This week I decided to keep it simple, a nice Garden Vegetable Macaroni with Sharp Yellow Cheddar and Mild White Cheddar. It was simply amazing! A creamy delight. It’s very pungent and sharp in flavor and gives a subtle surprise of sweetness thanks to the addition of the grated carrot The best was reheating the next day, the sauce didn’t break and it was just as creamy as the night before. :

- 1/2 bag elbow macaroni
- 1/2 cup chopped broccoli
- 3/4 cup chopped brown mushrooms
- 1/2 cup zucchini julienne
- 1/4 cup grated carrot
- 2 1/2 tbsp fresh fennel
- 1 1/2 cup sharp yellow cheddar shredded
- 1 1/2 cup mild white cheddar shredded
- 1 tbsp dry mustard
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/2 garlic clove grated
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter or margarine
- 1 tbsp flour
- water
- salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add salt to the water. Drop in elbow macaroni and cook for 7-9 minutes or until the macaroni is al dente. Once macaroni is finished cooking, drain and set aside.

In a sauce pan begin making your cheese sauce. Heat pan on medium-high heat. Add margarine or butter and allow to melt fully before adding flour. Once you add flour, use a whisk to make sure all flour is incorporated with the melted butter. Add milk and grated garlic. Turn the heat to low and allow milk to heat up for about a minute or so and the garlic to flavor the milk. The reason i’m using such little milk is because this will allow the sauce to be really thick and also prevent it from breaking the next day when you want to re-heat. After about a minute or so return heat to medium and add cheddar cheese. Whisk to quickly melt. Then add White Cheddar and continue whisking. Once there are no lumps add dry mustard, fennel, salt and pepper, zucchini, broccoli, carrots and mushrooms and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes to soften the vegetables.

Once vegetables are soft, I like to add the macaroni directly to the sauce pot so I can ensure that everything is covered in cheesy goodness, after all it IS the star of the dish. Fold in macaroni with cheese and vegetables until it is fully incorporated.

Serve immediately

My dad recently started a new job, however it’s up in San Francisco and we live in Orange County. So these days it’s pretty much my mom and myself except for when he comes home on the weekends. I usually get home late during the week and I HATE having to think of something to whip up to eat, so I’m always racking my brain on what can be quick, hearty yet delicious for my mom and myself.  So one night I made these Lasagna Rollups. I LOVE lasagna but if you’ve ever made it before you know that it takes quite a bit of preparation and baking time before you get a chance to eat it. By using individual lasagna strips and ingredients that were already in my fridge, I cut down this time by over half and it was just as good as if it sat there baking for a half hour.

- 5 lasagna strips (Note: This recipe makes makes 4 ’cause that’s how many I made; It’s individual servings so if you want to make more for yourself or others just add an additional Lasagna strip — I have 5 because I cooked one extra in case one of my other ones tore)
- 2 cups tomato sauce
- 2 cups shredded cheese (I used Cheddar and Mozzarella)
- 1 cup ricotta cheese (we had full fat in our fridge but you can use skim or try it w/cottage cheese)
- 1/4 cup zucchini diced
- 1/4 cup broccoli chopped
- 1/2 cup mushrooms chopped
- 1/2 cup ground beef (optional – obv omit to make it veggie)
- 2 tbsp garlic minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- handful of fresh basil chopped
- salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil. Add 1 tbsp olive oil (this is so the lasagna won’t stick to each other in the pot — you can also spray a non-stick spray like PAM into the pot). Slowly add each strip to pot. In a separate pan heat on medium and add remaining olive oil and garlic. Allow the garlic to slightly cook for about a minute or so — you don’t want it to get brown or burnt. Add ground beef to pan and allow to cook until browned. While lasagna strips & beef are cooking in a separate bowl add ricotta, veggies, basil, salt and pepper. Fold all together until they are well combined. Once beef is done cooking add to ricotta and fold again.

Once lasagna strips are done cooking strain. Warm up sauce in the microwave. Spray a small casserole dish with non-stick spray. Lay down one lasagna strip. Take a scoop of the ricotta mixture and place at one end of the strip. leave enough room though at the end for when you. Roll it up and place the seam side down in the casserole dish. Repeat with remaining strips (including the extra cooked strip if you want). Ladle sauce across the top of each roll up and sprinkle generously with cheese. Place in oven for 10 minutes just to cook veggies and melt cheese.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving. Individual lasagnas voila!

Avocado Gazpacho

Gazpacho is also one of the easiest and most flavorful things to make and doesn’t take long at all if you know what you want to put in it. It’s also completely vegan yet hearty enough to satisfy any appetite.

- 1/2 cup red bell pepper chopped
- 1/2 cup white onion chopped
- 1/2 cup zucchini chopped
- 1/2 cup yellow squash chopped
- 2 ripe avocados
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup corn kernels
- 1/2 cup red tomatoes diced
- 1 1/2 tbsp cilantro chopped
- 1 tbsp Anaheim chile diced (you can use serrano or even jalapeno depending on how spicy you want it to be)
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 2 1/2 cups ice cold water
- 1 tsp dried cumin (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
- sour cream (optional)
- Cotija cheese (optional)

Take the first 4 ingredients, throw them in the food processor and pulse for a few seconds to get finer bits of veggies.  Dump them into a bowl.  Add corn, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, cumin and chile.  Take one avocado, remove pit, scoop out the flesh and dice.  Add diced avocado to the bowl.  Add lime juice and generous amounts of salt and some pepper to bowl.

Take the second avocado, remove pit and scoop out flesh into a food processor (or you can use a blender for this if you don’t have a food processor).  Add about 3/4 cup ice cold water and puree.  Add more water if it’s still chunky until you get a smooth texture.  Add puree to the rest of the ingredients.  Add the remaining water and whisk all the ingredients together.  If it’s too thick add more water but be careful not to over thin it.  Add any seasoning as necessary.

The ice water is good if you are planning to serve right away but if you’re able, place the gazpacho in the fridge for up to an hour before serving.  When ready to serve, ladle into bowls and top with dollop of sour cream and sprinkle Cotija cheese.

Serves 4-6

Tacos

Chipotle Black Beans, Potato & Roasted Poblano Taco
- corn tortillas
- 1 can black beans
- 1 chipotle pepper marinated in adobo sauce (available at your grocery store)
- 2 small potatoes
- 1 poblano pepper
- Cotija cheese (optional)
- sour cream (optional)

Heat a pan on medium heat.  Slightly drain black beans (otherwise they come heavily salted). Dump them into the pan and allow them to heat through. Carefully remove 1 chipotle pepper and dice (if you don’t want to touch it drop it in a small food processor and pulse for a few seconds to chop up — you can also remove any seeds this way to lighten the heat).  Add diced pepper to beans and stir.  Add any other spices or ingredients you normally like to put with beans (I kept it to just the pepper since it’s already very spicy and the adobo sauce is a nice smoky roasted flavor; plus black beans alone are pretty hearty and flavorful).

On a grill, or grill pan (or in my instance we have a gas stove i just used the stove top), heat to a high heat.  If you are fortunate to use a gas stove like myself you can turn it on medium and place the poblano pepper directly on top of the flames.  If you are using a grill pan wait until the grill is completely hot before putting the pepper on the grill.  It will just be a slower process but should also do the job.  Roast the pepper until most of the outside of the pepper is blackened.  Once you are finished set aside and allow it to cool for a few minutes.

Your beans should be done cooking at this point. Reduce to a light heat to allow them to stay warm.  Take your potatoes and wash them thoroughly and remove any rough spots and “eyes” on the skin. You may remove the skin if you like but I preferred to keep mine on. Wrap the potatoes in saran wrap and microwave for about 3-3 1/2 minutes until just slightly tender.  You don’t want them to be super soft and mushy.  Remove from microwave and take off saran wrap and allow them to cool.

Back to the pepper, start peeling outside of pepper until all roasted skin is gone.  Then dice the pepper as normal.  Once potatoes have cooled cut into small wedges.

In a small pan heat corn tortillas.  As each one is heated place beans, potatoes & roasted pepper. Sprinkle Cotija cheese and add a dollop of sour cream if desired.

Ground Beef (”Beef”), Grilled Veggie & Chipotle Salsa Taco
- corn tortillas
- 2 cups ground beef or Morningstar Crumbles
- 2 tbsp taco seasoning
- 3/4 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup sliced red pepper
- 1/2 cup sliced green pepper
- 1/4 cup sliced zucchini
- 1/4 cup sliced yellow squash
- 1/4 cup frozen corn kernels
- Cotija cheese (optional)

Chipotle Salsa
- 1 tomato cut into wedges
- 1/4 of a white onion
- 1 small chipotle pepper marinated in adobo sauce
- 1/2 garlic glove
- 1 tbsp cilantro
- 1 tbsp lemon juice

Heat a pan on medium-high heat.  Add beef (”beef”) to pan and allow to heat.  Add taco seasoning for some flavor.  In a separate pan, heat on medium and add olive oil.  Add squash, zucchini, peppers and corn kernels.  Cook for about 2 minutes or until veggies are slightly tender.

For salsa, using a food processor, add all ingredients and pulse 4 or 5 times.  If you’d like it less chunky then blend until smooth.

Remove beef and veggies from stove.  Heat corn tortillas as you would. Place beef in tortilla. Add veggies.  Dollop chipotle salsa on top (careful it’s spicy!). Grate Cotija cheese as desired.

Ok so perhaps my photo taking skills don’t show this to be an appetizing dish, but as for someone who dislikes eggplant it was absolutely delicious. Our garden afforded us practically every veggie that was used in this dish. My mom discovered a HUGE purple eggplant and tomatoes have practically overtaken our entire garden.  As a result I was asked to make use of both and I feel I delivered. I usually try and make recipes that are “semi-homemade” so it’s easy for every one but in this case the lesson learned here is spending zero dollars to make a filling and home cooked meal from scratch. Just a forewarning it does take a bit of time so if you’re looking for something quick and easy I would opt out of this recipe Vegan substitutions are written in pink

- 1 medium size eggplant
- 4-5 cups fresh tomatoes pitted
- 1 1/2 cup green bell peppers cut into strips
- 1 1/2 cup white onion cut into strips
- 1/4 chopped basil
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds (optional)
- 1 tbsp dried oregano (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 1/3 cup milk (plain soymilk)
- 2 cups shredded cheese (soy cheese) (optional)

Heat a large pot on medium-high heat. Add 2 tbsp of olive oil and allow to heat up.  Add fennel seeds and minced garlic and cook for about a minute. You don’t want to turn the garlic brown.  Add tomatoes.  Allow them to heat through for about 5 minutes. Using a spatula start smashing tomatoes in the pot until you’ve broken up most of them.  You don’t want to season them just yet because there may still be a lot of water in them even if you have pitted them.  Don’t be too concerned with how watery it is as it’ll evaporate as it cooks.  Let that cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (pretty much the standard).  Cut even (or as even as you can get) slices of the eggplant about 1/4-1/2 inch thick depending on how large your eggplant is. Just remember thicker slices will take longer to cook than thinner slices.  Arrange all slices on a cookie sheet or pizza pan. Drizzle 2 tbsp of olive oil onto both sides and sprinkle salt and pepper. Place in the oven for about 5 minutes on each side just to start the cooking process.

Back to the sauce pot, add the oregano, peppers, and onions as they’ll cook in the sauce — for about 5 minutes.  Add milk and stir in and allow to cook for an additional 5 minutes. Generously add some salt and pepper. Top off with basil.

Remove your eggplant slices from the oven.  Spray a casserole or oven safe dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Once the sauce is done cooking, ladle a little bit onto the bottom and sides of the dish.  Layer a few slices of the eggplant at the bottom of the dish. Pour sauce over the first layer. Sprinkle cheese on top if desired. Repeat the process until you run out of eggplant.  Top it off with the remainder of the sauce and generously add cheese.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes.  If you want a nice crusty top on the final minute broil on low.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5-10 minutes before serving.

Like I said I dislike eggplant and I thought this was delicious! This easily served 6 people