Vegetable Parmigiana

Tags

eggplant, mushrooms, peppers, vegetable parmigiana, zucchini

Hello world!  Knock, knock!  Anyone there?  I know it’s been a while since I’ve been on here and posted a recipe.  My summer has been quite hectic.  As I’ve mentioned in several previous posts, my husband and I are foster parents and up until early June we had 2 sibling groups of 2 children.  That’s 4 kids total – two boys ages 5 and 4 and two girls ages 3 and 2.  One of the sibling groups were reunified with their biological parents which was wonderful to see!  No sooner did we have those two reuniting with their parents, that we were asked to take in a newborn baby girl.  At nine days old, I picked her up from the hospital and for one night we had 5 kiddos in our home.  The other two went home the next day and we’ve had just the 3 ever since.  August was a bit crazy with my 3 year old having a surgical procedure done so that kept us on our toes! She’s a tough cookie and she did great.  But, the greatest news for us was being told we were officially able to adopt two of the three children we have in our care! Needless to say we’ve been busy, hence my delay on posting anything!  But I’m here now with a great recipe – and I’m heading back to my Italian roots!

I had a bunch of bell peppers leftover and didn’t know what to do with them, as well as some zucchini.  Hmmm – what to make???  I also had some tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese ready to go.  Then it dawned on me.  Who doesn’t love anything in tomato sauce and cheese!  I decided to slice the zucchini long ways and roast off the peppers.  I removed the skins and layered the zucchini and peppers together along with some portabella mushrooms and some thinly sliced eggplant.  With some tomato sauce and shredded cheese in between each layer, this was going to be heaven!

I was reluctant because as every mom can relate – my little ones despise vegetables and truthfully my husband isn’t a huge fan either.  But it turned out to be a yummy, delicious, ooey, gooey, cheesy meal that they just couldn’t get enough of!  SCORE!

It’s a take on lasagna with its various layers and if you wanted you could even put some lasagna noodles in between the layers and make it more of a vegetable lasagna than a parmigiana.  Either way – you’ll be sure to love this!  I love that it is such a versatile dish.  You can add or change the veggies to suit your tastes.

Vegetable Parmigiana

2 each – red, yellow, orange bell peppers, cored, halved, and roasted (skins removed)
1 eggplant – peeled and thinly sliced
4-5 zucchini squash, thinly sliced long-ways
1 pkg. sliced mushrooms
Tomato Sauce (recipe here)
2-3 cups shredded Mozzarella Cheese

1)  In a large casserole dish, coat the bottom with some of the tomato sauce.
2)  Layer the parmigiana as follows:  vegetable, tomato sauce, cheese.  Alternate the various veggies as you layer the parmigiana and fill the casserole dish.  Top with more shredded cheese.
3)  Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees F for about 1 hour.

Chicken Souvlaki

Tags

chicken, greek, peppers, souvlaki

Yes, this Italian cook is making Greek food – and I love it!  A while back I found a spectacular recipe for souvlaki made with pork.  I prefer chicken so I decided to make it with chicken instead.  At first I thought the marinade was a bit of a crazy combination, but it turned out so delicious.  With it’s odd combination of soy sauce, oregano, lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil – the marinade made for an extremely moist chicken with incredible flavor.  Just the right amount of saltiness from the soy sauce and tartness from the lemon juice.  With the addition of garlic – the combination is perfection!

Chicken Souvlaki

1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp. dried oregano
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 chicken breasts
2 medium yellow onions, cut into 1″ pieces
2 each:  red, yellow, orange bell peppers, cut into 1″ pieces

1)  Mix together lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, soy sauce, oregano, and garlic.
2)  Place chicken in a Ziploc bag and add marinade.  Refrigerate 4 hours or up to overnight.
3)  Place onions and peppers in a separate Ziploc bag and add another batch of the marinade.  Refrigerate up to 4 hours or up to overnight.
4)  Grill meat and vegetables until done.
5)  Slice chicken and serve with pita bread and tzatziki sauce.

Grilled Vegetables

Tags

artichokes, grilling, onions, peppers, vegetables

Well, it’s officially Summer here in Las Vegas.  While the calendar may not yet say it is, the triple digit temperatures say otherwise!  And for us – that means it’s grilling time!!!

I remember growing up back East my grandfather was King of the Grill.  That man grilled no matter what the weather!!!  My grandparents had a large screened in porch (awning) in their backyard.  During the nicer weather and all throughout the Summer, my grandfather would take his barbecue outside of the awning and grill.  In the not so nice weather and even through the rainy and brutally cold, snowy winter months, he would still grill!  Their awning was large enough to keep the barbecue and grill with plenty of room to spare.  It was kind of comical watching my grandfather bundle up in his winter coat with a piece of raw meat and a pair of tongs to go grill!  But, he did!  And it made for great memories!!

We would grill on occasion at home when I was growing up, but it was not something we did often.  Our awning was tiny and our barbecue/gas hook-up was probably about 30 feet from it.  So we’d have to take the barbecue out the awning door, and drag it across the uneven grass to the gas hook-up.  It was just a pain!!

Conveniently, our grill is pretty much right outside our back door.  My husband and I love to spend time outside and grilling is something we both very much enjoy, and Rob is becoming quite the grilling officianado!!  I like to try different things and found some cool grilling accessories for the barbecue.  Since then, I’ve been able to grill lots of vegetables instead of roasting them in the oven.  I mean, come on, who wants to turn on their oven in triple digit heat?!

Grilled Vegetables

2 red peppers, cut into 1″ pieces
2 yellow peppers, cut into 1″ pieces
2 orange peppers, cut into 1″ pieces
1 large onion, cut into 1″ pieces
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 tsp. garlic, crushed
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp. dried oregano
Salt, Pepper, Onion powder, Garlic Powder to taste

1)  In a resealable bag, combine the vegetables, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, and oregano.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder.  Coat all vegetables well.
2)  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to allow flavors to develop before grilling.
3)  Heat grill and put vegetables in grilling basket.  Grill for about 20-25 minutes o until veggies are tender, turning frequently to avoid burning.

You can also add other vegetables including mushrooms, zucchini, or yellow squash.

Another favorite of mine is artichokes – stuffed, marinated, grilled, boiled, roasted – prepared just about anyway – I love artichokes.  They are delicious on the grill!!

Grilled Artichokes

2-4 large artichokes
1/4 cup lemon juice
Pot of boiling water
olive oil, as needed
Salt and lemon pepper seasoning, to taste

1)  Bring a pot of water to a boil.  While the water is coming to a boil, prepare the artichokes.
2)  Cut a little bit of the artichoke stem and using a peeler, peel the outer layer of the stem off.
3)  Cut about 1/4 – 1/3 of the top of the artichoke off and using a kitchen scissor, clip the tips of each leaf off.
4)  Cut the artichokes in half, then quarters, and if they are still too large, into eighths.  Remove the fuzzy choke from the artichoke.
5)  Add the lemon juice to the pot of boiling water.  Place the quartered or eighthed artichokes into the pot.  Cook for 12-15 minutes or until the artichokes are tender.
6)  Remove from water, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and lemon pepper.
7)  Place artichokes on the grill and grill 3-4 minutes on each side.