• 4 medium zucchini
• 2 T. oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3/4 c. chopped mushrooms
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 can petite diced tomatoes, drained well
• dashes of assorted Italian dried herbs (basil, parsley, etc)
• salt and pepper
• 1/3 c. dry bread crumbs
• 1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
• 3 T. finely chopped pepperoni or cooked bacon (optional)

1. Cook whole zucchini in boiling water for about 1 1/2 minutes to tenderize. Remove and let cool enough to handle.

2. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise and scoop out flesh with spoon. Leave at least 1/4 inch “shell.” Finely chop the scooped flesh and squeeze/drain to remove excess water.

3. Heat oil in a sauté pan on medium heat. Add onion and zucchini flesh and sauté, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and garlic, cook for 2 more minutes.

4. Add tomatoes, dried herbs, and salt and pepper, cook for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Add bread crumbs, parmesan, and pepperoni.

5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a baking dish. Put filling into zucchini halves and place in dish.

6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

It is a necessity for me to plan meals for the week before grocery shopping. This makes shopping easier, and I just look at the plan each night to remind myself of what’s on the menu. I usually shop on Mondays, so the weekend is at the end of my plan. Sometimes I get a little foggy about my ideas by the time Saturday rolls around.

Today I looked at my plan which only said: “chicken skewers, quinoa.” Not very descriptive, so I had to get my creative juices flowing to fill out the meal. Mid-afternoon, I cut up the chicken to marinate. I had many seasonings on hand, so I was faced with a lot of possibilities: go Mexican with lime juice and fajita seasoning, go Italian with some bottled salad dressing, go BBQ with our favorite Stubb’s sauce, or go Asian with a soy and ginger marinade. I chose the latter as I had some ginger in the freezer to use up.

If you don’t already, use fresh ginger. It’s very inexpensive, and the flavor is no comparison to the dry, ground stuff you find in the spice aisle. Buy more than you need, then put the rest in the freezer and it is ready to peel and grate on a microplane whenever you want it.

So I made a quick marinade with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of grated ginger (we really like ginger), 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic, 2 ounces of canola oil, 2 ounces of soy sauce, and a tablespoon of water. I let that sit with the chicken for a little over an hour, and it was perfect. Put it on some skewers and the grill awaits.

For a side dish, I cooked the quinoa in chicken stock for a flavor boost. Then I found a bag of stir-fry vegetables in the freezer and sauteed them with some more fresh ginger and soy sauce.

Brett did the grilling, as usual, and here we have tasty chicken skewers with Asian veggies on a bed of quinoa. Yum! I was racing through photos so we could get to the eating part. Hannah decided not to wait for photos to finish, and while I was trying to get a shot of her cute little plate, she went for it.

She loved this! She ate it all and asked for more chicken and carrots. The quinoa was a little hard for her to eat because the grains are so small, but she still liked it and was licking it off her fingers.

This meal was so tasty we almost forgot how healthy it is! Good lean protein, ginger (which has all kinds of health benefits), mixed veggies, and whole grain. (forget all the sodium in the soy sauce)

Should I mention we “rewarded” Hannah’s excellent eating with a few chocolate chips for dessert? :)

Brett has the sweet tooth in our family, so he is always hoping I have some dessert in the meal plan. Baking is not my favorite, too much measuring and clean-up, so I’m always looking for easy recipes that make us both happy.

“More-with-Less” delivered again with the “Coconut-Custard Pie.” It only has seven ingredients, six of which were already on hand. I only had to buy the coconut. Plus, there were minimal items to wash afterwards: one measuring cup, one liquid measurer, and the food processor.

While Hannah was finishing up dinner in her high chair, I set up the food processor on the table and lined up all the ingredients. I decided to make my own mini cooking show. We named all the ingredients as I put them in, she already knew eggs and milk. Then we mixed it up; she loves watching everything spinning around in the food processor. So easy – I just poured it out into the pan and stuck it in the oven.

Coconut Custard Pie

Preheat oven to 350. (I used the toaster oven)

Combine in blender: (I used food processor)

• 4 eggs
• 6 T. margarine (I used softened butter)
• 1/2 c. flour
• 2 c. milk
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1 t. vanilla

Add

• 1 c. coconut (I toasted it slightly, yum!)

Blend several seconds. Pour into a greased and floured 10″ pie pan, or two 8″ pans. Bake 50-60 minutes. Pie forms its own crust.

This was very quick to whip up and the toasted coconut then the baking pie made the house smell so good. I estimated the pie cost less than $3.50 for ingredients which even included cage-free eggs, unbleached flour, and organic milk. We cut it into six nice slices, so that’s around 58 cents a serving. Sweet!

It is truly amazing how you can just blend up all the ingredients then while it’s baking it makes a crust, custard layer, and crunchy coconut topping. I added some fresh berries. Easy and affordable for the summer sweet tooth.

As I have mentioned on here before, I have a hard time with lunch. Sometimes I have leftovers, sometimes I eat the same thing as Hannah, sometimes I do a fridge clean-out salad. When none of those options are enticing my taste buds, I turn to the freezer. My favorite go-to freezer lunch is Buffalo Fake Chicken.

So easy. Just cook two Boca “chik’n” patties (12 mins in the toaster oven) and make a little buffalo sauce (approx. 1 T. melted butter and 1 T. Frank’s). The Boca patties have less fat and more protein than normal processed chicken patties. And the texture is just like chicken; I actually prefer the texture and taste to real chicken patties. They can be pricy, so I stock up when they go on sale.

Frank’s is my favorite. If I was stranded on a desert island and could have two condiments, I would have Frank’s Hot Sauce and dijon mustard.

Anyway, I cut the fake chicken patties into bite-sized pieces and mix them with the buffalo sauce. Spicy, crunchy, chickeny, yum.

Our chicken nuggets have been such a success that Meghan and I decided to add meatballs as a group cooking project. She even had a “secret” family recipe for us to use. Very easy – ground beef, spinach, breadcrumbs (homemade), egg, herbs, garlic and onion. This recipe appealed to me because of the spinach – extra nutrition and great flavor. And pretty, the little meatballs looked like marbled pink granite before we baked them.

They take longer to bake than the chicken nuggets, but the whole process seemed to go faster. And since they bake longer (and make the house smell amazing), we had some down time to just talk and chase down the kiddos who were hiding in a built-in entertainment cabinet. Hannah and Cody really liked watching the meatballs cook, though, and would come look through the window periodically to make sure they were still there.

After tasting the finished product, we agreed it could have used more salt, so we decided to positively brand this batch as “low sodium” and “heart healthy.” Good on their own but really tasty covered in sauce. Hannah didn’t like them, but she’s in one of her food funks again and only wants to eat toast, smoothies, and popsicles. I’ll freeze the extras, and I’m pretty sure the next time I pull them out she’ll be a fan.

And there are lots of options for using meatballs – plain, on pasta with sauce, in a pita or on a sandwich, sliced on pizza, or stuck with a cute toothpick to look like a fancy appetizer. When they’re frozen, they only take 30 seconds in the microwave and they’re ready to enjoy. Yum!

My “More-with-Less” cookbook is surprisingly diverse. I was expecting page after page of German and Midwestern recipes – read generally BLAND. However, many of the recipes were submitted by Mennonite missionaries from across the globe, so I found more appealing options than I expected.

One recipe that has been unique to add to my rotation of regulars is Pakistani Kima. It’s basically a beef curry with other vegetables, served on rice. Still skeptical about the authenticity of a recipe from a Midwestern cookbook, I did a little research and found that keema is a traditional Indian and Pakistani dish with ground meat. I think this version is slightly Americanized, but the basics hold true. After making this a few times, I have tweaked the recipe a bit, so the following is my own edit.

Pakistani Kima

• 2 T. butter or vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 T. curry powder
• 1/4 tsp. each of cinnamon, ginger and turmeric
• 2 cans petite diced tomatoes, drained
• 2 potatoes, peeled, diced and par-cooked (microwave on high 4 minutes, stirring once)
• 1 12-oz bag frozen green beans (steam-in-the bag variety, microwave 3 minutes)

Cook onions and garlic in butter/oil. Add ground beef and cook until browned. Add all other ingredients and stir. Simmer for 25 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Serve over cooked rice.

The “More-with-Less” recipe version calls for green beans or peas, and from what I’ve read the peas would be more authentic. But I prefer green beans. The spices provide great warmth and flavor; this is not a spicy curry. It’s easy prep and easy clean-up. I figured it comes to around $7 for ingredients, plus rice and spices I already had in my pantry. That is just over $1 per serving – wow! Even Hannah liked it, though she mostly went for the potatoes. Maybe she would have preferred it with peas.

One of my favorite sandwiches to order at a restaurant is the classic BLT. I enjoy the original three ingredients – crunchy lettuce, cold juicy tomato and crispy, salty bacon. My award for classic BLT with the most bacon (dare I say almost too much? if too much bacon is even possible) would go to Sid’s Rainbow Grill in Carrollton, TX. The bacon was thick and crispy, not overly greasy, perfectly done and piled on.

I like the classic, but I also like the unique spins that many restaurants put on the BLT. My favorite sandwich of all time is the BBLT at The Leaning Pear in Wimberley, TX. The BBLT stands for bacon, brie, lettuce and tomato, all on toasted sourdough. Serious yum.

One of our favorite local places Kerbey Lane Cafe has a new BLT on their summer seasonal menu – the Fried Green Tomato BLT with prosciutto and pesto mayo.

This was definitely different but really tasty. Combining fried stuff and bacon is always a good idea.

One of my earliest consumed BLT variations was my mom’s TLT – tofu, lettuce and tomato. Sounds really weird but is great with BBQ sauce. What’s the best BLT you’ve ever eaten?

I am a big fan of slow cookers. Even in my college apartment days, my roommate and I would often use a slow cooker for meals. It was easy to throw everything in before class and then come home to a hot tasty meal at the end of the day. We ate our share of ramen noodles and canned soup, but even as college students we were able to cook and eat “real food” thanks to shortcuts like the slow cooker.

So there’s lots to love about my favorite small appliance. However, I did not love clean-up. While it was slow-cooking my food, it was slow-caking residue that required soaking, scrubbing, scraping, more soaking, etc to remove. People say that spraying the pot with non-stick spray helps, but that never worked for me.

Then my life was changed. My mother-in-law blessed me with the introduction of Slow Cooker Liners. They rock my world. I plan slow-cooked meals several times a month, and I have also started cooking dried beans (in the slow cooker) instead of using cans. My average monthly slow-cooker usage probably comes between 25 and 30 hours. That’s a lot of time that stuff could be crusting onto my slow cooker pot. Instead, it looks almost brand new thanks to these handy plastic bags (BPA-free, btw).

These are a disposable, one-time-use item, and while I am trying to make changes to “go green” around here, I also take convenience into consideration. I also considered all the water I was using trying to wash off baked-on food. Given these factors, I decided that liners are the way to go. I wish they’d sell them at Costco in giant boxes.

And – yay! – if you go to their website, they’ll give you a coupon for $1 off a box. That’s over 50% off for me at HEB. If you think slow cookers are just for winter stews and pot roasts, here are a few of my more summery favorites to keep you going:

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

Slow Cooker So-Easy Sloppy Joes

Slow Cooker Barbecued Beans and Sausage (see my post here)

This is an easy one that makes a weeknight feel more special. I mostly follow the original recipe, but I use a package of fresh sliced mushrooms instead of canned. And because of the additional mushrooms, I add more broth and dijon to make more yummy sauce. It only takes a little longer to let the fresh mushrooms saute, but I think it’s totally worth it over the canned ones.

We had a side of roasted broccoli which I’m still trying to perfect. Since it’s summer, I’m avoiding the oven and roasting in the toaster oven. Didn’t seem to work well with the broccoli.

I like this chicken recipe because it does not have a long list of ingredients, and most of them are things I already have on hand. The steps are not complicated, and the final plating of crispy golden chicken covered in mushroom sauce really elevates a weeknight dinner. If you are a mushroom fan, this is a must-try.