Black-Eyed Pea and Hummus Quesadilla

Fish Burrito night is our day-off, super colortastic tasty indulgence night that we enjoy 1-2 times a month.  The best part is that there are always leftovers and extra tortillas so that we eat burritos and quesadillas the few days after.  I made this quesadilla one fateful night when our leftovers where on their last legs.  All we had was tortillas, cheese and sour cream.  Raw onions and garlic are a staple in my kitchen, and I just happened to have a beautiful poblano pepper that I picked from my garden.  The night before, my boyfriend had eaten all of the black beans we cooked up in a quesadilla epiphany of his own.  He told me about his successful experiment of adding a smear of spicy hummus  on the inside of his quesadilla and stated that it was delicious.   I searched the cupboards for another can of black or pinto beans, but only found a can of black-eyed peas.  Haha!  Two new flavor possibility and lots of protein!

Blacked-Eyed Pea and Hummus Quesadilla

Ingredients
1 tortilla
1-2 tbsp hummus (I would recommend spicy, jalapeno, roasted red pepper or garlic flavored)
1/2 cup shredded queso
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup  onions, sliced
1/4 cup poblano peppers, sliced
1/2 cup black-eyed peas
1/2 tbsp butter
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cajun seasoning
1/4 tsp coriander
Salt and Pepper

Heat olive oil in pan on med-high heat.  Saute onions and poblano peppers for 5 minutes.  Add garlic and saute for another 5 minutes.  While sauteing, smear hummus on half of the tortilla and sprinkle cheese on the other half.  Take the beans and mix in a bowl with the cajun seasoning, coriander,  chili powder, salt and pepper.  Spread the beans out on the hummus side of the tortilla.   Remove the peppers, onions and garlic from the pan and place on top of the cheese.  Add butter to the skillet and turn down to medium heat.  Place tortilla in skillet once butter has melted.   Cook open-face for 5-10 minutes until cheese is melted.  Fold tortilla and cook on each side for another 5 minutes.  Remove from pan and slice into triangles.  Serve with sour cream and hot sauce.

I will post the Fish Burrito recipe and pictures the next time we make it!  

Stoner Food Review: QB's Crispy Treat filled with Ice Cream

I stared in amazement and awe when I saw this at the local natural foods store.  We bought one vanilla and one chocolate, but I was only able to try the vanilla flavor before they were all gone.  One is definitely enough.  they also have a strawberry variety.  The squares were very sweet and rich. and unlike most food products, the crispy ice cream treats inside the box were BIGGER then the ones on the box!!   This is a combination that begs to go together to satisfy a sweet, multi-textured, multi-junk food craving.  I haven't seen a conventional version of this, so yay for the natural food industry for coming up with some delicious natural stoner snack!  I would only recommend this for true fans of rice crispy treats because they were a little awkward and sticky to eat by hand... but worth it.   Make sure to eat fresh out of  the freezer!

Frozen Waffle Sandwich

I do have a friend that eats frozen waffles still frozen, but despite the title, these are toasted frozen waffles.  I first came up with this ideas when I really wanted a PB&J sandwich but didn't have any bread, so I used two blueberry waffles instead.  Yumm...

As you can see, with the help of a little bit of induced hunger and creativity, a simple quick fix can evolve into this:

Marshmallow-Nutella-Banana-Bacon Waffle Sandwich
serves 3


Ingredients
1 box frozen waffles (any flavor)
1 banana
6-9 strips of bacon or fakin' bacon
Marshmallows (mini or maxi)
Nutella, about 1/4 of a jar


Directions
If you're going to use marshmallows, a toaster oven is almost essential, but an oven would work as well.

 First, start cooking the bacon in a frying pan.  Next, place 1-2 large marshmallows or 7-10 mini marshmallows on every other waffle.  Place waffles, 2-4 at at time, in the toaster oven and toast until marshmallows turn a dark brown.  Remove waffles from toaster oven and spread Nutella on the the waffles without marshmallows.  Slice banana and place evenly on the the Nutella smeared waffles. When bacon is fully cooked, place 2-3 strips on top of the marshmallow sided waffle.  Combine into a sandwich and prepare to have your mind blown.

Cheeseburger Samosas

"This is the greatest food moment of my entire life."- Friend and fellow stoner chef.

So, this idea popped up a few months ago between me and a friend as we  partook of some herb and brainstormed some "What if..." recipes ideas.  Last Friday we piled up the ingredients and set out to create one of the ultimate stoner meals ever made.  Now, we were going to make real cheeseburger samosas and vegetarian cheeseburger samosas, but we couldn't get our hands on any meat  So...we got some fake Gimme Lean veggie sausage instead- a rich and satisfying substitute, although an entirely different creature all together.  This can be oz for oz substituted for ground hamburger meat.    

Ingredients:

1 14 oz package Gimme Lean ground sausage  or 14 oz ground beef

3 tablespoons butter

1/2 onion, diced

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium tomato, diced

3 banana peppers, diced

3 takeaway packets of Krystal's yellow mustard

1/2 cups chow-chow (or relish)

1 sheet puff pastry

8 oz of medium or sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 bottle brown ale (your favorite, or whatever beer you have in your hand)

Condiments

Mayonnaise

Curry paste

Tomato chutney

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Place butter in a large frying pan at medium heat.  When the butter melts, add onions and stir for 3 minutes.  Add garlic and banana peppers.  Stir for  5 minutes.   Add tomatoes and continue to stir for 5 minutes.  Then add the sausage.  Break up the sausage and mix in with the veggies. Add mustard, chow chow and beer at this time.

   

Let simmer until no liquid is left in the pan.  Stir occasionally.  While this is cooking, roll out the defrosted puff pastry (we forgot to defrost it so we had to massage it for about 15 minutes before it was workable), and cut and X into to create 4 triangles.  Each triangle will be one individual samosa.  Place cheddar cheese on the puff pastry in Tetris shapes.

Then lump about 1/2 -3/4 cup of the ground Gimme Lean sausage, veggies and random

 condiments mixture on top of the cheese and add more cheese to the top.  Fold up the 3 corners of the triangle and twist dough at the top.  Pinch together the sides of the dough to enclose the filling as completely as possible.  Place on parchment paper on a flat baking pan and bake in oven for approximately 15-20 minutes or until dough becomes a crispy golden brown.  

While the samosas are cooking, you can whip up some condiments to serve them with.  We mixed 2 parts Mayonaise with 1 part Curry Paste to create a curry mayo, and purchased some tomato chutney from the local Indian food store (ketchup and mayo!)

Serve and eat as you will.  

Exploded Macaroni Omelet

I told you there would be more Mac n' Cheese recipes.  If you haven't noticed, I tend to sneak veggies like broccoli into my Mac n' Cheeses.  I usually keep frozen spinach, broccoli and a bag of mixed  veggies in the freezer as backup/emergency recipe additives.  Broccoli tastes yummy with cheese and pasta, so it's a natural to throw in with any mac n' cheese.  My favorite is Annie's White Cheddar & Elbows.  The white cheddar is sharp and actually tastes like real cheese.  Plus it actually is real cheese.  If you don't have boxy white cheddar mac lying around, I recommend adding some shredded/pulverized parmesan to any other boxy cheesy mac you have to give it an extra strong cheesy flavor.

Oh, and the egg.  What you see pictured above is actually my breakfast from yesterday morning. I wanted an omelet, but didn't have any cheese.  

White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese with Fried Egg + Broccoli

Ingredients

1 box of Annie's White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese

1 egg

1 tsp minced garlic

2 1/2  tbsp butter

1/4 cup milk or milk alternative

1/2 cup broccoli florets (fresh or frozen)

salt and pepper

Directions

Cover pasta in a a pot or saucepan with water (about 6 cups).  Bring to a boil and cook at Medium heat.

After about 4 minutes add in broccoli (fresh or frozen).

Cook for another 5 minutes or until done.

Drain pasta.  

Heat 2 tbsp of butter in the pasta pot on low heat.

Place 1/2 tbsp of butter and garlic in a small skillet or frying pan set to Medium-High heat. Crack an egg in the frying pan when the butter melts.  Bust the yolk open if you want to.  I do.

Add 1/4 cup milk and powdered cheese to pasta pot.

Mix cheese, butter and milk together until smooth and creamy.

Add pasta and broccoli back in and mix well.

After about 2 minutes, pile as much pasta as you want in a a bowl.

Salt egg in the frying pan.  Remove egg from frying pan with spatula and place on top of Mac n' Cheese.

Pepper to taste.  Eat with fork and knife. Or just fork.  That's what I did, but it was hard.