Buttery Harvest Chicken & Rice

The zucchini fairy dropped off a number of lemon squash in addition to a zucchini the other day, so now I'm experimenting with different ways to use it.  Apparently, it is used just like any other summer squash, but since I didn't really have any summer squash recipes (other than zucchini recipes), I'm still doing some experimenting.  Here is the result of one such successful experiment.  With onions from my garden, carrots from my mom's, summer squash from the zucchini fairy, and homemade chicken stock, this only cost a couple bucks or so to feed the family!

Buttery Harvest Chicken Rice

2 tbsp butter
1 cup sliced carrots
1 medium onion, diced
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup water
2/3 cup uncooked white rice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 small summer squash
3/4 cup cooked chicken pieces

Melt butter in a large saucepan.  Add carrots and onion and cook until tender.  Stir in chicken stock, water, rice, salt, and garlic powder.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and reduce heat; simmer for 13 minutes.  Stir in squash and chicken.  Cover and simmer 10 minutes longer or until rice and vegetables are tender.

Triple Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

After all the zucchini recipes I've made this year, I've finally found one that my picky eater can't get enough of!  He had no clue that these had zucchini in them until after his third or fourth muffin.  By that time, he'd decided it didn't matter that they had zucchini in them because he couldn't taste it.  Yay!  This recipe should work for frozen zucchini in the winter months as well. 

Triple Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

3 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 24 muffin cups.  Mix together zucchini, sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla.  In a separate bowl, combine remaining ingredients.  Stir flour mixture into zucchini mixture until just moistened.  Spoon batter into muffin cups.  Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean.

Zucchini Pasta Bake

This recipe could easily be made into a vegetarian version by omitting the meat (just use a little olive oil for cooking the veggies) or even a vegan version by substituting nutritional yeast flakes for the Parmesan, but my family loved it with the ground venison I used when I made this yummy dinner.  Even though I had to buy some tomatoes at the farmers market, this meal for the whole family was still under $3!

Zucchini Pasta Bake

2 cups uncooked whole wheat pasta
1/2 lb ground meat
1 small onion, chopped
1 medium zucchini, peeled, quartered and sliced
2-3 tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350.

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain.

Brown ground meat with onion.  Add zucchini, tomato, garlic powder, basil, oregano, and salt.  Cook for about 5 minutes. 

Combine pasta and vegetable mixture in a 2-quart casserole dish.  Stir in the tomato sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan.  Bake for 25 minutes.

Zucchini Alfredo

This probably could be made with less milk to make a creamed zucchini side dish, and I'm actually thinking about baking the leftovers as a casserole type thing to serve as a side dish with chicken in a couple days, but, as is, goes great over pasta!  Yay for another way to use the zucchini that magically appear on people's doorsteps and inside unlocked cars this time of year!  I just came up with this recipe, but, based on similar recipes, I bet it would freeze well for those nights that you don't want to have to or don't have time to cook or it could be frozen in individual portions to take to work for lunches.

A word of warning:  fresh basil is necessary for this recipe, so don't try to throw in some dried and complain it doesn't taste good!  Pesto might work if no fresh is available, but I don't know for sure.

When I made this last night, I used zucchini from a friend's garden (thanks, Lee R.) and carrots, onion, and basil from mine, so the whole meal, including the whole wheat angel hair pasta I served it on, cost less than $4 to feed the family!  Plus, as I mentioned, there was a fair amount leftover, since we found it to be quite filling, so I'll probably serve that as a side in a couple days (or freeze it for even longer?), so really what we ate tonight was probably about $2-2.50 worth of food! 

 Zucchini Alfredo

2 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 tsp garlic powder

2 medium zucchini, shredded

3-5 carrots, shredded

1 cup milk

8 oz cream cheese, cubed

1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tbsp Parmesan cheese

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Saute onion and garlic for about 5 minutes.  Mix in zucchini and carrots;  cook about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until most of the moisture has boiled off.   Add milk and stir in cream cheese until melted.  Stir in basil, lemon juice, cayenne, salt, pepper, and Parmesan. 

Zucchini Casserole

Last night, I could resist temptation no longer.  Even though it was still hot as Hades outside, I couldn't resist the appeal of zucchini casserole any longer.  I don't have any fresh tomatoes from the garden yet, so I used some canned tomatoes from last year (drained), and I didn't have any croutons so I substituted 1 cup cubed homemade bread (crusts removed) plus 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs.  It would have been better with the fresh tomatoes, but the canned tomatoes got the job done, so my belly was full and happy.  Not only that, but with the homemade bread, homegrown veggies, and venison that my husband got last fall, this entire meal cost less than $4 to feed the whole family.

Zucchini Casserole

1 lb ground meat
1 medium onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 medium to large zucchini, peeled and sliced
4-5 tomatoes, chopped
8 oz Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tbsp fresh basil (1 tsp basil)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cup seasoned croutons
1 tsp Parmesan cheese

Brown meat with onion and green pepper; drain off excess fat.  In a large bowl, combine zucchini, tomatoes, and cheddar.  Add meat mixture, basil, salt, pepper, and croutons.  Mix thoroughly (with hands if needed).  Pour into an ungreased 2-quart casserole dish and top with sprinkled Parmesan.  Bake uncovered at 350 for one hour.

The Vampire Gardener Fries a Zucchini

For those that haven't been following me on Facebook or Twitter, I've been referring to myself as a vampire gardener of late.  With this heat wave going on, it is too darn hot to garden during the day, so I've been waiting until after sunset to head out and getting as much done as I can of the watering, weeding, and harvesting before full dark.

During last night's vampire gardening, I harvested my first zucchini.  Yay!  I'd been watching that one for a while, waiting for it to get a bit bigger on one side, the blossom side before harvesting.  However, last night, much to my sorrow, I noticed that end seemed to have turned a bit yellow and started to rot instead of growing!  I picked it anyway, cut off the bad part and made myself fried zucchini.  Yay!  I know, I know.  It is slightly evil to bread and fry a perfectly good veggie, but I know you'll want to too, so the recipe is below.

Back to the sadnesses of the yellow and blossom end rot.  A itsy-bit of research indicated that the rot is probably due to a lack of calcium in the soil.  Fortunately, I've been hoarding egg shells for that specific purpose, so it looks like I'll be grinding them up today to add to the soil during tonight's vampire gardening session.  It could also be because of watering issues, but I'm going to play it safe (not as safe as if I had the soil tested, but I'm goofy like that) and add the egg shells, since I have them laying around anyway.  Some of the same places (random pages on the internet.  I just googled it) said that the yellowing could be caused by a nitrogen deficiency in the soil and that a treatment for that is to add manure.  I happen to have a bag of composted cow manure in my garage, so I think I'll be mixing the egg shells into that and spreading it around the base of my plants with an apology for mistreating them so. 

And now for the fried zucchini recipe.  This goes great with marinara sauce or ranch dressing.  Don't worry, people that aren't fans of fried vegetables--this is only the first of many zucchini recipes to come!

Fried Zucchini

1/2 cup white flour

1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs

1-2 eggs, beaten

1 zucchini, peeled and sliced or cut into sticks

oil for frying

Preheat oil 1/2 inch deep in a large skillet.  Combine flour and bread crumbs.  Dip egg over zucchini pieces, coat with flour mixture and fry until golden brown, turning as needed for even cooking.  Drain zucchini pieces to remove excess oil and serve.