June 08, 2009
This original recipe is supposed to be baked. But, I am trying to not turn on my oven so I will be making this recipe on the stove top. First, I will fry up the potatoes with diced onions in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Next, add a jalapeno, some pressed garlic, a bunch of yellow squash and cubed leftover chicken. Maybe after that I’ll add some basil, spinach and cherry tomatoes for some color. Voila, simple dinner plans!
If I remember to take pictures I’ll post them tonight and tell you how the meal goes over with the family.
P.S. It was good…all my peeps liked it. Yay! Even my potato hater liked the potatoes in it. 
[ 6 Comments ] Posted on 06.08.09 under Recipes, Zucchini & Summer Squash
Summer Squash Soup with Basil and Parmesan
April 03, 2009
I ran across this recipe today from a book I checked out at the library called Keep It Seasonal by Annie Wayte. The recipes are mostly fancy smancy, simple, yet expensive that just don’t fit with our lifestyle. But then I saw this one and it looked really good, especially because we will have summer squash in abundance pretty soon and anything with cream in it tastes good! So I thought I’d add it here to my recipes before I forget about it.
Summer Squash Soup with Basil and Parmesan (approximate recipe and directions)
3 lbs zucchini, diced (that is approximately 3-5 zucchinis, depending on size)
3 shallots…or 1/2 an onion
1 clove of garlic
3 cups chicken stock (homemade stock is by far better than canned)
1 cup heavy cream
1 bunch fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 bunch fresh mint, chopped
8 T grated parmesan cheese
salt & pepper to taste
Directions: (paraphrased)
Saute the zucchini in olive oil for 12-15 minutes and then add the garlic and shallots or onion. Saute 5 more minutes.
Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes. Blend part of the mixture and add it back to the pan.
Add the cream, basil, mint, parmesan and salt and pepper to taste.
Sounds simple and yummy!
[ 5 Comments ] Posted on 04.03.09 under Zucchini & Summer Squash
Squash Casserole
July 21, 2008
Here’s a squash recipe that sounds very interesting yet really good, but I haven’t tried it yet.
Squash Casserole
- 3 lb. yellow summer squash
- 2 carrots
- 2 onions
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 small jar diced pimiento (or I would use some garden peppers)
- 1 stick butter
- 18 oz. Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix
Wash and slice all vegetables except onions. Put all in a large sauce pan or Dutch oven, salt to taste, and cover with water. Boil until tender. Add onions, drain, mash together, and cool. (I think I would probably just saute them up real soft and not boil them in water…ewww)
Mix soup, sour cream, and pimiento. Add to vegetables and mix well.
In a skillet, melt the butter and mix in the stuffing mix. Spray a 9×12 pan with cooking spray. Spread bottom with 1/2 of the stuffing mixture. Spread the vegetable mixture on the stuffing, then cover with the remaining stuffing mixture.Bake at 375°F for 45 minutes.
Let me know how it is if you try it before me!
[ No Comments ] Posted on 07.21.08 under Recipes, Zucchini & Summer Squash
Tomato Vegetable Garden Soup
July 10, 2008
I was trying to figure out what we were going to have for dinner yesterday and I had a bunch of tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and basil to use. So I made soup. Now, we ate it hot, but we will eat it cold next time like gazpacho because it’s hot, hot, hot out and hot soup is not very appealing when it’s 108 degrees out. We were all sweating after we ate it.
The measurements are all approximate because I eyeballed everything and my recipe was doubled to feed all 7 of us.
Tomato Vegetable Garden Soup
4 C Chicken Broth (homemade is much tastier than store bought)
2 C Tomato Sauce (I used my homemade tomato sauce made with the tomatoes from my garden)
1 small Zucchini, diced
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1 small Onion
2 T Honey or to taste (optional…my tomatoes were very acidic from my garden and needed this)
1/2-1 small Eggplant
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste (or use a hot pepper)
1-3 tomatoes, diced, depending on the size of tomatoes…use as many as you want if you are growing them! Use ‘em up!
Basil, a very large handful if you grow your own (I LOVE basil)
Directions:
Start heating up the chicken broth and then place the onion and eggplant in the food processor. Whiz them up unless you really like the texture of whole pieces of eggplant and onion in your soup. (My kids didn’t even know that eggplant existed after I blasted it in the Vitamix.) Add the eggplant mixture into the chicken broth along with the rest of the ingredients except the basil. Cook on medium heat for 20 minutes or so and then add the basil and cook for a few more minutes.
I served this with cheese toast, made in my on the counter toaster oven, and fruit. Quick, (after I enlisted the help of my children for grating cheese, picking basil and chopping), easy and healthy!
[ 1 Comment ] Posted on 07.10.08 under Eggplant, Recipes, Tomatoes, Zucchini & Summer Squash
Mac & Cheese with Yellow Squash
June 12, 2008
Here’s a way to hide the Yellow Squash from the kids pretty well.
Just make your normal Mac & Cheese, whether it’s from a box (yuck) or homemade, and then add some diced, sauteed yellow squash, not the green stuff. Zucchini sticks out like a sore thumb. Trust me, I know these things. :) I’m at the point of trying to hide the squash now because no one here in my house wants to see the stuff anymore. I have to sneak it into the house and hide it while I’m making dinner. LOL!
[ No Comments ] Posted on 06.12.08 under Recipes, Zucchini & Summer Squash
Zucchini Boats on the Grill
June 11, 2008
We had this the other night with our steaks.
Zucchini Boats on the Grill (from allrecipes.com)
Ingredients:
- 2 medium zucchini
- 1 slice white bread, torn into small pieces
- 1/4 cup bacon bits
- 1 tablespoon minced black olives
- 1 jalapeno pepper, minced
- 3 tablespoons diced green chile peppers
- 1/4 cup minced onion
- 1/4 cup chopped tomato
- 6 tablespoons shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
- 1 pinch dried basil
- seasoned salt to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
Directions:
- Prepare the grill for indirect heat.
- Place the zucchini in a pot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook 5 minutes. Drain, cool, and cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out the pulp to about 1/4 inch from the skin. Chop pulp.
- In a bowl, mix the zucchini pulp, bread pieces, bacon bits, olives, jalapeno, green chile peppers, onion, tomato, and Cheddar cheese. Season with basil, seasoned salt, and pepper.
- Stuff the zucchini halves with the pulp mixture. Seal each stuffed half in aluminum foil.
- Place foil packets on the prepared grill over indirect heat. Cook 15 to 20 minutes, until tender.
This is what I used from my garden…4 zucchinis, a tomato, 1 jalapeno, 1 bulgarian carrot pepper and 3 pepperoncinis.
Before I sent them into the oven, they looked like this:
And this is after they came out. I, of course, had to smother them with cheese so my kids would eat it.
This is my husband humoring me by eating the middle out of it and discarding the rest. (He really dislikes squash if it looks likes squash…I couldn’t really hide the squash as a zucchini boat. lol )
It got mixed review from my crew. We did all agree that the filling was yummy, but not many wanted to eat the big boats. Oh well, you can’t win if you don’t try.
[ 1 Comment ] Posted on 06.11.08 under Recipes, Zucchini & Summer Squash
Heavenly Zucchini Bake Recipe
June 03, 2008
My Aunt Betty sent me a recipe for zucchini and summer squash the other day so we tried it out a couple of days ago. It was really yummy!
Heavenly Zucchini Bake
By Amercolpsa
Creamy baked zucchini. So easy to make. Great with chicken.
Cook Time: 47
Prep Time: 10
Average Rating: 0
4 medium to medium large zucchini
1 small container whipping cream
1 1/2 cups grated fresh Parmesan cheese
Slice the zucchini into long wedges, roughly the size of steak fry
potatoes.
Place one layer in a rectangular oven baking dish. Pour container of
unwhipped cream over.
Cover with the grated Parmesan cheese. Bake at 325 degrees for 45
minutes.
Broil for 2 minutes or so to get the top bubbly and brown.
From http://www.grouprecipes.com/
Well, it was sort of this recipe. I used yellow summer squash and added a minced jalapeno, some halved orange cherry tomatoes and a handful of fresh basil. It was so rich that I could only eat a very small portion, but it was really good. The kids didn’t like it very much, but I did. I’ll tell ya, I’ve never had squash like that before!
[ 4 Comments ] Posted on 06.03.08 under Recipes, Zucchini & Summer Squash
Lentil Soup and Thanks
May 29, 2008
Last night I had 4 yellow squash, a jalapeno and a bunch of tomatoes that no one was eating from my garden. So, I made lentil soup and added all those ingredients to it, plus some brown rice, onions and carrots. I’ll spare you the pictures because pictures of lentil soup look disgusting. However, Cary, my husband, even ate it and said it was really good and he really dislikes squash and lentils. My kids also all loved it. I was amazed!
Thanks Dad and Aunt Betty for all the ideas on what to do with the extra eggplants and zucchini. Gardens force you to get creative! I gladly welcome any new ideas on how to reinvent the eggplant, squash and tomato.
[ 1 Comment ] Posted on 05.29.08 under Recipes, Tomatoes, Zucchini & Summer Squash
What we did with the eggplants, zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes…
May 22, 2008
We had Eggplant burgers (meatless),
fried zucchini and yellow squash,
and sliced tomatoes with basil for dinner last night.
It was tasty!
[ 4 Comments ] Posted on 05.22.08 under Eggplant, Recipes, Tomatoes, Zucchini & Summer Squash
Ratatouille Pasta Recipe
May 20, 2008
So I had these 2 eggplants and a bunch of zucchini’s to cook for dinner last night. I honestly didn’t know what to do with them so I went to allrecipes.com and typed in eggplant and zucchini in the ingredient search. I found one called Ratatouille Pasta. The recipe was for 3 servings and I think I tripled it to feed my crew and added some hamburger, so it basically turned out to be a spaghetti sauce with eggplant and zucchini. In my opinion, it hid the veggies very well. My kids ate it and said it was yummy. Here is the recipe for 3 servings:
Ratatouille Pasta
Ingredients:
- 2 cups diced peeled eggplant (I didn’t peel mine because they were so small and tender that I didn’t need it)
- 2 cups sliced zucchini
- salt to taste
- 1 1/3 cups uncooked spiral pasta
- 1 cup sliced onion
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil (I used a very large handful of fresh basil and added it at the end instead of dried)
- Dash pepper
- 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
- (I added one of my jalapenos minced up from the garden instead of pepper)
Directions:
- Place eggplant and zucchini in a colander over a plate; sprinkle with salt and toss. Let stand for 30 minutes; rinse and drain well. (I skipped this part)
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet, saute the eggplant, zucchini and onion in oil until tender. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, garlic powder, basil and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cook, uncovered, over medium-low heat for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Drain pasta; place on an ovenproof platter. Top with vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Broil 4-6 in. from the heat until cheese is melted.
We also didn’t have the mozzarella, but it would have been really good with it.
My kids diced up all the veggies, so maybe that’s why they liked it so much.
This picture didn’t make it look very good, but it tasted good and every single one of my 5 kids ate it and said it was good. I was completely amazed!
They said it was “thumbs up”.
My 2 year old even said it was “thumbs up”, in his own way of course.
[ No Comments ] Posted on 05.20.08 under Eggplant, Recipes, Tomatoes, Zucchini & Summer Squash
