When we were at the farmer's market last weekend, we bought a HUGE zucchini for 75 cents. I'm sure there have been bigger zucchini's in record books but this thing was fatter and longer than my forearm! Luckily, I had been stockpiling zucchini recipes for a day like this.
The first one we made was zucchini crust pizza. Most people have probably heard of cauliflower crust pizza with the new gluten free everything but I have heard mixed reviews from people that don't need a gluten free diet. I decided the zucchini might be better but since I had never tried the cauliflower one either, I had nothing to lose.
The recipe I used also had a recipe for topping it but we did it our own way. We only used the link for the crust. Our crust came out a little soggy in the middle and I think this might've been because I was getting impatient for the zucchini to cool so I didn't wring it out as much as I should have.
We also made a few other changes. We left out the Parmesan (because we didn't have any), used all-purpose flour instead of almond meal, and added an extra tablespoon of flour to try to combat some of the liquid left in the zucchini. I don't know if the oregano I used was Greek or Turkish or something completely different but it still tasted fine. Aside from the egg and the flour, I also didn't measure anything.
Instead of making this into two smaller pizzas, we made it into one bigger one on a cookie sheet (in the oven). I would be interested in grilling it too.
Then we topped it with pasta sauce (cheaper than store-bought pizza sauce and practically the same thing. I have considered making my own sauce and have in the past but it's not worth it to me), lots of mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. I noticed a difference in flavor and texture than our regular crust pizza but it still tasted great! We usually give our 18 month old the crust from our pizza and with this one, she was eating it faster than I could cool it off! Yay for giving her veggies! (We have tried in the past to give her everything, not just the crust, but she doesn't seem to like it).
I would definitely make this again but it does come out a little time consuming. However, it's all easy so it's well worth it!
Friday, July 31, 2015
Monday, July 13, 2015
Vegetarian Spinach Burgers
I am always on the lookout for new recipes, especially those that think outside of the box. You can only have so many recipes for say, hamburgers, before they all kind of blend together and become the same thing. However, I have to say the recipe I found to use up almost an entire, big plastic container of spinach is pretty genious. David and I were originally kind of scared to try it because it sounded so healthy (it has 8+ ounces of spinach in it!) but we are SO glad we gave in because this recipe was phenomenal!
This recipe is quite simple and the ingredients are things we typically have on hand. I also threw in a couple chopped mushrooms because I had to use them up as well. I did use fresh spinach so I had to cook it down first (but no big deal). We also didn't have any onions on hand (I couldn't believe it either) so we used onion powder. As per usual, I didn't measure any of the spices or the cheese but I did measure the breadcrumbs. I did throw in a smidge more because of adding the mushrooms and probably having more spinach than called for. Next time, I would consider omitting the red pepper flakes. They didn't taste bad, I just can do without the heat. (I'm such a wimp when it comes to spice).
I served these on hamburger buns. My mom and I ate these plain but David put ranch on his. We were all really pleasantly surprised how well this turned out! I'm not convinced that spinach has all that much protein, plus being pregnant I really need to get a lot of protein, so we made scrambled eggs on the side (this puts those two egg yolks you don't need to good use too!).
You could pretty easily make these vegan. Just omit the cheese (which I'm not sure really added much any way) or you could use vegan cheese and then a binder of some sort to keep it all together. I'm not sure what that would be but I'm sure you vegans out there have some ideas (or it's probably google-able).
These were even good leftover! I will definitely be making these again.
This recipe is quite simple and the ingredients are things we typically have on hand. I also threw in a couple chopped mushrooms because I had to use them up as well. I did use fresh spinach so I had to cook it down first (but no big deal). We also didn't have any onions on hand (I couldn't believe it either) so we used onion powder. As per usual, I didn't measure any of the spices or the cheese but I did measure the breadcrumbs. I did throw in a smidge more because of adding the mushrooms and probably having more spinach than called for. Next time, I would consider omitting the red pepper flakes. They didn't taste bad, I just can do without the heat. (I'm such a wimp when it comes to spice).
I served these on hamburger buns. My mom and I ate these plain but David put ranch on his. We were all really pleasantly surprised how well this turned out! I'm not convinced that spinach has all that much protein, plus being pregnant I really need to get a lot of protein, so we made scrambled eggs on the side (this puts those two egg yolks you don't need to good use too!).
You could pretty easily make these vegan. Just omit the cheese (which I'm not sure really added much any way) or you could use vegan cheese and then a binder of some sort to keep it all together. I'm not sure what that would be but I'm sure you vegans out there have some ideas (or it's probably google-able).
These were even good leftover! I will definitely be making these again.
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Cheater's Way to Homemade Egg Rolls
We love Chinese food but it can get expensive to order out all the time. I decided we should make some at home. We had previously done egg rolls (which I'm sure you can find in a blog post of mine somewhere) but they didn't really turn out right (if I remember right, they tasted good but they didn't look close to right and were kind of hard to make). That was because we had attempted to make our own wrappers for those.
This time, we cheated and used store bought wrappers. Also, instead of spending the time chopping and shredding carrots and cabbage, we just bought a bag of coleslaw mix. This obviously really cuts down on the prep time!
We loosely followed this recipe. We only used half a pound of ground chicken. I might've used the whole pound had we had that much but we had used the other half in a different dish the night before. I still think they had plenty of protein and we usually cut the meat in half anyway for recipes. However, if you have a whole pound, I would consider using it. Or maybe even just bumping up the chicken to 3/4 of a pound would be good. The problem with ground chicken is it doesn't crumble the way ground beef does so it's harder to distribute between all the egg rolls.
Other differences between our recipe and theirs was that we used garlic powder, vegetable oil, and 15 wrappers (see the original recipe for what they used) instead of what was called for. I will mention that our egg rolls were a little empty but that was because we didn't roll them as tight as we could've. The carrots and cabbage kept ripping the wrappers if we went tighter. They still turned out great though.
I would definitely make this recipe again but boy was it greasy! The outside grease mostly got absorbed by the paper towel while they were cooling on the plate but somehow, the insides got greasy too. It didn't taste like we were eating sludge but sometimes, it looked like it. If we wrapped them in napkins as bit into them, the grease factor was significantly improved though. Don't let my description stop you from trying these though! They are worth the heart attack (Or you could take the healthier road and try to bake them).
I also liked the instructions for rolling these closed and I had never heard of using the flour/water paste before to seal them. Ours did take longer than 10 seconds each to cook. I believe we did 30 seconds each and they didn't come out as dark as restaurant ones do but they still managed to be crunchy.
This time, we cheated and used store bought wrappers. Also, instead of spending the time chopping and shredding carrots and cabbage, we just bought a bag of coleslaw mix. This obviously really cuts down on the prep time!
We loosely followed this recipe. We only used half a pound of ground chicken. I might've used the whole pound had we had that much but we had used the other half in a different dish the night before. I still think they had plenty of protein and we usually cut the meat in half anyway for recipes. However, if you have a whole pound, I would consider using it. Or maybe even just bumping up the chicken to 3/4 of a pound would be good. The problem with ground chicken is it doesn't crumble the way ground beef does so it's harder to distribute between all the egg rolls.
Other differences between our recipe and theirs was that we used garlic powder, vegetable oil, and 15 wrappers (see the original recipe for what they used) instead of what was called for. I will mention that our egg rolls were a little empty but that was because we didn't roll them as tight as we could've. The carrots and cabbage kept ripping the wrappers if we went tighter. They still turned out great though.
I would definitely make this recipe again but boy was it greasy! The outside grease mostly got absorbed by the paper towel while they were cooling on the plate but somehow, the insides got greasy too. It didn't taste like we were eating sludge but sometimes, it looked like it. If we wrapped them in napkins as bit into them, the grease factor was significantly improved though. Don't let my description stop you from trying these though! They are worth the heart attack (Or you could take the healthier road and try to bake them).
I also liked the instructions for rolling these closed and I had never heard of using the flour/water paste before to seal them. Ours did take longer than 10 seconds each to cook. I believe we did 30 seconds each and they didn't come out as dark as restaurant ones do but they still managed to be crunchy.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Spare Pacifier Bag
At night, sometimes on purpose and sometimes on accident, my daughter's pacifier ends up outside of her crib. Or my eyes haven't yet adjusted to the dark and rather than turn on the light to find her pacifier, I grab a new one. They used to be stored in her diaper caddy thing by her changing table but since our changing station is being moved to a more central location for after the baby is born, that is no longer an option.
I saw you can buy these little pouches to store the extra ones that come with a tie so you can tie to the crib or around a doorknob or something but I figured I could sew one pretty easily. The one I made is actually for Little Boy's room but our daughter is using it for now until I find the time to sew hers.
I used flannel because I had some remnants of it in really cute baby prints but you could just as easily use a cotton. I wanted to use more than one print but you could use the same fabric for the inside and outside. I cut two pieces (one of each flannel) about 10in x 14 in. With a 1/4in seam allowance, I folded each in half (separately) and sewed around 2 sides (one side was the folded side so that doesn't need to be sewn and the other side is your top, which you want to leave open. Be sure if you are using directional fabric to keep track of which side the top is). Then I trimmed the excess off the seams to cut down on bulk (just cut close to your stitches, sort of like making your seam allowance smaller). I should also mention that for the outer fabric, you sew it right sides together and flip it. For the inner fabric, you sew it right sides together (and don't flip it). This way, your seams are in between the two pieces and hidden. Then put your inner fabric into your outer fabric. It should basically look like the end result now. Turn the top of your inner fabric over your outer fabric and tuck under the edge and sew all the way around (so you don't have a raw edge at the top of your bag).
To make this easy to tie to something, I cut a piece of ribbon (I guessed on the length. I think mine ended up about 7 inches long) and I sewed the middle of the strip to the top of the bag. This will show your stitches but it was the easiest method I could come up with and I was making this up as I went along.
My finished product looks like this:
I know it's not really fair to take a picture of a green bag next to a green wall but it was the best I could do. I hope the picture also clears up any confusion in the instructions because I realize they might be a bit hard to understand. Any questions, leave in the comments below and I will try to help!
I saw you can buy these little pouches to store the extra ones that come with a tie so you can tie to the crib or around a doorknob or something but I figured I could sew one pretty easily. The one I made is actually for Little Boy's room but our daughter is using it for now until I find the time to sew hers.
I used flannel because I had some remnants of it in really cute baby prints but you could just as easily use a cotton. I wanted to use more than one print but you could use the same fabric for the inside and outside. I cut two pieces (one of each flannel) about 10in x 14 in. With a 1/4in seam allowance, I folded each in half (separately) and sewed around 2 sides (one side was the folded side so that doesn't need to be sewn and the other side is your top, which you want to leave open. Be sure if you are using directional fabric to keep track of which side the top is). Then I trimmed the excess off the seams to cut down on bulk (just cut close to your stitches, sort of like making your seam allowance smaller). I should also mention that for the outer fabric, you sew it right sides together and flip it. For the inner fabric, you sew it right sides together (and don't flip it). This way, your seams are in between the two pieces and hidden. Then put your inner fabric into your outer fabric. It should basically look like the end result now. Turn the top of your inner fabric over your outer fabric and tuck under the edge and sew all the way around (so you don't have a raw edge at the top of your bag).
To make this easy to tie to something, I cut a piece of ribbon (I guessed on the length. I think mine ended up about 7 inches long) and I sewed the middle of the strip to the top of the bag. This will show your stitches but it was the easiest method I could come up with and I was making this up as I went along.
My finished product looks like this:
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