Vegetarian egg rolls and fruit smoothies

Cooking doesn’t have to be a chore.

In fact, with a little planning, the right recipes and a family that’s willing to work together in the kitchen, you can dine on restaurant-quality meals every night in the comfort of your own home.

We know there are times that you won’t feel like preparing a home-cooked meal, and, believe us, we understand. We both work full-time and both commute several hours a week. And we have two children, ages 5 and 2. Finding the time to cook some nights can be difficult, if not downright impossible. So order the occasional pizza, and don’t feel bad using boxed rices or frozen vegetables as side dishes – there are actually some pretty good offerings out there. But don’t completely abandon your kitchen.

What we hope to do in this blog is share our passion for cooking and, more generally, for good food. We’ll serve up some of our own recipes, most of them created by Jerry, who handles 90 percent of the cooking duties at our house, as well as some of our favorite dishes culled from the cookbook collection that is slowly overtaking our kitchen. Not all of the recipes will be healthy – in fact, Jerry’s twice baked potatoes, an oft-requested side dish of our family members, are downright sinful – but they’ll be simple enough to create at home – and they’ll taste good, too.

So roll up your sleeves, tie your apron strings, and get ready to dine in.

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It was hard to decide which recipe to lead off with, but with the high price of many meats these days (and the even higher price of gas), we decided to start with a vegetarian dish that is inexpensive to make and should satisfy even the pickiest of eaters. Jerry created these vegetarian egg rolls after seeing a similar recipe on a cooking show. They make a great appetizer or side dish, although most of the time, we eat them as our main meal.

Vegetarian egg rolls

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 bunch green onions, chopped

3 jalapeños, finely chopped

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

Dash of cayenne pepper (optional)

1 15-ounce can corn, drained

1 15-ounce can black beans, drained

1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

1 bunch spinach, chopped

1 8-ounce package Mexican cheese blend

1 16-ounce package egg roll wrappers

Water

Vegetable oil for frying

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat olive oil. Add green onions and jalapeños and season with chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper (if desired). Saute 10 minutes or until onions are soft. Add corn, black beans and diced tomatoes; cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add spinach and cook five minutes, stirring occasionally, or until spinach is wilted. Cool mixture to room temperature. (Hint: To speed cooling, place vegetable mixture in the freezer for 10 minutes.) Add cheese and stir to combine.

Fill deep fryer with approximately 1 ½ inches of vegetable oil and heat to 400 degrees

To assemble egg rolls, with egg roll wrapper laying horizontally, place 1 heaping tablespoon of vegetable mixture approximately once inch from the top of the wrapper. Fold in the sides of the wrapper, and, using your fingers or a pastry brush, lightly wet the bottom ¾ of the wrapper with water. Keeping the sides folded in, roll the top inch of the wrapper over the vegetable mixture, and continue rolling until the wrapper is sealed.

Carefully lower egg rolls, one at a time, into the hot oil, making sure not to overlap. This will take several batches to complete. Don’t be surprised if a few of the egg rolls burst slightly and lose some of their filling. There will still be plenty inside. Fry until golden brown.

Makes approximately 20 egg rolls (three to four as a main dish serving or one to two as a side dish).

Hints: Serve egg rolls with a simple dipping sauce made from approximately ¾ cup salsa and a squirt or two of ranch dressing, to taste. Like most fried foods, these reheat much better in an oven than a microwave, which tends to make them greasy.

Also, if you have leftover vegetable mixture, don’t throw if away. It makes a great dip when reheated. Serve with tortilla chips.

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Our children love fresh fruit, and there’s no better time than now to let them fill up on summer’s bounty. But sometimes when we’re raiding the produce section or farmer’s market, our eyes are bigger than our stomachs – and that means we end up with too much fruit and too little time to eat it before it goes bad. So we’ve started freezing our leftover fruit – washing, hulling and halving strawberries; peeling and quartering bananas; and washing and removing the stems from blueberries – to use for smoothies. That way we can get a healthy fruit snack anytime, and with the frozen fruit, we don’t have to water down our treat with ice.

Here’s one of our current favorites.

Fruit smoothie

1 fresh peach, quartered

6 to 8 frozen strawberries

36 to 40 frozen blueberries

½ frozen banana

Orange juice

Combine peach, strawberries, blueberries and banana in blender. Add orange juice until fruit is almost covered. Blend until smooth.

Hint: A touch of sugar or honey can be added for extra sweetness, but we find the combination of fruit and orange juice to be sweet enough for our taste.