Spanish Rice Soup

There are certain vegetables that you get in surplus every year from your CSA.  As you can imagine, zucchini and summer squash are a couple.  What surprises me about our CSA is that there hasn't been an excess of greens.  We have had the greens attached to root vegetables (which is just fine with me if it means beet greens), however, other than some random kale, this CSA doesn't seem to go in for the greens.  I will say that I am grateful for that because, as much as I have grown to like greens, after a while, you run out of ideas. This year, it appears that the squash and zucchini will be the vegetable that I run out of ideas for.

To use up some of the squash, as well as fresh green beans and peas, that I received, I decided to make a chicken vegetable soup.  Yes, I do cheat and buy rotisserie chicken to use in things like this.  For the price, you can't beat pre-cooked whole chickens!  However, when the soup cooked, it was nice but not very hearty.  I figured I would take a look at my past stash and see what I could add to thicken it up.  I ran across a package of Lipton Spanish Rice and decided, hmmm, this might be nice.  Thus, Spanish rice soup was born.  Very hearty and tasty, I think I will have to freeze some of this because a small amount is enough to fill me up!

Spanish Rice Soup

• 1 small green zucchini*
• 1 small yellow zucchini*
• 1 small crookneck squash*
• 1/2 cup shelled fresh peas*
• 1 1/2 cup green beans, snapped*
• 4 cans tomatoes with basil & oregano
• 2 cans water
• 3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
• 1 package Lipton Spanish Rice

Wash vegetables and drain.  Cut ends off squashes, cut in half lengthwise, then slice into 1/4 inch pieces.  Shell the peas and snap the beans into 1 inch pieces.  Place all the vegetables, tomatoes (undrained), water and chicken into crock of slow cooker.  Cook on HIGH for 1 hour and then reduce to LOW and cook 6-8 hours or until vegetables are cooked.  Turn cooker back to HIGH.  Add rice mix and cook for about 40 minutes or until rice is cooked.

*CSA ingredients

Nutrition (1 cup):
Calories, 190
Fat, 2.3g
Cholesterol, 15mg
Carbs, 34g
Protein, 9g

Eggplant Squash Bake

Last week we received ingredients that were for ratatouille.  However, I had made ratatouille just the week before, so I looked for another recipe using mainly the same ingredients.  I stumbled across a recipe that also contained ricotta cheese and two other cheeses.  This was a great discovery for me because it is helpful to find recipes with protein.  While I had used my only white sweet onion yesterday in the fried cabbage, I did have a few small shallots, so I substituted them for the onion.  And now that I have tried the finished casserole, I may have to buy shallots more often.  They are a bit more work because they are best minced, but well worth it!

Eggplant Squash Bake
Adapted from: http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/eggplant-squash-bake-a-recipe.htm

• 3 shallots, minced
• 2 cloves garlic*, minced
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 16 oz part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup romano cheese, grated
• 2 tsp dried marjoram
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp fresh-ground pepper
• 1 medium eggplant*, thinly sliced
• 2 medium zucchini*, thinly sliced
• 2 medium crookneck squash*, thinly sliced
• 4 cups Slow-roasted heirloom tomato sauce*
• 1 1/2 cups part-skim mozzarella, finely shredded

Preheat oven to 350F.  Prepare large baking pan with cooking spray.  Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat.  Cook shallots and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes. Mix in ricotta cheese, romano cheese, marjoram, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

In prepared pan, spread 1 cup of tomato sauce on bottom.  Layer 1/2 of eggplant, zucchini and squash.  Spread cheese mixture over vegetables; repeat eggplant and squash layers.  Spread remaining tomato sauce on top.  Cover and bake for 50 minutes.  Remove foil and sprinkle with mozzarella.  Cook an additional 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Cool for 30 minutes before serving.

*CSA ingredients