Your browser (Internet Explorer 7 or lower) is out of date. It has known security flaws and may not display all features of this and other websites. Learn how to update your browser.

X

Navigate / search

Roasted Seasoned Carrots

I was at the farmers market the other day buying some delicious huge snap peas and I looked over and saw these gorgeous carrots, so I grabbed a bunch up. We ate a few as soon as we got home in some dip but I wanted to have them for dinner. So I figured why not bake them and add a little seasoning. They turned out excellent and my whole family loved them, especially my daughter.

I feel like carrots don’t get enough credit, they are often pushed to the side of peoples plates and left :( but that is a shame. Next dinner party you have make these and watch them get gobbled up.

For this recipe you can cut them into spears, slices or leave them whole like I did. If they are really big I’d recommend cutting them in some way for even cooking. You can add a huge variety of spices to change these dramatically. Some suggestions are paprika, thyme, rosemary, cumin, sage, cayenne, crushed red peppers actually anything you can think of would be great just make sure not to do too many at once :) . You could also try pre-made spice blends such as Italian, Old Bay or Mexican. Let me know what spices you experiment with.

Roasted Seasoned Carrots

Print recipe
Roasted Seasoned Carrots
Serves 4-6
Prep time 5 minutes
Cook time 20 minutes
Total time 25 minutes
Dietary Gluten Free, Vegan, Vegetarian
Meal type Side Dish
Website Voracious Vander
This is the easiest way to make delicious carrots for a terrific vegetable side dish. FrenchToasty.com has lots of vegetable dishes.

Ingredients

  • 1lb carrots
  • salt & pepper
  • crushed red peppers
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions

Step 1
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Step 2
Clean and chop carrots into desired size. Coat carrots with olive oil.
Step 3
Spread onto cookie sheet and season with salt, pepper and crushed red pepper.
Step 4
Cook for about 20 minutes flipping about half way through. Edges will be slightly golden brown.

Turn this…

into this. YUM!

Pesto Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes and Broccoli

This is a quick and super easy meal and I needed to make a quick dinner tonight so I came up with this delicious dish. I always keep a big batch of pesto in the fridge so I always have some on hand, glad I did because it came in handy tonight.

This pasta is packed with veggies and even better because it’s made with homemade cilantro pesto. I love sun dried tomatoes and I put them in most pastas that I make. I also had left over salmon so I added some and it was a delicious addition. You could also add chicken if you would like, that would be yummy also or leave just as pictured above.

Pesto Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes and Broccoli

Print recipe
Pesto Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes and Broccoli
Serves 4
Prep time 5 minutes
Cook time 15 minutes
Total time 20 minutes
Dietary Vegetarian
Meal type Main Dish
Misc Serve Hot
This Pesto Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes and Broccoli is a quick and easy meal for a week night dinner. FrenchToasty.com has lots of quick recipes for you and your busy family.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 box rotini noodles
  • 1/2lb broccoli florets
  • 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup cilantro pesto
  • fresh shredded Parmesan cheese

Optional

  • 1/4lb cooked salmon

Directions

Step 1
Cook pasta according to box.
Step 2
Add broccoli for last two minutes.
Step 3
Drain noodles and then add noodles back to pan. Add sun dried tomatoes and pesto sauce and stir until all piece are covered.
Step 4
Add optional cooked salmon or cooked chicken if you want it.
Step 5
Add fresh shredded Parmesan cheese right before serving.

Optional cooked salmon

Cilantro and Red Onion Pesto Quesadilla

Mexican is so popular in my area, my city has 4 Mexican restaurants in a 1/2 mile radius. I know that seems crazy, but they are all a little different so they all do great. As much as I love going out to eat, I’ve learned to cook a lot of my favorite dishes at home. With a little one it’s so much easier to eat at home, she can play and be as loud as she wants!  So here is my newest Mexican creation, Enjoy!

Cilantro and Red Onion Pesto Quesadilla

Time 20 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients
1 cup Cilantro and Red Onion Pesto
4 flour tortillas
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cups cheddar or pepper jack cheese, shredded
2 T olive oil
Toppings:
2 cups kale, chopped
1 cup guacamole
1 cup pico de gao
1/2 cup sour cream
hot sauce

Directions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a big pan.
  2. Put tortilla down, lay cheese on half of it and the pesto on the other half.
  3. Add chopped pepper and onions to the side with cheese.
  4. Continue to cook on med-high for a few minutes. Put a few splashes of hot sauce on cheese and pesto. Keep a close eye to make sure to not burn.
  5. Fold quesadilla in half, cut in half or quarters and then add your toppings. Serve immediately if toppings are on other wise place finished quesadilla in oven to keep warm, until ready to serve.
Completed Quesadilla with all the toppings
Completed Quesadilla with all the toppings

 

Cilantro Red Onion Pesto
Cilantro Red Onion Pesto

 

Basic Green Kale Salad

Everyone knows how to make a basic green salad, but this is just giving you an idea of some of my favorite ingredients that I like in my green salad.

When making a salad opt for kale instead of lettuce, more nutritious and it holds up nicely and doesn’t wilt. Both perfect reasons to enjoy a salad with dinner tonight!

Basic Green Kale Salad

Print recipe
Basic Green Kale Salad
Serves 4
Prep time 10 minutes
Allergy Egg
Dietary Vegetarian
Meal type Salad
Misc Pre-preparable, Serve Cold
Crisp green salad with nutritious kale and vegetables.

Ingredients

  • 1 bunch kale (discard middle stem and rip into bite size pieces)
  • 2 small bell peppers (red and yellow) (chopped bite size)
  • 2 medium slices pepper jack cheese (cubed)
  • 1/2 medium cucumber or zucchini (sliced and quartered)
  • 10 cherry tomatoes (halved)
  • dressing of your choice (my favorites are balsamic vinegar, honey mustard and cesar)

Optional

  • 1-2 hard boiled eggs (sliced)

Directions

Step 1
Layer all ingredients in a bowl or on a plate and apply dressing right before serving. Enjoy!

Roasted Browned Butter Balsamic Asparagus

Asparagus is a great vegetable to have, it’s not only fun to eat but very tasty. This recipe is excellent to make for a large group because you apply the sauce over the asparagus and people can serve themselves. If you like balsamic vinegar then you will love this recipe. It’s not an overpowering flavor but a slight hint and that makes it very tasty.

This recipe can easily be doubled for a large crowd, so serve this at your next family dinner.

Roasted Browned Butter Balsamic Asparagus

20 Asparagus spears, trimmed (about 1lb)
dash of sea salt and pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
cracked black pepper, for topping

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Arrange asparagus in single layer on a baking sheet and spray with cooking spray.
  3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
  4. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes (slightly tender), do not overcook
  5. Remove from oven a lay on platter, pour sauce over the top, garnish with cracked pepper and serve.

Browned Butter Balsamic Sauce

  1. Melt butter in small skillet over medium heat for about 3 minutes (lightly browned), make sure to shaking pan occasionally.
  2. Remove from heat and stir in soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.
  3. Drizzle over vegetable. Garnish with cracked pepper if desired.

The browned butter balsamic sauce would be excellent on any vegetable. I have tried it on broccoli, brussel sprouts and of course asparagus.

Crunchy and delicious, my 1 year old daughter loved it.

El Brócoli Queso Quesadillas

Today is chilly and a bit gloomy and I’m craving broccoli cheddar soup but I’m going to save that and make for dinner tonight. But it’s only lunch time and I’m hungry so what I can I do to satisfy my craving, and make a quick lunch…how about broccoli cheddar quesadilla. Sound good? Well it is delicious. So if you are craving something cheesy give this a try, and know that your making it healthier by adding the broccoli…like my thinking?!

El Brócoli Queso Quesadillas

Time 10 minutes
Servings 1

Ingredients

1 flour tortilla
a few slices of cheddar cheese
1 small red pepper, chopped
handful of broccoli, cut bite size
2 T Tapatio, or your favorite hot sauce
1 T Olive Oil

Optional toppings: hot sauce, guacamole and/or sour cream

Directions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a big pan and add broccoli and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes. Remove from pan.
  2. Put tortilla down, lay cheese on half of it. Add cooked broccoli mixture on top of cheese.
  3. Continue to cook on med-high for a few minutes. Put a few splashes of hot sauce on cheese and broccoli mixture. Keep a close eye to make sure it doesn’t burn.
  4. Fold quesadilla in half, cut in half or quarters and serve immediately.

If serving more then one, place finished quesadilla in oven to keep warm, until ready to serve.

Ooey Gooey Goodness!

 

Cilantro and Red Onion Pesto

I was craving Mexican food and knew I wanted to make something different. I had a nice big bunch of fresh cilantro and thought I’d put a spin on my classic cilantro pesto. I thought cilantro and red onion would be a great mix. I put this on a quesadilla and it was delicious. I put it on my husbands sandwich for lunch the next day and he said it was excellent. Let me know what you put it on.

Cilantro and Red Onion Pesto

Ingredients

1 bunch fresh cilantro, washed (stems can be left on)
1 small red onion
4 walnuts
1-2 Tablespoons olive oil

Directions

  1. Pulse first 3 ingredients in food processor.
  2. Drizzle oil in and pulse until desired consistency.
Cilantro and Red Onion Pesto in Quesadilla
Cilantro and Red Onion Pesto in Quesadilla

Bean Verde Enchiladas

I have said it before and I’ll say again, I love Mexican food. In college I took Spanish and our class had a fiesta. One of our classmates husbands owned a Mexican restaurant, so he offered to do all the cooking for our party. The food was authentic and amazing and so much fun. Maybe Mexican food is so popular because people associate it with fiestas and having a great time.

We had friends come over the other evening to watch the game, so I decided to make Enchiladas and margaritas. Perfect combo and everyone loved them. They liked that I used a green enchilada sauce instead to mix it up. These would be great for a gathering or a family dinner. Eat them alone or add some of your favorite sides, mine include cilantro rice and guacamole. Enjoy your fiesta!

Bean Verde Enchiladas

Ingredients
6 tortilla, whole wheat
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup brown rice
1 medium orange pepper, chopped
1 can Verde enchilada sauce
1/2 cup pepper jack, shredded or thinly sliced
1/2 cup salsa, red or green (whichever you have)
1 T olive oil
handful cilantro, chopped for topping

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium size pan put 1 T oil and the chopped pepper and cook for 2 minutes.
  2. Add cooked rice and beans to peppers to warm, stir often. After a few minutes add salsa.
  3. Spray casserole dish with no-stick spray and put a small spoonful of Verde sauce in bottom of dish.
  4. Put equal amounts of the filling in each tortilla and roll up. Lay next to each other in dish.
  5. Pour remaining Verde sauce on top of enchiladas. Sprinkle cheese over the top of the enchiladas
  6. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until cheese is melted and enchiladas are warm all the way through.
  7. Cool for one minute and serve with optional cilantro on top.

Beans, peppers and rice in pan

With added salsa

So yummy!

Vegetarian Green Sandwich

Time for lunch today and I wasn’t sure what to make, so I decided to put a bunch of my favorite veggies on a sandwich and give it a Greek twist with Tzatziki sauce. It turned out great and of course I paired it with one of my favorite sides, kale chips. This was a great combo that my daughter and I enjoyed thoroughly. Even if you aren’t vegetarian this sandwich has so much flavor that you won’t even miss the meat, trust me.

Vegetarian Green Sandwich

Time: 5 minutes
Serving: 1 sandwich

Ingredients
4 slices zucchini
1 broccoli stalk chopped small

8-10 spinach leaves
1 slice cheese, optional
3 teaspoons seeded mustard
3 teaspoon Tzatziki sauce
2 slices whole wheat bread, toasted

Directions

  1. Toast bread. Spread Tzatziki on one piece of bread and the mustard on the other slice.
  2. Lay zucchini on bread, then broccoli, cheese and then spinach.
  3. Top with other slice of bread.

Enjoy!

Serve with kale chips and fruit for a complete meal.

And my daughters version, she also had a couple bites of bread, but she calls it toast.

She likes to dip the zucchini slices in Tzatziki sauce.

Delicious Veggie Layers

Sweet Potato Frittata with Caramelized Onions and Cheddar Cheese

I am not fully vegetarian, but I do prefer to eat very little meat. My husband has recently decided that it’s OK for me to try these vegetarian recipes I come across because so many of them have turned out to be delicious. This sweet potato frittata is one of those recipes that I’ve come across that turned out to be a success. It is delicious, low in calories and good for you. And better let you know that is so easy to make. This is a great brunch recipe or everyone loves breakfast for dinner, so try this for dinner tonight (that is how we had it the first time).

Sweet Potato Frittata with Caramelized Onions and Cheddar Cheese

Servings: 8 Pieces
Time: 45 minutes total

Ingredients
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 medium onion, slices
1 medium garnet yam, cut into 1/4” thick slices (skin on)
2 green onions
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup whole milk or half-and-half
1/2 tsp pepper (salt optional, I didn’t use any)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 8” or 9” pie pan and set aside.
  2. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in medium frying pan and add sliced onion. Allow onions to cook for 8 minutes to caramelize. (This step smells amazing!)
  3. Layer the sliced sweet potato in the greased pie pan. Spread the caramelized onions in an even layer on the potato, then sprinkle the chopped green onions.
  4. Whisk pepper, milk and eggs. Then pour over the sweet potato mixture. Give the pie pan a gentle shake to distribute evenly.
  5. Top with the cheddar cheese and bake for 30minutes, until the eggs are completely set, the potatoes are soft and the top is browned and bubbly (if the top is browned enough, put under the broiler for a minute, watch very closely to prevent burning).
  6. Cool slightly, or to room temperature, cut into wedges and serve.
Sweet Potato Fritata look at all those layers. Serve with a side of bacon (soy or regular) Yummy!
Sweet Potato Fritata look at all those layers. Serve with a side of bacon (soy or regular) Yummy!
Sliced yams in pan
Sliced yams in pan

 

Caramelized onions and green onions sprinkled evenly
Caramelized onions and green onions sprinkled evenly
Sweet Potato Fritata sprinkled with cheddar cheese
Sweet Potato Fritata sprinkled with cheddar cheese
Sweet Potato Fritata baked to perfectional golden brown
Sweet Potato Fritata baked to perfectional golden brown
Sweet Potato Fritata look at all those layers. Serve with a side of bacon (soy or regular) Yummy!
Sweet Potato Fritata look at all those layers. Serve with a side of bacon (soy or regular) Yummy!

 

This is a great vegetarian option to a classic french frittata. It is basically a crust-less quiche. The ingredients are endless, what are your favorite frittata ingredients?