Category: In the Kitchen

Zucchini Boat

I guess you could call this my Pinterest Challenge, part two.

Pinning dream DIYs and not following through seems to be common, although all the completed challenges linked to the bottom of YoungHouseLove.com and BowerPower.com, etc. yesterday, show how with a little inspiration, projects can get completed. I was so excited to see how many people tackled projects!

Well, I’m going to actually try to tackle some recipes I’ve been pinning. Cooking is almost easier than DIYing because, well this is me as an example, while a coat of paint dries it’s easier to wander off and forget about your project. Cooking something on the stove or leaving the oven on would, I hope, demand a little more attention. So, yesterday I took one of the three giant (over 12 inches) zucchinis given to me by my Mother in Law and made these zucchini boats.

Actually, I didn’t follow any recipe. The only thing I did that I saw on Pinterest was make the boats themselves. Whatever else I put in was just my “let’s use up this produce from the fridge before it spoils” effort.

My boats. I used zucchini, tomato, green pepper, onion, black beans, tuna, creole seasoning, salt, and topped it with Swiss cheese. Next time I want more zest in it, so I’ll use more tomato (only had one on hand this time) and will definitely use more cheese–probably mix some shredded cheddar into the filling. All in all, this tasted good and was a good way to use up a lot of veggies!

Fake it ’till you Bake it

Inspired by my new friend Libby’s blog about teaching yourself to cook through trial and error, I made something experimental, cute, and ultimately fabulously delicious last night. Brace yourselves for…. baby lasagnas, or lasagnettes, and I called them:

I started with some Barilla lasagna pieces, soaked 5 min in boiling water (to speed cooking time). I didn’t have an appropriately-sized baking dish, so I used my little Corningware ramekins (so cute! so french!). I cut each lasagna piece in half so as to make a square. Then I sauteed one diced tomato and 1/2 diced onion with olive oil, dried basil and oregano, and fresh rosemary (be careful! a little rosemary goes a long way!). I also threw in some zucchini, ’cause we have a TON to use up (did I mention the zucchini was almost 3 inches in diameter?). The cheese I used was mozzarella and “Italian blend.”

The layers went like so: Pam (to prevent sticking), lasagna piece, tomato mixture, mozzarella cheese, zucchini circle. Lasagna piece, tomato mixture, cheese. I used the Italian blend on top because it browns prettier than mozzarella.

Throw in a pre-heated oven (350 degrees) and bake about 20 minutes! The ramekins will be hot. Just a disclaimer.

Did I mention it was delicious? One thing I learned though: it was hard to eat the zucchini circle. The flavor it added was good, but next time I’ll chop it up to make it more bite-sized.

Perfect Summer Meal

“Perfect” is a very lofty claim to make about a meal. However, I’ll defend it by saying that this meal meets all of my qualifications for the “perfect” summer meal:

  1. Takes place indoors. That is, in air conditioning.
  2. Minimum effort required by yours truly.
  3. Delicious and cheap, thereby scoring excellently on the flavor/dollar ratio.

Clockwise from the top left, we have fruit salad (apples, bananas, raspberries and peaches), American cheese (wa wa), onion rolls, pulled beef, a veggie tray, and plates with festive napkins (fourth of July, you know).

The fruit and veggies play the healthy card, aside from being cold, crisp, fresh and delicious. The veggie tray and the pulled beef play the bargain card because both were snagged for half price (“use by” date approaching). The onion rolls pull the awesome card because they are delicious and possibly my favorite bread product of the moment. And as far as ease, the pulled beef was pre-cooked and everything. I just had to heat it up in the oven. All I really did for this meal was to cut up the fruit for the delicious fruit salad. Easy peasy!

Did you do anything delicious for the holiday weekend? I love grilling out–but sometimes you gotta have a great summer meal inside with the AC on like we did.