Kara & Michael’s Blog

If you’re smart, you plan out your meals for the week, hit the store once or twice and cook what you set out for yourself. It’s cheaper, less time-consuming, keeps you from eating out on-the-fly (which gets expensive very quickly).

Of course, no amount of planning can take every little thing into consideration. Sometimes, you have sudden errands to run, your car breaks down, you have to help a friend out. Then if you can’t think on your feet and change up your meals, you end up with rotten produce at the end of the week. No fun.

So last night was supposed to be red lentils and zucchini by Madhur Jaffrey. But Michael had schoolwork to do, and I offered to switch the zucchini dish with the veggie burger meal. Then Michael got into his pretty head a simple idea to use up tons of produce. Roasted Veggie Fajitas.

This was really simple. A quick trip to the store (Michael walked there from the bus, I picked him up at the store) for flour tortillas, a packet of fajita seasoning, a red bell and a poblano and some refrigerator-case guacamole and we were on our way home.

Roasted Veggie Fajitas

Ingredients:

• Red and Orange Bell Pepper, one each (use the bells you want or have)
• Poblano pepper (for some heat)
• 3 zucchini
• One gorgeous yellow onion
• One packet fajita seasoning (or make your own, we’re lazy)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Vegetable oil (your choice, of course, we used Canola)
• Flour tortillas
• Guacamole (refrigerator case stuff wasn’t bad, be wary of freezer guac… or make your own)

Equipment

• Cookie sheet or baking pan (maybe 2) large enough to fit all vegetables. The shallower you can get the veggies, the faster they’ll cook. Michael usually wraps a glass baking pan with aluminum prior to throwing veggies in so that they’ll cook better (the foil reflects heat?)
• That’s all. A cookie sheet. Folks, you don’t even need silverware. How rocking is that?

Directions:

Preheat the oven to about 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Chop up your veggies. Michael halved the zucchini lengthwise, cut those halves in half and then reassembled the zucchini and sliced it. Much easier than slicing and then quartering slices. If you have family members who can’t take the heat, consider using less of a poblano. Make sure and taste a piece while you’re cutting to judge the heat. Cut the onion how you see fit – Michael cut it into pretty half-ring slices.

Put all the veggies in an enormous bowl. You could throw them onto your baking pan but if you need more than one pan, it will be a pain to divide the spices. We chose to use a bowl. Throw in some oil and the packet of seasoning. Mix with your hands. You may find you need to add more oil. Make sure the seasoning and vegetable oil are coating each veggie and then taste a little of the seasoning on the veggies. You may need to add salt and pepper (we did). Throw those suckers onto their baking sheet.

They cooked about 30 minutes for us, but we had a pretty shallow mixture in both our pans. Michael stirred the veggies a couple times during cooking to ensure they cooked evenly. They veggies are done when they have the tenderness you want. If you used a baking sheet, they’ll get a lovely color.

Now for the tortillas. Buy the smaller round ones (don’t buy burrito size). Wrap a few in a paper towel or napkin (or cloth, for the eco-friendly among us), throw them in the microwave and warm them up. You’re ready to stuff them things. I usually smear a load of guacamole on my tortilla then put veggies on, to ensure that I get guac in every bite. I care a lot about guac.

Two of these veggie fajitas are 400 calories, nearly 7 grams of fiber, a not insignificant amount of fat (what with the guac and all) and a metric butt-load of vitamins and micro-nutrients. Not to mention they’re a great way to clear out your fridge. They also require almost no standing in the kitchen over a hot stove, so you can fold laundry or read the paper or watch tv and just get up to stir veggies during commercials. Not bad.

You can also throw greens, cheese, sour cream, salsa, chicken, tofu, etc onto these but that will add fat (maybe) and calories (obviously). Besides, these veggies deserve to be in the spotlight. Especially at this time of year, with bell peppers and zucchini practically leaping out of local farms and backyard gardens.

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