Day Seventy--Zucchini Corn skillet

I fear I'm going to be a day behind each day this week. The kids are attending a Peace Camp this week and they are having soooo much fun. I'm volunteering to help out where I can and take pictures and keep my eye on Connor's blood sugars. This means that I'm gone all day and I am behind in blogging. Sorry.

Enough of the excuses...on to last night's dinner. If I'm still awake enough, I might actually try to do tonight's post too. Last night's dinner was delicious. I was skeptical when we were putting it together and it made me question my sanity when I was making up menus.

Zucchini Corn skillet

Thankfully, Tim helped whip this together. We used the zucchini that we got at the farmer's market. We sliced the zukes up and sautéed them in some olive oil and some chopped onion. This cooked for a few minutes and then we dumped in a small bag of frozen organic corn and a can of organic diced tomatoes. For seasoning, just salt, pepper, and garlic powder. That's it. It all cooked together for about ten minutes until the zukes were soft. Then it was time to shred fresh cheese. It was a mixture of Monterey jack and cheddar. The recipe called for a half pound of each cheese and I just thought it was too much cheese so I halved that. When it was all done, we served it up on the burger buns I had made the night before.

Three of the four of us enjoyed this. Can you guess who didn't like it? Yup, it was Aidan. He was not having it. He did eat a few bites of it and then we put him out of his misery. It was really good and easy to do. Like I said, I'm glad Tim helped me out because I came home from Peace Camp with a crazy headache. 53 children. Loud children. Children having fun. It made for a crazy headache. So that sums up our meatless Monday. It was a good day.

Day Sixty-three--Cuban Black Beans and Rice

Yes. I know. I'm late again today. I'm not sure why. I just didn't have much gumption to fight for time on the computer. Actually, I haven't done all that much today. I'm calling it a mental health day. I did get my treadmill time done so that's good.

Last night's dinner was good. It was Monday so that means Meatless Monday here in our little home. Black beans and rice is something I picked up living in Florida. Sadly, I can't make it as well as those cute little Cuban women but I try my best. It's super easy to make. The hardest part is waiting for the brown rice to be done cooking.


Black Beans and Rice

This meal couldn't be any easier. I swirled some olive oil around the pan and then threw in a chopped onion, and chopped green pepper and 2 cloves of mashed garlic. This cooked for a few minutes to soften and then I added some cumin to cook for a minute. Then to the mix you add two cans (drained) or organic black beans and a cup of water. Oh, and some oregano and a splash of red wine vinegar. That's it. Easy, no? Like I said, the worst part was waiting for the brown rice to finish. I've learned my lesson though. I always start my rice way before I need it.

Simple meal. Enjoyed by most. Aidan didn't really like it. He ended up just eating a big bowl of rice. Connor had two bowls of the beans and rice and I could only eat about a half of a bowl. I wasn't all that hungry. It was tasty though.

That is all I have for now. I'm about a minute from pulling tonight's dinner out of the oven. Hopefully will post tonight. No promises though.

Day Fifty-six--Greek Salad

I'm back! I'm late in writing, but I'm back. We got home late Sunday night and yesterday I just didn't have a chance to get to the computer. The weekend was a lot of fun. It was nice to get away and not have to think about anything that needed to be done. We went to a fair with Laurie and the boys each won prizes. We ate Renna's pizza. We watched Alice in Wonderland. It was a lot of fun.

We didn't eat the best while we were out. We caught fast food (ICK) on the way there on Friday night because I was not organized. It was interesting because while I ate it, I had serious issues with eating it this time. I almost didn't eat it but was feeling woozy and knew I needed to eat something. I kind of miss the days where diners were along the road and you had the chance to eat real food while traveling. We actually decided that next time we go over to see Laurie we are going to stay off the interstate and enjoy the back roads.

Yesterday I was able to get to the store and go food shopping for the first time in a couple of weeks. It's nice to have a menu planned out and everything I need ready to go. Last nights dinner was a much needed dinner and it tasted so good.

We had:

Greek Salad

It was romaine lettuce, red onion, green pepper, kalamata olives, cucumber, tomato and feta cheese. Tim made the dressing while I was cutting up all the veggies. The dressing was awesome and we've elected Tim to the official post of salad dressing maker. The dressing was just olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, garlic and oregano.

The salad was perfect after a weekend of eating what we consider junk now. It's funny how my thinking has shifted with food. I was telling Tim that as good as Renna's pizza was...and it is the best as far as I'm concerned, the salad tasted better. It was cool. It was crisp. The dressing was flavorful. We had it with a loaf of ciabatta bread and three of the four of us enjoyed it. Aidan wouldn't touch the salad. Connor ate a ton of it. Last time I made Greek salad he wasn't too impressed with it but this time he ate it and loved it.

So, it's good to be home. It's good to be back to my routine and I look forward to this week. I hope everyone is doing fine and enjoying this beautiful weather we are finally having!

Day Fifty-two--Corn Fritters

Last night while I was waiting for Tim and Connor to come home from Connor's karate class, I got this crazy craving. I don't know where it came from. Maybe it was because I know we are going to try and live off of our cupboards and I had done a quick inventory or maybe I was thinking about my childhood. Whatever it was, I had this strong desire for corn fritters. It's funny too because as a child I didn't really like corn fritters. My mom would make them from time to time and I didn't like them. I wanted pancakes, not cakes with corn in them. Ewwww.

I looked around on the internet for a recipe and found a couple just as Tim was coming home. I casually mentioned the idea of it to him and Tim was all for it. He even offered to mix them up and fry them up. Most of the recipes I saw called for 3 to 4 cups of oil for frying. That was not an option. Gross. Tim took what we had and combined a couple of different recipes to get a good looking batter and he ended up frying them in a tiny little bit of oil.


Look at those beauties!

We all plated them up differently. Aidan and I had ours with a tiny bit of maple syrup. I finally went out and got some more local maple syrup. Tim said it's not as good as the NY syrup, but I disagree. I like the PA syrup better. Connor ate his fritters naked. I use the term "ate" loosely. He sucked them up into his little face as fast as he could. Tim went he gross way with his. He put siracha sauce on his. That's not bad. What was disgusting was that he popped open a can of squid (packaged with it's own ink, mind you) and put them on top of his fritters. The smell...oh, it wasn't good. He did make me take a taste and they weren't that bad. Not something I would venture out and eat on my own.


Corn fritters with maple syrup

The dinner ended up being a huge success. Aidan has declared that he wants corn fritters to be in our weekly rotation. He wants them every Monday for dinner.

I think I am going to have to break down and go to the store today to get some basic things like onions and flour. We will have to walk down to Tim's office to pick up the car but it's gorgeous out today so I'm thankful for that.

Until later, happy cooking!

Day Forty-five--Mediterranean Salad

Hello all. I hope everyone survived the holiday weekend. I think I'm still trying to recover from Hershey Park on Friday. I've had a headache since Friday night. Of course, I didn't help my cause with the several bottles of beer on Sunday night. Magic Hat's summer brew is the best!

Yesterday was Monday and we did a meatless Monday. I keep getting updates from Food, Inc on my facebook page about Meatless Monday and I thought, "What the hell?" We do a lot of meatless dinners. Sometime I'll go back and figure the percentage of vegetarian. We were vegan for a year, so we have a pretty good arsenal of vegetarian meals to use. This salad was from the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution book. It was super duper easy!

Mediterranean Salad with fresh bread

I like how Jamie just chops everything on a big board and dresses it on the board. It makes the salad into little bite size pieces. Laurie (hi mom) does this too. It makes the salad easier to eat. I made a fresh loaf of bread to have with the salad. I don't think you really need a recipe for this salad, but I followed it mostly. It's romaine lettuce, an onion, a tomato, and some kalamata olives. The recipe called for basil too, but our basil plant needs to renew itself a bit so I didn't pull any leaves off of it. It's then dressed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. The bread was super delicious and we ended up making salad sandwiches. Connor came up with this one. It was a nice light dinner after a long weekend of indulging.

That is all I have for now. We are going to try to bust through the last of our school projects today and then I have to make pasta for tonight. It's going to be a busy day. Until later, happy cooking!