Pesto-Stuffed Baked Tomatoes

One of the few benefits of living in an area where summer's heat arrives about mid-February is that garden-fresh produce also arrives a bit sooner than in more moderate climates. Area supermarkets are now selling locally-grown tomatoes that look, feel, and (most importantly) taste like real tomatoes ... and we're thoroughly enjoying them.

Still, we've had raw tomatoes in some sort of salad form every day for the past week, and I decided it was time to introduce some variety. Today's tomato-ey sidedish? Baked tomatoes stuffed w/ pesto.

2 large tomatoes, halved horizontally and de-seeded
Garlic seasoning
Nutritional yeast "cheeze" or parmesan cheese
Pesto
Mozzerella cheese (optional)

To begin, I washed two large tomatoes, sliced them in half horizontally, and scooped out all the seeds. This left a generous cavity for seasonings. I then placed the tomato halves, cut side up, in a baking dish and sprinkled each one with generous quantities of Garlic 'n' Herb Mrs. Dash. (Any garlic seasoning blend will work fine. This particular one just happened to be near the front of our spice cabinet. Fresh crushed garlic is also fantastic, but imparts a stronger garlic scent than I thought hubby's co-workers might appreciate.)

This part done, it was time to separate the tomato halves. Hubby is a cheese lover. I'm not. His halves got sprinkled with about 1 tsp. each of finely-shredded parmesan cheese. Mine got sprinkled with an equal amount of nutritional yeast "cheeze." I then drizzled 1 Tbsp. of pesto over each tomato half and stuck the dish in a 425-degree oven for 15 minutes. The pan came out long enough for me to sprinkle shredded mozzerella on top, then went back into the 425-degree oven just long enough for the cheese to melt and begin to brown (about five minutes).

As for the nutritional yeast "cheeze" mentioned above, several commercial parmesan cheese substitutes are available from various vegan specialty shops. I'm cheap, though, and prefer to use regular pantry items whenever possible. For my tastes, the following blend works well:

• 1/4 c. nutritional yeast flakes
• 1/4 c. cashew pieces
• 1 Tbsp. toasted seasame seeds
• 1/2 tsp. RealSalt (sea salt that hasn't been stripped of its natural mineral content)
• 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Combine all ingredients in food processor or blender and beat to powder.

As for pesto, fresh is best. But I don't seem to be able to grow basil as fast I can use it, so our pantry fall-back is a packet of Simply Organics Pesto Sauce -- conveniently vegan, free from weird ingredients, and as cheap or cheaper than most grocery store sauce mixes.

Mushroom-Spinach Quiche

I'll preface today's entry by saying that I hate eggs in virtually every form and have since childhood (much to the chagrin of my poor southern mother who started many a school day by trying to serve me a "healthy" breakfast of sausage or bacon, grits, and scrambled eggs).

I don't like them fried. I don't like them scrambled. I don't like them poached. I don't like them boiled. I don't like them in casseroles, souffles, or quiche. I won't eat cookie dough that might be contaminated with ooey, gooey, icky, sticky raw egg. And like a certain storybook character, I don't like them in a house or with a mouse, on a boat or served by a goat. I truly despise eggs ...

... except when I'm pregnant.

And then, for whatever reason, all food rules seem to go out the window. In three out of three pregnancies so far, I've found myself craving eggs -- and even more curiously, the dreaded egg has a tendency to stay down even when nothing else will.

We're at the 34-week mark now, though. The egg craving is finally subsiding, and normal food is tasting good again. But in cleaning out the refrigerator yesterday, I discovered that we still had nearly a dozen eggs on hand, and if there's one thing I hate more than eggs (under normal circumstances), it's wasting food. So before normal egg aversion returns, I decided to turn that carton of eggs into quiche.

Of course, most of the quiche recipes I found were loaded with meat, cheese, and other really high-calorie nasty stuff, so today's lunch turned into an experiment.

• 1 10-inch pie crust
• 6 large eggs
• 1/4 c. sour cream
• 1/2 c. milk
• 3 c. spinach
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
• 3/4 c. onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 c. red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp. Herbamare or RealSalt
• freshly-grated nutmeg to taste
• freshly-ground pepper to taste
• shredded cheese (optional)

To begin, I made a pie crust. Yes, you can buy them premade, but most of the premade ones contain really nasty ingredients ... such as lard. While rolling the crust, I preheated the oven to 450 degrees, then prebaked the crust for about ten minutes.

Next, I sauteed the mushrooms, onions, and red bell pepper in approximately 1 tsp. of olive oil.

While the crust baked and the sauteed vegetables cooled, I whipped the eggs, sour cream, milk, and seasoning together and added 3 cups of organic baby spinach straight from the package (the leaves were small enough that I saw no need to pre-chop them). Finally, I stirred in the sauteed vegetables, poured the mixture into the pie crust, and baked at 375 for approximately 45 minutes. Just before removing the quiche from the oven, I sprinkled lightly it with shredded co-jack cheese for hubby's benefit, turned off the heat, and let it sit for about 15 minutes before cutting.

Oh, and about the cheese for hubby's benefit? I discovered early in our dating relationship that this one-time carnivore would eat almost any veggie dish as long as it contained cheese. Since then, I've found that it's not so much the taste of the cheese that attracts him as the appearance of cheese. Yes, I could have followed a more traditional quiche recipe and mixed a cup or more of the stuff into the batter, but a couple of tablespoons visibly melted on top make him just as happy. Shhh! Don't tell!

Juice, Juice, Juice

Though it may technically still be spring in N. America, Central Texas is apparently not aware of that fact. Here, afternoons are already pushing the thermometer well past the 90-degree mark. This past Friday, in fact, the digital display outside a local bank proclaimed a sweltery 105.

So what does weather have to do with cooking? Well, the hotter it gets, the less inclined I am to stand over a hot stove or heat the entire house up with the oven. And hot temperatures outside make hubby oh-so-appreciative of cold fresh-squeezed juice when he walks through the door at lunch or dinner time.

We invested in a Champion juicer a couple of months back, in the hopes of incorporating more raw foods into our diet. Now, we're wondering how we lived without this delightful invention for so long. Without further ado, here are a few of our favorite combinations ...

Apple-Celery Juice
Gatorade, move over. This is hubby's new evening favorite. (The natural sodium content in the celery makes this a good after-workout choice.)
3 large or 4 medium apples
2 stalks celery

Run through juicer in order above. Chill. Serve. (Makes two large or three medium servings.)

Apple-Carrot-Ginger Juice
Kind of like really good ginger ale, minus the carbonation.
2 large apples, cored
1" fresh ginger root OR 1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
4 large carrots

Run through juicer in order above. Chill. Serve. (Makes two large or three medium servings.)

Pina Col-nada
1/2 young coconut (pulp and milk)
1/2 pineapple, peeled and cored

Run through juicer in order above. (We generally run the pulp through at least a couple of times with this particular blend to get as much juice as possible out of these lush fruits. Chill. Serve. (Makes two large or three medium servings.)

For an even richer treat, chill juice in freezer until ice crystals form. Blend with chunks of frozen banana or mango, and serve.

Vegetable Juice Cocktail
6 medium carrots
3 stalks celery
2 tomatoes
2 c. spinach
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 medium beetroot
1 clove garlic
handful of fresh parsley (optional)
handful of fresh basil (optional)

Run all of the above through juicer, beginning and ending with carrots. Stir in a dash of sea salt (we use RealSalt) as well as a dash of hot sauce (optional). Chill and serve.

Farmer's Market Finds

One of the things I miss most about our current location is the absence of a local farmer's market. This past weekend, though, hubby and I happened to be traveling the backroads through west Texas, came upon one, and stopped.

We left about $27 poorer -- and three pounds of locally-grown squash, one pound of okra, three pounds of vine-ripened tomatoes, two vidalia onions, two pounds of shelled crowder peas, one pound of dried apples, and one pound of dried tropical fruit richer.

These treasures (of the non-dried variety, at least) will be used sparingly over the next few days to add the first tastes of summer to our meal. Today's lunch boasted two of those oh-so-red vine-ripened tomatoes in salad form.

Marinated Tomato Salad

• Two medium tomatoes
• Herbamare, RealSalt, or sea salt and onion powder
• Basil Italian seasoning
• 1 clove fresh garlic
• 1 Tbsp. Olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. Apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. water
• Gorgonzola or Blue cheese (optional)
• Kalamata olives

Mince one clove of fresh garlic into 1 Tbsp. of olive oil. Add vinegar and water, and set aside.

Thinly slice tomatoes. (A serrated knife is perfect for this task.) Sprinkle slices w/ salt and basil.

Arrange tomato slices on a plate. Whisk oil-and-vinegar dressing together and drizzle over tomato slices. Garnish with kalamata olives and, if desired, crumbled gorgonzola or blue cheese. Refrigerate until just chilled and serve.

Cleaning Out the Refrigerator

Today was grocery day, which meant it was also time to do the weekly refrigerator clean-out. This particular chore is always a challenge because of two conflicting dislikes. Number one, I don't like wasting food. Number two, I don't like to serve leftovers. (Never mind that hubby says whatever is good once is good again. ... I just can't stand to put exact repeats of past meals on the dinner table.) So, in this house, cleaning out the refrigerator entails find new and creative uses for any leftovers as well as any near-death produce.

Today's challenge produced leftover brown rice, leftover sloppy joe "meat" (seasoned TVP), leftover spaghetti sauce, two bell peppers that were beginning to wilt, half a pound of mushrooms that had seen better days, and a bunch of kale that needed to be used or tossed. The result?

Stuffed Bell Peppers

• 2 large bell peppers, halved vertically, stemmed, and deseeded
• 8 oz. minced mushrooms
• 2/3 c. shredded carrot
• 1/2 c. minced onion
• 1/4 c. minced red bell pepper
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tsp. basil olive oil
• 1 tsp. grapeseed oil
• 1 c. cooked brown rice
• 1/3 c. oat flour (oatmeal run through the food processor)
• 1/2 c. seasoned bread crumbs (whenever bread starts to go stale, I toast it, crumble it, mix w/ garlic powder and various herbs, and throw in the freezer for future use)
• 1 c. TVP, rehydrated and seasoned OR 1 c. precooked lentils
• 1 c. Italian Herb spaghetti sauce
• 2 tsp. Ener-G egg replacer (one egg's worth, blended w/ 2 Tbsp. water)

Preheat skillet. Add 1 tsp. olive oil + 1 tsp. grapeseed oil. Mince two cloves of garlic into hot oil. Add onions, mushrooms, carrot, and bell pepper, and saute until tender.

Dump precooked vegetables into a bowl. Add brown rice, bread crumbs, oat flour, TVP or lentils, spaghetti sauce, and egg replacer. Mix all ingredients well and stuff into bell pepper halves. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes, or until peppers are soft and stuffing is heated through.

To round this meal out, I steamed the kale for about ten minutes and tossed w/ olive oil, garlic, and sea salt. I also fixed a side of oven-roasted potato wedges.

Oven-Roasted Potato Wedges

• 3-4 large potatoes (one potato per serving)
• Safflower oil
• Seasoned bread crumbs
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Rosemary
• Creole seasoning

Scrub potatoes well. Peel if desired. Halve potatos, then slice into 1/4-inch thick strips (like thick-cut fries). Roll potatoes in 1 Tbsp. safflower oil

Mix 1 c. bread crumbs, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder, 1/2 tsp. onion powder, 1/2 tsp. rosemary, and 1/2 tsp. creole seasoning in food processor or blender, processing until crumbs are as small as you can get them. Roll potato wedges in crumb mixture, spread out on baking sheet, and bake at 475 degrees for about 20 minutes. For best results, turn potato wedges midway through the baking process.

*If you keep a stash of bread crumbs in the freezer, any leftover crumbs may be returned to the bag and refrozen.

Mexican Market Salad

Our town has recently been blessed by the opening of a new Mexican supermarket. It's tiny, but consistently beats the larger stores' prices on certain fruits and vegetables.

Now in any given week, fresh produce consumes at least half of our grocery budget. So when the local ethnic grocers offer pristine produce at bargain prices, I tend to build menus around it.

Staples at this particular market include tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, avocados, cilantro, and lime. Hence, the following salad:

Mexican Market Salad

• 1 large cucumber, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 tomatoes, diced
• 1/4 green bell pepper, minced
• 2 large spring onions, minced
• 3/4 cup corn (Fresh raw corn would have been ideal; since we didn't have any, I dumped frozen corn in the colander, poured boiling water over it to thaw it, and quickly rinsed in cold.)
• 1/2 c. cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 Tbsp. minced black olives
• 1/4 tsp. cumin
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• Southwest Chipotle Mrs. Dash

In the food processor, I combined and pureed the following:

• 1/2 medium avocado
• 1/2 tomato
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/4 tsp. RealSalt
  

I dumped the pureed mixture into the vegetables to give this salad a cool, creamy base. I could have served it by itself, but wanted to give Hubby a slightly more substantial lunch before sending him back to work, so I stuffed it into pita pockets and served with fresh vegetable juice cocktail. Refreshing and delicious on a hot (nearly 90 degree!) April day ...

Had I been cooking for myself alone, I would have added 1 c. black beans and 1 diced jalapeno. Maybe next time, I'll make a mild, bean-less version for hubby and a more jazzed up version for myself.

Mushroom-Stuffed Zucchini

After too many meals using pre-packaged junk and too much restaurant fare (thanks to unrelenting morning sickness triggered in part by cooking smells), we're finally back to what hubby refers to as "real food."

Today's lunch consisted of tomato-cucumber-avocado sandwiches on freshly-baked honey wheat bread, baby carrots and celery sticks w/ garlic hummus, and mushroom-stuffed zucchini. Now, plain as the sandwiches may sound, they're practically deserving of their own entry -- definitely a quick-fix staple in our kitchen. But the zucchini stole the show. How do I know? Well, hubby isn't generally much of a squash person. He'll eat it (in small quantities), but has never been known to seek it out. Today, though, he asked for seconds.

To begin, I took three moderately-sized zucchini (about 1" in diameter by about 8" long) and steamed them, along with a solitary yellow squash, for 15 minutes. As soon as the timer went off, I plunged all the squash in icy cold water to stop the cooking process. Then, I split the zucchini in half vertically and scooped out the seeds.

That done, I made a mushroom stuffing with sausage overtones:

Using a $5 electric food chopper, I minced the following:

6 oz. mushrooms
1/4 cup red onion
2 cloves fresh garlic

I then sauteed the above mix in 1 tsp. basil-infused olive oil + 1 tsp. of grapeseed oil.

As the mix cooked, I added ...

1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. rubbed sage
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper (could have used more, but Hubster isn't into overly-spicy food)

While all the above cooked down, I pureed the yellow squash in the aforementioned food chopper and finely shredded about 1/2 cup carrot.

I then mixed the pureed yellow squash, the carrot, the cooked mushroom mixture, 2/3 c. seasoned bread crumbs, 1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast, and a good 1/2 tsp. of Herbamore (vegetable-infused salt).

Lastly, I stuffed the mixture into the scooped-out zucchini shells and stuck the now-stuffed zucchini in a 350 degree oven for about twenty minutes. Relatively simple and oh-so-good!