Grown up Scalloped Potatoes

I was never a scalloped potatoes person growing up. But I am now looking at a cabinet full of potatoes from my CSA and thinking of everything I can do with them. I also have a stock pile of zucchini and summer squash. So I had an experiment last night with leftover ingredients and CSA vegetables.

The result was a very grown-up version of scalloped potatoes. It also seems like a great July 4th side dish.

Scalloped Potatoes

1.5 - 2 lbs potatoes

4 medium zucchini or summer squash

1 bunch green onions or summer onions

coarse salt and pepper

garlic powder

crushed rosemary

1 can 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream

1/3 cup shredded smoky cheese, such as cheddar or smoked Gouda

1/2 cup panko crumbs

Preheat oven at 400 degrees. Wash and cut potatoes into one inch pieces - about the size for boiling mashed potatoes. Toss potatoes with one tbsp olive oil, coarse salt and pepper and spread into a rimmed baking sheet. Bake potatoes while you prepare vegetables. I love to use butter infused olive oil from Midtown Olive Press in Raleigh, but EVOO is also good.

Wash and cut summer squash into one inch pieces. Also slice onions. I get a lot of spring onions from my CSA, which always come in a combination of white, yellow and red. I like the color combination but any color/flavor is good for this recipe. Heat skillet on medium-high heat and saute onions first. Toss squash with 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper and crushed rosemary. I have fresh rosemary in the garden, and if you let a stem dry for a day you can use a mortar and pestle to crush. Once pan is hot, add squash. You may need to do this in batches to make sure the squash is evenly spread in the pan.

Sear squash until soft. Check on potatoes - they should be slightly brown and easily pierced with a fork, but not tender. Reduce oven temp to 350 degrees. Mix vegetables and potatoes in a large bowl. Add cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, garlic powder and more seasonings. Stir in smoky cheese. Trader Joes has a great shredded bag of smoky cheese including cheddar, Gouda, mozzarella and provolone. Any of these cheeses work but the smoky will being out the best taste in this dish.

Pour cheesy vegetables into a baking pan. Top with panko crumbs and bake for 25 minutes. Turn oven to broil and let top brown slightly, 5 minutes max. This dish is very rich but surprisingly light. It's almost enough for a meal in itself, but I recommend this as a side for your holiday spread or a pot luck.

Sweet Potatoes

Guess what Atkins, sweet potatoes are good for us! Sweet potatoes, with skin, score a 485 on the healthiest vegetable list, scoring higher than broccoli and carrots. And the diet-preferred white cousin scores only a 53, just above parsnips and corn. Our problem is that most sweet potatoes are served with fattening and carb-loaded butter and brown sugar. But "sweet" potatoes don't actually have to be served sweet. Like it's orange-color lookalike - pumpkin - sweet potato can be use in a variety of recipes.

Here are a few sweet potato recipes for the fall season that give you the stellar nutrients of the root vegetable without creating a dessert for a main course.

Sweet Potato Quesadillas

My NCSU vegetarian foodie has a great vegetarian blog as well and her latest post are these delightful sweet potato quesadillas. I am not going to reprint the recipe since you should venture to her site anyway. I will say these were a delicious surprise to me. My husband loves sweet potatoes and encouraged me to try this recipe even though I was somewhat skeptical.

I added some CSA sweet peppers and used yellow onion, which seemed to pair nicely with the potato. I didn't push the spices too much since sweet potato was a very different take on Mexican. I used whole wheat tortillas, which held up well, and a low-fat Mexican cheese blend. I added a bit of water and covered the pan to steam the potato.

It is best served with guacamole and salsa. I haven't tried it with sour cream or Greek yogurt, but I imagine it is just as tasty. And they are very filling! We each had one and a half quesadillas and it was more than enough to satisfy us.

Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Fall Lasagna

I know, how many lasagna recipes do I have already??? This is a Cooking Light recipe that I made using leftover sweet potatoes and butternut squash. This is also convenient for all the fall squash and potatoes I am getting with my CSA. This dish is slightly sweet but still savory and very tasty.

2 lb. butternut squash

1 lb. sweet potatoes

1 onion, chopped

3.5 cups 1% milk (do not substitute soy milk)

pinch nutmeg

pinch cinnamon

1 bay leaf

1/4 cup flour

salt and pepper

1 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

no-boil lasagna noodles

1 cup low-fat mozzarella, shredded

Conveniently, there is precut butternut squash and sweet potato sold at Trader Joes, but this recipe is good because it only requires what you would have leftover from another fall menu. I prefer to shred the sweet potato using a food processor - you can keep the skins on as long as they are well washed. I also bake my butternut squash (400 degrees for 45 minutes) and scoop out the pure. This avoids peeling and chopping hard squash and potatoes.

Let no-boil noodles sit in warm water while you prepare lasagna. Sauté onion in olive oil until caramelized. Gradually add shredded sweet potato and cover pan. Repeat until all sweet potato is sautéed and caramelized. Add sweet potato to butternut pure.

Add one tbsp olive oil to a medium pot. Heat to medium and add flour. Whisk flour with oil and gradually add milk. Milk mixture should thicken as you whisk. Add nutmeg, cinnamon and bay leaf to milk. Continue to heat for 10-15 minutes, whisking occasionally; mixture should simmer but never boil. Season with coarse salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Remove bay leaf and stir in parm cheese.

I have a new appreciation for freshly-grated Parmesan. A block of parm is cheaper and lasts longer than pre-grated parm. The cheese is also more savory and melts faster.

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Spoon 1/2 cup cheese sauce into the bottom of a lasagna pan. Layer no-boil noodles. Top with half squash/potato mixture, 1/3 cup mozzarella, and 1 cup cheese sauce and noodles. Repeat. Top noodles with remaining mozzarella. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and bake another 20 minutes.