Mac 'n Cheeze Vegetable Casserole

On Saturday at market, they had broccoli on sale, 3 head for $5. So far, I've used 1 head; it was large enough for us to have steamed as part of our rice bowls on Saturday night, added to this casserole, & eated for lunch on Monday. I have 2 heads left. I think tonight we'll have broccoli soup. Maybe tomorrow night we can roast it. Good thing I love broccoli!

This dish is a lighter take on macaroni & cheese. While it is admittedly less creamy, you can always double the sauce recipe to get more of a traditional casserole. The flavors are delicious & it has the added benefit of being very healthy. We love this pumpkin cheeze sauce & I was so excited to have it for the first time this fall! I discovered it from Angela's blog last fall & we had it many times, but then we moved on from pumpkins & sort of forgot about it until now.

Even if you're skeptical of this, just try it. I think you'll love it! It tastes decadent, even though it's full of healthy ingredients. The pasta to vegetable ratio is perfect for me (about even). If you prefer more veggies or more pasta, just tweak it to your liking. It's easy to mix up this dish.

Enjoy!

Mac 'n Cheeze Vegetable Casserole

Sauce inspired by OhSheGlows.com

Serves 6

1 box whole wheat elbow macaroni

1 large onion, sliced

2 bell peppers, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, minced

1 garlic clove, minced

1 small zucchini, chopped

1 small head of broccoli, chopped

1 T organic butter

1 1/2 c unsweetened original almond milk

1 T cornstarch

3/4 tsp. garlic powder

8 T nutritional yeast

2 tsp. Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp. dried ground mustard

1 1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/4-1/2 c panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 9"x13" baking pan with cooking spray. Prepare pasta as indicated on the box. While the water boils & the past cooks, prepare remaining ingredients.

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook onions until soft, about 4-5 minutes. Add peppers, jalapeno, & garlic. Cook for another 4 minutes, then add zucchini & broccoli. Cook just until tender.

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add milk & cornstarch, whisking until smooth. Stir in garlic powder, nutritional yeast, Dijon mustard, dried ground mustard, and pumpkin. Combine, then add salt & pepper, adjusting to taste.

Once everything is ready, combine pasta, vegetables, and sauce. Stir until noodles are all coated with sauce. Pour into the prepared baking pan. Top with panko bread crumbs. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until heated through and the top is browned.

NOTE:

Alternately, you can skip the baking step and serve as a stove top mac n' cheeze. I like the baking step because the flavors have more time to meld & the top gets crunchy, but for a quicker meal, it's still tasty pre-baking!



Vibrant Lemon & Avocado Kale Salad

We really have a thing for kale in our house. I think I've mentioned that a few zillion times already! I hope you like it as much as I do.

I didn't really eat kale until a couple years ago, so I think I'm making up for lost time. Plus it's seriously delicious. I like it raw, cooked, as a spread, in soup, growing in the garden, as a chip, in smoothies, & everywhere in between!

Last night, we had our kale in the form of a huge salad paired with Jenna's Spicy Black Bean Burgers. These are one of our go-to bean burgers because they're super yummy & easy to throw together.

The salad is fresh & bright, with lots of flavor. I love the creaminess that the avocado gives to it. Avocadoes are full of healthy fats, & in this case, it adds some bulk to an otherwise fairly light salad.

I brought kale salad to the Bup's family Christmas dinner & to my family Easter dinner. Both versions had variations of this dressing, but I felt like it needed a few tweaks to be just perfect. The recipe below is that I've decided is the best of the bunch.

If you've never had a kale salad, here are a few tips:

1. Unlike lettuce salads, you can dress it ahead of time & it will only get better. The flavors marinate & the kale softens slightly, making it easier to chew.

2. You have to commit to getting your hands in there & massaging the kale. There's really no better way to get the dressing spread evenly & to soften the kale leaves. Just be prepared - if you have even the slightest knick in your skin, it will burn from the lemon juice!

3. Kale is a chewier green than lettuce, so it's not a traditional salad. It is, however, extra full of flavor & health benefits!

Enjoy!

Vibrant Lemon & Avocado Kale Salad
Dressing inspired by Tracy
Serves 2-4

1 bunch kale, stems removed & torn into pieces
1 avocado, cubed
1/2 small onion, sliced
1 apple, chopped

Dressing:
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T nutritional yeast
1 tsp. honey or maple syrup

In a small bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients. Combine kale & dressing in a large bowl. Massage with your hands (wash them first!) until the kale softens & turns a dark, shiny green. Add avocado cubes, onion slices, & apple. Toss to mix & serve.

Note: Salad can be made ahead of time. Once dressed, just cover & place in the fridge until time to serve. Flavors will develop as it marinates.

Honey Mustard & Onion Potato Wedges

Did you get your fill of potaotes on Thanksgiving? Don't worry. These taste nothing like what you had. They aren't mashed. They don't have butter in them. Instead, they're crispy & flavorful!

You know those pretzel pieces from Snyders of Hanover? The really addicting honey mustard & onion ones? That's what these taste like. Except they're made with just a few ingredients instead of a zillion.

Chop up your potatoes into wedges. You don't have to bother with peeling. Didn't you do enough of that for all those mashed potatoes? Plus, the skins are where the good nutrients are!

Stir them up with the honey mustard marinade & lay in a single layer on a baking tray.

I threw in a bell pepper for color & a flavor kick, but it's not necessary. They're yummy with or without it! Enjoy!

Honey Mustard & Onion Potato Wedges
Serves 4

6 medium potatoes
1 medium onion
1 red bell pepper (optional)
1 1/2 T honey
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. mustard powder
1/2-1 tsp. salt, to taste
1 tsp. dried minced onion

Preheat oven to 375*F. Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray. Scrub potatoes and slice into wedges, keeping a uniform size. Chop onion and pepper (if using) into chunks the same size as potatoes. Combine in a large bowl. Whisk together honey, Dijon mustard, turmeric, onion powder, mustard powder, and salt. Pour over potato mixture and stir to coat. Arrange pototo mixture on baking sheet in a single layer. Lightly spray mixture with cooking spray. Sprinkle with dried minced onion. Bake for 20 minutes. Stir to loosen from sheet and then bake for another 25-30 minutes. Potatoes are done when they are lightly browned and crispy. Serve hot!

Oh Hummus

I think hummus is my all time favorite dip. Except if you count guacamole. :-) It's so versatile. Spinach flavor? You got it! Smoky flavor? Easy! There are so many things you can mix in to give it a unique flavor.

I'm not the only one who loves it! Angela wrote a whole post entitled Hummus, A Food Group.

Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus
adapted heavily from SmittenKitchen

2 cups cooked garbanzo beans
1/2 cup lemon juice
8 halves sun-dried tomatoes
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup water

Combine ingredients in food processor and process until smooth. Add additional water if necessary for a spreadable consistency.

Do you know what you should do with the hummus? Make stromboli.



I googled "hummus and broccoli stromboli" and got no exact results! It's an original! Apparently people put hummus on  their bolis but not in  them. After making it, I don't know why. It's going to be my new go-to stromboli.

I used this hummus to make two kinds of stromboli - one with dijon mustard and broccoli and one with bbq sauce, bell peppers and broccoli.

Hummus Stromboli
Makes 2 strombolis - Serves 4

1 recipe whole wheat pizza dough (see below)
2/3 cup sun-dried tomato hummus (or any preferred variety)
1 small head of broccoli, cleaned and chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1/2 small onion, chopped
3 T Dijon mustard
3 T BBQ sauce
Italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 400F. If using a pizza stone, put it in the over to preheat. If using baking sheets, spray with cooking spray.

Prepare dough and divide into two balls. Stretch each dough ball into an 18"x12" rectangle.

On one dough sheet, spread 1/3 cup hummus & Dijon mustard down the center of the rectangle. Top with 1/3 of the bell pepper, and as much broccoli as possible (about 2/3 of the total broccoli). Pull dough over toppings to cover and seal.

On the second dough sheet, spread 1/3 cup hummus & BBQ sauce down the center of the rectangle. Top with onion, remaining bell pepper, and the rest of the broccoli. Pull dough over toppings to cover and seal.

Carefully pick up the stromboli and turn it so that the seal is down. Place on stone (or baking sheet) and bake for 20 minutes. Coat tops of strombolis with either cheese or olive oil and sprinkle with Italian seasoning. Bake for another 10 minutes or until crust is lightly browned and firm to the touch.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
Makes 2 thin crust pizzas or 2 strombolis

1 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup spelt flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 T olive oil

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 5 minutes or until bubbly. Add flours, salt and olive oil. Stir until combined. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for about 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth. Let rise in a warm place in an oiled bowl, covered, for about an hour or until doubled. Separate into two and allow to rest for about 10 minutes.

Farm Show

See? We were still smiling even after paying $10 to park and then driving around looking for a spot for over 10 minutes. Here we are on the shuttle bus that took us down to the PA Farm Show! My first happy sighting was a big tractor trailer truck labeled "organic." Yes!

I knew it would be crowded because it was a weekend, the parking was awful, and it's always crowded anyway. There was a line for the broken escalator, which is just a testament to the laziness of Americans. You can see by looking at it that it's not moving. Just take the steps! And we did.

The best place to start is in the free samples section. We had about an hour and a half until Farm Show's "Got Talent," which we planned to check out. Still more crowds to fight! We found some nice selections of treats, from mustard to raw milk cheeses to mustard to buckwheat cakes (yum!) to mustard. Oh, did I mention the mustard? We ended up buying 2 kinds: Seltzer's Horseradish and Miller's Hot and Sweet. That was lunch.

The butter sculpture was amazing, as usual. What a crazy amount of butter!!!! We found some sample apple slices and the Turkey Hill samples nearby.

I was really excited to find the PA Maple Syrup on display. We used to make maple syrup up at our cabin (coincidentally in the Endless Mountains) so this was great!

We tried a variety of wines (sadly, not this one but I liked the name :-) ) and ended up buying 3 bottles from Blue Mountain. They had the nicest sales lady, which just goes to show that customer service really does matter! We're always on the alert as to how we're being treated since we both work in customer service. When someone impresses us, we react! I got Bri's Blush, which I'd had before, and Mountain Frost. Bup got a Merlot.

My one milkshake of the year is safely tucked away in my belly. I'm not a milkshake person for a lot of reasons, mainly that I'd rather eat than drink. Because the dairy industry has a lot of issues, I try not to consume a lot of excess dairy anymore. Ice cream and cheese are still on the list of loves, though! I just look for sustainably raised and hormone free dairy products and we drink Almond Breeze in place of milk. If you haven't tried it, it's delicious and it doesn't spoil if you don't use it within a week. Thank goodness for that!

We drank our shakes while watching Farm Show's "Got Talent." The one girl was in 3rd grade and she was excellent on the violin! Then we got a few more goodies to bring home at the food court and headed out. After all those snacks and no real food my stomach wasn't super happy with me but we looked around the food court and couldn't find anything else we wanted. I needed something fresh. On the way back to the car I realized I should've gotten an apple but it was too late.

We stopped to visit our friend's new puppy, Lexus, on the way home. Isn't she a cutie? I'm a cat person, but this little pup has a spot in my heart!