teacher by day - chef by night
Baba Ganoush is a traditional Mid Eastern dish – similar to Hummus, only instead of being made with Chick Peas – you make it with Eggplant. BUT – cooking is all about being creative, so when life hands you Zucchini you get creative like Hannah …
This is the season of carefree entertaining and although I love me some roasted veggies (the house smells awesome from roasted veggies right now – look forward to those posts in the coming days & weeks) we don’t always want/need to heat up the house! This recipe easily serves 1 or 2 as an appetizer, but is obviously very easy to adapt for more. Just count (about) a whole cucumber person as you adapt this for your next gathering.
Stuffed Peppers – I am sure that many of you have a go-to recipe for these. How many of you have a Stuffed Pepper recipe that would help you use up some of the over-abundance of Zucchini you are now faced with!? Well, this recipe is a lighter version and also nice & healthy because some of your filling is a super healthy zucchini.
Feel free to adapt this as needed – I really think that this is one of those recipes where the ingredient amounts (and even what you put in) are totally up to you!
So its time to get creative with Stuffed Peppers… Make this vegetarian by leaving out the sausage. No Orzo – no problem, use brown rice. Want it more spicy: add it. You get the idea. Get out in the garden & then get into the kitchen!
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Cook your orzo about a minute shy of the package directions. Drain and set aside. Begin to brown your sausage in a large saute pan with a drizzle of olive oil. When the sausage is just about cooked through, add the onion and chili flakes. Allow the onion to soften and become translucent, just a couple of minutes. Then deglaze the pan with a good splash of wine, making sure to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom. Add the zucchini and tomato sauce and let cook for another minute or two, until the zucchini starts to soften. Turn off the heat and stir the cooked orzo your grated cheese. Taste & adjust seasoning as necessary.
When you set your peppers into a pan, make sure they are setting flat (either in a loaf pan OR by slicing a tiny bit off of the bottom [being sure to not leave a hole in the bottom of your pepper]) OR set the peppers into their own little foil beds in the pan. Arrange the pepper halves upon the oven-bound vessel of your choosing and sprinkle the insides with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stuff (tightly) the sausage and orzo mixture into each pepper half. Feel free to pile it up. Once your peppers are stuffed, put some more grated cheese atop the peppers and pop them in the oven for anywhere between 20 and 30 minutes, depending on your desired level of pepper doneness. It was perfect for us at about 20 minutes – the peppers still have a crispness to them, if you like them softer – feel free to do it that way!
* Any extra stuffing is great the next day on its own or even over some pasta!
And I leave you with this, today’s Question of the Day… What is your favorite food to stuff (shells, peppers, tomatoes, etc) AND what do you love to stuff them with?
Who needs to plant your own garden when you have good neighbors! I know that this time of year many people feel they are over-run with Zucchini – if you find yourself in this situation, then I am sure you are already being a good …
I tasted these a day later and they were good enough to eat, but resisted temptation and let them sit another week or so and they were worth the wait! These are nice and crunchy still with all the taste you would expect from something pickled. So get your harvest of peas (or go ahead and make this with the green beans that are currently in abundance) and make up a jar of these to enjoy in a few days – YUM!
I decided to round out “breakfast sweets” week with just one more recipe of another tasty breakfast goody that traveled to the shore with us last weekend! This one is in the HEALTHY breakfast goodies category and will be making a repeat in our kitchen at home (as in: I will feel good about eating this in the morning).
I love having something sweet in the morning (lets be honest – who doesn’t!?). I think even those heathy-type-people love their sweets (I know, you say that you enjoy your egg whites and spinach and oats every morning but there has to be some time that you just crave something sweet!) This has the best of both worlds! The original recipe from Love Food Eat suggests you can reduce your sugar down to make it less sweet, I would have no problem adding less (although it is PERFECT as written). I also was out of almonds, so skipped those. I love raisins so next time might add less sugar, but more raisins (I also only had white flour & can not wait to make it even more healthy with the whole wheat & I think even adding in some more oats).
I wonder if I add some wheat germ or flax seed if that will change the texture or just add more healthy goodness…. I guess it is worth a try (I will come back and update once that happens).
Dry
Wet
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
In a separate bowl combine all the wet ingredients and mix well.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix till combines. The mixtures will be quite hard. If it looks too dry add a little more yogurt. Don’t be tempted to make it too watery.
Scoop the batter into the greased muffin tray. And bake till done. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 35-45 minutes, until your toothpick comes out clean (these are dense, so they will also bake a little as they cool)
And I leave you with this….
A Question: