Vegetable Tian

This is hands down one of my favorite cooked vegetable recipes. I had small potatoes and small roma tomatoes, so I ended up using two of those to make everything else come out even.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium yellow onion
1 tsp. (2 cloves) minced garlic
1 medium zucchini
1 medium yellow squash
1 medium potato
1 medium tomato
1 tsp. dried thyme
to taste salt & pepper
1 cup shredded Italian cheese

Directions:

STEP 1: Preheat the oven to 180 (400 degrees f) Finely dice the onion and mince the garlic. Thinly slice remaining vegetables.  This step is really easy if you have a mandolin slicer, and it made me fall in love with mine all over again.  I'm not sure I'd like the recipe as much without it, because that's a LOT of thin slicing...

STEP 2: Sauté onion and garlic in a skillet with olive oil until softened (about five minutes).

STEP 3: Spray the inside of an 8x8 square or round baking dish with non-stick spray. Spread the softened onion and garlic in the bottom of the dish. Place the thinly sliced vegetables in the baking dish vertically, in an alternating pattern. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper, and thyme.

STEP 4: Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, top with cheese and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown

Crock Pot Mashed Potatoes

Adapted from Pillsbury.com

These are the delicious potatoes we ate at our Christmas Barbecue!

5 lb baking potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 ½ cups chicken broth
¼ cup butter or margarine, cut into chunks
1 cup onion dip
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup or more milk, warmed, added until you reach desired consistency - I have never needed it.

1. In 4- to 5-quart slow cooker, place potatoes, chicken broth and butter.
2. Cover; cook on High heat setting 4 hours to 4 hours 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
3. Add remaining ingredients except milk. Mash potatoes with a potato smasher in crock pot (although they usually mash with just stirring). Stir in enough milk for desired creamy consistency. Cover and keep warm on Low or Warm heat setting until serving time, up to 2 hours. Stir before serving.

*You can make more traditional mashed potatoes (to go with gravy) by using sour cream instead of onion dip (and maybe leaving out the garlic powder and onion powder, depending on the flavor you want.)

Garlic Red Potatoes

Not healthy, but so worth it.

Ingredients:

8-10 Red potatoes

1 cube butter

8 oz sour cream

1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Black pepper and garlic salt to taste

1. Boil potatoes whole with skin on until you can easily poke them with a fork; about 30 minutes.

2. Peel 5-6 potatoes, leave the skin on the rest

3. Mash together potatoes, butter, sour cream, and cheese. The potatoes should be creamy but still slightly lumpy.

4. Mash in the black pepper and garlic salt. The garlic should make an impression but not slap you in the face.

5. Put in a 9 x 13 pan, garnish with some grated cheese, cook until hot.

Uncle Trent Potatoes

4 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1/2 an onion, thinly sliced

1/4 to 1/3 cube of butter, melted

1/2 packet of onion soup mix

Place a layer of tin foil on a cookie sheet. Place the potatoes in a thin layer on the cookie sheet. Spread onions, butter, and soup mix on top. Gently mix together with a spatula until all potatoes are coated with butter and soup mix.

Seal tin foil around potatoes. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until potatoes are tender.