Ingredient Spotlight: Zucchini & Summer Squash

Our garden is just starting to produce our first fruits – literally!  We picked our first zucchini (n=2) and summer squash (n=1) this weekend.  Yum!! 

Zucchini and Summer Squash are summer staples and not only do they almost grow like weeds, they are good for you too!

• Low-calorie
• Peels are great sources of fiber
• Albeit low, they do have antioxidant chemicals
• Summer squash have carotenes antioxidant), and folate
• High in potassium and vitamin A

Here are our favorite ways to enjoy zucchini:

Stuffed in Chicken Parmesan Burgers

Cinnamon Zucchini Cake – This cake is a family recipe and one of my favorites.  Did I mention it has cream cheese frosting?!

Zucchini, Carrot and Black Bean Rice – My favorite quesadilla deconstructed. 

Apple, Carrot & Zucchini Muffins – at 100 calories & 1 g of fat per muffin coupled with 6 C of produce in these muffins, this is a snack we can feel good about!

Zucchini Pizza Casserole – Completely gluten-free and amazing! 

Zucchini Bread Baked Oatmeal – Even better than the bread, trust me!

Zucchini Chips – Dehydrate those squash for your next family movie night!

Zucchini Burgers – Don’t knock ‘em until you’ve tried ‘em!

Need more ideas?  Here are 10 of our favorite ways to use zucchini; including as noodles and for breakfast!

What are your favorite zucchini & summer squash dishes? 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Join us next week for a double feature – pasta & basil! 

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Creamy Spinach Pesto

For a girl with allergies, pesto is typically on my “avoid” list – loaded with pine nuts or walnuts and fresh basil, means this amazing culinary creation is out. 

Enter, spinach pesto. 

It’s absolutely delicious, although I can make no claims about the comparison of this pesto to the “original” basil pesto. 

Great on sandwiches (speaking, of I have an amazing recipe coming later this week using said pesto), in wraps, on pizza or heck, even as a dip. 

And, it’s so easy to make.  You likely even have all the ingredients on hand. 

Creamy Spinach Pesto – Finding Joy in My Kitchen

Ingredients

• 3 C fresh spinach
• splash of lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 T Parmesan cheese
• 1/2-1 tsp. dried basil
• 1 heaping T Greek Yogurt

Directions

In a food processor or blender, combine 3 C fresh spinach with a splash of lemon juice, 1/8 tsp. minced garlic, 1 T Parmesan cheese (grated works best), 1 T of plain Greek Yogurt and 1/2 tsp. dried basil.  Whirl away until smooth. 

**Note: If you have oral allergy syndrome like me, just wilt the spinach before you make the pesto. 

Taste, and if needed season with more basil to your liking.  Add salt and pepper if you would like. 

Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Makes about 1/2 C of pesto. 

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Menu Plan–July 21

We ended up not turning on the oven very much last week with some HOT weather!  This weekend, however, has been stunning. 

I wanted to make up for lost time in the kitchen (i.e., replenish granola, crackers, tortillas, bread etc.), but I couldn’t make myself be indoors.  Instead, we worked in the garden and went for lots of walks.

And, had a water fight – with the hose while watering the garden.  The hose won. 

We also celebrated my dad’s birthday!!  In my parent’s new porch :)  Lots of fun this weekend. 

Our recipe highlights from the week go to an old favorite – Berry Banana Muffins. 

And, a new favorite – chicken pesto sandwiches.  Yummy!  This recipe is coming soon. 

Our menu this week:

Sunday
Berry Crumble
Leftovers
Toasted Marshmallow S’more Bars

To do: Nothing!

Monday
Zucchini Bread Baked Oatmeal
Ham & Garden Veggie Shells

To do: Pick zucchini, make rolls while baked oatmeal bakes

Tuesday
Bacon, Egg & Tomato Grilled Cheese
Leftovers

To do: Thaw chicken, make tortillas

Wednesday
Granola with berries
Smokehouse Maple Fajitas
Raspberry FroYo

To do: Make FroYo, Thaw ground beef/turkey mixture

Thursday
Berry Banana Muffins (from freezer), Fresh Fruit
Zucchini Pizza Casserole

To do: Pick green beans

Friday
Granola with berries
Grilling – Burgers, Green Bean Potato Salad, Whole Wheat Buns

To do: Make cake, and lemon curd; thaw chicken

Saturday
Whole Wheat Buttermilk Waffles with Blueberries, Raspberries and whipped cream!
Recreating our wedding dinner: Chicken Alfredo, Salad, Garlic Bread Sticks and Wedding Cake!

To do: Nothing!

Snacks
Texas Caviar
Kale Chips
Frozen-Yogurt Covered Blueberry Bites {new}
Slow-Roasted Cherry Tomatoes {new} & Cheese

Dessert
Cherry Rhubarb Slab Pie {inspired by this recipe}

In case you missed it, this week we posted:

How to eat well {&cheap} on vacation – We wrapped up this series over the last week, sharing parts 3, 4, 5 and a bonus!  If you missed it, you can find all the series posts here. 

Ingredient Spotlight: Green Beans!  Just in time for those garden fresh beans there were some great recipes shared, including one I featured on Friday Favorite Finds. 

Most Viewed: Sweetened Condensed Milk Ice Cream
Most Shared: 5 Tips for Making Cooking on the Road Easier
Most Pinned: 10 Ways to Use Zucchini
Most Liked: 30+ recipes for Eating Well {& Cheap} on Vacation

Find more great menus at OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

How to Eat Well {& Cheap} on Vacation–Bonus!

Thanks for your great feedback and encouragement on this series.  I hope you have learned a little bit from my experiences about how to eat well {& cheap} on vacation. 

When I started this series I shared that we ended up eating for about $25/person during the trip, and estimated savings of over $110 per person. 

Some of you have asked to see our grocery lists for what we bought here vs. there, so here they are:

What we bought and brought with us (total $140):

• 3 batches of pancake mix
• 3 batches of baked oatmeal mix
• 2.5 C applesauce
• 2 dozen eggs (Costco)
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2, 30-oz bags of shredded potatoes (frozen)
• 4 lbs. frozen broccoli (Costco)
• 2 lbs Colby Jack Cheese (Costco), a brick that we shredded ahead of time
• 2 lbs. organic strawberries (Costco)
• 2.5 lbs. blueberries (Costco)
• 4 C frozen raspberries (Costco)
• Greek Yogurt (Costco)
• Bacon
• Sugar/cornstarch mix
• Tortillas (Costco)
• Smokehouse Maple Seasoning
• Beans (black, great white northern), 3 cans total
• 10 red bell peppers (Costco)
• 6 colored bell peppers (Costco)
• 1 green bell pepper
• Chips (Costco)
• Salsa (Costco)
• 1 can of corn
• 3 sweet onions
• 5 lbs. of potatoes
• 2x Wild Rice mix for stuffed peppers
• 2 cans of tomatoes (Costco)
• 3 lbs. organic spinach (Costco)
• Marshmallows
• Chocolate
• Graham Crackers (Costco)
• Cheez-Its (Costco) **vacation splurge**
• 3 lbs. carrots (Costco)
• 2 batches Pound Cake

What we purchased when we arrived (total $110)

• Butter (1 lb)
• Eggs (1 dozen)
• 2 gallons of milk
• 1 gallon of OJ
• 4 lbs. ground beef
• 4 pkgs. chicken tenders (about 16 oz each)
• 1 pkg. locally made brats (onion and cheddar); 5 links
• 1 lb. asparagus
• 2 medium zucchini
• 1 large sweet potato
• 16 oz. baby bella mushrooms
• 1 butternut squash
• 4 tomatoes
• 2 avocados
• 12 ears sweet corn
• 6 apricots
• Whole wheat buns
• 2, 5-quart pails of ice cream

I hope that is helpful!  This fed 10 adults (minus lunch items, each family brought their own) for 4 full days.  You can find our menu plan for that week here.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Friday Favorite Finds #168

Happy Friday, friends!  I hope your week has been good and that you are looking forward to a lovely weekend.  I’ve got a few perfect for summer finds this week that I am excited to share with you! 

{Note: All images are from the original blogger; please pin the source!}

Cheesy Green Bean Bake – Kristie from Simply Savvy Recipes brought this delicious breakfast/dinner quiche to the Ingredient Spotlight this week – wow!!  Looks amazing, doesn’t it? 

Carrot, Apple, Zucchini Bread – This bread from Mom on Time Out looks like a fantastic way to jazz up zucchini bread.  I’ll leave out the walnuts, but otherwise, I’ll take two slices, please!

Grilled Tomato Lollipop Toast – White on Rice Couple has made a brilliant recipe with bread, grilled cherry tomatoes and ricotta cheese.  Double yum.  I’m a sucker for grilled and/or roasted tomatoes, so these are calling my name. 

Feel free to follow me on Pinterest to see more of my finds from this week!

If you were featured, feel free to grab the button below!

What did you find this week?

Please link up to a post containing your list of recipes to try -- do not link up individual recipes, or recipes that you’ve already made, your links will be deleted.   Be sure to leave a link back here to Finding Joy in My Kitchen.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Eating Well {& Cheap} on Vacation–Part 5

If you are just joining us, we are wrapping up our series on how to eat well {& cheap} on vacation. 

• Part 1 raised 5 essential questions to ask before your trip
• Part 2 shared 30+ recipe ideas that work well for the road
• Part 3 discussed what to bring from home vs. buy when you arrive
• Part 4 helped you determine how not to bring “the kitchen sink”

Today, we’re talking about how you can actually enjoy your vacation, despite cooking!

Some might say, a vacation isn’t a vacation if you are doing all the cooking.  I’m here to say, you don’t have to do all the cooking, and by choosing the right meals, you can make cooking on vacation stress free. 

The Top 5 Ways to Make Cooking on Vacation Stress Free & {dare I say it, fun}!

• If you’ve done your work ahead of time, the most time consuming part of making meals on vacation will be chopping and slicing fresh produce.  Remember that cutting board I recommended you bring?  Put it to good use by asking others to slice and dice. 
  
• Do double duty.  That is, if you are slicing bell peppers one night for fajitas, slice enough that same night for breakfast and/or dinner the following night.  Cutting produce 1-2 days ahead of time will help reduce the time needed to bring a meal together. 
  
• Rely on meals that use leftovers, and prep the next meal when you’re putting away the first!  This tip is especially important from dinner to breakfast.  When you are done, toss those leftovers into your breakfast egg bake or crockpot breakfast for tomorrow’s meal. 

See this dinner (above)… the leftovers went right into this breakfast (below):

• Take a morning to sleep in.  On a morning with an egg bake or crockpot breakfast casserole, you can easily ask the first person up to add the milk and egg mixture and set the breakfast in the oven. 
  
• Enlist others to clean up.  The trade off can be, you’ll cook, others will do the dishes.  It’s wonderful.  Try it. 

I can’t guarantee a stress free trip, but these tips should help you feel like you get a vacation too. 

Join us on Saturday for a bonus to this series.  Many of you have asked to see a list of what we brought vs. what we bought, and Part 6 will show you our packing list.  Stay tuned. 

Do you have any stress-free tips for us?

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Groene uw schoonheid, schoonheid Foodie houding

Here are some advices for Jolene from now on the "beauty foodie" attitude:

"the beige, it is wrong": the famous quote of Dr. Jeannette Graf, the doctor and dermatologist. In the same way as the beige not in the working mode can "beige" food (industrial bread, cereals) is devoid of nutrients and indigestible by our digestive tract, what makes it tired. Full grains are weak alternative in fat and rich in nutrients and fiber.Do not make the dead end on the green. They have forgotten or they avoid them, however, and green vegetables (parsley, spinaches, vegetables with leaves, bettes) the pH of our body in balance, and its rich iron. A trend came into the world to take more pleasure to her daily dose of "Greens" with the fashion of smoothies and other natural green juices.Our bays. Besides sweetened and delicious, especially in this era of the year, bays (raspberries, blueberries, red currants) is rich in vitamin C and Oxidising agents and they promote the production of collagen.Beautiful proteins. Fish, poultry, nuts and almonds are packed with nutrients where booster rockets of collagen and keratin, for nails and nice and strong hair.It's (green) tee time! Its beneficial health effects are known to everyone, the green tea is also a powerful bulwark against wrinkles.Detoxez-moi ... Instead of rushing on the cup of coffee of the morning, why would rather not start the day with a glass of warm water with a touch of lemon? This BREW will awaken your digestive enzymes, detoxera your digestive tract and is in favour of the brightness of the skin and get rid of the stress! Stress prematurely ages the skin and favours weight gain. protect your skin from within. Red and orange ailments (beta carotene or vitamin A) are good for your health and protect your skin damage caused by UV radiation. There is too much sun exposure? Fill your plate of tomatoes, carrots, with melon with at least 2 weeks before your arrival at the beach (or swimming pool, terrace etc). And don't make the dead end on the sun protection cream!

Read more here http://www.stylezza.com/green-your-beauty-beauty-foodie-attitude-1686

Rate this article

Green your beauty, beauty Foodie AttitudeNot rated yet

Florina Tudor has 1 article published. Article submitted on 16 July 2013. Word count: 361

Here are many different uses for your tea leaves after you all your tea, what a wonderful way to recycle and reduce waste and help to improve the areas of your home and life.

Written by: Angel Chen

Green tea is a natural remedy that is beneficial to the inconvenience and other medical conditions. The green tea is associated with history can be detected since ages.

Written by: Thomas Joshua

A holiday to the country of Turkey will no doubt be filled with beautiful scenery, cultural and historical attractions and lots of activities. Still is one aspect of your Turkish holiday that may surprise you the tasteful and filling cuisine that is unique to the area.

Written by: Laurie Harley

Even the most enthusiastic Cook to get bored if he quit learning new recipes and cooking new skills. If you'd like people to continually enjoy your cooking, you must find ways to come up with new recipes. This article will show you the top places to search for unique recipes.

Written by: Ben Goldstein

reade more... Résuméabuiyad