Zucchini, Zucchini, Zucchini

Since we bought such a tasty zucchini at the Farmer's Market on the weekend and I had already made zucchini bread and used it in my vegetarian stuffed peppers I decided to try frying it up like eggplant. I also made a side of pasta with an olive oil sauce and a can of diced tomatoes to go with it.

Ingredients:
Zucchini slices
2 eggs beaten
Vegetable oil for frying
Flour or Fry Magic (I used Fry magic since it was already seasoned)

Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan
Dip the Zucchini slices in the egg and then in the Fry Magic or the flour mixture.
Fry in the frying pan, flipping.
Take out when the coating is brown.
Put on a plate with a paper towel to drain the grease.

We dipped these in Ranch dressing... they were really tasty.

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

I love this time of the year because of all of the fresh vegetables I get out of the garden and at a farmer's market. Ryan and I ventured to a farmer's market this weekend since we canceled our Green Bean Delivery because we thought we would be out of town. We picked up a nice looking zucchini while we were there and some red and green peppers. As we are attempting to eat more fresh produce and less meat every week, I decided to try Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers. I'm addicted to Pinterest and have found some great recipes on there, so this is a modification of the Orzo Stuffed Peppers recipe.

Ingredients:
2 or 3 green or red peppers sliced in half
2 cups of orzo
1 can of chicken broth
sliced zucchini
diced onion
feta cheese
1 can of diced tomatoes (I used ones seasoned with oregano and basil)

Cook the orzo in the can of chicken broth as it gives it better flavor.
While that's cooking mix together the zucchini, onion, the tomatoes and the feta cheese. 
When the orzo is done cooking, add that to the zucchini mixture. 
Put the sliced peppers in a baking dish. Fill them with the mixture. Cover with foil. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for a half hour.

These were very tasty, the only thing I would change is to blanch the peppers in a pot of boiling water before filling them.

Mexican Concoction

Since it's been a record hot summer, our jalapeno and banana peppers in the garden have surely enjoyed it and are producing like crazy. After canning a whole batch of Jalapeno jelly I still had peppers to use. I decided to thaw out some chicken breast and make some meat for tacos in the crock pot. Here's what I came up with:

2 chicken breasts (it's OK if they aren't completely thawed)
Put them in the bottom of a crock pot.

I then diced some jalapeno peppers and some fresh onions from my garden and added those.

My friend Audra canned some tomato jalapeno sauce that I dumped in there and a jar of salsa with some chili powder and some honey to cool it off. I put the lid on and let it cook for about 4 hours on high in the crock pot.

Take it out and shred it and enjoy with tortillas. I also made some homemade Spanish rice which you can find on my blog too!! 

On the agenda  tonight: Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers... blog post to come on those later!

Eggplant Parmesan and Lemony Quinoa with fresh vegetables

After not having our Green Bean Delivery order for 2 weeks, Ryan and I have almost devoured our order that just came on Friday. So tonight for dinner we decided to use the lovely eggplant we received and some bulk quinoa we ordered a few weeks ago. Here's what we came up with.

We peeled and cut the eggplant in dollar size slices and used the ones without seeds. Beat 2 eggs in a bowl. In another bowl add bread crumbs and some spices. Meanwhile heat some oil in a frying pan. Dredge the eggplant in the egg and then in the breadcrumbs to coat both sides. Fry it in the hot oil turning to cook evenly on both sides. Drain on a plate with paper towel. Since we didn't have any pasta sauce to go with it, we dipped it in a side of Thousand Island and Blue cheese dressing.

For the quinoa dish, I came across a this recipe on All Recipes.com and modified it for what I had. Instead of celery, red onion and parsley, I used white onion, some left over corn that I cut off of the cob and fresh carrots all from Green Bean Delivery as well and a few banana peppers from our garden.

I doubled the recipe and used  2 cups of quinoa in 4 cups of water. Cook to a boil on the stove and turn the heat down to medium until almost all of the water cooks out. I stirred it a bit as well so it didn't stick and added some sea salt to it. While the quinoa was cooking I diced all of the vegetables and put them in a serving bowl.

For the dressing I juiced 3 fresh lemons to get about a 1/2 cup of lemon juice since I cooked more quinoa then the recipe called for. I also mixed in some ground red pepper for some pizazz. 

Once the quinoa was done cooking, I turned off the heat and let it cool for about 5 minutes. I then added it to the vegetables and tossed it all with the lemon juice. Boy was it tasty and quite filling. The quinoa dish could have been a meal all in itself. I'll definitely be cooking with this grain again,

Egg Rolls

I LOVE Egg Rolls and now that I found egg roll wrappers I plan to be making them a whole lot more. I went for a veggie take on them for the first attempt, which turned out to be delicious, next time I'm going to try them with some pork sausage. I used broccoli slaw which you can find in the produce section of the grocery store and a can of bean sprouts, you can also buy fresh sprouts too. The egg roll wrappers are in the produce section of any grocery store near the soy meat products and fresh sprouts etc.


I marinated the broccoli slaw and bean sprouts in some hoisin sauce, soy sauce and ginger for about a half hour. The egg roll wrappers are really easy to use, place them diagonal on a cutting board, fill the middle with a couple teaspoons of your filling. Fold the bottom corner in over the filling and roll snug. Then tuck the sides in around the roll of filling. Use some water to wet the other end of the egg roll wrapper and roll up tight. Place them on a plate until you heat your oil in a skillet. I used vegetable oil and heated it for about 15-20 minutes before putting in the pan.


Once the oil is heated put the egg rolls in the pan and cook them until crisp turning a few times.


These were quite tasty... I can't wait to make them again. I've got a few wrappers left and may try dessert egg rolls later this week with apples and cream cheese, I'll let you know how they turn out.

Since the wrappers were 2 for $4 I also bought wonton wrappers and plan to make those next weekend!

Tasty Pasta dish

This dish I just created this week for dinner and it was quite tasty, sorry no pictures though. We had a bag of fresh spinach we bought on clearance at Meijer in the fall and just through it in the freezer. Last week Meijer also had Buttoni pastas on sale as well. I thawed out the spinach and put it in the food processor with 3 cloves of garlic, a generous amount of ricotta cheese and a some cottage cheese and then blended it all together to make a sauce. While that was blending, I boiled water for the Spinach Buttoni tortellini. Once the water boils add some olive oil so the pasta doesn't stick. Then add the tortellini and let it cook for 7-9 minutes. I turned mine off when all of the tortellini floated to the top of the pot and puffed up. Drain the pasta. Add the pasta to the spinach sauce and mix together. Put in a baking dish, top with favorite cheese and bake in a 350 degree oven for about a half hour. Quick, easy and tasty!