What's red and green and just the best thing ever for a pre-Christmas crazy-ness meal? Don't pass up these quesadillas

The first major freeze of the year sent us racing to the garden to raid the bell pepper bushes of every last pepper down to the smallest babies that were just popping out. Now a huge bushel basket of peppers sits in wait to be chopped and frozen to carry us through the winter until garden time next spring.

All those peppers, both green and red, plus holiday leftovers netted us one of the best meals ever—a true delight for a busy night that saw me start to decorate the Christmas tree and wade right into the swirling current of December crazy-ness.

Fresh Ham and Pepper Quesadillas were ready in almost as much time as one could sing "Here Comes Santa Claus" and brought so much cheer that the Grinch just had to stay far away on this Christmas-prep night.

Into a hot skillet went a flour tortilla that had been spread with mustard and topped with Monterey Jack cheese. Atop that went the mixture of ham, green peppers, and green onions and another cheese layer, with a second mustard-spread tortilla on top. A quick browning in the skillet melted the cheese and stuck the layers together. Dinner—ready with a maximum of 15 minutes' work from the time I chopped the first pepper to the moment the quesadillas were sliced with a pizza cutter and placed on the dinner plate. Love it, love it, love it!

Fresh Ham & Pepper Quesadillas

1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup green bell pepper, chopped

2 ounces sliced ham, cut in strips

1/4 cup green onions, minced

4 large flour tortillas

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

1/2 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese

salsa, sour cream (optional)

Combine peppers, ham, and onions. Spread 2 tablespoons yellow mustard on two tortillas. Spread a thin layer of cheese over the mustard; sprinkle with ham mixture. Spread remaining cheese over the top and cover with a second tortilla. Spray a skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium heat. Place one quesadilla in the pan and cook until lightly browned. Flip the quesadilla gently and cook until the bottom is lightly browned. Repeat with the second quesadilla. Remove the quesadilla from the pan; cut and serve with your favorite salsa and/or sour cream. Makes four servings.

King Ranch Chicken's origins may be disputed, but no one debates the flavor of this healthy, comforting dish

For 12 long years it was one of my treasured connections to the Lone Star State. During that dozen years of Eastward wandering, Hubby and I were privileged to live in two of the beauty spots of the U.S.--Nashville, TN, and Richmond, VA. We loved soaking up all that was a part of those two interesting cities, but the Green Grass of Home always beckoned. When those longings became palpable, I'd brew me up some King Ranch Chicken.

The origin of King Ranch Chicken is somewhat debatable, but no one disputes that this dish, named for the epic South Texas ranch that covers a gargantuan territory, is Texana at its finest. King Ranch Chicken is a soft, slightly spicy, cheesy mixture of tomatoes, tortillas, chicken, creamy sauce, and green peppers. It's the ultimate comfort food--especially when the comfort needed involves a taste of home.

The recipe I used during the years of our Eastward progression was from a First Place recipe book--First Place being the Christ-centered health program whose materials I was privileged to help launch when I worked in Nashville. This recipe collection was the first I encountered to start subbing healthy ingredients for this casserole that's synonymous with All Things Texan.

My October 2010 issue of Southern Living magazine featured King Ranch Chicken in a collection of simple slow-cooker recipes. I had never seen a slow-cooker adaptation for King Ranch Chicken, so I was eager to try to take it on, especially since it called for a generous portion of my garden-fresh green peppers that I knew would help spice it up.

In the year 2000 a gracious God allowed us to return to Texas for good. I believe I heard the bells of heaven ring out the day our four vanloads of belongings crossed that state line and we were able to settle back among our roots. I no longer need to cook King Ranch Chicken to ground me in Texana, but I still bask in that great flavor. This slow-cooker recipe bubbled in the crockpot overnight and with my garden's own green peppers added was a welcome reward the next morning so I could say "got-it-done" for that day's meal.

King Ranch Chicken

4 cups chopped cooked chicken

1 large onion, chopped

1 large green bell pepper, chopped

1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of chicken soup, low-sodium variety

1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup, low sodium variety

1 (10-ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chilies

1 garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon chili powder

12 9-inch) fajita-sized tortillas

2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese (I use cheese from 2-percent milk)

Stir together first 8 ingredients. Tear tortillas into 1-inch pieces; layer one-third of tortilla pieces in a lightly greased 6-quart slow cooker. Top with one-third of the chicken mixture and 2/3 cup cheese. Repeat layers twice. Cover and cook on low 3 1/2 hours or until bubbly and edges are golden brown. (I cooked mine overnight on low with no problem.) Uncover and cook on low 30 minutes. Makes 12 servings.

Use green-pepper crop, lower cholesterol with this speedy skillet recipe

The green peppers keep rolling in from my garden--armloads of them almost every day. I'm on the green-pepper recipe hunt for sure.

I'm also prepping Hubby for his upcoming annual physical exam. One year has passed since his wake-up-call physical exam results that propelled us into a major lifestyle change to begin fitness running (for him, to resume running after a 20-year hiatus) and to begin a radical alteration in the way we eat--hence the heavy reliance on food from the garden (the kind recorded in this blog). The exam showed that blood pressure, triglyceride levels, and cholesterol levels all needed to be lowered big-time and fast.

Because of the physical prep, we've been force-feeding fish--fish of all description (along with other foods such as oatmeal and nuts) for their cholesterol-lowering properties. So the hunt has been on for green-pepper recipes AND recipes that will help make sure his cholesterol count when he goes for his bloodwork next month remains in the great shape it has been since we started the lifestyle-mod.

A recipe in my files from kraftfoods.com helped out a lot--the "super easy" part did, too. The speed of preparation for this tasty dish is a real blessing. Super Easy Fish Skillet can be thrown together at the end of a busy workday when you hear those conflicting internal messages: "fix something homemade for dinner" versus "no time; you're rushed; go through the drive-thru."

We tested the recipe with tilapia, but whatever kind of white fish you have around or enjoy the most is fine. I assure you that you will just adore having this tasty fish supper and your cholestrol-count (and your burgeoning green-pepper supply, if you have one on hand, as I do) will thank you.

Super Easy Fish Skillet

1/2 red onion, chopped

2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato vinaigrette dressing (tested with Kraft brand)

1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt diced tomatoes, undrained (or 14.5 ounces of fresh tomatoes, diced)

1 green pepper, chopped

1/2 cup black olives, drained and rinsed thoroughly

1 pound frozen fish fillets, such as tilapia, haddock, halibut, or cod, thawed

In large skillet pour dressing; over medium heat cook onion in dressing until onion is tender. Add tomatoes, pepper, and olives. Top with fish; spoon vegetable mixture over; cover. Simmer gently on medium heat 8 to 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Makes 4 servings.

Green peppers, fresh from their garden glory days, stir up into these Chicken Fajitas

Our green peppers have finally entered their glory days--cool mornings, warm afternoons; the pepper plants in our garden are blooming their heads off. From my back porch I can see them in their heyday, as they reward us day after day with shiny, bulbous produce waiting for us to snap them off their stems. Hubby brought in armloads and plunked them onto the kitchen counter for my appraisal.

Yesterday my cleaning helper, after she finished with the weekly tidy-up of the house, helped with my annual fall ritual of dicing up our garden's green peppers and storing them in the freezer to stockpile for usage this winter and spring.

What to do with all the green peppers? Baked stuffed peppers are wonderful (I blogged about them earlier), but other ideas? I've never been a big preparer of fajitas, although I know many people dine on them as frequently as they do their breakfast cereal. But my "Celebrating a Healthy Harvest" standby booklet featured this Chicken Fajitas recipe among all its other great suggestions for healthy cooking from the garden. The sliced green peppers straight off the vine, stir-fried, and mixed with a delightfully marinated chicken made my day--and a most memorable dinner last evening.

Chicken Fajitas

2 tablespoons no-salt ketchup

2 tablespoons fat-free Italian dressing

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 pound boneless/skinless chicken breasts, sliced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeno pepper, minced

1 green bell pepper, sliced thin

1 red bell pepper, sliced thin

4-8 flour tortillas or wraps

Combine ketchup, Italian dressing, and Worcestershire sauce in a covered bowl or gallon-sized zippered plastic bag. Add chicken to marinade and refrigerate for 1 hour or more (up to 8 hours0. Cook oil, onion, and garlic in skillet over medium heat until all are soft. Add chicken and marinade to skillet and cook until ingredients are nearly cooked through. Add peppers; stir to combine. Cover loosely with foil and cook until peppers have reached desired doneness. On each plate place a tortilla. Spoon a portion of the chicken mixture across the center of the tortilla. If desired add sour cream, avocado, and shredded cheese. Roll tortilla up and eat.

Putting up green peppers evokes ties to "granny-lady gardeners" of the past

I never feel so "at one" with the granny-lady gardeners of the past as I do when we plant and harvest green bell peppers.

With our green-pepper yield we truly "put food by" in the way that people, of necessity, utilized their gardens in days gone by.

Our green peppers traditionally are prolific, with far more that we could possibly use during one summer's time.

As each summer wanes, I get my knife and chopping board out and pulverize into bits my leftover peppers. Then I line up small, airtight, plastic containers and dump the chopped peppers in, label them, and store them in the freezer.

This industrious act fairly uses up all my plastic containers as well as a couple of shelves in the deepfreeze. Staring at the green-pepper collection that I've just put away, I always believe I've stored up far more green peppers than I can use in any 10 non-growing seasons.

I'm always wrong. I find amazing the number of recipes that list green peppers as an ingredient. Deep in the winter, when the pepper plants are gone, I can feel smug as I traverse the few steps to my freezer and haul out one of my airtight containers into which just weeks before I've put away chopped peppers. Then just about the time, in mid-to-late summer, when the freezer cupboard starts running bare of my stockup, new green peppers are starting to pop out from the current year's garden. So goes the cycle--just as it has in people's stored-away garden supplies for generations, except of course that I have the blessings of a modern, electric deepfreeze for storage.

Last year my cousin Yvonne gave me a wonderful tip. She told me that she takes green peppers from her garden and from them makes a whole flotilla of Stuffed Green Peppers. Then she cooks and freezes the stuffed peppers in portions that ultimately will make dinner-sized servings for her and her husband, Wheat. In the depths of winter, then, she's ready to thaw a nourishing meal and reheat it for their dinner.

After hearing her suggestion, at the end of last summer I tried this. We especially enjoyed our Stuffed Green Peppers during the month of December, which, as any woman with the weight of Christmas prep on her shoulders knows, is a month in which frenzied activity makes cooking regular meals impossible. How good to simply gallop over to my freezer and thaw and then microwave a wholesome Stuffed Green Pepper dish made from our own garden peppers a few months back!

Our garden's green-pepper rows look promising this year, but we're still too early to breeze out and pluck a few when I run across green bell peppers in a recipe. So for our meal a few nights ago, thankfully I still have a few airtight plastic containers marked "green peppers" in my deepfreeze. For "Sweet and Sour Chicken" (recipe from a Sam's Club flyer), I had only to walk a few steps and raid my supply--and once again felt self-satisfied (and as though I was linking arms with many generations past) in doing so.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

4 to 6 (6-ouce) boneless skinless chicken breasts (we used chicken tenders)

1/2 teaspoon salt (we use salt substitute)

1/2 teaspoon pepper

cooking spray

1/4 cup orange juice

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

1/4 cup water

3 tablespoons honey

4 teaspoons vinegar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 cup green bell peppers, diced (can add red bell peppers as well, if you have them)

1 cup pineapple chunks, drained

1 teaspoon cornstarch

Heat grill to medium (we use our countertop grill). Spray the chicken breast lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill for 4-5 minutes on each side. While chicken is grilling, combine juice, water, zest, honey, 3 teaspoons vinegar, and brown sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. In a small bowl combine cornstarch and 1 teaspoon of vinegar. Add to saucepan and mix until thick. Add pineapple and bell peppers. Simmer on low for 5 minutes until chicken is ready. Plate the chicken and top each breast with 3/4 cup of sauce. Can be served over rice. Serves 4.