Stuffed Pattypan Squash

This post is a few weeks overdue. Oops. Things have been busy here with work and life, but I promise I still have been cooking! I picked up some cute little pattypan squashes from the CSA a few weeks ago but wasn't entirely sure what to do with them. I'd already sauteed them last year and it seemed like there had to be a better way to prepare them. And with the help of the internet, there was! I found this delicious (and adorable) recipe: stuffed pattypan squash! As always, I had to tweak the recipe slightly - I mixed the rice with carrots, onions, the insides of the squashes, and eggplant. The rice without any of the vegetables was AMAZING. I kind of have been fantasizing about making it again...and again. Angela at Oh She Glows was definitely on to something!

I also ended up with a little (ok, a LOT) of extra rice, so I just served it on the side. Nothing like a rice stuffed squash with a side of rice for dinner!

Spring Onion Soup

When handed a bunch of spring onions, what would you do with them? Sure, they make a pretty garnish and add a nice fresh crunch when used as a topping, and they add a nice subtle onion flavor when sautéed. But how do you use up a whole bunch of spring onions in one fell swoop?

That's where the Internet comes in, as always, and saves the day! I found this recipe for spring onion soup - it did not take long to make, used few ingredients, and seemed to be an easy way to use my bunch of spring onions. And it was! The soup was savory and a bit oniony. Definitely not as strong as French onion soup. The only thing that would have made this soup a little better would have been some crusty, cheesy bread to dip in it.

Sautéed Zucchini

Zucchini has turned into one of my favorite summer vegetables. It is quick and easy to make, and it pretty much complements any meal. Here's one of the ways I most frequently make zucchini.

Sautéed Zucchini

1. Uniformly slice zucchini - you want all the pieces to be the same thickness so that they will cook at the same time. This is easily achieved by using a mandoline (thanks, Mom!) or some very good knife skills.

2. Heat 2 Tbl olive oil in a large pan over low-medium heat. Use a pan larger than you think you need, since you do not want to overcrowd the pan. This will result in uneven cooking of the zucchini.

3. When the pan is hot, throw in the zucchini. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté zucchini for about 7-10 minutes, until they begin to soften and turn translucent.

4. Serve on its own as a side dish, or mix with chickpeas or beans as a salad, use it as a topping on pizza, or add it to vegetable pasta. 

This is my go-to way of preparing zucchini, but I've also made zucchini fries, lasagna with poblano peppers and zucchini, summer vegetable tart, and zucchini pizza. Next time there is zucchini, I want to try zucchini chips!

What are your favorite ways to prepare zucchini? Do you have any other ideas about what to do with zucchini?

Hibernation

That's my excuse for why I haven't posted in over a month! It was much harder than I thought to finish up posting food from the CSA...even there are only two meals left! Sometimes, when I get closer to the end of completing a task, I get a little lazy finishing it up. Does that ever happen to you? It's like now that I can actually see the end of a project in the near future, I can relax a little...to the point where I stop working. Oops. Don't worry, though, the last 2 meals will be posted very shortly!

Will an adorable picture of Winnie make you forget about how long it's been since the last blog post?

For the past few years, February has been "Vegetarian Month" in our home. This all started while I was in graduate school. I was taking a class about drug addiction, and one of our assignments was to give something up for a month and journal about it. While some of my peers gave up sugar, alcohol, and caffeine, I decided to give up meat. And because I have such a wonderful husband, he agreed to do it with me! Talk about a supportive spouse! It was much harder than I anticipated it to be - we had to be more creative when planning our weekly menus by trying new meals and foods. It was also a challenge attending social functions, like going out to dinner with friends or going to a Super Bowl party, where everyone else was eating meat. Somehow, we survived and we enjoyed it so much that we decided to continue the tradition every year!

This year, however, we decided to challenge ourselves a bit more and go vegan...before 6. A while ago I posted about Mark Bittman's idea of going vegan before 6 pm, where you eat vegan meals for breakfast and lunch and then whatever you want for dinner. It's more of a lifestyle than it is a diet, and it takes a lot of preparation and awareness of what you are eating for you to do it properly. We decided to incorporate this idea of going vegan before 6 into vegetarian month - we're going vegan before 6 and then vegetarian after 6 (so we can eat dairy at dinner). One day in and it's not so bad so far!

Breakfast: coffee with almond milk; cinnamon raisin bread with peanut butter; avocado toast
Lunch: smashed chickpea and avocado sandwich
Dinner: roasted vegetable sandwiches and salad

Stay tuned for more vegan and vegetarian meals this month!