cooking

Squashfest 2.0

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I promised to share a few more recipes for the huge varieties and quantities of squash we got in our CSA earlier this month so I’m back today with that…

Sadly I ran out of room on my phone for pictures during Thanksgiving and deleted the food pictures that went along with this post… ooops! I can still share these yummy recipes with you though so hopefully that makes up for it.

The focus of these recipes was on using the yellow squash we got. We shredded it all in the food processor and then I made Yellow Squash Cheddar Biscuits. They were delicious and even tasted good the next day (something I always worry about with baked goods.) They even tricked my toddler into eating the yellow squash- a vegetable which is definitely not his favorite.

33e4ac2d245008067242772c8a8c92f9848eb031784d0ecef4ef090660abefa5That left us with about half of the shredded squash and I wanted to try something a little different with it. I have a great family recipe book my mom made me as a bridal shower gift and there is a favorite holiday recipe in there for a hash brown casserole. Recently we’ve been substituting in zucchini pancakes for hash browns at breakfast so I thought we’d try out that recipe subbing in half yellow squash and keeping in half the hash browns. This casserole is definitely a winter meal- it is filling, heavy, rich, and delicious. It includes a cream of celery soup, onion, LOTS of cheese, sour cream, and of course butter. (My theme for the holiday season comes from Amy of the Little Women movie- “Isn’t butter divinity?!”) And since I don’t have any stomach for syrupy/sugary sweet things this pregnancy, I’m leaning into the rich, buttery, creamy holiday options!

Tis the season for warming meals, kind words, and getting creative. This new twist on an old recipe paid off for sure!

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Cooking: Chili Mac

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Here’s my problem with Pinterest inspired projects: They often don’t align with my end goal. One of the reasons I wanted to focus on cooking this year was to learn a few more go-to recipes for menu planning so we can cook ahead and/or take advantage of smart grocery shopping and sales. However, it seems that whenever I want to try a new recipe, I go to my Pinterest board or one of my few cookbooks I’ve kept and I end up asking my husband to go to the store for all kinds of ingredients we either wouldn’t usually cook with, or would enjoy cooking with but would never keep as part of our weekly menu! Not time or budget friendly at all! Continue reading →

Cooking: FALL CURRY

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We are still having many 90+ degree days here in Phoenix, but on cloudy days we get nice 80 degree weather and no matter what it is still a nice respite from the 105+ weather this summer. Plus, we are getting nice fall vegetables in our CSA boxes so when we were given some of the main ingredients for fall curry I knew that would land on our menu this week. Continue reading →

In Praise of Peanut Butter

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It has been several months since I could confidently say I’d be able to go anywhere or eat anything… I never know which smells are going to set me off, but I have had one trusty friend who, so far, has been a culinary constant: peanut butter.
Luckily, peanut butter is also a favorite of my little munchkin so we’ve started upgrading this ingredient from topping our snacks (apples with peanut butter has been a main food source this summer as has plain yogurt with peanut butter granola!) to being a star component of our dinners. Continue reading →

Cooking #13: Zucchini Fritters

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When I was planning to roast veggies last week my husband did the shopping and picked up all the vegetables I requested, but since I didn’t specify how many zucchini I wanted he thought I was making ratatouille and would need several when i really just needed one to cut up and roast! So  now a week has past and I was worried the other zucchini would go bad so today was the perfect day to try a new zucchini recipe for lunch. Continue reading →

Cooking #12: Colorful Cooking

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There was a time when my plates of food looked tragically monochromatic. Then I realized that my body was getting pretty sick when I ate most meat (hence my journey to pescetarianism) and suddenly I had to start reproaching vegetables and trying new foods. By far one of my favorite discoveries I’ve made since jumping in on this brand new Continue reading →

Cooking #10 All the Avocado

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Avocado is definitely in my top five list of vegetarian’s best friend in the kitchen but it is pretty amazing no matter what your dietary needs are. It binds things, it’s delicious, it’s basically a superfood, and because I live so close to California it is in abundance and affordable at this time of year (which may surprise those of you who see the continually rising guacamole price at Chipotle.) In fact, when talking about how crazy it is that my toddler has yet to experience so many wonderful things in life like falling in love, I once had a friend respond “and he’s had so few avocados so far” so yeah, it’s THAT GOOD. So here are two super simple super fast recipes featuring this culinary superstar. Continue reading →

Cooking #9: Chili Adventures

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Those of you that read my last cooking post about making homemade tomato sauce know that we recently got an astounding amount of food from Produce on Wheels and have been learning lots of new, fun things to use that food (as well as revisiting some old favorites) Well, included in our produce haul was over 20 green chill peppers… Continue reading →

Cooking #8: Italian Feast

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We’re interested in focusing on fresh food in our family whenever possible. That way when we’re eating ramen or boxed mac and cheese or even just string cheese and chips during tech week we feel like we’ve achieved some sort of a balance at least. Sometimes that means ordering from Bountiful Baskets, a CSA that we’ve tried a few times. This weekend, thanks to a fellow VBE, we found an even better deal on fresh produce Continue reading →