greek yogurt

Squash and Carrot Casserole with Feta and Parmesan

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Slowly but surely I am getting back into the groove of making a proper dinner.  This dish has a pretty quick prep time and you can even put it together earlier in the day and bake it later.  It can be a side or your main dish.  So even on a busy weeknight you can have dinner together without much fuss.  And you can use up any summer squash you might have around!

Once at a pot luck dinner a friend brought this amazing, creamy, cheesy squash casserole.  She described the ingredients to me, but I never got the entire recipe.  When I saw this squash casserole on Pinterest I had to give it a try because it looked so similar. Squash and Carrot Casserole with Feta and Parmesan | Hottie Biscotti This casserole is different.  Less creamy and cheesy, more focus on the vegetables, which is really nice.  It’s flavorful, clean tasting, and delicious.  One of the main differences is that this one doesn’t use condensed cream soup, something I really have nothing against, but something that I don’t mind finding a replacement for if I can.  The original recipe calls for eggs and sour cream as the binders.  I used the eggs, but substituted greek yogurt and it turned out really well.

The feta gives a nice punch to the dish.  I mixed in some shredded carrots to add extra veggies and to help with some fridge clean out.  This is a really great side dish.  I served it with grilled pork tenderloin and bread.

The thyme is a great herb here, you can use fresh or dried.  I used a mixture of green and yellow squash, but you can use all of one type of course.  And something I think I might try next time is using goat cheese instead of feta because I love me some goat cheese.  Enjoy! Squash and Carrot Casserole with Feta and Parmesan | Hottie Biscotti

Squash and Carrot Casserole with Feta and Parmesan

Adapted slightly from Kitchen Escapades Serves 4-6 as a side dish Ingredients

  • 5-6 squash (mix of zucchini and yellow squash) sliced
  • 3-4 grated carrots
  • olive oil
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme (or 2 tsp dried)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup greek yogurt
  • heaping half cup of crumbled feta
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • salt and pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. In a large saucepan heat a drizzle of olive oil over medium high heat.
  3. Add in the squash and cook for a few minutes.  Add in the carrots and garlic and cook, stirring to keep the garlic from burning, until the squash just begins to soften.  Season with salt and pepper and remove from the heat.
  4. In a medium bowl whisk eggs and yogurt, then stir in the feta and parmesan.  Season with a little salt and pepper.
  5. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and layer half of the squash in the pan.  Spread half of the yogurt mixture on top, then layer again with squash and then yogurt.  Sprinkle with a little extra feta if you have some!
  6. Bake for 45 minutes until top is golden brown.  Serve warm.  This reheats well for a light lunch.

Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas with Greek Yogurt

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The internet is a great place to peruse recipes and get new ideas for healthifying your meals.  I think I made that word up.  I like comfort food.  I like cheese, cream, sugar, butter, bacon, chocolate and all things bread.  Unfortunately, eating like that all the time would mean big trouble.  So I sometimes like to find ways to lighten up those calorie laden foods, even if it’s just a touch, so that we can enjoy them more often.

There are all kinds of tricks and substitutions people come up with for lightening up old favorites.  Sometimes you find something that sounds great, almost too good to be true…which a lot of the time means it is and the final product is not what you’d hoped it would be.  I once found a recipe for scalloped potatoes that used skim milk.  Skim milk!  No cream!  And it claimed to be the same creamy potato dish without all the fat.  They lied.  I ended up throwing the majority of it away.  So, I was worried about these enchiladas.  I love the idea of using non-fat greek yogurt instead of sour cream or a cream sauce, but wasn’t sure if it was going to work out.  But I’ve seen lots of recipes that make the substitution, so I gave it a try.  Thankfully this was one of those times that taking a chance worked out and we had a delicious dinner with a little less guilt than usually comes with a plateful of enchiladas.

The original recipe came from Meals and Moves, a blog I hadn’t come across until yesterday.  I changed very little, and would make just a couple additional changes when I make these again.  I used corn tortillas, because I believe there is no other way to make enchiladas.  I added cilantro, garlic, jalapeno and just a bit more cheese to the filling.  Next time I might add chopped green bell pepper to the veggies, maybe a little more chicken and the whole jalapeno, seeded for the spice sensitive (like myself these days).  But feel free to go for it with the seeds.  I’ll meet back up with you in September when I can handle it without a serious case of heartburn.  Too much information?  Sorry.

If you’re looking for a good side dish to serve with these enchiladas or any Tex-Mex meal, try this black bean and corn salad from Whole Foods.  It also makes for a good salsa and can be adapted to fit your tastes.  I like to add chopped tomatoes.

Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas with Greek Yogurt

Ingredients

  • 10 corn tortillas
  • 6-8 green onions, chopped
  • 1/2 jalapeno, diced small
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 can chopped green chiles (7-8 ounces total)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 2 cups cooked shredded chicken
  • 1 1/2 cups non fat Greek yogurt (a little more for topping)
  • 1 cup salsa verde
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2-1 cup shredded cheese (montery jack, colby jack, etc.)
  • 1/2-3/4 cup chopped cilantro (and a little extra for garnish)

Directions

  1. Heat a drizzle of oil in a skillet over medium high heat.  Add the green onions and the jalapeno and saute for 3-4 minutes.  Then add in the garlic and cook for another minute or so.  Add the green chiles, cumin and a dash of salt and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
  2. Mix the chicken into the warm vegetables and set aside.
  3. Combine the yogurt, salsa verde and cilantro in a bowl.  Add all but 1 cup of the yogurt mixture into the chicken mixture.  Add 1/4-1/2 cup of cheese to the chicken and mix to combine.
  4. Heat corn tortillas in 2 batches in the microwave, wrapped in slightly damp paper towels for about 30 seconds or until they are pliable.
  5. Coat a 9×13 pan with cooking spray.  Fill the center of a tortilla with about 1/3 cup of filling, roll up and lay seam side down in the pan.  Repeat with the remaining tortillas.  Some of your tortillas may crack, but it’s not a big deal.  (If you have extra space, extra tortillas and extra filling, cram another enchilada or 2 into the pan.)
  6. Spread remaining yogurt sauce over the enchiladas and then sprinkle with 1/4-1/2 cup of cheese.
  7. Bake for 25-30 minutes until cheese is melted and edges have started to brown.
  8. Garnish with a little yogurt and chopped cilantro.