Chicken and Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas

Over the holidays Evan and I decided to work on a puzzle…just a simple 500 piecer that we borrowed from a friend. We were never big puzzlers in my family… I honestly can’t remember ever completing a puzzle until now.

Roasted Vegetables with Harissa Yogurt

Hey guess what!? I mentioned this on my Loves Food, Loves to Eat Facebook page, and also on twitter, but if you're not following along at either of those places (you should be!) then I'll tell you here too. I'm doing NaNoWriMo! NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, and it takes place every November. I've been very, very slowly writing a story for the past two years, and decided to use NaNo as an excuse to push through and finish it. The goal with NaNo is to write 50,000 words, which is the average size of a novel. I'm up to 30,000! Anyway, my novel has nothing to do with food. It's a mystery type story. My mom likes it so far, so…I'll consider that a success. Stay tuned, maybe I'll let you read it someday. 

But anyway, enough about that. Let's talk about your Thanksgiving table. There's the turkey, the mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing/dressing, something orange, green beans of some sort, bread rolls, and cranberry sauce. Right? 

Well, I like to also add some roasted vegetables with a little spice. These vegetables, delicata squash, carrots, parsnip, and onions are roasted until they're all caramelized, and the coconut oil adds just a hint of sweetness. Then the whole thing is topped with harissa yogurt, which is cool, sweet, and spicy all at once. Throw some crunchy, juicy pomegranate arils on top, and it's ready to serve.  

Roasted Winter Vegetables with Harissa Yogurt 

1 delicata squash

1 large carrot, peeled and cubed

1 parsnip, peeled and cubed

1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 can drained, rinsed chickpeas (not pictured..*)

2 teaspoons coconut oil, melted

salt & pepper

6 oz plain greek yogurt

1/2-1 teaspoon harissa spice blend (dry)**

1 tablespoon honey

2 teaspoons olive oil

juice from half a lemon 

Pomegranate arils (the fruity seeds)

Preheat oven to 400.

Slice delicate in 1/2 inch slices, and clear out center of each slice with a spoon. Separate and save the seeds (like with pumpkin seeds). 

Toss squash slices, squash seeds, carrots, parsnip, and onion with coconut oil, and spread out on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with a fairly generous amount of salt and pepper (you can also sprinkle on spices here if you'd like. I've tried za'atar and thyme, both were great!).

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until everything is tender. If you want more color on it, stick under the broiler for thirty seconds to a minute (keep an eye on it).

Stir together yogurt, harissa, honey, olive oil, and lemon juice. Add salt to taste.

Serve vegetables hot, topped with yogurt mixture and pomegranate arils.

This is also pretty good cold the next day, or tossed with arugula for a little salad. But, since it's cooked in coconut oil, once it's refrigerated, the coconut oil hardens again. 

*Edit: Aw man! I completely forgot that when I made this before I added 1 can of drained, rinsed chickpeas! I would definitely recommend doing that. 

**I've tried both the spice blend and the paste in this, and prefer the dry spice blend. You can buy it bulk in a lot of places or try this. 

Big Pizza Love

About a year ago, my BFF from high school, LB, moved to Seattle from Indiana (where she was a champion javelin thrower at Purdue University, attending the Olympic Trials for Beijing). One thing we always had in common, even while we were miles apart during college was our (stellar) taste in movies and TV. When LB moved to Seattle, I finally had a new viewing-party buddy! We got together with Evan and Anthony for Season 3 of Dexter. I introduced her to one of Evan and my favorites, Big Love, and she quickly blew through seasons 1 and 2. She introduced me to Nip Tuck, which Evan and I then watched religiously, from seasons 1-4, over about a 2 month span. When we were finally caught up on each other’s favorite shows, we decided to join forces once again, for season 3 of Big Love. Evan, LB, and I get together once a week to see what Bill Hendrickson and his three wives are up to (that's right, three wives...it's an HBO drama about an everyday polygamist!)

For the season finale this week (it actually ended a few months ago, but we're behind), we gathered in front of the big screen with plates full of roasted vegetable pizza!

Earlier in the week Evan's mom, Mary Ellen, gave me her garden's first zucchini, as well as a handful of the cutest homegrown fingerling potatoes ever. Given that these were the first fruits of her labor, I wanted to do something special with them, and Big Love night seemed like the right occasion. The night before the big finale, I roasted the potatoes and zucchini with cooking radishes, red onion, red bell pepper, garlic, basil, olive oil, and balsamic, and let them cool in the fridge over night. When it was time to assemble the pizza, I haphazardly spun my Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough into a lovely crust, brushed with olive oil, topped with the roasted veggies, and covered with crumbled feta and grated parm. After about 15 minutes, our pizza was ready, and our show was starting.

The veggies were caramelie, full of flavor, and delicious. Paired with the briny, tangy feta, and hearty whole wheat crust, the pizza was just what we needed to get us through Bill's drama with wife #1 Barb, wife #2 Nikki, and wife #3 Margine, 'the prophet' Roman's unlawful behavior on the compound, Albie's homemade bomb experiment, and the narrow escape of the infamous Green clan. Ahh, Big Love. So much delicious drama. Can't wait to see what our next show will be cooking up...

Roasted Veggies
These are great on a pizza, tossed with pasta, as a side or topping with meat, or just on their own! Feel free to add your favorite veggies and see how it turns out!

1 medium-large zucchini- cut in thick chunks
1 medium-large red onion- cut in wedges and separated
2 cooking radishes (these are way bigger than the little dinner salad radishes, but you could also try a handful of those, or other root veggies like turnips!)- cit in large chunks
8-10 fingerling potatoes (or 2-5 reds, 1-2 yukons, sweet potatoes, etc)- cut into thick slices or chunks
1 red bell pepper, cut in chunks
4-5 garlic cloves- peeled and cut in half
4-5 basil leaves, torn
salt & pepper to taste
1/4th cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 425. Mix ingredients in large bowl until veggies are well coated, if you need to add more olive oil, do it. Pour mixture (including extra oil in bowl) into greased roasting pan or baking sheet (I used the latter). Roast until veggies are golden and caramelized- about 30 to 40 minutes, longer if needed. Enjoy!