Stuffed Zucchini

When I went through my co-workers garden last week, she had a rather large zucchini that I grabbed up. I decided that the best thing to do with that much zucchini was to try out a stuffed zucchini recipe. Here's my first try at this recipe, I've decided that the only thing I might do differently next time is to add some chopped tomatoes. This turned out rather well, and in fact, my roommate said it's her second favorite meal!

Stuffed Zucchini

6-7 fresh zucchini (I used 1 really large one)
1/2 lb. Italian Sausage
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp. olive oil
3 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
Parmesan cheese

Crumble Italian sausage and cook over medium heat. Remove from pan and set aside. Slice zucchini in half lengthwise. Scoop out insides leaving about 1/4-in shell. Finely chop zucchini pulp; set aside. Saute onion in oil in large heavy skillet. Add mushrooms, garlic and reserved chopped zucchini; cook over medium heat until most of moisture evaporates. Add sausage, cream cheese, egg, Parmesan, parsley, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Mix well; cook for about 5-10 minutes. Cool filling slightly and fill zucchini shells. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese. Place on baking sheet; bake for 30-40 minutes at 350°F until bubbly and golden brown on top. The time in the oven will depend on the size of your zucchini.

You could easily make this a vegetarian dish by omitting the Italian Sausage.

Summer Vegetable Pizza

I managed to make it to the Farmer's Market for the first time this year yesterday afternoon. My roommates are out of town this weekend and so I decided that while I had the chance to experiment on my own, I'd pick up some fresh veggies to play with. One of the items I picked up was some eggplant. Now, I've cooked with eggplant before, but I've been pretty limited in preparation of them so far...in that I've only made them as eggplant parmesan. So, here's my first attempt at an alternative dish for eggplant!

Summer Vegetable Pizza

1 whole wheat pizza dough
1 small zucchini
1 small eggplant
3 small tomatoes
1/2 lemon
1 green onion
handful of basil
4 oz. goat cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper

Slice all of your veggies into thin rounds. Roll out pizza dough and put onto pan or pizza stone. Mix room temperature goat cheese with juice from the lemon, salt and pepper. Spread onto pizza dough. Sprinkle with slivers of basil. Spread rounds of vegetables in concentric circles. drizzle olive oil and sprinkle with green onions, salt and pepper. Bake in pre-heated oven at 450 for 10-15 minutes.

This is another of those pizza's where you could substitute whatever vegetables you have on hand and it will be great! The goat cheese, lemon and basil almost make it a little sweet, so the summer vegetables worked great with that combination!

Summer Squash Pasta Salad

A friend of mine recommended this recipe to me, so, after pilaging someone else's garden today (since mine isn't producing much, or at least not much is ripe yet...) I decided I needed to try this one out. However, me being who I am, I couldn't help but mess with the basic recipe. I think it turned out well, it's a recipe that could be used as a side dish, a vegetarian dinner, or a meat dinner depending on your mood, it can also be served warm or cold...see how versatile it is?! I added cooked chicken and some cheese to make mine a complete meal in one bowl.

Summer Squash Pasta Salad

13-16 oz. Whole wheat pasta, cooked and drained
1 small zucchini, cubed
1 yellow squash, cubed
4 cloves garlic, crushed
3 tbsp. garlic, separated
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
handful of fresh basil , chopped
handful of fresh parsley, chopped
3 stems of cherry tomatoes, halved
salt and pepper
1/2 lb. cooked chicken, chopped (opt.)
3 tbsp. feta cheese (opt. - could also use parmessan)

While pasta is cooking, saute garlic in 2 tbsp. olive oil, 2 tbsp. red wine vinegar and salt and pepper until garlic is golden. Add cubed zucchini and squash and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add chopped herbs and continuing cooking for 2-3 minutes. Add halved tomatoes and cook until skins start to peel away.

Toss cooked pasta with with 1 tbsp. olive oil, sauteed vegetables and cooked chicken. Sprinkle with cheese and serve.

Macadamia Nut Pork Chops

Last night was one of those nights where I didn't know what I was going to make before I got home from work. I did know that I was going to throw together some mango salsa since I had two very ripe mango's ready to be used and some jalapeno's ready to be picked in the garden. But, I had asked my roommate to pick up either some fish or pork to go with it. So, when I got home, I had to throw something together!

Macadamia Nut Pork Chops

5 Pork cutlets
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup flower
3 tbsp. dijon mustard
1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup macadamia nuts (crushed)
Salt
Pepper

Mix bread crumbs and nuts together in one plate, mix mustard and olive oil in small bowl, set up egg, flower, mustard & oil mixture, and bread crumb & nut mixture into "dipping" stations. Season pork cutlets with salt and pepper, dip into egg wash, then flower, smear a dollop of mustard mixture on each side and coat with nut mixture.

Grill over low-med. heat for approx. 5 minutes per side. Serve along side brown rice and mango salsa if you'd like!

Margarita Salmon

I picked up a great deal on salmon this week at the grocery store so I had pulled out a couple of fillets to grill up tonight for dinner. When I got into my office this morning, my co-worker had brought in a huge bag of Mexican limes so I started thinking about what I could do with all of those limes...margarita marinated salmon sounded perfect! I served the salmon along side some seasoned grilled baby red potatoes and sauteed snow peas. It was a perfect meal!

Margarita Salmon

1 tsp. lime zest
3-4 tbsp. lime juice
1 tbsp. tequila
2 tsp. sugar (or sugar substitute)
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. orange juice concentrate
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 salmon fillets

Combine first 8 ingredients in a large zip-lock bag; add fish to bag. Seal and marinate in refrigerator for 20 minutes. Wrap in foil packets and grill over low-medium heat for 4-5 minutes on each side.

Baby Red Potato Salad

Of course we had to grill hamburgers and hot dogs for the 4th of July! I wanted to make a lower-guilt side dish to go along with it, but was craving potato salad...so I searched for something that would work, thinking that maybe a more vinegar based salad would be best, especially since I had a few "pickier" eaters who don't like mayonnaise that much! I found this recipe on a blog I frequent and went with it. I liked it, it has a nice crunch to it with the fresh pepper and onion, and it has just a little bit of mayo so it still had that "potato salad" feel, but much lighter and fresher.

Baby Red Potato Salad

4 cups baby red potatoes, cut into quarters (or small pieces)
1/2 cup green pepper, finely diced
1/4 cup red onion, finely diced
3 scallions, chopped
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1 tbsp. mayonnaise
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar

Boil potatoes in salted water until soft, approx 10 minutes. Drain and let cool.

While the potatoes are boiling, combine red onion, green pepper, mustard, olive oil, vinegar and mayonnaise and season with salt and pepper. Mix well and let the flavors marinade while the potatoes cook. Once the potatoes are done and cool, mix into the bowl and add scallions and additional salt and pepper to taste. Serve room temperature or refrigerate until ready to serve.
salt and pepper to taste.