Grilled cheese with mushrooms, and broccoli`

The broccoli was roasted just like the other time. And the grilled cheese was, well, grilled cheese - but with thin slices of some large mushroom I bought at the store. Wasn't quite Portobello but bigger than the average button 'shroom. The slices were seared quickly before the sandwich.

My only tip on the very simple task of grilled cheese making: mix butter and olive oil on the skillet, and cook the sandwiches in that. It gives you the butter flavor, but the olive oil keeps the fat from smoking up and burning too quickly. And be generous with that skillet fat, folks.

Mushroom Onion Feta Cheese Quiche

I love making quiche. Not only do I get to make my very own easy pie crust but there are so many variations I can try. And I'm pretty much guaranteed to have all the basic ingredients at all times. Plus, it takes no time at all to prep... This week's quiche - Mushroom Onion Feta. I highly recommend this one!

Ingredients:
Approx. 8 oz Mushrooms, sliced
1 Onion
1/2-1 cup Feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup Milk
3 eggs
Pepper
Olive oil
Pie crust

Directions:
1. Saute the onions in a little bit of olive oil till they're clear and soft. Remove the onions to a separate bowl and saute the mushrooms for just a minute or two until they start to turn darker in color.
2. Combine the milk, eggs, onions, mushrooms and pepper. Pour into pie crust.
3. Sprinkle the feta on top.
4. Bake at 375F/200C for about 30-40 minutes or until the the quiche is set.

Oh the things you can Roast

Now that we have our oven, the possibilities are endless. One of our favorite dinners (and only possible with an oven) is roasted vegetable sandwiches. So good and so healthy. The prep time on this is fairly short (cooking time is longer), basically just as long as it takes you to cut up your vegetables. I used:

Mushrooms

Zucchini

Eggplant

Tomatoes

Onions

Peppers

Although you can basically use any vegetables, I'd recommend using ones that are in season (that's the beauty of this sandwich). Slice up your vegetables - you want them to be sandwich stackable so slice them up relatively thin.

Lay them out on a cookie sheet, using a baking sheet. The more cookie sheets and oven racks you have the better but you can also do this in shifts, like I did. Lightly brush all your vegetables on both sides with oil. I seasoned some of the vegetables but most I let speak for themselves. Roast the vegetables at about 400F for 15-25 minutes each tray. Check on them after 15 minutes or so.

How amazing do these eggplants look?

Not only do grilled vegetables taste great, they also look great which is why I couldn't resist with the pictures. Not that these pictures do them any justice, you'll have to try this one out for yourselves.

When you've got all your vegetables roasted, sandwich them up and you're ready to go. We used pita this time but any bread will work. Extra flavoring or condiments is up to you but pretty unnecessary. These vegetables work well together. My favorites are the eggplants and tomatoes.

Easy Stuffing

This stuffing has a similar theme to the pie crust and the french toast (making something with "leftovers"). It sounds less appetizing than it really is. I should come up with another name for that. In the meantime, what do you do with (a lot) of "extra" chala? 1. Freeze it right away so it doesn't go bad. 2. Make stuffing.

Stuffing is delicious and requires only a few simple steps.

Ingredients:

Bread, lightly toasted, broken into small pieces (1/2-2/3 of a medium loaf)

2 cups of water with soup mix (my directions say 1 teaspoon mix per cup water)

12 oz. mushrooms

1 onion

3-4 cloves of garlic

2-3 celery stalks

1 medium sized carrot

The amounts are approximated but the idea is there. Saute all the vegetables together, making sure to dice the onions, celery, carrots and garlic pretty small. Add a bit of pepper. Add the soup mix water to the bread and stir so it's evenly distributed. Add the sauteed vegetables to the bread. Mix well. Pour into pyrex, aluminum tin, or corningware and bake at 350 F for approximately 40 minutes or until it starts to brown on top.

Brown Rice and Mushroom Pancakes

Brown rice can be pretty unexciting. For some reason we seem to have more of it than we really need. Since I'm not such a fan of rice in general, especially brown rice, I tried to find something interesting to do with it. This should have been a great recipe using some common, easy to find ingredients. Instead it took too much time and while it still tasted good, it wasn't really worth it. I've made some changes for those who are still interested. (It should work better now but I can't guarantee anything...)

Olive oil

5 cups thinly sliced mushrooms

1 medium sized finely chopped onion

1 finely chopped red bell pepper

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon chopped thyme

1 cup vegetable (or chicken) broth

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 cup cooked brown rice

4 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs

2 large eggs, beaten

Salt

Pepper

Sauce:

Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms, onion, and bell pepper; cook 10 minutes or until liquid evaporates, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; cook 1 minute. Stir in thyme, salt, and black pepper. Remove 1 cup mushroom mixture, and set aside. Increase heat to medium-high. Add broth and cornstarch to pan; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Keep warm.

Pancakes:

Combine reserved 1 cup mushroom mixture, brown rice, breadcrumbs, and eggs; mix well.Heat oil in a nonstick griddle or large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Spoon about 1/2 cup rice batter per pancake onto hot pan, spreading each to a 4-inch diameter. Cook 5 minutes on each side or until bottoms are golden brown. Serve with mushroom sauce.

In the end I made a few "pancakes" but we just fried most of the remaining rice. For now, brown rice will have to remain unexciting.