Next stage (and certainly the last thing I'm cooking today because it's 10 PM and I've got cleaning up to do; the dishwasher is running but I've still got two sinks full of dishes to take care of and I spilled milk on the stove and, astoundingly, despite all the cooking I've done, I just this moment realized that I've forgotten to eat supper!):  
Vegetable Upside-Down Cake

No, it's not really a cake.  But it is an excellent recipe!  Once again, this is one of my go-to items that never fails, no matter what substitutions I've had to make.

It calls for wholewheat flour.  White alone works fine.  It calls for yoghurt or buttermilk.  I didn't have that, so I clabbered milk with cider vinegar.  That works fine.  I had some but not all of the veggies that the recipe calls for.  No problem.  I changed the herb selection to just good old Poultry Seasoning (even though there is definitely NO poultry being cooked in my house, I love that seasoning; sage is amazing).  Tastes great.

For this recipe, I used the container of chopped peppers and most of the contents of both containers of veggie salad that I bought today (total:  $5.99, not including tax).  Divided up, Veggie Upside Down will serve me for about 10 meals.  You can't beat the price of that.  Of course I did add other ingredients that I already had at home but the cost there is still fairly small--I'd estimate about 90 cents a serving all totalled up.  Plus that's 10 meals that I won't have to use extra electricity to cook, except for using the microwave to "hot things up" as my grandmother used to say.

I haven't used the pea pods or the cherry tomatoes from the salad containers.  I'll come up with another fate for those later.   Oh, and one more thing:  I'll wash and save the plastic containers.  The small one is fine for use in the fridge.  The two larger square containers are great for sprouting herb seeds for the garden--they're like tiny little greenhouses.

Now, about that recipe.  It is undoubtedly in copyright, so I will not share it here.  However, I will tell you where I got it:  Mollie Katzen's Enchanted Broccoli Forest.  This is my very favorite vegetarian cookbook--it has, quite literally, served me well for years.  I'd definitely encourage everyone to go find a copy of this fantastic book.

The Veggie Upside Down didn't come out as pretty as I might have liked but, since I dwell in the Land of Good Enough, I think it's just fine.....and I know for sure it will taste wonderful!