Easy Cheesy Vegetable Rice Enchiladas

Another Fast from the Farm Share meal, combining shredded summer squash, peppers, onions and rice for a vegetarian enchilada that is wonderfully satisfying

If it looks like I'm not going to be able to use the vegetables from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share in a timely manner--I get busy.  Well, my freezer gets busy. For summer squash, and zucchini, I shred and freeze in 2 cup portions. [I've found once thawed and squeezed dry that the bulk of shredded squash is reduced by half, so if I want a cup I freeze double.] For peppers and leeks I chop into small pieces and freeze on a tray before transferring to a bag for storage. This way I've got vegetables handy year round and I reduce the amount of wasted food that our farmers grow. Yes, I do require an additional freezer--it also serves as a microwave stand so everything fits in my little old kitchen.

While I am capable making my own Slow Roasted Tomato Enchilada Sauce, when I want to get dinner in the oven quickly it's nice to grab a can of prepared sauce, some prepped vegetables, and just get going. I had my daughter cooking the tortillas and my son shredding the cheese while I made the filling. These assembled very quickly. Adding cooked rice to the vegetable mixture gives a nice "chew" factor, which I am sure isn't really a thing, but no matter.  These are delicious.

Blueberry Beet Honey Oat Muffins

Blueberries and roasted beets are sweetened with honey in a multigrain muffin

Blueberry muffins are one of the most iconic types of muffins.  [You won't find any icons on this blog, other than my teeny tiny social media icons next to the print button at the bottom of this post.] I was shocked to realize that of the 26 muffin recipes I've posted on this blog, only one of them contains blueberries.

It also contains beets, and it's a pretty sweet muffin what with the white chocolate chips and all (Red, White and Blue Muffins recipe here). I wanted to share a less 'treat' muffin.

 I've got beets from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, and adding some roasted beets to the party in the blender [not to be confused with this party in a blender] accentuates the color of the blueberries without overwhelming the flavor.

Why do I use a blender? My son is not a big "whole blueberries in baked goods" fan, so for these muffins, just like these Sweet Corn and Blueberry Waffles, I use my blender.  We all get the goodness of blueberries without anyone biting into an undesired big fat berry.

I'm glad to announce my 27th muffin recipe, and second beet+blueberry muffin in a row, Blueberry Beet Honey Oat Muffins.  I use honey, not sugar, in this recipe, which makes me think about how "real sugar" is now a valued item in soft drinks, yet perversely still taboo in "healthy" recipes. Whatever. While they are lightly sweet on their own, these muffins also taste delicious served warm with lemon curd.
These soaked oatmeal muffins require at least an hour long pre-preparation soak, but you can always prep a container of oatmeal and buttermilk days ahead and store in your fridge like I've shown here.

Fresh Tomato Pesto with Mushroom, Olive, Artichoke and Feta Pizza (Pizza Night!)

Sautéed mushrooms, olives, artichoke hearts with feta and fontina over fresh tomato pesto

Those of you who subscribe to my blog via email or somehow grab the RSS feed [thank you!] were treated to an unwitting peek behind the scenes one week ago when the rough draft version of this post went live without my awareness.

When I was plotting out the pizza posts for July I’d tentatively scheduled this one for the first Friday. Then I thought of fireworks, changed my mind, finished up the Pepperoni and Yellow Squash pizza and scheduled it for the same day. I didn’t notice that I still had the draft of this pizza scheduled for later the same day, and didn’t even check that the pizza had posted properly when I first woke up. Nope, I went about my July 4th—packing and traveling to visit family, not even checking email until late afternoon when I was surprised to see the draft was live and sent out in my RSS feed.  Oops!

I wanted to get this pizza up because it uses Fresh Tomato Pesto and I think you should try your hand at making this tasty concoction at least once during tomato season. Even though the tomatoes in my garden are as green as the squash plants that have taken over, the nights are warm (for ripening) and we got our first tomato in the farm share this week. [I’m making a BLT out of it, not this pesto.  I have my priorities for the first tomato of the summer.]

Fresh Tomato Pesto is easy to make, stores well in the freezer, and can be used as a dip for chips or vegetables, a pasta sauce, or on pizzas. I’ve been sharing a lot of meat pizzas lately [just updated my Visual Pizza Recipe Index] and it’s past time for a vegetarian one.