Squash Soup

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I know. That doesn't sound to appetizing does it. A summer squash soup? I made this back in June and posted it on my vegan orange blog. Liked it well enough. Well, we started to have another run of squash in our CSA shares and I decided I was going to make this to freeze. I made this one afternoon after a week of allergies. I think I was in denial. Later on that day, the full on summer cold hit, and I was so glad I had this soup! It was the only thing I ate for like two days and I wish I had more. Not saying I wouldn't prefer a nice butternut squash soup in the winter, but this was good for now!

Eggplant Paprikash

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This was a lot like the curry dish I posted last week, but I didn't like it as much. still pretty good, but let's face is, paprika is barely a spice. I might try some smoked spanish paprika next time. It was a good basic meal, just thought it was missing something.

Kabobs

Enough said...

Well, I guess I do a marinade with some Red Wine Vinegar on the vegetables...that's key:)

PS...How the heck to you BBQ corn? It never works for me:(

Salsa fresca revisited

Salsa Fresca is so delicious and I revisited it last week. My husband couldn't we hadn't made an earlier this summer, I guess we were busy. We went to a local Farmer's Market...AM insisted I take her picture:)

I didn't follow a recipe so it was just...

5 tomatoes (juices squeezed)

2 jalapenos

1/2 red onion

hand full of cilantro

salt and pepper

juice from 1 lime

And there we go!! It was sooooo hot because of the 2 jalapenos that I had to add some more tomatoes:) Pretty good though:)

Red pepper hummus pitas

As usual, I'm so far behind in my blogging that I'm squeaking in my first post just before the end of the month.

With the summer heat, the last thing I want to do is cook, so we try to keep it simple, but still use up all of the vegetables we get from our CSA and our meager garden. One summer staple is ratatouille, which Kerri already blogged about. We honestly make this once or twice a week and throw in whatever vegetables we have on ice.

Another staple in our house is hummus. Again, it's generally a mixture of things I have on hand. This batch contained:

Garbanzo beans

Great northern beans

Roasted red peppers

Tahini (sesame seed paste)

Dried tomatoes (that I put on the dehydrator last summer)

Parsley, sage and basil from my herb garden

Olive oil, salt and pepper

I throw all of this in my Magic bullet and blend it up. Miss Kerri gave me the idea of using great northern beans in addition to the garbanzo beans. It's much easier to get a creamier hummus.

This hummus was slathered on a pita with chicken, spinach, feta cheese, and tomatoes from my garden. On the table in 10 minutes and no hot oven to heat up my house. Perfect.

Greek Penne and Chicken

I wasn't sure I would be able to do the challenge this month, but, as luck would have it, I did a dish that fits the criteria.

This is the first year I have been successfully able to grow herbs.  I guess the lousy start to the summer we had was good for something!  I made this dish last night and even my non-veggie husband ate two servings!  I liked the fact that it had no true "sauce" to it, only what the vegetables and feta cheese made.  Hubby thought it could use a bit of an Alfredo like sauce but the rest of us thought it was perfect as is!

 

Greek Penne and Chicken

adapted from this recipe by Jenny at allrecipes.com

• 1 (16 ounce) package penne pasta
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup chopped onion (I had only a walla walla sweet on hand)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into bite-size pieces
• 14 ounces marinated artichoke hearts (I rinsed them to remove some of the oil)
• 1 -15 ounce can petite diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tablespoon fresh oregano
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a large pot with boiling salted water cook penne pasta until al dente. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium-high heat melt butter, add onion and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add chopped chicken and continue cooking, stirring occasionally until golden brown, about 5 to 6 minutes.
3. Reduce heat to medium- low. Drain and chop artichoke hearts and add them, tomato, feta cheese, fresh parsley, lemon juice, oregano, and drained penne pasta to the large skillet. Cook until heated through, about 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Season with salt and ground black pepper. Serve warm

Cucumber Avacado Soup

I have seen a couple of versions of this, and finally just adapted one to whatever I had on hand. The main reason for this is to use up cucumbers. This makes a nice non-salad side.

I use:
1 avacado
2 cucumbers
Some red onion
Cilantro
1 mild pepper
1 hot pepper
juice of one lime
salt and pepper.

I combine all in a food processor:



And here is the final product:

Ratatoullie

It might surprise you that people regularly ask me to join this blog. I do send them an invite and then, nothing. One of those people is Becky. Hi Becky! She is my neighbor. Becky is really known for her ratatoullie. I feel like I have given her a chance to post it, but now I am going to. We have had a big run on eggplant in our CSA, and most of the vegtables I used in this dish were from the CSA.

Dressing
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 garlic cloves, pressed
2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt


Vegetables and Pasta
5 plum tomatoes, cut lengthwise
1 medium eggplant (1.5 pounds), cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 large green peppers, stemmed, seeded and quartered
1 large sweet onion, cut into 1/2 inch slices
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons snipped fresh parsley
1 pound uncooked penne or rigatoni pasta
grated fresh parmesan cheese


For dressing, combine vinegar, garlic, oregano, and salt. Set aside.

Cook pasta according to package.

Prepare grill for cooking over medium heat. Prepare vegetables and brush with oil.

Grill onion 10-12 minutes and tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and pepper 6-8 minutes, uncovered.

Remove vegetables from grill and cut into bite-sized pieces. Place vegetables in large bowl and drizzle with dressing. Serve over pasta and top with grated cheese and parsley.

I roasted the vegtables in the oven. The dressing really gave a lot to this and I have been making it every other week all through this eggplant season.

Eggplant Chickpea Curry

For full disclosure, last year was the first year I had ever tried eggplant. I think my sister actually tricked me into eating some one time, but last year, I knowingly cooking and ate eggplant.

It was freaking del-licous!

Some of the time. I think eggplant is one of those tempermental vegtables. But still, I was looking forward to getting some more eggplant in my CSA share. Last year, it was black beauties. This year, Japanese. Both delicious, but apparently the japanese is more plentiful! I used some up in this recipe of an indian curry. I was just craving something ethinic, and this was a perfect dish of easy, but Indian. I may make again if I have a lot of eggplant.

The eggplant breaks down to more of a sauce for the chickpeas. It was really good! I just served it with brown rice and some naan. Leftovers were even better!

Zucchini and Quinoa Lasagna

Farmers Market Ingredients Used: Zucchini, Basil

I tried this recipe from Peas and Thank You. I was skeptical, as I'm not a huge zucchini fan and, while I am a quinoa fan, I wasn't sure about quinoa as lasagna. Let's just say I was wrong. This was really good. The husband ate two big servings. My daughter liked the filling and my son, well, he ate sides for dinner.

I used organic dairy cream cheese and doubled the amount. Next time I may put a little more shredded cheese in the recipe - probably in one of the layers.

Spicy cucumber blueberry salad

I came across this recipe a few months ago. I bookmarked it and kept it in mind when I knew I would have a ton of cucumbers and have picked blueberries. That finally happened this week so I put it all together for a 4th of July meal. It was easy to put together. I chopped and assembled it all during naptime/quiettime to bring to my parent's house. My mom seemed interested in it. My dad, not so much. It came together easily and although I didn't measure I feel like I followed the recipe pretty closely. The one exception, I didn't add any cumin...I just sounded a little weird. Weird like watermelon-feta salad:



Now THAT would be crazy. (crazy delicious, but whatever!)

James, who loves blueberries and has been know to eat cucumbers, would not touch this. Too much "green stuff". Oh well!

Farmer's Market challenge

Ok, team. Farmer's market/CSA/and fresh and local produce. Let's get to it!