Butter Bean and Zucchini Triangles

Recipe Source

Wow – it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything other than a meal plan.  I just haven’t had the motivation lately, I guess.  Maybe I just needed a blogging break. 

However, my garden has kicked into high gear in this past week.  And the one thing that we always (never fails) have an over-abundance of?  Zucchini!  With only two of us in the house, I’m always struggling to find different ways to use it, or begging my friends and family to take some off our hands!  I know there are so many ways that zucchini can be used.  So, this year, I’m going to try to explore them all. (Okay, maybe not all, but a lot!)

Yesterday I really wanted to find a different recipe for zucchini for dinner.  For some reason the fact that we had a can of butter beans was sticking in my mind, so I put the two together, and found this!  I guess this is basically like a quiche (though, TBH, I’ve never made or actually had quiche) without the pie crust.

J and I both thought it was very good.  And it was quite filling!  It’s also very easy to make.  Just mix everything together, pour into a pie tin and bake!

Ingredients:
2 c grated zucchini (try to squeeze out as much water as you can)
1 small onion, finely diced (about 1/4-1/2 c)
1 can butter beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 c shredded cheese (I used colby and monterey jack)
1/2 c self-rising flour
3 eggs
2 T olive oil
1/4 t salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a pie pan or 9″x9″ baking dish.

In a large bowl, mix the zucchini, onion, beans, cheese and flour.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, olive oil and salt.  Then pour your egg mixture into the zucchini mixture, and stir well.

Pour into your pie pan and cook for about 30 minutes, until top is lightly golden.  Cut into 8 triangles and enjoy!

 

Pumpkin-Maple Granola

Recipe from Pink Parsley

I love granola.  It’s healthy and a great snack!  This recipe was delicious with the pumpkin pie spices and maple mixture.

I used homemade pumpkin puree for this recipe, which is really simple to make.  Just roast some pumpkin and put it in your blender! 🙂

When I make granola, I do have some trouble knowing when to take it out of the oven, so this was just slightly overdone.  I’ve noticed it doesn’t actually get crunchy in the oven, but begins to crunch as it cools. I think next time I may try to turn the temp down and cook it low and slow and maybe this will avoid overcooking.

I made a few changes from the original recipe, skipping the flax seeds, pepitas, raisins and figs.  I didn’t have any on hand (not exactly sure what pepitas are), but it still tasted delicious!

Ingredients:
3/4 c pumpkin puree
1/2 c pure maple syrup
1/4 c canola oil
2 T honey
3 c old-fashioned oats
1/2 c whole almonds (I did almond slivers)
1/3 c sunflower seeds
2/3 c coconut
2 T cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t ground ginger
1 t salt
1/2 c dried cranberries


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix the puree, syrup, oil and honey in a large bowl.  Add the remaining ingredients except the cranberries and mix well.

Pour mixture onto the baking sheet and spread out to uniform thickness.  Cook about 30-40 minutes, mixing every 10 minutes, until granola is golden brown and crispy.

Cool to room temperature and then mix in the cranberries.  Store in an airtight container.

 

Egg and Sun-Dried Tomato Breakfast Casserole

Recipe from youvegotsupper.com

Brinner!  Or is it Dinfast?  Whatever… I love breakfast for dinner.  Breakfast is definitely my favorite meal of the day… honestly, I could live off of egg and cheese bagel sandwiches.  Just ask J! 🙂

This casserole was really good, flavorful and extremely easy to put together.  Perfect for a weeknight meal.  It has sausage, garlic, shallots, eggs, cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and my addition of sweet peppers and mushrooms.

Ingredients:
1 lb Italian sausage
1/4 c shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 sweet pepper, diced
3-4 button mushrooms, chopped
1/2 c sun-dried tomatoes (oil-packed), chopped
2 t dried parsley
5 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 c half n half
1 c whipping cream
2 c shredded mozzarella
1/2 t salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 and lightly grease a 13×9 baking dish.

Saute sausage in skillet for about 3 minutes.  Add the shallots, garlic, pepper, mushrooms and cook for about 3 more minutes, until sausage is cooked through and veggies are tender. 

Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes and 1 t parsley and cook one more minute.  Spread sausage mixture in baking dish.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, egg yolks, half n half, whipping cream, 1 1/2 c mozzarella and salt.  Pour over sausage.

Top with the remaining parsley and mozzarella.  Bake for about 30 minutes, until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Let sit for 5 minutes and serve hot.

 

‘Kegs’ and Eggs

I love tailgating. 🙂 There’s just something about hanging out with your friends, grilling out and having a few beers before you enter a sporting event.

This past weekend, J and I took a trip out to Bristol, TN for the Nascar race.  If you’ve never been to one, these things are an experience!  The amount of people there is insane.  And everyone is super nice.  It’s really a lot of fun.

The race Sunday started at 1:00, so we decided to get there around 9:00 in the morning, and grill us up some breakfast.

J picked up a little charcoal grill before we left, and we’ll use it again in September when we go to a race in Richmond. 🙂  We decided to do sausage and eggs.  It was so delicious!  You got that great smoky taste from the charcoal.  After the race, since it takes a while to empty out, we decided to wait around and grill us some marinated pork chops, which we accompanied with macaroni salad.  Yum! 🙂

And, don’t forget the beer!  Our beer of choice this week… Blue Moon! 🙂

 

Oatmeal Pancakes

Recipe from Lynsey Lou’s 

These pancakes were delicious!  And I love that I now have a dry mix that I can throw together with a few ingredients to make pancakes at any time. 🙂

This mix recipe makes a ton!  The pancake recipe made about 12 4 inch pancakes.

Ingredients:
Dry Mix:
4 c rolled oats
2 c ap flour
2 c whole wheat flour
1 c packed brown sugar
1 c instant nonfat dry milk powder
3 T baking powder
2 t cinnamon (or to taste – I like a bit more)
1/2 t cream of tartar
5 t salt

Pancakes:
2 c dry mix
2 eggs
1/3 c canola oil
1 c water

Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients together until well blended.  Store what you don’t use in an airtight container.

To make pancakes, mix dry ingredients with eggs, oil and water until well blended.

Cook on a skillet or griddle until lightly browned on both sides.  I just served these with butter and syrup.

 

No Bake Protein Bars

I got this recipe from my friend, Bobby – I have no idea where it is originally from.  This is one of those recipes that can really be adapted to your personal tastes and preferences.  And I love that it’s no bake! 🙂

This is my first attempt with this recipe, and I stuck pretty close to what Bobby sent me.  I think next time I’ll cut back just a bit on the wet ingredients, but, otherwise, I thought these were really good!

If you make these, I’d love to know what changes you made, and what flavors you really like. Play around with the wet/dry increments to get a consistency that you like.

Ingredients:
1 c oats
1/2 c wheat germ (I used flax seed)
1/2 – 1 c protein (you can use any flavor, or powdered milk, coffee, cocoa powder or a combination)
1 c peanut butter (Bobby said chunky, but I used Natural creamy)
1 c dried fruit (I went with cranberries)
1/2-1 c unsweetened chocolate chips, or grate down a square or two of unsweetened baking chocolate (I did the baking chocolate)
1 c honey (or molasses, or half and half – maple syrup would probably work as well)

Directions:
Mix dry ingredients first, then peanut butter, then honey (or whatever you’re choosing to use).  Mix well and place in a very lightly greased 9×9 (what I used) or 9×13 baking dish (depends on how you want to them to be).  Press down into the dish.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours to set. 

Cut to size and enjoy.  I just leave the whole dish in my refrigerator covered in plastic wrap and grab one when I want one.

 

Cinnamon Butternut Squash Muffins

Recipe from $5 Dinners

Recipe 3 using the Ingredient of the Month: Butternut Squash!! 

My first 2 Butternut Squash recipes were of the savory variety – this one is sweet.  I really like how these turned out!  I saved about 4 of them (wrapped individually in plastic wrap) in a ziplock bag on the counter.  Since after a couple of days muffins tend to get bad if left out, I froze the rest.  Just take one out the night before, and it’s ready the next morning to be thrown in the microwave or toaster oven.  Definitely better warm! 🙂

 

The cooking technique for the Butternut Squash in this recipe involved roasting it, then using a mixer to mix it into the batter.  No need to puree it beforehand.

Ingredients:
1 banana, mashed
1 c cooked butternut squash (I cubed and peeled mine, tossed with a tiny bit of olive oil, and roasted for about 25 minutes at 400 degrees)
4 eggs
1/3 c applesauce
1/3 c white sugar
6 T canola or vegetable oil
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
2 t baking powder
2 t cinnamon
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c white flour
1 t cinnamon and 1/4 c light brown sugar (optional topping)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and grease muffin tins.

Mix banana, butternut squash, applesauce, sugar, eggs, oil and salt in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer (or in the bowl of a stand mixer).

In a smaller bowl mix the baking soda and powder, cinnamon and flours.

Pour the dry ingredients into the wet, and mix until a batter forms.

Pour the batter evenly into muffin tins (I ended up with 12 ‘regular’ sized muffins).  If you would like, combine the brown sugar and 1 t cinnamon, then sprinkle it over the muffins.

Bake for about 18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

I love these warmed with a bit of butter, or drizzled with honey!

 

Honey Yogurt Waffles

Recipe from Annie’s Eats

All I can say is SO GOOD!! Seriously – you have to try these. The flavor with the honey and the vanilla yogurt was excellent!

They didn’t quite get the crunchy outside that you may typically expect in waffles, so the texture was a bit soft and chewier than usual. But so good! 🙂

I made a full batch which makes about 4 waffles using our Belgian waffle iron. We just used maple syrup to top them, but I’m sure fresh berries would make a great addition.

Ingredients:
3 T unsalted butter
1 c flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/4 c old-fashioned oats
2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1 1/4 c milk
3/4 c vanilla yogurt
1/3 c honey
2 eggs
1/2 t vanilla extract (I completely forgot to add this – but I don’t really even think it was needed)

Directions:
Melt the butter and set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl whisk together all wet ingredients, except for the butter.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and whisk until just combined. Gently fold in the butter.

Preheat and lightly grease the waffle iron, pour batter into iron and cook until lightly browned and hot.

Eat right away or place in a preheated, low temp (170-200 degrees) oven until ready to serve.

 

Energy Bars

Original recipe from Ellie Krieger

I’ve been trying to find different things to make to eat on the go for breakfast in the mornings. These bars were recommended to me by Snorge (no, it’s not her real name, just her username :p ) from the Pittsburgh Knot. She also gave me some great tips and changes that she recommended.

You can really do a lot with these bars to switch up the flavors, as long as you keep the correct measurements of wet to dry ingredients. Below is how I did it.

Based on the tips I got, I switched up a few ingredients, as well as the way I put these together. The original recipe says to process all ingredients in the food processor, starting with the dry and adding in the wet at the end. I only did this with some of the ingredients, to create more texture.

Ingredients:
1 c quick cooking rolled oats
1/2 c raw unsalted sunflower seeds
1/2 c flax seed
1/4 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c dried cranberries
1/2 c raw almonds
3/4 c dried banana
1/2 c powdered nonfat dry milk
1 t cinnamon
1 t vanilla extract
1/3 c maple syrup
2 eggs

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.

In a food processor, process these ingredients one at a time – the sunflower seeds, almonds and banana. As each is processed, place it in a medium mixing bowl.

Add the rest of the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix together well.

Next add in the vanilla and maple syrup – mix well so that you coat all of the dry ingredients with the syrup.

Add the eggs in one a time, mixing well.

Coat a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray. Pour the mixture into the dish and press down hard, spreading evenly in pan. (You want to make sure to really pack it in, so that it all stays together once cooked.)

Bake for about 18-20 minutes, until just done. Let cool and cut into 16 bars.

 

Amish Baked Oatmeal

Recipe from Vintage Victuals

Normally for breakfast I bring a Special K bar every morning to work. But I decided that I really wanted something different. I’ve seen quite a few recipes for baked oatmeal, so I decided to give it a try.

This is a really great recipe – I love the flavor, and it’s really healthy. Of course, you can leave out the chocolate and make it even more healthy. I’ll be making another batch this weekend. 🙂

I have been throwing it in the microwave for about 30 seconds to warm it up before I eat it. It think it’s definitely better warm. 🙂 This made 9 baked oatmeal bars.

I decided to make it with dried cranberries and almond slivers, and I threw in some sunflower seeds as well. I wanted to use hazelnuts, but I couldn’t find them anywhere. I’m going to try again this weekend, though. Maybe I’m just not looking in the right place.

Ingredients:
2 c rolled oats
(Note: rolled oats are any oats that have been rolled flat – I just buy Quaker Oats Traditional. Don’t use the instant for baking, unless it’s specified in the recipe.)
2 c light vanilla soy milk
2 eggs
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
Pinch nutmeg
2 T honey
1/2 c dried cranberries
1/2 c slivered almonds
1/4 c sunflower seeds
1/4 c semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 and grease an 8×8 baking dish.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, then pour into the dish.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until top is a golden brown.

You’ll want to wait until it cools to cut it to make it easier. I tried to cut it sooner (I really wanted to try it), and it started to fall apart on me. :p