"I Need That Zucchini!"

...is what my 21 month old daughter says when she sees them now.  She also runs over to pick them up and hand them to me.  I may have created a monster!

So, people have been giving me extra zucchini that they've grown!  I like free yummy things!  :-)

To put it into perspective, I took these pictures...

 

...and now to show you some of the things I've made with all of this zucchini!  First, I went onto Pinterest, as anyone should do, and I searched for "zucchini".  You sure can make a lot of things with zucchini!

Zucchini Tots

Zucchini Tots

I give these two thumbs up.  They don't really taste like tator tots, which is fine... but more like little quiches.  I love quiche.  These are tasty.  I also did not feel the need for any dipping sauce, but you could certainly do that!

This next one was my own little experimental recipe... I chopped up 2 medium-sized zucchini and put them in a bowl.

Like so.

I then cooked them in a pan with some EVOO, pepper, garlic, pearl onions, and a bit of salt.

Then I added that mixture to whole wheat noodles and a light basil pesto sauce that I found at Wegmans.
Mmm... yum.

Very tasty!  We like anything that makes a lot of leftovers, too.  I shall call it... "Alissa's Zucchini Pesto"!

Next!

Stuffed Zucchini Boats

  

Stuffed Zucchini Boats

As you can see, I did not use chicken because I had lean ground beef in my fridge.  I also didn't add corn.  You can really make these by putting any sort of mixture into them.  They were pretty good, but the zucchini was still pretty watery after baking.  I'm not really sure how to eliminate all of the moisture!  Any suggestions?

Zucchini Coconut Raisin Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Soft Zucchini Cookies

My name for these is way better, I think.  ;-)  I mostly followed the recipe... although I used greek yogurt instead of shortening and added raisins, white chocolate chips, and coconuts.  No nuts.  

I will say that I had the same moisture problem with these and I'm fairly certain it's the zucchini factor!  They were AMAZING right out of the oven, but then when I put them into an air-tight container, the moisture got trapped.  What do I do about this?

Alissa's Zucchini Smoothie

It kind of looks like a green, bubbly mess... but here's what's in it:

2 bananas, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, greek yogurt, vanilla almond milk, about a cup of spinach, and a whole mess of zucchini

Both baby and husband approved.  It was delicious!

Zucchini Chips

I'm pretty sure I just flat out did these wrong.  Hehe.  First of all, when you look at the picture, it gives you an idea of how much zucchini we were trying to fit on one pan.  They didn't come out like chips, but more like warm zucchini rounds seasoned with Old Bay and garlic salt.  Not bad, but not what we were going for here!  

Ah well. 

...I think that's about it so far.  We've done lots of zucchini grilling on our grill, too.  Keep those zucchini coming!  Well, after I've used what's in my fridge.  ;-)

***Plant Update***

They are not dead.  I repeat, NOT dead.  

They are thriving!  :-)

My tomato plant has FOUR tomatoes on it!  Little one has declared them to be "smooth" and "greeeeeeen".

There's one...

...and three more!  (Two are bunched together on the right.)

Look at all of the leaves on my strawberry plant!  There are even some little white flowers toward the top of the first picture and I didn't see any strawberries until I went poking around under the big leaves...

FOUR little tiny strawberries!

Stay back, squirrels.  It'll be time to fight.  You best back up.

In other news, you should know that mini blueberry muffins are delicious and have either half or a third of the calories of regular giant ones (depending on the size of your muffin tins).

You should also know that babies toddlers like little muffins.  And capers.  

Okay, so you probably shouldn't feed your baby OR toddler capers because they are super salty... but if you're like me, you might give them random things just to try and see the fantastic expressions they make.  Or awesome yummy noises.  "Mmmmmmmm!" they'll say!  

Dinner tonight was fresh corn on the cob, grilled zucchini, and salmon seasoned with some lemon pepper and garlic powder... and capers for me.  I heart capers.  They make me think of my honeymoon, where they were served with smoked salmon every day for breakfast.  :-)  

Unfortunately, now I know that my toddler likes capers.  Loves may be a better word.  Except she calls them "kini", which I think she mistook for the zucchini that she didn't like at all.   I had to quickly eat them off my plate because she kept asking for "Momma's kini", "have more?"  *sigh*

(Pre-caper picture)

I hope you ate something healthy and delicious this weekend!  

P.S. Sorry about the caper rant!  Do you like capers?

At Least There Wasn't Any Quinoa...

Dinner was too healthy tonight.  It tasted healthy.  Who wants that?  

I found this recipe for Cornmeal-Dusted Catfish with Quinoa Saute in a Cooking Light magazine.  Sounds fancy, doesn't it?  I've been wanting to try more quinoa (pronounced 'keen-wa') recipes because I feel like I could like it.  It's good for you and something different, right?  So far I haven't been all that impressed with quinoa, but I'm hopeful!  Jimmy, maybe not so much.  He's a good sport though and eats whatever I make (love you, babe!).  Anyway, I thought this recipe sounded like it had some potential.  

It may have been better if I'd actually used catfish.  I don't know, I've never eaten catfish.  Since I didn't have catfish in the freezer, I used tilapia instead, thinking that maybe it would be okay... 

...and then I realized that there wasn't any quinoa in my pantry.  

Uh, what was I thinking here?  

Tonight's dinner became Cornmeal-Dusted Tilapia with Brown Rice and Sauteed Vegetables... which tasted way too healthy for our liking.  Don't get me wrong, we ate it.  It was probably even good for us.  I just won't be making it again.  ;-)

Veggies: Zucchini, Red Pearl Onions,
Shallots, Celery, and Grape Tomatoes

Little one did gobble up some fish, though.  That's something!  

So, as we were eating it, I said to Jim, "At least there wasn't any quinoa..."

His response?  "True dat."

A Delicious Day

Two posts this month!  I'm on a roll, baby.  

This week I'm cooking all kinds of fresh veggies.  In my refrigerator/freezer/pantry right now are:

• Corn on the cob
• Beets
• Mushrooms
• Brussels sprouts
• Tomatoes (grape and regular)
• Onions (pearl, red, and scallions)
• Broccoli
• Snap Peas
• Squash and Zucchini
• Carrots
• Red bell peppers

Last night, I made a good old favorite:

White Chicken Chili  (456 calories)

You can follow the directions on the seasoning packet, but I often like to make my own seasoning to save a little money (and lower sodium!).  If you've got the spices to do it, do it!  Different recipes offer up different spice suggestions... garlic, oregano, cumin, onion powder, etc.  I always add a touch of cayenne pepper to spice it up.

I will say that I also always use ground chicken because I know when it's cooked.  Cook it in a bit of EVOO.  This was organic ground chicken and I added a can of chickpeas, a can of cannellini beans, and a cup of water.  Bring to a boil, let it simmer covered 10 minutes, then top with a healthy handful of cilantro, a bit of shredded cheese, and a dollop of sour cream.  The calorie count above included the cheese, light sour cream, and cilantro... and it was a third of the entire recipe.  Hubs got to take the last third for lunch today.  Lucky punk.

On the side... this was about 1/2 a yellow squash and 1/2 a zucchini (both fairly small).  I sprayed my grill pan (do you have one???) with a bit of PAM and grilled them up.  Mmm...

Grilled Yellow Squash and Zucchini  (45 calories)

Tonight's dinner was a little more ambitious because it was a new veggie recipe using my grill pan (best thing ever) and I cooked chicken tenderloins instead (which scare me because it's harder to tell when they're cooked!).  

Success and success!

Chicken Tenderloins (110 cal for 2)

Grilled Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Red Bell Pepper,
Grape Tomatoes, Mushrooms, and Pearl Onions

Grill them all on the grill pan and then enjoy as much as you want!  Not a ton of calories for any of these veggies!!!  Have you ever had a pearl onion?  I hadn't had one before and they are a little bit sweet.  I like!

Summer Vegetables with Fresh Salsa

Okay, so I cheated a little bit with this recipe... I was going to make the Cherry Tomato Salsa that was recommended to go with the "Summer Vegetables", but I had fresh salsa in my fridge.  It included tomatoes, onions, and cilantro, so I just went with it.  Yum.

I seriously probably could have eaten the entire bowl of veggies.  They were that good.  Who knew that salsa would make them better?  Okay, maybe all of the veggies except for the bell peppers.  I don't really like bell peppers, but I ate them anyway in the attempt to get my little one to try some.  Hehe.  Fail.

Dessert, you ask?  Why yes, I did make some!

Pumpkin Pudding (Yes, that's a piggy whisk)

Pour into ramekins (1/4 Jell-O box is 130 cal if you use skim milk)

Add toppings!  Raisins?  Granola?  Fruit?  What do you like?

Today was a delicious day.  What did you eat that was delicious today?

Grilling Veggies

Check it out, two posts in two days!  Go me!  :-)

Tonight I made this:

Angel Hair Pasta with Eggplant-Tomato Sauce

It's all part of my more veggies plan... the picture is a little deceiving, though.  You grill up all the veggies and then make the sauce and toss it into the noodles.  I took the picture prior to tossing.  However, I think eating just the veggies would have been amazing... and spicy!

 Grilling eggplant...

 Grilling zucchini... (the recipe says to use strips of red pepper, but I hate pepper and I had some zucchini lying around) ...I should really make some zucchini bread or something!

 Chop up grilled veggies...

 ...and non-grilled veggies like these tomatoes. 

 Heat up some garlic...

 Toss it all together in the pan...

Season it up... mmm... I love this part!  It always smells so good!

Put it on some pasta... or don't.  Like I said, it probably would have been good by itself. 

Next time I may even be so bold as to add other veggies.  I think it would be good with squash and mushrooms, too.  Maybe a little more tomato.  Maybe even topped with some chicken or tofu.  Who knows?  Go crazy!  ;-) 

By the way, if you can't have an actual grill, I highly recommend a grill pan.  Mine was a cheap-o one from Walmart, but I love it!  You could easily spend $100 on a really nice one, though.  Just a thought!    

Healthy Schtuff

OMG.  My baby blog has taken over all of my blog time!  :-) 

Here are some yummy things I've made recently and haven't had time to post about...

Grilled Zucchini Rolls with Herbs and Cheese

Now, I will say that my zucchini rolls did not include herbed goat cheese because Jimmy couldn't find it at the store.  Where does one find goat cheese?  On a farm?  Well, we didn't go to a farm.  Maybe next time.  These were really good though!  I used my new grill pan (woot woot!) and cooked up the zucchini and then rolled them, which was not nearly as easy as it sounds. 

Jimmy thought they tasted like cheeseburgers.  Seriously.  I dunno.  You'll have to try them and see!

Crockpot General Tso's Chicken

I love love love that crockpot site.  It's very user-friendly and has about a million recipes that are easy and rated based on how much the chef's family actually liked them.  Plus, most of the recipes (if not all) are gluten-free and pretty darn healthy. 

I will say that this was nothing like the General Tso's you would order from a take-out place, but it was delicious in its own way and waaaaaaay healthier.  Worth it.

Broth Fondue!

Neal, Casee, Jimmy, and I have been having all sorts of fondue fun!  I may have purchased a fondue pot for Neal for his birthday and now we make him bring it over every time he comes to visit.  :-)

Casee trying to cut apart salmon. 
Yes, the vegetarian at the table has the job of cutting meat. 
That seems fair!

Haha, both Neal and Jimmy were watching her trying to cut up the salmon.  After fondue, we watched some Game of Thrones... there it is!  It has a prime spot on the table.  Haha. 

Barley with Spinach and Asparagus

I can't find this last recipe online... but it was pretty darn delicious.  I got it out of a weight watchers cookbook.  YUM! 

What have you been cooking lately?  :-)