Tag Archives: zucchini

Food Friday – Versatile Pie: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner or Dessert!

23 Saturday Jun 2018

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Zucchini (and Bacon) Frittata

It’s squash season and our diet is full of all things zucchini and yellow summer squash!

When it comes to summer meals, I am all for one dish dinners that are quick, easy, and don’t heat up the kitchen too much.  In years past, quiche with almost any kind of veggie filling has been go-to summertime dinner.  But, quiche, with its pie crust and heavy cream filling, though tasty, is not particularly weight loss friendly.  This year’s substitute for that quiche is the frittata.  Honestly, I find it equally as delicious and much more kind to my waistline!

This particular recipe is a little labor intensive, but it is definitely worth it.  Set the A/C a few degrees lower and go for it!  The day I made it, the thermometer on our patio read 105 degrees.  I have no regrets!

Ingredients:

The first step is to shred about two pounds of squash.  I did it in about 30 seconds using the food processor.  You can use all zucchini, all yellow summer squash, or combination of the two.  I used the a combination.  Once you have shredded your squash of choice, place it in a colander stir in the salt.  Place a heavy bowl on top of the squash and let it drain for about an hour.  You may also want to give it a few good squeezes.  The goal is to remove as much liquid as possible before cooking.

While the squash is draining, dice the onions.  If you wish to add bacon, this is also the time to cook it.  I used four slices of thick-cut uncured bacon. Set the cooked bacon aside.  Leave 2 TBS of the bacon drippings in the pan.

Once the squash has drained, mix in the onions.  Saute this mixture either in olive oil or the reserved bacon drippings.  Cook the mixture for about 20 minutes.  The veggie volume will greatly diminish!

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Once the veggies are done, in a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, cheese, and flour.  Stir in the veggies (having drained off any excess liquid), and cooked bacon.

Drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil into a 9 or 10 inch round oven safe pan.  I used a cast iron skillet.  Pour the mixture into the pan spreading it evenly.  Bake it for 20-25 minutes until the top is golden brown.

That’s it!

I cut mine in to eight servings.

I am glad that I added the bacon to this recipe.  Without it, I think that it might have been a little bland.  Notice there are no herbs or spices.  If I were to make this recipe with veggies only, I would likely add a little garlic and maybe some red pepper flakes.

This is a super flexible recipe!  Use broccoli or spinach.  Add ham.  Experiment with herbs and spices.  Most importantly, enjoy!

 

from Tracey G.

No-Bake Fresh Strawberry Pie

Where to begin with this No-Bake Fresh Strawberry Pie recipe saga, how about here:

A week ago in a galaxy kitchen far, far away…

My temperamental kitchen sink drain/run of pipe decided it was a good time to clog up. Now it does this about twice a year, due to the poor plumbing job when the house was built (which Jeremy curses every time he has to fix said drain clogs), too long of a run of pipe and gravity is NOT on its side. Usually a bit of muscle get is it going. Well, we thought after the industrial-strength drain eater cleaner, it seemed to be ok. Nope, about a day or so later, we were back at the beginning again. Long story short after practically tearing apart the kitchen, pipes etc, we were good to go. Although there’s still a bit of a problem with the parts at the sink that I had to work around until new could be acquired.

Whew, ok, where was I? Oh right, the saga…

Well, this ” sink drain development” set me behind, and I mean REALLY behind in my Food Friday preparations. So much so that it was Friday morning when I finally got to get started on the recipe. But of course it’s one that needs to set up for about 2 hours (well, they do say that you can eat  it right away if you like/want, but I had photos to think of, so set up time was a good thing), and I knew there was no way it would be ready in time for photos and then posting, so I told Kris I’d be most likely posting on Saturday.

I had first seen this recipe in the Spring issue of Sift, and it calls for one baked 9-inch pie shell, so I used their Single Pie Crust recipe I’ve used many times. But when I looked up the recipe online, it had a different title (the “No-Bake” part added), different crust (although they list you can use a traditional crust in the “Tips From Our Bakers” section, which is what I did), a different amount of berries (2 lbs. instead of 1 lb., along with different sugar amount) and an extra option added for thickening – the KAF Pie Filling Enhancer, instead of just the corn starch listed in magazine.  Well, ok, good thing I got 2 lbs of strawberries!

I got my pie crust made, but let me tell you – I opted to try the “Stand Mixer Method” as talked about in this post from KAF’s blog, Flourish, entitled – “How To Make Pie Crust In Your Stand Mixer: Easy Does It”. And out of everything that went wrong for me along this recipe’s journey, this went so right! It was a great way to bring it together, and super easy! Unfortunately, myself and Pie Pastry have a long-standing love/hate relationship. Just when I think I have it mastered, it laughs at me and says “Oh no you don’t, take that! Ha!!” and becomes a mess to work with, as it did this time. I have no idea what I did wrong, likely not enough water – but let’s just say it became a “pat-in-the-pan” style crust.

Moving on…. I got the pastry shell baked, fairly successfully. I had a few cracks here and there, but nothing I’d worry about, ugly but oh well, ugly food can still taste good!

Now, on to the berry part. I prepped the berries as stated in the recipe. You then pull about 1 1/2 cups out and place in a saucepan, along with your sugar and thickener of choice. I chose to use the Pie Filling Enhancer as I had some that I wanted to use up that had come from a defective batch to KAF’s standards. They had initiated contact with me about it, refunded my money and attached alternate usage instructions for it. I figured this would be a good project to use up the rest of it for. Unfortunately, it didn’t offer a totally clear thickening, mine’s a bit cloudy. But again, it still tastes good!

So, you cook the 1 1/2 cups of berries in the saucepan along with the other filling ingredients (but not the lemon juice), until they thicken, then add in your lemon juice. After that, you stir the whole mix into the rest of the fresh berries and place in the pie shell. As I said before, they state you can eat it now, while warmish or refrigerate for a couple hours to set up. I felt that there weren’t enough berries, maybe I cut them too small, but it seemed to look under-filled – I think next time I’ll get one more pound of berries! The more the merrier I say!

As the saga continued, I had some more trouble when it came time photograph it – of course right? Everything else has had a hitch, why not this part too? While taking it out of the refrigerator,  I managed to break the crust further, lol. I did hide that area for the photo though, I’ve had enough issues with the making of this recipe and wanted something that looked decent!

I have to say though that I really loved this pie and will make it again. I used to love our Big Boy Restaurant’s Fresh Strawberry Pie and this is way better, lol. Maybe because I made it myself and I can eat as much as I want??? It’s so super easy, I swear Harry could make it without help, as long as there were no setbacks such as I dealt with along the way!

If you get some fresh berries – do try this pie! I love that it has a few crust idea alternatives along with the one they utilize in the online recipe. The one in the online recipe is a true pat in the pan crust! Not one that should be rolled out and decided to be difficult, lol. I wish now I’d have tried that one first! Could have saved me a step! 😀

 

Food Friday – In, On, and Around

06 Friday Apr 2018

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from Kris B.

Creamy Artichoke-Zucchini Dip

Yep, this is another recipe that I chose based on my ongoing attempt to be more intentional about what I eat with the hope that I will lose some unneeded and unwanted weight.  I am following the Weight Watchers plan which, at least in the first three weeks, has proven to work for me.  We’ll see if over the next few months the rest of the weight comes off as easily.

Fruits and veggies are “free” foods on the Weight Watchers plan so I figured a recipe that has veggies as its primary ingredients would be a good place to start.  I have always been a fan of spinach-artichoke dip.  In fact, I will eat spinach with, on, or in just about anything.  I was a little surprised by this recipe’s use of zucchini instead of spinach; but hey, I like zucchini too so what is there to lose?  And if my garden produces like it did last year, I should have an abundance of zucchini.  I’m always grateful for new ways to use it!  So, Creamy Artichoke-Zucchini Dip it is!

You may think that a recipe that uses both cream cheese and sour cream would not be  “figure friendly.”  This recipe actually uses both low-fat cream cheese and low-fat sour cream.  The use of these low-fat ingredients is not a high calorie recipe re-do; they are used because full fat of both of these ingredients would make the dip way too rich.

The full list of ingredients is:

  • 1 14oz can of artichoke hearts
  • 1 small zucchini
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 2 scallions
  • 8 oz. of low-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel)
  • 1/2 cup low-fat sour cream
  • 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 – 1 tsp Tabasco sauce
  • 1/4 tsp salt

In addition to the twist of zucchini rather than spinach, this recipe also suggests an interesting means of preparation.  It calls for the dip to be cooked in a bread machine on the jam setting.  I don’t have a bread machine because, well, using a bread machine takes all of the fun out of making bread.  That said, I had no idea that you can use a bread machine for making something other than bread.  To be honest, as intriguing as this sounds, even if I did have a bread machine with a jam setting, I don’t know why you would choose to cook this dip that way.

To make the Creamy Artichoke-Zucchini Dip, all of the ingredients are placed in a food processor.  I pulsed them until the large chunks of vegetables were small  You don’t want a completely smooth paste.  Then place the dip in an oven-safe dish and bake it for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.  It’s that simple!

For some reason, I don’t seem to have an oven safe dish the proper size for the three cups of dip that the recipe makes.  Everything I have is either too big or too small.  I felt like Goldilocks in the kitchen!  Lol!  In the midst of this dilemma, I decided to calculate the Weight Watchers point value for the dip.  It turns out to be a reasonable 5 points for a half cup serving.  And with that discovery, my baking problem was solved.  I used six half-cup ramekins making it very easy to control portion size!

Weber and I had the dip on celery for lunch.  It is quite tasty.  I did use the lesser amount of Tabasco; he requested more next time I make it I use “a lot” more.  The 1/2 of a teaspoon wasn’t even noticeable.  And this is not because are Texas taste buds are numb to heat.  So, next time I make this, a little more hot and hopefully some homegrown zucchini!

Snack, appetizer for guests, lunch, a dinner side…the Creamy Artichoke-Zucchini Dip is up for the challenge!

My next experiment with it may be as a topping for a flatbread pizza.  I’ll let you know how that works!

from Tracey G.

Lemon-Garlic Butter

As I looked through recipes for this week, a thought struck me that, sometimes, simple is better. Something super easy to make is something we don’t usually think of. This week, the compound butter recipe from King Arthur Flour for Lemon-Garlic Butter felt like that kind of thing – simple, yet something I don’t usually make or have on hand, which is crazy because it’s an easy and quick thing to make and use! And this recipe is really just a jumping off point to all the possibilities. As I was combining the ingredients, my brain was already ahead of myself as to the variations that this could be put through…chili powder for something different, or even sweet versions adding honey for biscuit topping or whatever else you like. The possibilities are endless, and butter is a good vehicle for all kinds of flavors!

This recipe uses the KAF Lemon Juice Powder, but you can use fresh if you desire. I have the powder on hand, so wanted to give it a try that way first. And, me being me, I sometimes cannot leave well enough alone, and, I added a splash of extra-virgin olive oil as the butter was blending in the mixer and a drop or two of my Lemon Oil that I get from KAF. But seriously, none of that is necessary and it’s my own thing I felt compelled to do! And, ok, I added some dried parsley as it, admittedly, would (hopefully) help it photograph better! A little bit of green in a sea of butter-colored butter!

This is recipe that is actually more of a method, and in this instance the method has amounts of particular ingredients. If you wing it on some other flavor, you can make it to your taste!

This, method/recipe involves:

  • 1 stick of butter
  • 1 tbsp of garlic
  • 1 tbsp of Lemon Juice Powder, or 1-2 tsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp salt if you use unsalted butter.

You put all ingredients into the mixer bowl and blend until the butter is fluffy. I then dumped it out onto a piece of waxed paper, and proceeded to make a roll out of it, twisted the ends of the wax paper, then back in the refrigerator it went!

It’s just that easy to have flavored butter around for whatever you desire. I am planning on using this on hot pasta and possible a pat of it on a nice steak! And since you can freeze butter beautifully, this would keep well in smaller portions frozen, ready to be pulled out as needed!

 

Food Friday – Brownies!

10 Saturday Feb 2018

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from Kris B.

Zucchini Brownies

Friday mornings at my house are the best.  My daughter is off.  I don’t have to be at school.  And, Mr. Retired is always home.  This is the one day a week that we can all sit at the table together, drink coffee and eat breakfast, and discuss the goings-on in the world.  At our house, we still get an actual newspaper that we enjoy reading with our morning coffee.  It often provides fodder for our Friday morning family conversation.

Today there was a story about a Girl Scout in San Diego, California who set up her cookie selling operation outside a marijuana dispensary.  She sold 300 boxes of cookies in six hours.  In response to hearing about this girl’s successful entrepreneurial  endeavor, my twenty-eight year-old daughter said, “If the Girl Scouts really want to increase their cookie revenue, they should start selling edibles.”

This same (adult) child of mine then asked me what I was making for this week’s blog recipe.  I told her that I was making Zucchini Brownies.  She said to me, “I don’t know why people ruin baked goods by putting stuff in them that doesn’t belong.”

Clearly we have an issue at our house in getting from point A to point B. 🙂

Last week I mentioned that we all can use more fruits and veggies in our diets.  When I saw King Arthur Flour’s recipe for Zucchini Brownies, I thought why not.  Let’s give this a try.  

Unlike most zucchini bread recipes, which use grated zucchini, this Zucchini Brownie recipe uses pureed zucchini.  In fact, the batter is made entirely in a food processor.  First, the zucchini is pureed with melted butter, eggs, and vanilla.  Then, the dry ingredients – flour, sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt – are processed in. Once all of the ingredients are fully incorporated, chocolate chips are added to the batter and pulsed a few times, just enough to break them up a little.

The brownies are baked at 350 degrees in a 9×9 pan for 25-30 minutes.  I did check my brownies at the 25 minute mark; it took the full thirty minutes for the center to get completely done.  Once out of the oven, the brownies cool completely before then being frosted.

The frosting for the Zucchini Brownies is a simple mixture of chocolate chips and milk or cream that are melted together in the microwave.  The recipe makes enough frosting for a thin layer that does not overpower the brownies themselves.  After frosting the brownies, they are placed in the refrigerator for an hour to allow the frosting to set.

So, the taste…

The truth is that on its own zucchini has little taste.  When eaten as a side vegetable, it picks up the flavor of the spices and other food with which it is combined.  In this case, chocolate is definitely the over-arching flavor, but my daughter and I both agree that there is sort of an “earthy” after-taste to the brownies.  It’s not bad.  I have to wonder, though,  if I would notice it if I didn’t know that the brownies contain zucchini.

This brings me back to my daughter’s question of why add ingredients that don’t really belong.

I love brownies and I also love zucchini.  And though the two work OK together in this recipe, I have to be honest here and say that I would rather eat my zucchini with dinner and have a “regular” brownie for dessert.  If you have to sneak vegetables into someone’s diet, this recipe is an excellent way to do it.  And, it does make for a moist and chewy brownie.  But if, like me, you enjoy both zucchini and chocolate each in their own right, I’d skip this combination.  Enjoy them as the chocolate and zucchini separately.

It all comes down to “Why?”

King Arthur Flour’s Zucchini Brownies

from Tracey G.

Cinnamon-Spiced Chocolate Brownies

This week being my dreaded root canal appointment week, I wanted an easy-to-do and easy-to-eat option, as the reason for my needing the root canal, is a broken tooth that’s temporarily filled and therefore, my food choices are limited, ugh. I didn’t want to make something I couldn’t eat (i.e. crunchy, sticky, chewy etc), so, Brownies jumped right out at me – easy and easy to eat!

I found this recipe for the Cinnamon-Spiced Chocolate Brownies at the King Arthur Flour website, and I knew I had to try them. My usually brownie recipe includes cinnamon, so I wanted to see if this was better (or worse I suppose).

This recipe was easy to put together and involved ingredients I had on hand.

Ingredients:

  • unsalted butter, melted
  • sugar
  • All-Purpose Baking Cocoa, or Dutch-process cocoa
  • salt
  • baking powder
  • espresso powder, optional
  • ground cinnamon
  • Mexican vanilla extract, or your favorite vanilla extract
  • cinnamon oil, optional
  • eggs
  • Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
  • semisweet chocolate chips

To start, you melt butter in a saucepan, add your sugar and stir until heated through. At this point, you add your cocoa powder, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and espresso powder (which is optional). Then add your vanilla. It also calls for a bit of cinnamon oil, but that, like the espresso, is optional. I didn’t have that on hand, so I didn’t use it.

Once you have that put together, you whisk in 4 eggs. Then stir in flour and lastly, fold in your chocolate chips. Spread in your prepared 9×13-in. pan, and bake for 34-36 minutes.

I think mine went the full 36 minutes and were just right, for once. Usually I have a tendency to over-bake my brownies for some reason, so I pleased with myself that I didn’t do that with these. Once they cool completely, you can cut them up and enjoy!

I love cinnamon hint, but Jeremy thought it was too strong for his tastes. So, maybe next time I’ll back it down to the amount I use in my old Brownie recipe and see how that goes, or no cinnamon at all. But I do know that this recipe is replacing my old one – it seemed to come together much easier, and involved things I always have on hand, which is definitely a plus!!

Food Friday – Stick It To You Appetizers

07 Friday Jul 2017

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from Tracey G.

As you all know, I am always looking for ways to use my self-rising flour up before it loses its “zing”, so when I was on the hunt for an appetizer recipe for this week at the King Arthur Flour website, I was really intrigued when I read the title of “Self-Rising Garlic Sticks”….hmmm, a bread-stick item without yeast? That could be a fast treat make. So, then I read the recipe and was convinced this was the one to try. Self-Rising Garlic Sticks became the plan! (If you’re like me and can’t find King Arthur Self-Rising Flour, they do sell it on their website, here. Or if you’re feeling you’d rather make your own, here’s a link to Homemade Self-Rising Flour)

The ingredients were super simple and basic. Self-rising flour, milk, butter and fresh garlic. That’s it. It’s a biscuit dough that, with the way you shape it, becomes these wonderful thin crispy garlicky sticks. Granted, not exactly figure friendly, but I’ve already got designs on trying it with less of a butter bath, lol.

It directs you to preheat your oven to 450°F, then put the butter on a 9×13″ pan, and pop it into the oven until it melts, then you pull it and sprinkle your minced garlic and stir to distribute, then carry on making your dough. I melted my butter in a glass dish in the microwave, then added my chopped garlic. No real particular reason for this, it just fit into my method better, lol.

Next, you mix up your dough by combining the self-rising flour and the milk. You gather it into a ball and fold it over on itself a 3-4 times. Then place it on a well-floured surface and pat into a rather thin, 10×8-in rectangle. After you’ve done that, you cut the rectangle in half, creating two 8×5″ rectangles that then are cut into 16 sticks each, giving you a grand total of 32. The sticks are about 1/2″ wide, by 5″ long.

Once the sticks are cut, you’re ready to add them to the pan. Your garlic butter should be on your pan, waiting for the dough sticks. As you’re placing them, roll them in the garlic butter and crowd them in the pan. They will be rather tightly together, and seemingly swimming in butter. I was skeptical as to how it would all come together with all that butter, but it does!

Bake your sticks at 450°F for about 15-20 minutes until they’re a light golden brown. When they come out and as soon as you can handle them, pull them apart gently and place on a plate, or in a basket for serving. They most definitely are best served warm, and in my opinion reheat nicely in some foil in a preheated oven. I froze half of them, so we shall see how those come out after being thawed and reheated in the near future!

These little sticks are extremely yummy and extremely addictive! They have a slightly crispy crunch and a yummy buttery garlic flavor. They’d be good with some grated or shredded Parmesan cheese on top as well! I served them with a pasta and marinara sauce dinner, and they were wonderful! I highly recommend these Self-Rising Garlic Sticks when you need a fast bread-stick for dinner or a quick and fun dippable appetizer!

 

from Kris B.

Don’t judge a book by its cover or a zucchini stick by its photo!  I will be the first to say that these Baked Zucchini Sticks with Sweet Onion Dip did not photograph well.  (Probably due to photographer error or degree of hunger.)  That said, they are absolutely delicious!  Whereas Tracey is looking for recipes to use up her self-rising flour before it is no longer self-rising, I’m looking for ways to eat our abundance of zucchini so that they don’t go to waste.

The Baked Zucchini Sticks with Sweet Onion Dip is a two-part recipe.  It involves the making of the onion dip and then the zucchini sticks themselves.  The dip has a mayonnaise base to which honey, mustard, cider vinegar and caramelized onions, that all have been pureed in a food processor, are added.  Salt and pepper to taste and the dip is done.  It is best when made ahead and given time to chill and allow the flavors to meld.

The baked zucchini sticks are simple to make.  The one thing you need to know is that the sliced zucchini must be salted and allowed to drain before you can coat and bake them.  Once they are drained, the zucchini sticks are dipped in some form of egg; it can be egg substitute, whole eggs, or egg whites.  They are then dredged in a mixture of panko and parmesan cheese seasoned with King Arthur Flour’s Pizza Seasoning.  The coated zucchini sticks are placed on parchment that has been lightly coated with olive oil and are then baked in a 425 degree oven for a total of 20 minutes, turning them once after twelve minutes.  As with any crispy baked item, these are best served right out of the oven.  We had none left so I can’t speak to how they might be if reheated. 🙂

From the three zucchini called for by the recipe, I got 24 sticks.  The dip recipe made about 1 1/2 cups of the sweet onion dip.  We had lots of dip left over after enjoying the zucchini sticks.  Admittedly, I am not one who likes my food covered in sauce, gravy, dressings, or dips, so I probably used less than was expected for a serving.  My husband ate his fair share and there was still more than half of the recipe left.  When I make this again, I will definitely pare down the recipe.  As I said, we did manage to eat all of the zucchini sticks!  They are a nice alternative to chips or the dreaded french fries alongside a sandwich or burger.

The thing that makes this a King Arthur recipe is the use of the King Arthur Flour Pizza Seasoning, but you can also use any Italian seasoning or herbs that you have.  Don’t let the fact that you don’t have the exact ingredient called for deter you from trying this Baked Zucchini Sticks with Sweet Onion Dip, especially if you have a garden overflowing with zucchini!

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