Sesame Vegetable Noodle Bowls

Despite my recent plague, I still took myself to the grocery store and for reasons I'm still not quite clear on, I apparently developed an all-Asian menu for dinners this week.  Hey, I can't eat most of it out at restaurants (curse you gluten-hating immune system!), so why not make it at home.  Lots of naps and pitiful coughs apparently lead to good things in the kitchen, because these noodle bowls I made last night may be one of my most favorite concoctions as of late.  Loaded with good green veggies, it's like ramen but healthy and it leaves you feeling somehow full yet light.  I used rice noodles, but you could easily use udon or any other of your favorite Asian-style noodles.  This would also be fantastic with shrimp, chicken or tofu, if you're looking to add an extra hit of protein.  Or throw all of it together into a pot with 2 cups of vegetable or chicken stock and 2 cups of water, and have yourself a noodly soup of goodness.

Sesame Vegetable Noodle Bowls

Ingredients:
1 package rice noodles, soaked in hot water until soft
1 tsp chili oil
1 leek, quartered lengthwise and sliced
4 oz Shitake mushrooms (or any mushrooms of your choice), sliced
1/2 bundle of kale, leaves removed from stem and rough chopped
1 cup cabbage, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and grated thin
2 green onions, greens chopped
1 Tbsp soy sauce (I use Kikkoman's wheat/gluten free version)
2 Tbsp sesame seeds

For sauce:
2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp lime juice
4 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp Sriracha
1 knob ginger, peeled and grated

Prepare sauce first by whisking all ingredients together and set aside, and soak rice noodles in hot water or put in on the stove over medium heat (not enough to boil) until noodles are just soft.

In a large skillet, heat chili oil over high heat.  Add sliced leeks and cook for about 2 minutes.  Then add mushrooms and cook until they begin to brown.  Toss in kale, cabbage and carrot and cook for about 1-2 more minutes or until kale is wilted.  Add in green onions and soy sauce, and cook for an additional minute.  Remove from heat and toss with sesame seeds.

Drain noodles and toss with veggies in skillet.  Pour over sauce and toss until fully combined.  Serve each portion with additional Sriracha and sesame seeds, if desired...and in this house, we do desire!

Spring's Bounty Soup

I came across this recipe for "Spring Celebration Soup" in one of my cookbooks, and while I figured it would be fitting to give this one a try since Spring is officially here, I looked at the ingredients and thought, "This is going to taste like the color green."  So I decided to make it!  Because if you don't have a kitchen fail every once in awhile your husband might forget the gloriousness of take-away!  I switched up some of the veg to cater to what was in our Crop Shares this week, and then I decided to really go off the rails and use the carrot greens in place of the parsley required for this soup.  I really thought about calling this the Waste Not Want Not Soup since there are very few kitchen scraps that come out of this one, and hey if you have the carrot greens, why not use them!  As an aside, Crop Share member Deanna Freedlander has a fantastic recipe for Carrot Top Pesto that she puts over spaghetti squash.  Since squash season is on it's way out, just use regular pasta or even turn your yellow squash into "squoodles" (if you have a sprial cutter or a juillene tool that will cut thin noodle-like strips, just saute those in a little bit of olive oil for a few minutes and ta-da veggie pasta!).

Once I'd finished the soup, I took one look at it and thought, "what have I done?!"  But once I tasted it, is was surprisingly good!  It didn't taste like the color green, it was refreshing and even filling.  So...I had another bowl.  Thus if you're looking for something bright and fresh, that is so chock full of veggie goodness it would make a vegan blush, then this is the soup for you.  And if your spinach is starting to look a bit sad by today, this is a great way to use it up since it's getting pureed in and looking wilty won't matter.

Spring's Bounty Soup

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bundle green onions, chopped (and hang onto the stem ends and start to re-sprout them as we did with the romaine here!)
4 carrots from bundle, skinned and diced
Carrot greens, minced
1 bundle asparagus, chopped
5 cups low sodium vegetable or chicken stock
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 bundle of spinach, stem ends trimmed at root (see our trick for perfectly clean and grit-free spinach)
1 cup milk (I used unsweetened rice milk for dairy-free)
Salt & pepper to taste


In a stock pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat and add in garlic to saute until just fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add in green onions and carrots and saute for 5 minutes, then add carrot greens and asparagus and cook for an additional 3 minutes.  Pour in stock and lemon juice, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat slightly and simmer, uncovered, for about 5-7 minutes.  Add in spinach and simmer for 2-3 minutes more, just long enough to wilt down the spinach.

If you've got an immersion blender, this is where it becomes your best friend.  Break that baby out and start to puree the dickens out of this soup -- just make sure to pull it off the heat, unless you're really a fan of hot soup burns.  If you don't have an immersion blender, you'll want to use a measuring cup to puree up about 2 cups of the soup at a time, and you'll need a holding pot or bowl for the already pureed portions, as you'll be returning everything to the main pot.

Once pureed, return to heat and bring back to a simmer.  Stir in your cup of milk, and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer for an additional 3-5 minutes, and then remove from heat and let stand for the same amount of time, to let the flavors set up.  Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

Serve with crusty bread (the baguettes at Nalls on Fridays would be PERFECT).  Or if your immune system hates gluten like mine does, make sad puppy eyes at the baguettes and then pick up some gluten-free bagel chips or crackers.  Glutino makes some killer rosemary crackers.


Adapted from Simply In Season by Mary Beth Lind & Cathleen Hockman-Wert

**Speaking of all things Spring, don't forget next weekend (4/25-4/26) is the LAST weekend of the Early Spring Crop Share round.  But don't despair, the Spring Round will kick off on May 9th, so be sure to grab a registration form when you're picking up this weekend.  They've got more details on the Crop Share portion of the website...**

Cilantro or Cilant-NO?

Cilantro and I are tight.  I love that fragrant herb and it loves me back.  But I recognize that for some of you, you might hear that we're getting cilantro this week and your first thought is, "Cilant-NO! That stuff tastes like soap!"  A few years ago, I learned that for some folks, cilantro only reads like soap or cleaning products on their taste buds.  This is not a case of having an unrefined palate (Julia Child herself despised cilantro), it's simply our taste buds being our personal food safety testers to keep us from harm.  Since cilantro contains the same or similar type of aldehydes found in soaps, certain chemicals and even in bugs, some people's taste buds pick up on the flavor and alert, "DANGER!  DANGER!  DO NOT EAT!"  Hence, why it reads like soap or cleaning products to many folks, it's their taste bud's way of stopping them from eating the perceived hazard.

So can those of us who love cilantro boast about having more evolved and intelligent palates?  Probably not, as I can shamefully admit to once eating an entire slice of moldy pizza and then reached for another before I bothered to flip on the light and see that my pizza was growing a sweater.  Like I said, shameful.  But the good news for cilantro-phobes is that some people have found if the herb is crushed or really finely chopped, that by breaking it down, it decreases the soapy flavor and only imparts that wonderfully fragrant note that those of us who love cilantro rave about.

Whether you love it or have always reviled it, we've got two great cilantro containing recipes.  For those of you doubters, in both of these you can just mince the heck out of the cilantro, let it rest for a few minutes and then toss it in.  Think almost a pesto consistency in how finely you mince it.  Click the link to view the first recipe, but the second is provided in this post...

Thai Chicken Quinoa Bowls

If you have an aversion to quinoa, you can easily toss this with white or brown rice, and since it has a Thai flavor profile, you might even try tossing it with rice noodles for a bit of a riff on Pad Thai.  Pass the Sriracha!

Healthier Three Layer Taco Dip

Layer 1:

8 oz Neufchatel 1/3 less fat cream cheese (I use Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese for dairy-free)*

8 oz reduced fat sour cream (I use Tofutti Sour Supreme for dairy-free)*

1 package low-sodium taco seasoning**

1 tsp chipotle pepper (or less to control the heat)**

Beat all ingredients together until well-blended and creamy.  Spread in the bottom or a deep dish or pie plate.  Refrigerate for at least one hour to allow this layer to set up and firm up.

*When using the reduced fat cream cheese and sour cream, beware of the increased water content.  So drain any excess liquid off of the sour cream before using, and then make sure your subsequent layers are well-drained before adding them.

**Since determining the gluten-safe properties of most taco seasonings, I just created my own.  This is a great way to save on sodium, because even the low-sodium seasonings are still too high for my taste.  Alas, I made mine recently at about 2 am and thus didn't measure, but I did a blend of garlic powder, paprika, ground black pepper, chipotle pepper, and a dash of salt.  So add a few dashes and season till you get the taste you want.  You definitely want the smoky heat of the chipotle in this layer, so to keep from going overboard on the heat you can up the smoke factor with more paprika.

Layer 2:

1 head of romaine lettuce, chopped fine and patted dry with a paper towel

Evenly spread over cream cheese mixture.

Layer 3:

4 tomatoes, seeded and diced

1/2 chopped sweet onion

1 chopped and seeded jalapeno pepper

3 Tbsp minced, fresh cilantro

Juice of 1 lime or lemon

Mix all ingredients together in a separate bowl and then, using a slotted spoon to allow for drainage of excess liquid, evenly spread over top of romaine.  You'll likely have left over pico de gallo, so save to use as a plain salsa or for topping homemade tacos, grilled fish or chicken.

Vegan Creamy Dill Dip

Rarely do I snack on chips (now chocolate chips, that's another story), and if they're at a party I tend to pass them by.  Unless...there's dip.  I could eat onion chip dip by the spoonful, right out of the container and only feel a twinge of shame.  Just a twinge.  So when I married the Mister and his dairy allergy, store bought chip dips were right out.  Ah, but I could still dip away at parties!  Until I had to go gluten free, and that glorious onion dip was now on the no list.  Really, gluten, you have no business in my chip dip!  So while we were back in Ohio over the holidays, I concocted this little number that was so addictive, my Mama, my Gram and I sat around eating it while everyone else ate their dessert on Christmas.  My recipe calls for the use of Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and Tofutti Sour Supreme (both can be found at the Giant), and while as a self-proclaimed connoisseur of all things sour cream and cream cheese I give these two thumbs up, if you prefer to not use the faux stuff, you can absolutely use regular cream cheese and sour cream.  Lighten it up with reduced fat sour cream and Neufchatel (a third less fat than regular cream cheese), just beware with the reduced fat sour cream you'll have more water content so you may need to add a little less sour cream to help maintain the dip consistency.

Vegan Creamy Dill Dip

Ingredients
16 oz Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
10 oz Tofutti Sour Supreme
2 tsp garlic, minced
1 bundle green onions, ends trimmed, and diced down to white part
3 Tbsp dill (fresh or dried, either will work)
pinch salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper

In a medium sized bowl, whip together cream cheese and sour cream until smooth and creamy.  Fold in remaining ingredients and stir until fully combined.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place into fridge for at least 1 hour prior to serving to allow flavors to mingle and for dip to firm up.  Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.  Great to make a day in advance, as the longer this dip sits, the better it tastes.

Quinoa Tabbouleh

When your best friend is Lebanese and her mom owns her own restaurant, that can only mean one thing...you wind up with hummus running through your veins.  I cannot tell you the number of times I made the mistake of eating something before going to their house.  Big, big mistake!  Because you're almost always greeted with a giant plate of delights, and whether you came on an empty stomach or not, you will leave nearly unable to stand up straight from being so full.  So I've been trained to consume NFL linebacker portions of hummus, pita, tabbouleh, kibbe, fattoush, mujadara and shawarma.  Not to mention obscene quantities of garlic sauce that I will continue to sweat out for about 48 hrs (oh yes, I keep it classy!).  So when I had to give up gluten, there went pita, kibbe, fattoush, and tabbouleh, 4 of my favorite things on earth, right out the window.  Waaaaaaa!!!!  But, like the angle she is, Mrs. Rajeh started making gluten-free kibbe and tabbouleh at her restaurant, using quinoa as the base for both.  Happy days were here again!  So the last time my friend Nawal stayed with us, she arrived with a big container of me-safe tabbouleh from her mom's restaurant, which I promptly ate in one sitting.  Whether you enjoy this recipe gluten free with quinoa, or go the traditional route with bulgur/cracked wheat, it will undoubtedly have you singing....The Tabbouleh Song.  DC based comedian, Remy, put this together a few years ago and ever since I've been shake, shaking my booty every time I eat tabbouleh.  Because, as Remy says, you've got to push, push, push the tush, when you eat an Arab salad that's not fattoush!  Enjoy this taste of Samia's Phoenician Grill (well as close as it gets since, as a true cook, Mrs. Rajeh never measures or writes anything down).

Quinoa Tabbouleh

Ingredients:
1/2 cup quinoa (or bulgur for traditional, non-gluten free version), cooked to package directions
1 bundle fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 Tbsp (heaping) fresh mint, finely chopped
3 green onions, ends trimmed and finely diced
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 tsp garlic, minced
Juice of 2 lemons
1/4 olive oil
Kosher or sea salt

Cook quinoa according to package directions, then set aside to cool completely.

In a bowl, mix together parsley, mint, onions, tomatoes and garlic.  Fold in cooled quinoa and stir to fully combine.

In a separate bowl whisk together lemon juice and olive oil.  Pour dressing over the tabbouleh and season with a pinch of two of coarse ground salt.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to meld together, and then taste and adjust any seasoning as needed.

Serve with Homemade Chicken Shawarma or Kale, Sweet Potato & Lamb Polenta Pizza, basically anything with super bold flavor that needs a good refreshing palate cleanser to go with it.

Bacon-Lettuce-Tomato Pasta

When I was unpacking my Crop Share box I kept staring at the romaine and grape tomatoes and thinking, "mmm BLTs."  But grape tomatoes aren't exactly the best suited type of tomato for making a BLT sandwich, and since I've been posting far too many healthy recipes on here, it was high time to release the kraken, and by kraken I mean...BLT Pasta!  So if you're looking to use up all of your romaine and tomatoes in one fell swoop that isn't in salad form, then this pasta is for you.

Bacon-Lettuce-Tomato Pasta

Ingredients:
12 oz spaghetti (I use Bio Nature's gluten free as it tastes like fresh pasta)
1/2 lb thick cut bacon, cubed (Boar's Head bacon is gluten free and generally just darn delicious)
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
3 green onions, ends trimmed and diced
1 head romaine, rough chopped
Ground black pepper

Cook pasta to package directions.

While pasta is cooking, heat a skillet over medium high heat.  Add in bacon and cook until much of the fat has liquefied and the bacon begins to slightly brown (you can use turkey bacon to cut down on the fat, but you will likely need to add additional oil in the end as you won't get much from the turkey bacon, and yes, everything gets cooked in the bacon fat here, *gasp*).  About 3-5 minutes.  Add in tomatoes and green onions and cook until tomatoes begin to burst and they'll start to thicken the sauce.  Toss in chopped romaine and cook for an additional 3 minutes or until it is wilted.  Remove skillet from heat.

Drain pasta and add to skillet.  Toss to evenly coat pasta and season to taste with fresh, ground black pepper.

Serve to husband and wait approximately 4.3 seconds to hear, "Oh my gosh I love you so much" said through a mouth full of pasta.

Salmon with Grapefruit-Dill Yogurt Sauce via Tash's Noshes

A couple of our Crop Share members have started their own food blogs (and then there's some out there who really should -- I'm looking at you Bethany Duffy, Louise Burnett and Kat Cole), including the newly married, Natasha Gannon!  In the Spring, Tash and I had dueling low-cal, spring onion cream sauces for salmon, and here was her healthy take with some grapefruit thrown in for a pop of citrus.  Since it's not Spring, there are no spring onions, but you could easily substitute leeks, chives, green onions or even shallots.  So for anyone who doesn't care for grapefruit as it is, this is a great way to use it up and sneak it into a meal.  Clink the link below to view the recipe at Tash's Noshes and poke around her site for other great, healthy ideas.  Now that she's out of the wedding planning mire, we can expect to see more deliciousness coming out of her kitchen!

Salmon with Grapefruit-Dill Yogurt Sauce via Tash's Noshes

Celebrating 101 Years of Julia Child with Tomates a la Provencale

August 15th may be one of my most favorite days on the calendar, because 101 years ago, on this very day, a little girl was born who was destined to change the face of food as we knew it.  Not just food in America, but perceptions of food across the globe.  That little girl who was never actually all that little, was none other than Julia Child.

Whether you're a Julia nerd like me, we all share in a piece of what she was all about by participating in the Crop Share program, and as Julia herself said, "You learn to cook so that you don't have to be a slave to recipes.  You get what's in season and you know what to do with it."  And that's why we're all here, eating, cooking and learning about all this wonderful seasonal produce so that we're not slaves to recipes or supermarket shelves, we can create our own magic with the bounty that the earth gives up each season.  So as we all raise our rolling pins and save the chicken liver in honor of what would have been Miss Julia's 101st birthday, here is her classic recipe for Tomates a la Provencale and then my quick gluten and dairy-free riff on it.  Bon Appetit!

Julia Child's Tomates a la Provencale

Ingredients:
6 firm, ripe, red tomatoes about 3 inches in diameter
Salt and pepper
1 to 2 cloves mashed garlic
3 Tbsp minced shallots or green onions
4 Tbsp minced fresh basil and parsley, or parsley only
1/8 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp salt
Big pinch of pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fine, white, dry bread crumbs
A shallow, oiled roasting pan just large enough to hold the tomatoes easily in one layer

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Remove the stems, and cut the tomatoes in half crosswise.  Gently press out the juice and seeds.  Sprinkle the halves lightly with salt and pepper.

Blend all remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Correct seasoning.  Fill each tomato half with a spoon full or two of the mixture.  Sprinkle a few drops of olive oil.  Arrange the tomatoes in the roasting pan; do not crowd them.

Place in upper third of oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes are tender but hold their shape, and the bread crumb filling has browned lightly.

Quinoa Stuffed Tomatoes

Ingredients:
2-4 large, red tomatoes, tops sliced off and diced, insides scooped out and seeded
8 oz Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (or real dairy cream cheese)
2 tsp garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fresh tarragon, minced
1 Tbsp fresh basil, minced
1 cup quinoa, cooked to package directions
Salt & pepper
Olive oil







Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese through quinoa.  Mix well to incorporate.  Stir in diced tops of tomatoes, and then season mixture to taste with salt and pepper and hit it with a quick splash of olive oil.  Stuff each tomato till full with the quinoa mixture and place into a baking dish.  Drizzle tops with a smidge of olive oil and then bake in oven at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until tops are slightly browned and skin on the tomatoes has blistered a bit.

All Jalapeno Business!

We're turning up the heat this week with lots of local jalapenos!  Don't fear the heat, as there are plenty of easy ways to prepare them that will mask the burn and highlight their lovely smoky flavor.  But be warned, you will want to wear kitchen gloves or put some baggies on your hands when seeding and chopping the jalapenos, because not only will you undoubtedly rub your eyes sometime later that day and then rue the jalapeno's existence, but you will also find that your fingertips themselves will burn.  Leave feeling the burn to the gym, not the kitchen!

So here's two great recipes for this week's bounty of jalapenos.  First up, the best ever layered taco dip I've had in my life, courtesy of my good friend Alicia.  There was a memorable New Years Eve when we co-hosted a party in which this taco dip was made, along with enough food to feed about 30 people.  There were 5 of us at this party.  We have a slight problem with going over board.  But you will want to make a ton of this layered taco dip and then go hide yourself in a closet with a bag of chips.  Just the spiced cream cheese base of this is to die for!  

Then the next recipe comes from everyone's favorite down-home gal, The Pioneer Woman.  She once made these killer BBQ Jalapeno Poppers, and while you can certainly go the BBQ route (how amazing would they be with some of that Almost Heaven Apple Butter BBQ we have in store?!?), Miss Valerie in our office LOVES to replace the BBQ in this recipe with peach jam.  Say what?!  Sweet with heat, sign us up!  We pretty much have peach jam coming out our ears in the store, including a new Sunshine Peach Jam.  But ooo, how deliciously exotic would it be with some Mango Jam or some of the Mango Mango Preserves?  Go ahead, get a little crazy this week!

Miss Alicia's Taco Dip

Layer 1:

8 oz cream cheese

8 oz sour cream

1 package low-sodium taco seasoning

1 tsp chipotle pepper (or less to control the heat)

Beat all ingredients together until well-blended and creamy.  Spread in the bottom or a deep dish or pie plate.

Layer 2:

1/2 head of iceburg lettuce, chopped fine

Evenly spread over cream cheese mixture.

Layer 3:

Grated cheddar cheese to taste

Evenly sprinkled over lettuce.

Layer 4:

3 tomatoes, seeded and diced

1/2 chopped sweet onion

1 chopped and seeded jalapeno pepper

3 Tbsp minced, fresh cilantro

1 tsp lime juice

Mix all ingredients together in a separate bowl and then evenly spread over top of cheese.  You'll likely have left over pico de gallo, so save to use as a plain salsa or for topping homemade tacos, grilled fish or chicken.

Pioneer Woman's BBQ Jalapeno Poppers

Click through to view this recipe at Good Morning America...

Thai Chicken Quinoa Bowls

So the Mister and I are kind of a hot mess of food allergies.  Our home is peanut, cashew, dairy, egg and gluten free.  And while I adore Thai food, it's pretty much the kiss of death for the hubs.  Thus I was pretty darn excited when I stumbled across these Thai Chicken Quinoa Bowls from How Sweet It Is and realized all I needed were a few key tweaks to make it safe for both of us.  Including subbing in almond butter in place of peanut butter -- you'd never know.  While this dish is the perfect vehicle for this week's cilantro, you could just as easy throw in some of the diced, green bell pepper or even blanch some of the broccoli to toss in.  I say the more crunchy veg in these quinoa bowls, the better!

Thai Chicken Quinoa Bowls

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked quinoa, cooked to package instructions
2 chicken breasts cooked & shredded, or use leftover rotisserie chicken
1/3 cup chopped carrots
1/3 cup chopped green onions
1 1/2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Sauce:
4 Tbsp chili garlic sauce
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp coconut milk
1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp almond butter
1 lime, juiced
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Toss shredded chicken with cooked quinoa.  Add in chopped vegetables and cilantro and stir to mix well.

In a separate bowl, whisk together all sauce ingredients until fully combined and pour over quinoa mixture.  Fold sauce in evenly and taste.  Season with salt & pepper if needed.


Adapted from How Sweet It Is: (http://www.howsweeteats.com/2013/02/thai-chicken-quinoa-bowl/)

Veggie & Chicken Sausage Stuffed Potatoes

During my time in Ireland I became obsessed with stuffed potatoes.  No, not just the broccoli & cheese or "loaded" baked potatoes we have here, these were stuffed potatoes on a whole other level.  The Irish call them jacket potatoes, and think huge puffy winter jacket kind of jacket, because they are stuffed to the gills and then some with all sorts of yumminess.  Basically what we'd normally reserve for an elaborate salad bar, they will shove into a fresh baked potato.  So when I stumbled upon this recipe in the fall, it was love at first sight.  A stuffed potato that would make the biggest jacket potato blush!  Being chock full of veggies, this will be a great recipe to come back to through all seasons, and the perfect way to use the zucchini we're giving you this week.  I've even made it with baked sweet potatoes, so if you still have some leftover from last week, stuff them up!

Veggie & Chicken Sausage Stuffed Potatoes

Ingredients:

4 baking potatoes or sweet potatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil, plus 1 tsp, divided use
4 links of apple chicken sausage, sliced into 1/4 rounds
1/2 sweet onion, sliced thin
1 cup crimini or baby bella mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
1 zucchini, sliced thin
1 yellow squash, sliced thin
1 14oz can diced tomatoes, some juice drained off but not all
1/2 tsp dried dill or 1 Tbsp fresh chopped dill
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Rub potatoes with olive oil, stab a few times with a fork to allow for ventilation when baking, and place in middle rack of oven to bake for 50-60 minutes.  While potatoes bake, prepare all the sausage and veggies.

In a large skillet, heat 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add chicken sausage and onions, gently tossing and cook until the sausage begins to brown.  Then add the mushrooms and garlic, and allow for mushrooms to begin to brown.  Add in red pepper, zucchini and yellow squash, and cook for about 2 minutes.  Then add in the tomatoes with a little bit of the juice from the can, the dill and your seasoning.  Cook for an additional 2 minutes and then remove from heat while you wait for the potatoes to finish baking.

Once potatoes are done, carefully remove them from the oven (wooo hot potato!!) and allow them to cool slightly.  Then slice lengthwise down the potato and fluff the the inside with a fork to loosen everything from the skin.  Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and season with a dash of salt & pepper.  Then generously top with the sausage and veggies.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream if you so desire.


Recipe adapted from The Cozy Apron (http://thecozyapron.com/reminiscing-a-little-over-vegetable-stuffed-potatoes/)