Hello friends!

Bet you thought you wouldn't see me again. lol. Truth be told. I love blogs, I still love cooking, I love planning out meals.....my problem is time! My husband is deployed now, and I'm running a military wives ministry. Oh, and we have 3 kids! Yikes!

One of the things I'm trying to figure out is why is it so hard to cook with my husband gone? If you are a military wife, you know what I'm talking about. It's so hard for me to find motivation to cook a homecooked, creative, healthy meal for just me and the kids. Like I said, I'm working on it. Tonight was victorious!

Caleb choose dinner.....speghetti and salad. I know what your thinking....creative???? NOT!

Well, if I can toot my horn for a sec......I made our own tomato sauce. You would think with as much cooking as I have done, I would have made my own tomato sauce. Nope. Tonight was my first....and....it was a success! Did I mention, the tomatoes came from my garden...oh, I didn't....well....tooooot, tooooot. (that was my horn again, lol)

So the recipe......is not going to be precise. It was a dash or this and a dash of that kind of recipe.

5-6 Ripe Tomatoes

4-5 cloves of garlic

Italian seasoning grinder (mccormicks)

Olive Oil

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut tomatoes in wedges. Chop garlic. lightly drizzle olive oil over tomatoes and garlic on a cookie sheet. Use as much or as little Italian seasoning as you'd like. Salt and pepper. Roast for about an hour. (It smells great!) Spoon all into food processor or blender and pulse until smooth or desired smoothness is reached. oh, and salt and pepper again. (if you want)

Zucchini Brownies with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

NOTE: These brownies are cake like.....I even thought maybe I shouldn't call them brownies....however it uses no eggs and no baking powder....so, I'm calling it a brownie.



The cream cheese frosting is really good, but it does overpower the cake a little, I mean brownie. I'm waiting for a recipe for a frosting that I believe will go perfect. Ok, confession time. I tried to make the "perfect frosting" last night....and it was disasterous. By the end of the night, it was re-named marshmallow chocolate soup. Anywho, this is a good recipe and a good way to use up some zucchini.



Zucchini Brownies

1/2 cup veg oil
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 cup walnuts (opt)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 pan. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. set aside. Cream together the vegtable oil, sugar, and vanilla. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet. The mixture will look grainy. Stir in zucchini and walnuts. Let mixture sit for 5 min. The zucchini will add quite a bit more moisture. Bake for 25-30 min or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool brownies before frosting.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
1 package (8oz) cream cheese softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup evaporated milk (or heavy cream)
1 cup chocolate chips

Cream the cream cheese and powdered sugar in a mixture. Melt chocolate chips and milk in a double broiler or slowly in the microwave. Add the melted chocolate to the cream cheese slowly.
Frost the brownies.

Enjoy!

Zucchini 2010

We are visiting my family in Missouri right now and my parents garden is in full swing! We now have 10 cucumbers, 9 zucchini, and a bucket full of beans on the counter.
We have high hopes and plans for these lovely veggies. Today, zucchini brownies.....tomorrow refrigerator pickled veggies! Can't wait!

I posted a huge list of zucchini recipes last summer. Here is the link. Enjoy!

Zucchini Recipes

Healthy Sweet Potato Pancakes

It's snowing.....again. It's definitely an inside day.....so that means.....I'm cooking. :-) (and cleaning a little :-(

We started off our day with Healthy Sweet Potato Pancakes

2 cups white whole wheat flour
4 t baking powder
2 T brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
2 cups milk (plus more for thinning)
1/4 cup milled flax seeds or wheat germ (half and half would be awesome)
4 t butter, melted
2 eggs
1 sweet potato, cooked (a heaping 1/2 cup is good)

Mix well. Let sit for a few minutes and it will get smoother. Add milk for thinner pancakes. (I ended up adding quite a bit) Butter or spray your pan.
Pour 1/4 cup of batter into a med high hot pan. When you see bubbles, flip.

Enjoy!

These take a little bit longer to cook than normal pancakes. You could also sub in pumpkin instead of sweet potato. Yum! Double your batch and/or freeze your leftovers for a quick breakfast during the week.

Veggies....Veggies....and more Veggies....

My husband expressed to me earlier this month that he would love more vegatarian meals. I was surprised.....and that was replaced with fear! I'm not sure I can make some great vegatarian meals. Guess what folks? I can!!!! I picked up Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates cookbook and I gathered up some recipes along with my courage and went for it. First, I made a ratatouille. YUM! Here is the recipe I used (it was adapted with some changes from the Moosewood cookbook. Enjoy!

4 cups Eggplant cubed
2 cups onion chopped
1 cup yellow squash cubed
3 cups zucchini cubed
3 cups bell peppers chopped (two colors are prettier:-)
1 can Italian diced tomatoes
3 Tbl olive oil

375 degrees
Prep all veggies. Rinse the eggplant in a colander, drain, and dry with a paper towel. Toss eggplant, squash, zucchini, bell peppers, onions with 2 Tbl olive oil. Spread the veggies in a single layer on a baking tray. Roast for about 40 min until veggies are soft and edges are brown.
Layer half the veggies in a baking pan and top with half the can of Italian tomatoes. Layer on the remaining veggies and the rest of the tomatoes. Cover and bake for 40 min. Serve immediately.
We served ours over some brown rice. It would be great with pasta or polenta. Garnish with Parmesan cheese.

Sweet Potatoes with Roasted Bananas and Pecans

Sweet Potatoes with Roasted Banana and Pecans

6 lbs sweet potatoes
1 ripe banana (leave the peel on)
1/2 st butter, soft
1/2 c maple syrup
2 T grd cinnamon
2 t pumpkin pie spice
1/2 t salt

1 lb pecans
1/2 c butter unsalted
1 T salt
2 T brown sugar

Poke the potatoes with a fork and bake about 1 hour in a 425 degree oven. Roast the banana with the peel on in a dish for 15 min at the same temp. When cooled, peel the potatoes and banana. Put in a food processor or blender and pulse but leave the potatoes somewhat chunky. Add the butter and maple and puree until your desired smoothness. Add the cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice and salt. Transfer to a baking dish and smooth out.
In a skillet, cook the pecans with the butter over low heat and spinkle in the salt. Stir often for about 5 min. Put the pecans on top of the sweet potatoes and sprinkle the remaining brown sugar. Bake at 300 degrees for about 20 min until heated throughly.

This is very similar to a recipe Tyler Florence did a few years ago on Food Network.

Tomatoes

Are your tomatoes coming in full force? Ours are coming.....but even if we didn't have a garden I love tomatoes and would buy them just to make the following recipes! Salsas.....oven dried tomatoes, sauces, stuffed......YUM! Here is a collection of yummy tomato recipes from great blogs and recipe sites! Add your own if you'd like. :)

Salsa

Garden Fresh Salsa

Great Salsa.com

Stuffed

Ricotta Stuffed Tomatoes

Spinach and Ham Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomato Pie

Pasta with Tomatoes and Feta Cheese

Tomato Basil Elephant Ears

Roasted Tomato Soup

Bruschetta

Tomato Cream Sauce

Sauce

Fresh Tomato Pizza Sauce

Fresh Tomato Enchilada Sauce

Fresh Tomato Spaghetti Sauce

Grilled Cheddar, Tomato and Bacon Sandwiches

Step by Step on how to can tomatoes

Zucchini

This is my daughter, Claire, holding her zucchini "bat."

Is your garden overflowing with zucchini? Mine is! My zucchini beast, I mean plant, has pretty much taken over a section of my garden. So, here are a plethora of zucchini recipes. Add yours if you'd like.

Grilled Stuffed Zucchini

Zucchini Pizza

Zucchini Carrot Cake

Freezer Zucchini Soup

Baked Zucchini Sticks

Roasted Veggie Lasagna

Veggie Tian

Zucchini and Yellow Squash Gratin

Roasted Salmon with Zucchini

Zucchini Lasagna

Zucchini Quesadilla

Zucchini Fritters

Zucchini Cobbler

Zucchini Chocolate Cake

Zucchini Breakfast Casserole

Zucchini Cookies

You can even eat the flower from the zucchini plant

Fried Zucchini Flower

Zucchini Flower Taco Recipe

More Zucchini Blossom Recipes

If this is not enough....you can buy a book!!! The Classic Zucchini Cookbook

And of course I could never forget.......the beloved Zucchini Bread Recipe or how about 20!