Spicy Stir Fry

You'll see in my pictures of the dish that I don't have a very high ratio of rice to veggies.  I used a serving of rice for one but ended up making enough stir fry for my parents as well.  I'm not writing in amounts of the vegetables because in a stir fry you don't need to be exact--put as much as you want.

I love egg in my stir fry but you can easily leave it out to make this vegan and still get plenty of protein from the peanuts.

Spicy Stir Fry
Prep Time: 3 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
Minute rice
Cooking oil
Garlic
Fresh ginger
Baby corn (canned or frozen)
Water chestnuts (canned)
Bamboo shoots (canned)
Sugar-snap peas (frozen)
Egg (optional)
Peanuts
Soy sauce
Tabasco sauce

1. Cook rice according to directions on package.
2. In a wok or large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat.
3. Mince garlic and ginger.  Saute in oil until garlic becomes translucent.
4. Add frozen vegetables and several shakes of soy sauce.  Let simmer until thawed.
5. Add canned vegetables and more soy sauce.  Let simmer a couple minutes.
6. Add rice, Tabasco, and more soy sauce.
7. Clear a space near the center of the pan for the egg.  Allow to scramble.
8. Add peanuts and serve.

Stovetop Quesadillas

Ok, repeat after me: Quesadillas from the microwave are not real quesadillas.
Good.  Today for lunch I made myself a quesadilla.  I used to microwave them until I saw a friend make one on the stove in high school and have never gone back.  It doesn't take much longer to cook, the cleaning is minimal, and the texture is much, much better.

Quesadilla with Tomato and Green Onion
Prep time: 4 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:
1 green onion
4 cherry tomatoes
2 small flour tortillas
1/2 c. grated 2% cheese

1. Dice the green onion and tomatoes.
2. Lay one tortilla in a frying pan over low heat.  Top with cheese and veggies and cook with lid on until cheese starts to melt.

3. Place second tortilla on top of cheese and veggies.  Press down to stick to cheese. Flip quesadilla.
4. Increase heat to medium and cook until tortilla on bottom has browned.  Flip over and brown the other tortilla.

5. Cut and serve.

Tip: I love topping mine with salsa, especially when I am feeling too lazy to chop veggies and make them with just cheese.  Guacamole is also an amazing topping.

Quick Migas

Migas are one of my favorite breakfasts to cook when friends have spent the night, and with pre-shredded cheese and chunky salsa instead of fresh chopped veggies the prep time is very short.  This recipe is a serving for one; just multiply it by the number of people you're feeding.

Quick Migas
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 5 mins

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp shredded cheese
2 tbsp chunky salsa
1 handful tortilla chips (broken)

1. Beat the eggs and milk together in a bowl until the color is mostly uniform.
2. Pour egg mixture into a skillet on medium heat.
3. When the eggs start to solidify, add cheese, salsa, and chips.  Cook until eggs have finished solidifying.

Tip: When I'm watching my calorie intake, I will often toast a corn tortilla in the toaster oven and use that instead of tortilla chips.  It cuts out a few calories since it's baked rather than fried.

Penne with Spinach, Cheese, and Nutmeg

I found my camera so I have pre- and post-oven pictures this week!  Once I find the adapter for my phone's memory card I will have pictures of the last 2 recipes as well.
I made this recipe low-fat by using fat-free ricotta and fat-free mozzarella.  Parmesan is already a pretty low-fat cheese.  This calls for a food processor.

Penne with Spinach, Cheese, and Nutmeg
Prep time (includes boiling pasta): 17 min
Cooking Time (in oven): 8 min

Ingredients:
Penne (4 oz)
Spinach (couple handfuls)
Ricotta (3 oz)
Parmesan (2 tbsp)
Mozzarella, grated (1 1/2 oz)
Nutmeg (1/8 teaspoon)
Salt
Pepper

1. Boil pasta according to box directions.
2. While boiling pasta, put spinach, ricotta, 1 tbsp parmesan, 1 oz mozzarella, and nutmeg into food processor with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  Run until it's ground up.
3. Mix with pasta in a casserole dish then top with the rest of the paremesan and mozarella.
4. Stick into a toaster oven on 425 for 8 minutes or until cheese on top is melted.
5. Let it cool a minute or two before you eat it!  You don't want to burn your tongue, plus the baked cheese on top forms a nice crispy layer.

 Tips:
-If you don't have a food processor (I don't), use a blender on the lowest setting and add a little water so that it can blend.  The water will cook out when you bake it.
-If you don't have a toaster oven, use a regular oven but increase the temperature to 450 and cooking time to 10 minutes.  Also make sure to pre-heat.
-Do the cleanup while the dish is baking; it cuts down on your over-all time in the kitchen.
-Soak the casserole dish in water for a couple hours before washing.  It will soften up any baked-on cheese.

Black Bean Avocado Enchiladas

This recipe mostly comes out of cans, so all the seasoning is already done for you.  You need a casserole dish, cake pan, or some sort of deep dish for this.  I used 1&1/2 avocados and most of the can of beans for 8 enchiladas. Use whatever type of cheese you like best.  I used cheddar jack.

Black Bean Avocado Enchiladas
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 6-7 mins

Ingredients:
Black beans, pre-seasoned (1 can)
Green enchilada sauce (1 can)
Avocado
Corn tortillas
Cheese, grated

1. Cut up the avocados lengthwise into slices about 1/2" thick.  Remove skin.

2. Heat a tortilla in a skillet over medium heat for a few seconds each side.  When it's warm use tongs to take it out.  Put in a couple slices of avocado, a spoonful or 2 of beans, and a sprinkle of cheese, then roll.  Continue until your casserole dish is full.

3. Pour enchilada sauce over the enchiladas then cover in cheese.  (It's not Tex-Mex if it's not smothered in cheese.)
4. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and microwave on medium heat until the cheese on top is melted, about  6 or 7 minutes.

Tips:
-You NEED to heat the tortillas.  Cold tortillas will break when you try to roll them and then your filling will spill out and you will be sad.
-If you have an electric stove you can heat the tortilla directly on the burner but make sure the burner has warmed before you put the tortilla down or pieces of it will stick to the burner and it will come apart when you try to remove it.
-I heated each tortilla while filling and rolling the one before.  Just stand next to the stove and watch to make sure you don't burn your tortilla.
-Place the overlapping side of the first enchilada against the side of the pan and the others against the previous enchilada.  This way they will not unroll when you set them down and will not open at the bottom when you take them out the dish.