As you may know if you have read some of my blog, I have a vegetable garden. All the planting has been done for a few weeks now. We have been watering (and weeding) faithfully. Seeds have sprouted and with Spring well under way, I am now impatiently looking forward to harvesting some fresh vegetables from the garden.

Luckily, some vegetables are quick to germinate and mature. I have already picked my first crop of radishes. They were beautiful and tasty. There are more on the way. We have also been picking bowls full of strawberries every day. I have two beds that are 4 feet by 12 feet long and they are producing quite nicely.

One of my most anticipated goodies is the home-grown zucchini. Last year we had such an amazing crop that we had to find some new recipes to use them all up. Here are two of my favorites. The first is a savory muffin. My daughter found the recipe, but of course I altered it to make it work for my family. The second is an old recipe that my mom used to make. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

ZUCCHINI MUFFINS (savory, not sweet) yield 10 muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup grated zucchini (after draining off extra water in a strainer)

1 cup grated cheddar cheese (or your favorites grated cheese)

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup milk

1 large egg

1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Combine all ingredients well. Drop into well greased muffin pans. Bake at 400° for 11 – 14 minutes. Remove when golden brown and firm to the touch. Serve all by themselves or top with marinara sauce for a delicious side dish.

SPICED ZUCCHINI BREAD yield 1 loaf

Ingredients:

1 cup grated zucchini (after draining off extra water in a strainer)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter softened

2 large eggs

1-3/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (fresh if possible – you won’t believe the taste difference!)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla, salt, soda and nutmeg. Add in zucchini and mix well. Stir in flour completely then add walnuts. Place in a greased and floured pan. Bake at 350°F until golden and firm to the touch.

I have been very busy planting my vegetable garden. I am almost done, so hopefully tonight after work I will be able to plant the last few beds. That won’t leave a lot of time to cook dinner though, but I have a plan: Frozen cheese ravioli, left-over marinara and a quick salad. By the time the water boils and the ravioli are done, I will have the sauce warmed and the salad made. We even have some rolls left from last night if someone wants bread with their dinner.

The vegetarian marinara sauce is really easy and tasty. Here’s the recipe:

Vegetarian Marinara Sauce (double batch)

Ingredients:
2 large onions, chopped finely
2 bulbs of garlic, minced finely
2 bell peppers (red, green or one of each), chopped finely
1 can black olives, drained and chopped finely
1 pound mushrooms, chopped finely
5 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar
2 – 26 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes
handful dried oregano
handful dried basil
salt to taste

The reason I chop every thing finely for this sauce is that it gives a consistency resembling ground beef in the sauce. It took a very long time for my kids to realize there wasn’t any meat in this sauce.

In a heavy bottomed pan sauté the onions until softened. Add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes. Next add the bell peppers and garlic and cook until soft. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan (except the salt) and bring up to a boil. Turn down and simmer for at least 30 minutes. The longer it simmers, the better the sauce will taste. After the first 30 minutes, taste the sauce to see if it needs any salt. It may not because the olives are salty and the canned tomatoes usually contain salt also.

A trick I use if the sauce gets too thick, is to add a can of V-8 juice. It has most of the same ingredients as the sauce so it adds liquid and maintains the flavor.

So if the weather holds, my garden will be completely planted tonight before dinner. My Quick Fix Dinner will be less than 30 minutes from start to finish. Everyone will be satisfied with the garden and the dinner!

Popcorn is a whole grain food which makes it a complex carbohydrate that is not only low in calories, but a good source of fiber. It only has about 31-55 calories in a one cup unbuttered serving, and when lightly buttered, one cup still only has around 133 calories. Popcorn has no artificial additives or preservatives, and is sugar-free. Popcorn contains energy-producing carbohydrates. Popcorn is ideal for between meal snacking because it satisfies and doesn’t spoil the appetite.

The USDA recommends eating six-ounce equivalents of grains per day with at least three of those coming from whole grains. In general, 3 cups of popcorn can be considered as a 1 ounce equivalent from the grains group. So, eat up your popcorn!

Popcorn is also a very economical snack. I really don’t enjoy the microwave varieties, so I don’t buy them. But, a bag of regular popcorn is under two dollars. Add a few cents for the oil to cook it in and a little more for the butter and you have a great snack for under one dollar!

I love the versatility of popcorn also. You can add cheese and or spices to jazz it up. You can make caramel corn or popcorn balls. My grandpa used to add popcorn left over from the night before to his pancakes! Believe it or not, they were delicious. Popcorn pancakes are one of my fondest memories of my grandpa!

Here’s my Aunt Connie’s recipe for popcorn balls. They are so delicious!

Ingredients:
15 cups of popped corn or 3 bags of microwave popcorn
20 large marshmallows
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar

In a heavy saucepan, melt the marshmallows, butter, and sugars. When completely melted and combined pour over the popped corn. Mix all ingredients together well. Butter hands and form into balls. These are the best popcorn balls ever!

Here’s an “adult” version of caramel corn. It is Kahlua Cocoa Balls!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Kahlua
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup chopped pecans
5 cups popped corn

No cooking required. Mix the Kahlua, corn syrup, powdered sugar and cocoa together. Stir until completely blended. Pour over the chopped pecans and popcorn. Mix well. Butter hands and form into balls. Ohhh, so good!

If you have tried my prep-ahead strategy for ground beef, you will find this spaghetti recipe so fast it will take only as long as it takes to boil water and cook your spaghetti.  If you haven’t prepared ahead, this recipe is still quick, easy and delicious!  What’s for dinner tonight?  Yummm, spaghetti.

Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

Ingredients:

1 pound pack of pre-seasoned and cooked ground beef

or 1 pound ground beef, one onion (chopped) and 4 cloves of garlic (minced)

2 – 24 oz. cans crushed tomatoes

1 tablespoon dried basil

1/2 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon sugar

First things first.  Put on enough water to cook one pound of pasta.  Cover the pot to bring the water to a boil faster.  Make sure to stir the pasta well when you first drop it into the boiling water.  This will help keep it from sticking together.

If you don’t have the prepared ground beef from your freezer, in a large skillet or sauce pan, brown the ground beef with the onion and garlic.  Drain of any excess fat and season with a little salt and pepper.  Add the tomatoes, basil, oregano and sugar.  Simmer while the water for the pasta boils.

If you have the ground beef already prepared, in a large skillet or sauce pan add all the ingredients and bring up to a simmer.  Allow the sauce to simmer while you cook the pasta.

When the pasta is al dente, drain well.  Add a little sauce to coat the pasta so it doesn’t stick together.  Serve your pasta and sauce with a green salad and fresh bread. So simple.  So yummy!

Ingredients:

1 pound beef (ground beef or shredded roast)

1 large onion

2 cloves garlic

1/2 pound mushrooms (sliced)

salt to taste

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 pound wide egg noodles

2 10-1/2 oz. cans cream of mushroom soup

1 cup milk

16 oz. container of sour cream

Put on water to boil for the egg noodles. Brown the ground beef and season with the black pepper and salt. Chop the onions and garlic. Add mushrooms, onions and garlic to ground beef and cook until tender. Combine the two cans of soup with the milk and whisk until smooth. Add to the beef mixture. When egg noodles are cooked, drain well and add to the beef and soup mixture. Stir in the sour cream just before serving.

For a Quick Fix meal, use either frozen prepared ground beef or as I did pre-cooked and seasoned London broil or other roast.

I got a lot of help from my freezer on this one! I had a great stir-fry vegetable mix with everything I love in it. I also had a ring of frozen shrimp left from New Year’s Eve. Just a few more ingredients plus 20 minutes and dinner was done! This was a big batch for the six of us. You can always halve the ingredients for a smaller portion.

Stir-Fry Shrimp and Rice

Ingredients:

2 cups white rice

4 cups water

6 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons grated ginger (I keep it in the freezer)

2 garlic cloves minced

1/4 cup sesame seeds

large pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

1/4 cup honey

2 tablespoons vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups orange juice

1 cup water

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 – 1 pound bags frozen stir-fry vegetable mix

1 – 20 oz. ring of cooked shrimp (thawed, trim off tails)

Boil the 4 cups water. Add in the white rice. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, until done. In a saucepan, sauté the ginger, garlic, sesame seeds and red pepper flakes in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil until the sesame seeds start to brown. Stir the cornstarch into the orange juice and 1 cup water to dissolve. Add the orange juice mixture, vinegar, salt and honey to the sauce pan and bring up to a soft boil. Allow to simmer until the sauce thickens slightly. In a large skillet, add the remaining 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the vegetables and stir-fry them until they are done to the tenderness you desire. Stir in the sauce and the shrimp. Keep cooking until the shrimp are warmed through. Serve over the rice.

With all the cold weather we’ve been having, I am ready for some comfort food. One of my favorite cold weather comfort foods is definitely Minestrone Soup! Here is my recipe for a very quick version.

MINESTRONE SOUP

Ingredients:

In a large heavy bottomed pan, brown the ground beef. Add the onion and sauté until tender. Add the garlic and sauté until softened and fragrant. To this mixture add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer for 30 minutes or until the carrots are tender. Cook the pasta separately until al dente. You can mix the cooked pasta into the pot of soup or add just as much pasta as you want to each bowl. Serve topped with parmesan cheese.

For a really quick cooking version – use your seasoned ground beef from the freezer and 1 jar of pasta sauce instead of the can of tomatoes and other seasonings. See Organization – the key to quick cooking! for details. Or, if you want dinner ready when you get home, use your crock pot!

Serve this soup with some warm, crusty bread and enjoy!

When it comes to good nutrition, all forms of fruits and vegetables matter-fresh, frozen, canned, dried and 100% juice  but, there is evidence to show that frozen vegetables have almost the nutritional value of fresh.  In 1998, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed that frozen fruits and vegetables provide the same essential nutrients and health benefits as fresh.

Frozen fruits and vegetables are nothing more than fruits and vegetables picked at the peak of freshness and blanched (cooked for a short time in boiling water) then frozen within hours of being picked, preserving nature’s nutritional value at a higher percentage than fresh. Freezing vegetables quickly locks in quality and nutrients while fresh vegetables steadily lose nutrients once they are harvested. Frozen vegetables may contain more, or at the very least have the same, nutrients as fresh vegetables. Dr. Barbara Klein, a professor of food and nutrition at the University of Illinois, found that after three days in a freezer, frozen green beans contain twice as much vitamin C as fresh green beans that spent the same amount of time in a display case.

Now I take advantage of all the wonderful frozen fruits and vegetables available.  I love the stir-fry blends at our local grocery store.  The green beans are perfectly cut every time!  You can even get pre-chopped onions, green peppers or potatoes.  Then I combine the frozen vegetables with a few fresh one and voila’!  Dinner is served in no time.

Having been on a fairly tight budget for the first few years of your marriage, I got used to planning what meals we would be eating for the week. I would make a shopping list, grab my calculator and off to the grocery store I would go. So the problem wasn’t what to cook, but where to find the time and energy to do it? I came up with a few BIG time-saving strategies that really work for me. The first, being to prepare some of the meal components ahead of time.

When I go shopping on Saturday morning I come home and get several things going at once. I get the oven preheating to 350°F. I grab my huge cast iron skillet. It is 16 inches wide. Very big, very heavy. I throw three pounds of ground beef into the skillet and break it up with a spatula. I take a large baking sheet and coat it with cooking spray and spread out a family pack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Salt, pepper, garlic powder – flip – salt, pepper, garlic powder and into the oven they go! As the ground beef starts to brown I continue to stir and breakup the large pieces. I chop up three large onions. One for each pound of beef I am using. I drain off the fat and water in the pan and add the onions. Now a bulb of garlic. Yes, the whole bulb. I peel and chop it finely and into the pan it goes. Now – salt, pepper and a big handful of dried oregano.

The chicken is flipped after about 30 minutes. I let it go for another 30 minutes and then allow it to cool off on the top of the stove. When the ground beef is well browned and the onions are soft, I let it cool and then portion it into six zipper bags. I use small sandwich bags and then stuff all six of them into a large freezer bag. I do the same thing with the cooled chicken. One breast per bag and into a larger freezer bag. This strategy allows me to pick the amount of meat needed for any particular meal.

I have also been known to throw a london broil or pork loin into the crock pot with a bunch of onions, garlic, carrots and celery and let it cook for hours until it just falls apart with a fork. Divide into smaller portions, bag and freeze. Another trick is when I make meatloaf or meatballs, I make a huge batch (3 pound of ground beef) and make half meatballs and half meatloaf. I freeze whichever one is not for dinner that night.

I have an arsenal of recipes that I use the prepared foods in. I call them my Quick Fix Meals. They are usually my regular recipes, but some of the preparation steps are already done. I can get a stir-fry chicken dinner on the table in the length of time it takes to make rice. Spaghetti in the time it takes to cook the pasta. This works so well, that my husband is now on board and helps with the Saturday preparation and often the makes dinner.