lemon parmesan potato and salad

We had the grill blazing the other night, and we really didn't have a side dish for what we were making. I took a look around the pantry and found some Long Island grown fingerling potatoes, and remembered that I had noticed that our green beans needed some harvesting when I was watering the garden earlier. I grabbed a few other things we always keep on hand an BAM! an amazing warm salad (which was pretty freaking awesome cold too) was born.

Ingredients:
2 lbs. fingerling potatoes
1/2 lb. green beans, trimmed
1 lemon, sliced
2 shallots, sliced
3 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated (optional, but very tasty. Pecorino Romano or Manchego would also be awesome.)


Grab two nice size sheets of foil. Put the green beans on one and the potatoes on another. Add the shallot and the lemon and then drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Seal them up really tight and toss them on the grill, preferably on the not as hot side. Cover the grill. After 10 minutes the green beans should be done, don't open the foil when you take them off though, they will continue to steam and get all lemony. The potatoes should be done after another 15 minutes (25 minutes of total cook time). Mix both with all of their liquid in a big dish, toss them together, and sprinkle with cheese. Time to nosh!

fajitas

You know what I like about fajitas? Everything! But I especially like the fact that they require almost no cooking, are super fast, and that there is only one pan to clean. So, it's kind of like the perfect meal. You can use whatever vegetables you want for this dish, the method just makes it special, and totally adaptable to anything you want to throw in the pan. (If you want to do something with meat in it, I would recommend cutting the meat into small pieces to assure proper cooking.) But anyway I digress. Let's fajita!

Ingredients:
1 package of seitan, roughly chopped
1 can of black beans, drained
2 peppers, julienned
2 carrots, julienned
1 yellow squash, julienned
1/2 onion, juli- gotcha!, sliced
1 scallion, sliced
3 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
4 Tbsp. safflower oil
2 Tbsp. lime juice (2 limes)
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste

OK, here it goes in 50 words or less: Heat pan smoking hot. Mix oil and juice with spices. Toss with other ingredients. Add to pan, cook for four to six minutes, tossing constantly. Serve on warm tortillas. Top with cheese or sour cream. Eat fajitas! Only wash one pan!