Zucchini mania continues

This year zucchini is the HOT item in the garden.  Almost every day I am picking another one.  We have tried tons of recipes, made many multiple times and continue to freeze it for winter use.  It is delicious this year.  Way too many recipes to write them all out, if you see something you like message me.

Enjoy!

zucchini chocolate brownies made with sun butter, no flour!

south west zucchini boats

kale/zucchini  "pancakes" with a side of cucumbers (yes also from the garden)
These are AMAZING.  If you are new to kale this is a perfect recipe to try.

Zucchini crazziness

This year the garden is HOT with zucchini!!!
I have been making everything from zucchini cookies, cake, three different kinds of breads plus grilling it, cooking it with pasta and more.  So far we are not sick of it.  We LOVE it.  The kids LOVE all the baked goodies and even one recipe of zucchini spaghetti.  Win win for us all!!  SO fun to go out to the garden and find these growing and then find new recipes to try.  Here are just a few of the ways we have enjoyed our zucchini so far.

Just a few of the zucchini from the garden

This is only about 1 &1/2 cups of cooked noodles the rest zucchini, peppers and baby kale

zucchini pancake: sour cream, eggs, onion, spaghetti noodles  Cooked to a crisp

vegan chocolate zucchini bread with cranberries

chocolate zucchini cookies

sliced with a couple different cheeses and broiled

On the grill smothered in garlic seasoning with other veggies

Makeover biscuits

Anybody who knows Isaac knows that he LOVES biscuits.  He still won't touch bread but he could eat biscuits everyday, and more than one at a time.  Oh and I should mention he eats them plain.  No butter, no jelly no nothing.  Again, I am off topic.  Since we eat a lot of biscuits the need to add some flare to the original biscuit is needed.

This is a quick and very adaptable recipe for whatever veggies/cheeses that you have in the fridge.
Use your favorite refridgerator biscuit brand and flatten the biscuits until they look like little pizzas.  Drizzle each one with olive oil.  Then add about 4 to 5 spinach leaves, fresh sliced peppers or cherry tomatoes and top with crumbled blue cheese.  Bake right along side your other biscuits.  They might take slightly longer to bake.

Easy, Enjoy!!

flattened biscuits

before baked

after baked and ready to eat

Grape.spinach and chicken salad

In the summer we eat LOTS of salads!  The other week we got some grapes at whole foods that were super onsale which meant we had TONS of grapes.  Not really a problem around here because they are a favorite and GREAT frozen in smoothies.  Anyways...back to the salad.
I made this into a layer salad and then mixed right before eating.

Bottom is celery, then red grapes, then fresh baby spinach chopped,thinly sliced grilled chicken,craisins and parmsean cheese

I don't have measurements for you.  I just made to fill the bowl.  I did not add dressing to the entire bowl we added it to our individual plates, which was a poppy seed dressing.  The grapes in the salad were so good and added a nice sweet crunch.

bread, bread and more bread

I HATE turning the oven on in the summer time.  In our small house it heats up the entire house.  yuck!  This is why I chose to have a bread marathon and bake three kinds of bread in one day.  A total of 16 loaves of bread.  My kids HATE traditional breakfast foods, except sugar cereal and pancakes.  I make them pancakes on the weekend, and sugar cereal they only get as a treat not breakfast.  The fight over breakfast was getting old, so I decided to make a bunch of breakfast bread, freeze it and take it out as needed.

What a HUGE hit!!  They LOVE all three kinds and I will be baking another 16 loaves soon I am sure because they are not lasting long.

The kinds: 1. Pumpkin with carrot, coconut oil, honey and craisins  2. banana oatmeal with raisins  3. pumpkin zucchini, with applesauce and carrot.
** All of these were made with whole wheat flour, very little sugar and in one recipe no added sugar at all except the honey.  Notice the kids were already asking for slices before I could take a picture.  The pumpkin and zucchini were both frozen and out of the garden last year.

Grilled Lemon Chicken Sandwich

Lemon Chicken Sandwiches:
3 chicken breasts

Marinate your chicken breasts for at least 24 hours in the following:
1/4 cup of lemon juice
sprinkle with lemon pepper seasoning, and rosemary
2 teaspoons of crushed garlic
As time goes by the marinade turns thicker and will stick to the chicken very well.

Grill chicken breasts on low heat on your grill, side by side with some sliced green peppers and red onion slices.
See pictures for the rest of the steps to make these FANTASTIC, no additional sauce  needed sandwiches.

chicken in marinade

grilling with the veggies

grilled veggies

slice the chicken very thin, and add to the veggies.  This is only one chicken breast sliced for two sandwiches.

two slices of provolone cheese

done, divde in half and add to toasted bread

This is a whole wheat bread toasted with half the above mixture on it.

I promise no extra sauce is needed!  The cheese and chicken marinade are enough to make this sandwich juicy and delicious!  Serve with some baked potatoes, salad or your favorite roasted veggie for a complete meal.   Save the other two chicken breasts for more sandwiches the next day or seconds.  Don't cut until you are ready to eat, they will dry out.

Roasted loaded potatoes

One of Isaac's all time favorite foods is potatoes.  He is very partial to mashed potatoes but I wanted to try something different for the rest of us that were getting a little tired of the same potato side dish.  I peeled and sliced the potatoes and roasted them with a little bit of olive oil.  They got a little crunch to the outside, and of course Isaac informed me that he liked the old potatoes much better.  He ate them but he wasn't thrilled about it.  After roasting the potatoes I decided they needed some dressing up.  I melted cheese, and sprinkled with green onions and turkey bacon.  Super super delicious, we all thought so minus Isaac.

Oh and I also decided to try it with one sweet potato and it was equally delicious!!

lightly seasoned with olive oil

toppings

ready to eat

sweet potatoes