Spaghetti Squash Cake w/ Cream Cheese Glaze + GIVEAWAY! (closed)
September 27, 2011
I feel like I am constantly hearing about new products and health facts. First they say artificial sweeteners are better for you, then they say they will give you diseases. They say don’t eat this, then they realize you should. It is hard to keep up sometimes. One of my main issues is whether to use real butter, margarine, olive oil, or something else. I recently learned about cooking with coconut oil, and am really excited that I did! Coconut oil has saturated fats, BUT they are actually a good kind of saturated fat. Coconut oil contains lots of antioxidants, helps the body absorb important nutrients and minerals, eliminates harmful bacteria, and fights the signs of aging. It can be substituted for fats in recipes, such as butter, olive oil, etc. If you are substituting it for butter, I would suggest using about 3/4 cup coconut oil for every 1 cup butter.
Zucchini & Eggplant Stew
I feel like I need to apologize for this post if you don’t like zucchini or eggplant, but I just can’t seem to use it all up! It is seriously like the magical vegetable combination that just keeps returning after you take it out of your fridge. If you have partial zucchinis and eggplants leftover from other dishes, this is a great way to put them to use and eliminate wasting them. Once again, please bear with me; I have felt like I have eaten zucchini and/or eggplant for every meal (even at work!) for the last month!
Breaded Zucchini & Eggplant Pasta w/ Chive-Basil Pesto
The fall has begun to roll in and the garden veggies just keep on coming. It is kind of nice hardly ever having to go to the grocery store. Instead, I get to walk into my garden and look around for what my next meal is going to be. The spaghetti squash have also begun to grow and there are tons of tomatoes waiting to turn. Of course, the zucchini has been endless as well. I also got a lot of eggplants from my mom’s farm, so I decided to make this dish using my homegrown herbs and veggies. Here is the continuance of my never ending zucchini recipes.
Plum Crunch
Being a part of the food blogging world is awesome; of course I am sure many of you already know that. Apart from meeting so many new people, great non-profits and soo much delicious food- I have found something ELSE! The Secret Recipe Club. No not like it’s a secret, because otherwise I wouldn’t be telling you about it. The secret recipe club works kind of like secret santa gifts; you get assigned a fellow blogger, then you have to re-create a recipe from their blog for a certain date. Check them out here, although I think there is a wait list to join now since so many people are wanting to participate.
Zucchini Eggplant Lasagna
The cool air is finally sweeping across Colorado. Friends in the mountains said it was even snowing at the tops of the mountains! It is kind of a relief after the hot summer we had. Even with the cool weather, my garden is still overflowing with zucchinis. Other gardens are overflowing with eggplants, so of course I am continuing to add to my long list of zucchini recipes; and some eggplant ones as well.
Zucchini Spinach-Artichoke Tart
After my last post I got a message from my mom asking if I really ate spinach artichoke dip for dinner. The answer is yes, sorry Mom I know it’s not healthy but sometimes you just need to indulge your cravings. So apparently spinach artichoke dip is not OK for dinner… unless you turn it into a savory vegetable tart! So here it is, dip for dinner plus another zucchini recipe for all of you drowning in zucchini at the moment; for all of you, there are quite a few zucchini recipes coming up this next week, so grab all those overgrown zucchinis from you garden and get ready.
Spinach Artichoke Dip
September 13, 2011
You know those nights when you are trying to figure out what you want for dinner but just can’t decide? Then you also probably know those nights when you can’t decide because all you really want for dinner is something ridiculous… like spinach artichoke dip. That is exactly what happened to me last week. I couldn’t decide what to make, but I was craving spinach artichoke dip SO bad… so I decided I was having spinach artichoke dip and pita chips for dinner. Hey at least there are veggies in it right?
Zucchini Wrapped Mahi Mahi w/ Tomato Aioli
Have you ever had your freezer melt and lose all of your food? Well, this almost just happened to me. I had all of my proteins in the basement freezer, including a bag of salmon, a bag of shrimp, a bag of mahi mahi, a 3 lb tri-tip, 2 strip steaks, 1 pack of bacon and 6 chicken breasts. While cooking dinner last week, my roommate came upstairs with a bag of dripping, melted, rotten bananas in her hand saying, “You might not want to eat anything in that freezer down there….” Of course, I immediately panicked. Luckily, the door hadn’t been open long enough to melt all of the proteins; I only lost the pack of bacon and two strip steaks. Now all of my proteins have a new home in my mini fridge freezer.
Strawberry Vinaigrette
I don’t want to jinx it, but I think the summer heat is finally dying out; of course now that I said that it will probably be over 90 next week. That’s ok though because you need a few more hot sunny days to try this sweet vinaigrette recipe! I got the idea from the blog Coconut & Lime and figured it would be perfect for a nice sweet summer salad.
Zucchini & Tomato Gratin
Isn’t it kind of funny how every time a season changes, a year ends, a month ends, school ends or school starts everybody always says “Wow I can’t believe it’s already ____”? It’s not a rare thing for it to seem as though time just flew right past us, yet we always are surprised by it. Instead of being surprised, realize how fast time passes and focus on this moment, these people and these things that you have in your life right now; they will come and go quicker than you may think. I think watching time fly past is a sign that we need to slow down and live today instead of always working for tomorrow.
