Garden Update and What we ate Last Week

Not the best picture but our garden is doing well. 

The corn is getting it's ears and the green beans are almost ready to start picking.  The patty pan squash has exploded and is putting out A. Lot. of squash, both green and yellow, the yellow is such a pretty color. We are getting lots of yellow squash and zucchini, an eggplant almost ready to harvest, jalepenos are close behind too. We brought in 2 big pickling cucumbers and can't wait to get them pickled. We have lots of tomatoes on the vines but they just won't ripen, I don't know why.   

For dinner this week we had...

Monday  Chicken and black beans with tortillas   

Tuesday     Shepherd's pie and veggies

Wednesday    Fend for yourself night 

Thursday      BBQ Chicken, zucchini patties and veggies

Friday     Turkey burgers, zucchini patties and chips

Saturday     Leftovers

Sunday was Fellowship Feast at Church 

Zucchini Patties

I made a double batch because they are so good!!  I wait all year to make these. For some reason I won't buy zucchini from the store to make them, I wait until someone blesses me with some or in this case, grow my own. 

Zucchini Patties

2 Cups zucchini

2 beaten eggs

1/4 cup onion

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup mozzarella 

1/2 cup parmesan

Salt

2 T vegetable oil

Combine all ingredients in medium bowl. Mix well. Heat oil in a skillet and drop zucchini mixture  by heaping Tablespoon into pan and cook a few minutes on each side until golden brown. 

                        

Wordless Wednesday

                                                       Monsoon season

What we ate last week

We have been getting lots of Patty Pan and yellow squash and zucchini from the garden. Its so nice to be able to go outside in the mornings and pick fresh produce. Hopefully by the end of the week we will be picking green beans!!
So this is what we ate for dinner last week.

Monday       Red Chile Enchiladas with a fried egg on top
Tuesday       Sloppy Joe Pasta (the kids love this)
Wednesday   Leftovers and fend for yourselves
Thursday      Stuffed Patty Pan squash (this was really good!!)
Friday           Was Date night, Denny's and a movie
Saturday        Jen's Stuffed Pablano Peppers and a squash and green chile casserole
Sunday          Went out to eat with friends from church                              

                                                          This is the stuffed Patty Pan
We ate out more that usual this weekend because we had NO KIDS! They were in respite this weekend. It was very nice to have the house to ourselves and some very needed alone time. Some of our "alone time" was taken up by this;

                                Yes. A tractor. I think he forgot that this was our weekend alone.
                                                                 When he rented it.
                                        Sometimes it's hard to compete with a man and his toys.
I'm okay with that though, he works hard for his family and loves to get out and do things like this.
We really did have a nice weekend. Maybe not quite what I had planned in my head, but nice.

Jen =)

Wordless Wednesday

Big Days..

 

This is our son Nick. He turned 18 Saturday. We had meatloaf and ice cream cake from DQ and he got to spend some one on one time with his dad. He is all moved out and starting a life of his own.

 This is our daughter Brittany and her new husband. They got married Sunday. I didn't have the pleasure of going to her wedding, due to short notice and a fifteen hour drive. We wish we could have been there!






                                          Time goes by so fast and things change so rapidly.

                                                           And this post makes me feel old.

                                                                                  Jen

What we ate last week

For some reason I have found it very hard to stick to my menus, usually not a problem for me. So I decided to do a "What we ate last week" post instead of the "Menu Plan Monday" posts. This is what was for dinner at our house last week.

Monday   Green chicken chile enchiladas and spanish rice (casserole)
Tuesday   Homemade pizza with homemade sauce             ("other")
Wed         Mexican lasagna                                                  (casserole)
Thursday Chicken Spaghetti                                                (chicken)
Friday      Vegetarian Korna (an indian dish)                       (vegetarian)
Saturday   Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn and salad          (birthday)
Sunday     Leftovers

Yes I know, ground beef on my kitchen table?? Well it wouldn't have been except is was our son's birthday and it was his requested birthday dinner. He's worth it. :)  I bought the meat at our local meat market, they grind their own beef there. That is a little better than commercially ground beef with fillers and ammonia in it. So, I took a bite. I tried. I really tried to eat it and I just couldn't! It did smell really good though. I have got to perfect turkey meatloaf because I love a meatloaf sandwich. They remind me of my Mema.

Rice

I like rice. A. Lot.  I could eat it everyday but the rest of my family, not so much. Sometimes when I put a nice bowl of steaming rice on the table I can read the disappointment on their faces, "rice again."  I started making rice because I kept forgetting to make side dishes for dinner,  probably because I was distracted by one of our current five children we have. Rice has a lot going for it, is quicker than mashed potatoes and its easy, it goes with everything, oh and I have 100 pounds of it.... but that's another story. Its especially easy when you make a triple batch of it and put it in the freezer and all you have to do is defrost and reheat. Really its great, and that's what I did tonight.

I had to deviate from my menu plan for for several reasons.  One- My mom brought me over a few summer squash and zucchini from a friend's garden so I'll need to use those up.  Two- Walmart didn't have ANY eggplant for my eggplant parmesan and three, my wonderful husband is coming home a day early from a business trip of sorts and I wanted to make him a nice dinner.

 While I was looking at the empty self where the eggplant should be I glanced over and saw pablano peppers and then remembered the three that I have in my veggie drawer in the fridge and thought, "Yeah, stuffed pablano peppers for dinner." I've never made them so I looked at several recipes and took a little from this one and a little from that one and this is what I ended up with.

Jen's Stuffed Pablano Peppers

6 Peppers (cut in half and seeded)
1 lb. ground turkey
1 onion (roughly chopped)
a few cloves of garlic
1 Roma tomato
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp oragano (Which means joy of the mountain in Greek)
1 cup of  cooked rice ( from my freezer. I just thawed in the micro and took what I needed)
1 cup of chicken broth (just to add a little moisture to the lean turkey)
Shredded cheddar cheese

I browned the meat with the onion and spices. Added the tomato, rice and broth and let simmer for a few minutes.  ( I probably added more than a cup of rice. I didn't measure it and I like rice, remember.)
I sprayed a 13x9 pan with cooking spray, arranged the peppers, filled with the meat mixture and topped with shredded cheddar. Bake 350 for 40-50 minutes, uncover the last 10 to brown the cheese.

I made a double batch of meat and froze the rest for later use. I also scored a great deal on 5 pound bags of potatoes, I got 4. To save my family some dinner time angst, about rice, I made 5 lbs. of mashed potatoes and froze them for one of those distracted dinner time days.

Oh and the family loved the stuffed peppers--rice and all.

Jen

Menu Plan...Tuesday?

Better late than never. Tonight we had leftovers from the 4th of July BBQ. Chicken kabobs and corn on the cob.

I have come up with a new system to plan my menus. I would love to do the once a month cooking but right now this is not feasible so I did this instead... I started with 7 categories; Pasta, Casserole, Crock pot, Chicken, Vegetarian, Bean and "other." I came up with as many meal ideas for each category as I could think of and now when it is time to do my menu I will reference the lists and pull one item from each of the categories for each day of the week. The idea is to  come up with one month of meals at the beginning of the month and do all the shopping that I can ahead of time. Its the fifth and have I done it yet? NO. But in my defense I had company for two weeks (which I loved) and we didn't want to have to stick to a menu. So, by the end of this week it should be done but with my Life Atypical, no one knows. I'll keep you in the loop.

For this week we are having:

Wednesday Bunkhouse Beans (kid friendly- allrecipes.com) (a new one) Beans
Thursday    Chicken Spaghetti (Pioneer Women Cooks)                            Pasta      
Friday          Meatball Sub Casserole (Once a Month Cooking)                   Casserole      
Saturday      Chicken Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken) (my favorite!)       Chicken          
Sunday         Eggplant Parmesan                                                                  Veg.      


It may not be in that order. I do have the rest of the month planned out but will post it weekly.... maybe.
So you noticed there wasn't a beef or a pork category, huh? Well, Food Inc, ruined my life and I haven't eaten beef in 1 year and 3 months. (Oh except for that one bite at the church brisket fundraiser when I forgot I wasn't eating beef. oops) And my pain management doctor told me I shouldn't eat pork but it may make an appearance sometimes anyway. For any recipe that calls for ground beef I substitute ground turkey instead and it works out great.  With not eating beef and little pork I kinda got in a cooking rut and we were eating way too much chicken! This idea will give us a little more variety and I added the bean category for some extra protein. The "other" category is for things like pizza and panino and items that don't fit anywhere else.

Sounds like a good system to me, we'll see if it works.

I am exhausted and have to get up early to get the girls off to summer school so I am going to go start the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, at least get a few pages in.

Jen