More Veggies, Please

Meatless Monday has been a revelation to me.  Or perhaps not so much a revelation as a reminder--I LOVE VEGGIES!  The discipline of choosing non-meat alternatives one day a week has spilled over into the other six.  I remember now how much I truly enjoy vegetables, the taste, the texture, the variety, the versatility.  When you direct your meal planning in the direction of vegetarian alternatives for just one day, your brain more readily includes and considers these options EACH time you think about what's for supper--or for lunch--or on the restaurant menu.  Over the past 2 weeks since I dedicated myself to more meatless living, I have cooked eggplant Parmesan, grilled portobello sandwiches, pasta with chunky marinara and bread salad.  And just yesterday when dining out with a friend, I gravitated toward an eggplant-filled panini as my lunch choice.  In nary a meal did I miss the meat, nor has my significant one.  (I speak on his behalf.  At least he hasn't complained in range of my hearing. He has made lots of yum-yum noises, which is always a good sign!)

One of the tricks is to keep vegetables on hand and actually USE them before they go bad.  We all hate to feel wasteful and one of the greatest guilt inducing moments for me is when I have to clean out the vegetable bin and find myself throwing out things that should have, could have been eaten and enjoyed--if only I'd been more inventive, worked a little harder, decided to cook supper instead of accepting Paul's invitation to dine out.  It is sometimes hard being a cook with a conscience--and a budget!

Earlier this week, I made a quick stop at Hazel's Market in Daphne to stock up on some of summer's bounty.  I came out with these:

If you spy something in the bowl that doesn't quite look like it was picked from a tree or pulled from the dirt or plucked off a vine, you would be the astute one.  That is a nice chunk of hoop cheese packaged in Chickasaw, Alabama, so if it isn't completely local, at least it has cousins who are.  I couldn't pass that up!  It is the cheese of my childhood, the cheese we all ate before there were other options.  The Italians may have their Parmesan and mozzarella, but in the South, we have hoop cheese.  I didn't have a plan for it at the time, other than to make sure I ate it quickly so I wouldn't have to share.

I bought small quantities of the things that would spoil.  Just one zucchini, one yellow squash, several tomatoes (tomato sandwiches equal easy vegetarian lunches) and 3 cloves of garlic which will last in my garlic keeper nearly forever, or at least until I use them.

So, Paul is traveling and I needed dinner for one last night.  I decided on a veggie quesadilla.  If you have been reading this blog at all, you may have come to the conclusion that I can make a taco or a quesadilla out of most anything.  You would be correct.  And that is truly a way to make a quick meal that will satisfy even the picky eaters at your table.  If you have enough fillings, you can customize the meal a bit without feeling like a short-order cook.  For me last night, a tortilla filled with a smattering of hoop cheese and a heap of veggies was a healthy choice and amazingly tasty.  This is not so much a recipe I offer you today, but a meal suggestion that you can customize according to whatever may be reaching its prime in your vegetable bin.

Let me add that we have a new grill.  We've been biding our time on sub-par grills until we permanently install one in the little cottage up the street that we are renovating.  Model "C" purchased from the corporate behemoth finally rusted out.  We upgraded to a slightly better model that we hope will tide us over until we're ready to throw some serious cash at an outdoor cook space, sometime in the future when we win the lottery.  Here's the newest addition to our outdoor kitchen here in our little rental, only a slight upgrade from model "C":

Grilling is a great way to cook vegetables.  You can choose whatever vegetables you have in the food prep queue in your kitchen.  I chose these from my trip to Hazel's.

I sliced about half of the squash and zucchini, about a quarter each of the onion and tomato, and all of the little red pepper.  I use the same "technique" for a veggie quesadilla as I do for my roasted tomato salsa, spreading the veggies on a sheet of foil in a single layer directly on the grill rack after I have tossed them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.

Here is a secret ingredient I've been using lately:

This is smoked kosher salt.  I ordered it from Amazon and it will probably last forever.  I heard two chefs  proclaim its glories as an ingredient in two separate cooking classes and decided I needed my very own supply.  This is a good addition to vegetables cooked on the grill.  Use sparingly as it can get overwhelming if you use too much.

Anyway, I digress.  Back on the grill, we have veggies hanging out on a sheet of foil getting nice and happy!  Grill them with the lid closed over medium high heat until they begin to soften and brown on one side.  At that point, use long tongs to toss them about so they can brown and char a bit all over.  Don't let them get too soft.  A little crunch adds a lot to the taste of the finished product.  When they are done, use the tongs to lift the foil by all four corners, capturing the juice with the veggies. I empty mine into a bowl so they will be easier to work with.  They will look something like this.

Now, heat a non-stick skillet over medium high heat.  Add a bit of olive oil or cooking spray.  While it is heating, grate about an ounce of cheese per person.  You don't need a lot of cheese, but the cheese becomes the glue that holds the rest of the ingredients together.

Put the tortilla in the pan and spread the cheese around on it so it can begin to melt.

When the cheese begins to soften, add your vegetables on top of the tortilla.

Since I was cooking for one, I just doubled the one tortilla over.  Because I used lots of veggies, they squished out around the sides of the tortilla.  I liked it that way.  Any veggie that escaped the tortilla just got dumped on top of the quesadilla after I removed it from the pan.  If you are feeding several people or if you are very hungry yourself, you could top this with another tortilla instead of doubling one over on itself.  I think it is a bit more manageable to flip a tortilla that is doubled over rather than two stacked together.  But I am not the boss of you in your kitchen!

Cut it into quarters (or whatever.)  Serve with sour cream, salsa, jalapeno peppers, guacamole--all your choice.  This is a most flexible way to prepare a meal.  Some broccoli would have been good in this, as would mushrooms, roasted corn or spinach.  I wouldn't put spinach on the grill, I don't think.  You could just toss the spinach into the hot veggies as they come off the grill and the heat would wilt it adequately.  You could also toss a little cilantro into the hot veggies.  Lots of possibilities here to add a few more servings of the good stuff into your diet, and not be wasteful.  If you don't have a grill, do not despair!  You can accomplish the same thing with a baking sheet lined with foil under the broiler.

So, I was the one making the yum-yum noises last night, all by myself, congratulating myself because I had eaten a home-cooked, healthy meal and made good use of things on hand.  Go check out your vegetable bin right now.  You could be feeling satisfied and pious in no time!