My New Allrecipes Favorite...

This was dinner tonight...

Honestly, pasta and roasted vegetables are one of my favorite combinations.

And not only was this my new favorite Allrecipes discovery, but the bonus was I had pasta for the first time in about 3 weeks!  Course, it was Dreamfields low-glycemic something or other, but it tasted sooooo good.  Especially alongside this...

Vegetable Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms.

As usual, I did put a little twist on the recipe - using a nice assortment of veggies - and let me say this is one delicious meal!  Even without the pasta!  I can't wait for my garden to start producing, because I have most of these ingredients growing there.

Here's a quick rundown of what I did....

Cast of Characters:

 Shredded parmesan, mozzarella, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, garlic, spinach, white mushrooms, chopped marinated artichokes, portabella mushroom caps.

Salt, pepper, oregano and garlic powder were extras.

First, use a spoon to gently scrape the gills from the mushroom.  I also cut off the stems.

In a small bowl combine about a tablespoon of balsamic, tablespoon of olive oil, clove of garlic and some pepper.

Mix it up and hand your sous chef a pastry brush, instructing her to paint the tops of the mushroom caps.

In a baking dish, drizzle a bit of olive oil, then place the balsamic painted mushroom caps, top down, in the dish.  The original recipe calls for marinating them, but I like just the touch of balsamic flavor that a quick brushing provides.  They "marinate" long enough while you prepare the other ingredients.

Tell your sous chef to quit slacking and peel and chop a little eggplant, as well as chop a few spare white mushrooms.

My sweetie trained at the Play-Doh academy, so her butter knife skills are well-honed.

Heat some oil in a skillet and add the mushrooms and eggplant.

Before I knew it, mini-me had deftly sliced and diced some zucchini and summer squash.

(Um, no, I'm kidding.  I did most of the work!)

Add them to the eggplant and mushrooms in the skillet - I added a bit of a salt, pepper and dried oregano, too.

Oh, and by the way, I feel this recipe is a perfect one to experiment with a "little of this, little of that" technique.   A little more or less of anything - except maybe overdosing on the balsamic - won't ruin this one!  Such a versatile recipe...you could stick with one or two veggies, or go a little crazy like me.

Rip up some fresh spinach, discarding any tough stems like we found in here.

Rinse it and add to the skillet....

...and fold into the other vegetables until the spinach is pretty wilted, but not totally cooked.

Mmmm.  I could make a meal out of that!

But instead, I wisely opted to fill the mushroom caps with the mixture.  (and I sprinkled a little garlic powder on the inside of the caps before stuffing them...just because)

Top with a little mozzarella - you could use more, but I'm counting calories and just started adding some dairy back into my diet, so let's not get carried away!

Chop a couple tomatoes - you can seed or not seed.  I've also used canned in this recipe.  I opted to seed them this time.

Wait a minute.  I could have sworn there was another tomato wedge there a minute ago...

What are you doing?

Silly girl!

Take WHAT'S LEFT OF the tomatoes, chop them and divide between the mushroom caps, then do the same with some chopped arthichokes.

Sprinkle with parmesan.

Bake at 350F for 15 to 20-ish minutes, depending on the thickness of your mushrooms.  You're really just heating them through a bit.

This is the finished product....

You can serve as is, or with a little side of angel hair pasta - I scooped up some of the "fallen" veggies and topped the pasta with them and some more parmesan.

My assistant was too exhausted to eat...or too full of tomatoes! ;)

Thank you Allrecipes!!!