Carrot 'Dilla

The other day I had to come up with a quick dinner for Z when I accidentally put too much chili powder in his taco fixings. A carrot quesadilla was the perfect answer. It was so tasty I wished I had made one for me! So we had them for lunch a few days later. Super easy and awesomely tasty.

Ingredients (to make three quesadillas):

6 flour tortillas (corn would work if you prefer that)

~4 oz. Colby Jack or Mozzarella cheese

15 baby carrots

1/6 whole onion

Dash of oregano

1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil, divided

Directions:

Thinly slice the baby carrots. I love sweet baby carrots.

Dice the onion

Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a medium skillet.

Sauté the carrots and onion until tender.

Drop the dash of oregano on top.

Remove from the pan onto a plate.

Drop a little more olive oil in the skillet.

Place a tortilla in the pan and spread 1/3 of the carrot, onion, oregano mix onto the tortilla and then top it with cheese.

Put the other tortilla on top.

Grill until golden then flip it to grill the other side.

Remove when golden and the cheese is melted.

Mmmmm. Slice and enjoy.

Suggestion: Salsa! I also served it with a side of refried beans.

Three Z Pizza

I love squash. But squash on pizza? Why not? Even a one-year-old little man loves it! At one Traveling Bistro Sunday brunch, brother Beau cooked an amazing pizza inspired by their Italian trip years ago. I decided to put a twist on it and make it my own. It all started with leftover (homemade, of course) veggie marinara sauce…

Ingredients:
Three individual or one large pizza crust (homemade or store bought)
6-8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
1c. marinara sauce (or pizza sauce of your choice)
1 yellow squash
1 green zucchini
1/3 red bell pepper
1/6 of a sweet onion
3 garlic cloves (or 1 tbsp. pre-diced garlic)
¼ tsp. garlic salt
½ tsp. Italian seasoning
2 tbsp. olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees
Peel the garlic cloves then dice or press.
Thinly slice the squash, zucchini and onion.
Dice the red bell pepper.
Heat up a skillet with the olive oil and when it is warm, toss the squash, zucchini, onion, red bell pepper and garlic into the pan and sauté until tender.
While the veggies sauté spread the marinara sauce then mozzarella on the pizza crusts and set on a cookie sheet.
Top with the cooked veggies, sprinkle lightly with garlic salt and Italian seasoning then pop into the oven for about 8 minutes (allow more time if using one large pizza crust).
Bam! Yum! Enjoy.

Note: If any of the ingredients do not appeal to you simply omit them. It will still taste awesome.

Bam! Yum! Enjoy.

Inspired by Love

I'm no chef. I'm just a mama inspired by love.


There have been many things that have inspired me to cook for our family but at the top of the list are our beautiful son, my amazing brothers (in-law), Beau at Traveling Bistro Austin and Buddy as well as my grandmothers. Here I intend to share my creations and inspirations and hope that I can entice you to cook at home for those that you love.

I began with a love of baking and moved onto “real food” not that long ago. I used to burn cereal! OK, not really, but after our son was born I pictured him smiling and playing in the kitchen while the aromas of his home cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner filled our home at each mealtime. I just knew he and daddy would also love to have home baked goodies for dessert. So here’s to my humble beginnings…

Mama Been