spinach-Ricotta Pie is ready to eat

Savory Indian Sweet Potatoes

Savory Indian Sweet Potatoes

Recipe originally from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes
1 cup diced onions
1/3 cup orange juice
1 1/2 tbsp grated fresh ginger root
2 tsp ground cumin
1 minced small fresh green chile (Seeds can be removed for a milder dish.)
3 tbsp Neufchatel (low-fat cream cheese)
1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
salt and ground black pepper

Bake sweet potatoes at 400° for about 1 hour or until tender.

While the potatoes bake, combine the onions and juice in a medium saucepan.

Cover and simmer until the onions soften, about 5 minutes. Add ginger, cumin, and chile. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Cut the Neufchatel into small pieces and stir into the hot vegetable mixture. Set aside.

While the original recipe calls for reusing the sweet potato shells as part of the presentation to serve in (think twice-baked potato), I’ve never been able to accomplish this. Instead, once the sweet potatoes are cooked, scoop the insides into the vegetable mixture. Be careful as the potatoes are very hot.

Mix everything and add lemon, salt, and pepper. Pour into a lightly oil baking dish.

Lower oven temperature to 350°. Cook dish for 15 to 20 minutes, until thoroughly hot. Serve with rice.

Try all the food you see here.

Cauliflower-Cheese Pie

Makes one 9″ pie that serves 4 to 5 servings

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil or butter
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp salt
black pepper, to taste
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp thyme
1 medium cauliflower chopped in small pieces
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk (I used whole)
1 packed cup grated cheese (I used mozzarella and sharp cheddar)
paprika

Create crust and pre-bake a little if frozen. Preheat oven to 400°F.

Heat oil or butter in a large skillet. Add onion, salt, pepper, and herbs and saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Add cauliflower, stir, and cover. Cooke until tender, stirring occasionally (about 8 to 10 minutes).

Spread half the cheese onto the crust.

Spoon the sauted vegetables on top.

Beat eggs and milk together.

Pour egg mixture on top.

Cover pie with remaining cheese. (Or alternatively, you can put the cheese on top before adding the egg mixture.)

Dust lightly with paprika.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until set. Serve hot or warm.

My spinach quesadillas were an invention and necessity when I was in college. A combination of inspiration from my childhood — my mother was a big fan of the “cheese melts in the microwave” mantra — and crepes from a little restaurant that used to be in my hometown. In college, I distracted an entire senior creative writing class, who were extremely tired of school food, with their delicious aroma.

Spinach Quesadillas

Ingredients:

Butter or oil
Flour or corn soft tortillas
Cheese — I use cheddar, but you could certainly use other cheese
Spinach
Tomatoes
Oregano
Basil
Italian Seasoning
Rosemary

Heat some butter or a small amount of oil in a skillet on the oven. Build your quesadilla. I basically add a dash of the spices, depending on my mood. Sometimes, I’ll make just a basil one. The spices made it something more than just a plain quesadilla. You can add other vegetables as you desire. (Or take them out as Jason is not fond of tomatoes so his lack those.)

Cook on one side until starting to brown and firm. Flip and cook the other side.

Top with sour cream and salsa or anything else you want. Serve hot.