I made this dish as part of last night’s Tapas Monday menu.  Served with crostini topped with tomatoes from our garden and fresh mozzarella, it made for a wonderful dinner of nibbling.  The only negative to the zucchini dish was that the zucchini at our local farm were on the narrow side, which means that there is less space to holding the filling.  In fact, this recipe made more filling than required.  However, if you have a spouse such as mine, I’m sure that he or she will be glad to eat the remaining filling straight out of the pan while waiting for the zucchini to finish baking.

Sausage Stuffed Zucchini

2 medium-sized zucchini

1 Tb. olive oil

1/2 white onion, diced

2 garlic & herb chicken sausages, diced*

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

salt & pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Remove ends from zucchini, and cut in half lengthwise.  Place zucchini in boiling water, and top with a plate to keep them submerged.  Boil for 4 or 5 minutes, or until slightly tender.  Place zucchini in an ice bath for 2 or 3 minutes to prevent further cooking.  Place on paper towels to drain.  Carefully remove seeds and filling, leaving a quarter to half inch shell.  Dice zucchini filling.

Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat.  Coat pan with olive oil, and add onions. Sauté for 5 minutes, then add sausage.  Cook for an additional 5 minutes.  Add garlic and diced zucchini, cook for 1 minutes, and remove from heat.  Sprinkle with 1/4 cup parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 350.  Place unfilled zucchini halves on a baking sheet, and cook for 5-10 minutes to eliminate extra moisture.  Remove pan from oven, and fill zucchini with sausage mixture.  Top with remaining parmesan cheese.  Bake for 15 minutes.

*Other types of sausage, such as Italian, can be used to replace the chicken sausage.  However, some sausages are uncooked and will need longer cooking times.  Please read sausage packaging carefully.

I had two summer squash in the refrigerator, which seemed like the perfect replacement for noodles in lasagna.  I didn’t have any ricotta on hand, so I needed to find other ingredients as fillings.  A little bit of cooked spinach would give color, texture, and a hint of flavor.  Add the usual layers of homemade marinara and mozzarella, and it was lasagna in the making.

I thoroughly enjoyed this meal and thought it was a delicious way to use summer squash.  However, as the dish was made primarily with vegetables, it wasn’t very filling.  To keep it vegetarian, I would suggest adding ricotta or serving it with garlic bread.  If a little meat is fine, I would serve it with a side of meatballs and marinara.  Another option would be to serve the squash lasagna as a side dish to accompany grilled chicken or steak.

This recipe will be quite useful when summer arrives and there are squash and zucchini overflowing our gardens. . .though I probably won’t wait that long to try this dish again.

Summer Squash Lasagna

2 summer squash

olive oil

salt and pepper

1 cup marinara

1 cup frozen spinach, thawed

1/4 lb. fresh mozzarella

parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 425.  Slice squash lengthwise into 1/4″ thick slices.  Brush will olive oil on both sides, and place on baking sheet.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook for 10 minutes, or until tender.

Reduce heat to 375.  In a small baking dish, place a thin layer of marinara.  Place squash slices on marinara, enough to cover bottom of pan.  Top with half of the spinach and half of the mozzarella.  Top with another layer of squash slices.  Top squash with remaining spinach and 1/3 cup of marinara.  Sprinkle parmesan on top of marinara.  Add another layer of squash slices, and top with marinara and remaining mozzarella.  Bake for 25 minutes.

Serve with additional marinara or parmesan, if desired.

If I have a decent amount of experience with cooking vegetarian dishes, why would his announcement be challenging?  The first reason is that he does not enjoy legumes of any variety, and they are frequent go-to options.  The second reason is that he has a heartier appetite than either my daughter or I, so it seemed daunting that I would be able to produce meals that were filling for him.  Of course, I do love a good challenge, the first of which was our Tapas Monday dinner.

Thinking about possible dishes, I remembered a stuffed zucchini that my mom used to make as a side dish, which I always enjoyed.  I decided to use the same premise but add a few more ingredients to make a heartier dish.  With an assortment of vegetables, some herbs, and a melted mozzarella topping, I was sure it would be pleasing and filling.  As there were no leftovers when the meal was finished, it apparently was a successful creation!

Stuffed Zucchini

2 medium zucchini, cut in half lengthwise

olive oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

8 oz. canned whole tomatoes, crushed

1/2 cup frozen spinach

dried basil

dried oregano

salt & pepper

fresh mozzarella

Preheat oven to 450.  Place zucchini halves on baking tray, cut sides up.  Drizzle with olive oil, and bake for 10 minutes.

Allow zucchini to cool, then carefully remove seeds and filling from zucchini, leaving about half an inch of a shell.  Dice zucchini meat.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepot over medium heat.  Add garlic, and sauté for1 minute.  Add tomatoes, frozen spinach, and zucchini.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has reduced.  Season with basil, oregano, salt, and pepper to taste.

Preheat broiler.  Divide vegetable mixture evenly among zucchini shells.  Top with slices of mozzarella cheese.  Place under broiler for a minute or two.  (Watch closely so that cheese does not burn.)

*If you’re a regular reader, you may remember that we are buying only local produce, meat, and dairy items.  As we started this project in January, we had not prepared in the fall, and our local sources of produce have sold all of their stocked items.  Therefore, we have put the produce portion of our local purchasing on hold until harvesting begins.

However, I have to confess that I miss fresh greens immensely.  A worshipper of caesar salad (with dressing on the side), I have had to create new lunches that have local produce and a protein source.  While I have found replacements, I do miss the crunch and flavor of lettuce and sprouts.  Luckily, I have a husband who is excited to exercise his green thumb, even as snow continues to appear.

Two weeks ago he planted alfalfa and mustard sprouts in a hydroponic contraption.  By the end of last week, we had fresh sprouts.  Although they were tasty, they weren’t quite hearty enough to be the basis for a meal-size salad.  Fortunately, he also planted pea shoots last week, and this week they were ready to be harvested.  While still small, they have a wonderful pea flavor and a decent amount of crunch.

Although it is only 20 degrees outside, and outdoor planting is months away, it is wonderful to have these green vegetables appearing in our kitchen.  Last night we created a vegetarian stirfry using the pea shoots (converted to an omniverous dish with the addition of chicken for our non-vegetarian diners).  Tonight we’ll create a micro-salad with a mixture of sprouts, shoots, and carrot shavings.

Yes, it may be only March 3rd, but it is beginning to feel like spring in our kitchen.

Winter Stirfry

1/3 cup soy sauce

1-1/2 Tb. sherry*

1-1/2 Tb. water

1 tsp. cornstarch

1/2 tsp. ginger

1 Tb. olive oil

5 carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds

3 garlic cloves, minced

10 oz. extra firm tofu, cubed

1 cup pea shoots, chopped

Combine soy sauce, sherry, water, cornstarch, and ginger in a measuring cup or small bowl.  Whisk and set aside.

Heat large nonstick pan over medium-high heat.  Add oil and carrots.  Sauté for 5 minutes or until crisp tender.  Add garlic and tofu, and cook, stirring frequently, for additional 2 minutes.  Add pea shoots and soy sauce mixture.  Stir and cook for 2 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly.

*The sherry can be replaced with sake.

Although our daughter has seemed to enjoy her three month stint of being meat-free, I think sometimes I am more excited for these new creations.  A few weeks ago I made veggiepalooza, a simple stirfry of a multitude of vegetables that I raved about for days.  Last week, I created a carrot soup, which was meant to be a side dish to accompany sandwiches, but that I made my main dish as I was so enamored with it. (Yes, I am the quirky person in your dinner party that happily announces that there are brussel sprouts on the menu.) While my less-excited-for-vegetables fellow diners only ate side dish servings, they did seem to enjoy it also.

The beauty of this soup is three-fold.  First, it is incredibly simple to make, taking less than 30 minutes.  Second, it was low in fat and calories, as the entire pot required only a half tablespoon of butter and a half cup of milk.  Third, the flavor was amazing.

On a day such as this, when the temperature is hovering in the single digits with the windchill pushing it below zero, a pot of carrot soup seems like the perfect way to fight the cold.  Plus, it may inspire the veggie lover in your home to proclaim his or her love for carrots.

Creamy (Yet Lowfat) Carrot Soup

3 cups carrots, peeled & diced

1/2 Tb. butter

1 onion, diced

1 Tb. fresh thyme, diced

2-1/2 cups vegetable broth

1/2 cup skim milk

salt & pepper

Sour cream*

Maple syrup*

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil over high heat.  Add carrots, and boil for 8-10 minutes, or until they are fork tender.  Drain, and set carrots aside.  Return pot to medium heat, and add butter.  Once butter is melted, add onions and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add thyme, and sauté for 1 minute longer.  Remove pot from heat.  Place half of carrots and half of onion mixture in a blender with half of the broth.  Pureé until creamy.  Repeat with other half of carrots, onions, and broth.  Return all pureéd ingredients to pot and warm over medium heat.  Add milk, and stir well.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Makes 6 side dish servings or 2-3 main dish servings.

*When serving, each dish can be topped with sour cream or maple syrup for additional flavor.

I have to confess that the idea of locally sourcing produce, meats, and dairy was both exciting and overwhelming.  What was overwhelming was knowing that grocery shopping no longer was as simple as stopping at the local supermarket for dinner ingredients.  Say goodbye to tomatoes in January and lunchmeat from the deli.  However, do tomatoes really take good out of season?  Not really.  Aren’t lunchmeats filled with all sorts of interesting ingredient.  Yep.

So, two weeks into this way of life, things are going well.  Living in New England, the produce selections are pretty limited, but a little creativity can make things go a long way.  Plus, I am a competitive person.  So with the gauntlet thrown down, I will not let the cold winter of the northeast win.  I will find creative ways to make meals without buying food from thousands of miles away.

Last weekend, my daughter and I stopped by a local fish market and found haddock from the Gulf of Maine.  I knew we had a head of cabbage (locally sourced) at home, so I figured I would make cole slaw for a side dish.  The kids like cole slaw, making it an easy way to deliver veggies that coordinate with fish.  But with cold weather, a chilly salad was less appealing to me.  I decided to try a little experiment, using half of the cabbage for the kids’ salad and the other half to make a warm cole slaw.  Much to my delight the warm slaw was delicious.  Quick to make, flavorful, and warm, it is now my favorite veggie side dish for fish in winter.

Warm Cole Slaw

1/2 Tb. olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1/2 cabbage, thinly sliced

1/3 cup cider vinegar

2 Tb. honey

Old Bay seasoning, optional

Heat oil in a large, nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add onion, and sauté for 5 minutes.  Add cabbage, and sauté for approximately 5 minutes.  Meanwhile combine vinegar and honey in a small bowl.  Pour vinegar mixture onto cabbage mixture, and cook for another 5 minutes, allowing the flavors to meld.  (I removed the pan from the heat when the cabbage was al dente.  You can cook the cabbage more or less depending on your texture preference.)  Season with Old Bay, if desired.

The days that followed were busy and snow-filled.  Thankfully we were able to fit in a family shopping trip, pre-snowstorm. Then we returned home for leisurely days of game playing, tv watching, and enjoying new gifts.  Of course, with extra people at home, we didn’t schedule our regular Tapas Monday.

When Wednesday morning arrived and all of our family departed, I decided that a Tapas Night was in order.  Even though it was Wednesday, it seemed fitting to enjoy a night for the two of us to dine by candlelight.  With kids busy with the excitement of school vacation and social plans, it was the perfect evening for us to dine alone.

Our dinner was a combination of finger foods: dates stuffed with fontina, artichoke dip and toasted pita wedges, and lamb meatballs served with a curried yogurt dip.  Enjoyed with a glass of sparkling wine, it was delightful to enjoy a quiet meal for just the two of us.

Curried Yogurt Dip

1-2 Tb. almonds

1-1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 Tb. lemon juice

1 tsp. curry powder

1/2 tsp. cardamom

1 tsp. chili powder

Place almonds in a food processor, blender, or bean grinder, and process until finely ground.

Pour yogurt into a medium-sized bowl.  Add garlic, lemon juice, curry powder, cardamom, chili powder, and 1 tablespoon of ground almonds, and mix well.  Can be used immediately, but allowing it to chill for a few hours will intensify the flavor.

Serve with lamb meatballs.

In hindsight, purchasing a second half-bushel may have been too much.  We didn’t need to make more apple butter, as we already had many jars in our pantry.  We made a couple batches of dried apple slices, but that only required a half dozen or so apples.  No one in our house particularly enjoys apple sauce, and while we all enjoy apple pie and apple crisp, we would have had to made many to use all of the apples.

So, it became time to be creative with apples.  The first new twist on apples was Apple Soup.  Thankfully I have a husband who is open-minded and doesn’t hear the words apple and soup combined and decide immediately that this must be a joke or a horrible combination.  The kids were more hesitant.  Our 14 year old was suspicious but ended up finding it enjoyable.  Our 12 year old on the other hand wasn’t as pleased, “I thought it would be puréed more” was her subtle way of expressing displeasure.

Of course, they’re kids, which means they’re bound to be more fickle.  So, what did the two adults think?  We loved it, me especially.  Although I’m not a vegetarian, I have a love for all things made with fruit and veggies.   This soup was a nice combination of those.  If you prefer a soup without texture, you could purée it longer.  However, I liked that there was a hint of texture to it, as it made you aware that you were eating a bowl of soup and not just sipping an apple flavored latté.

Apple Soup

2 Tb. butter

1 onion, diced

2 celery stalks, diced

20 baby carrots, diced

6 apples, peeled, cored, & diced*

1 Tb. brown sugar

4 cups chicken broth

1-1/3 cup apple cider

1 Tb. maple syrup

salt & pepper

cinnamon

In a medium-sized stock pot, melt butter over medium heat.  Add onion, celery, and carrots, and sauté for 4 minutes.  Add apples, brown sugar, chicken broth, cider, and maple syrup, and cook for 5 more minutes.  Purée small batches of soup in a blender.  Return to pan, and season with salt, pepper, and cinnamon to your liking.

*Should equal 5 cups

I already had decided to make fish tacos, as they require little preparation and can be made to order by each diner.  An entreé such as this would allow me to create a side dish that utilized some sort of bean.  The typical side dish of refried beans seemed too heavy (and kind of boring).  However, black beans are one of my favorite beans and make a great ingredient in salads, at least as far as I’m concerned.

There isn’t any actual cooking involved in making a black bean salad.  A little chopping, draining, and mixing, and you have a colorful and tasty salad.  The one recommendation I would make is to prepare the salad early (3 or 4 hours), so that the ingredients have time to mingle.  The salad’s taste really intensifies with time.

Mexican Black Bean Salad

1 15-oz. can black beans, drained

1-1/2 cups corn*

1/2 red pepper, seeded and diced

4 scallions, diced

juice of 2 limes

1 tsp. honey

salt & pepper

Combine beans, corn, pepper, and scallions in a large bowl.  Combine lime juice and honey in a small bowl, and stir well.  Pour juice mixture over bean mixture, and toss to coat well.  Season with salt and pepper.  Refrigerate for at least 3 or 4 hours.

*Use either frozen corn that has been defrosted or fresh corn that has been cut off the cob.

While shopping at this farm this weekend, we were seeking some vegetable to use as the base in a salad.  With our main dish planned as a homemade Philly cheesesteak served atop a soft pretzel, we were looking for something lighter and healthier as a side.  The farm still had their own brussel sprouts available, which sparked my creative thoughts.  As I was pondering which nut to add and whether to shave or grate some parmesan cheese into the salad, my husband proposed a different idea:  why not make the salad resemble the toppings of a steak sub?

Although I was intrigued by my own salad ingredients, his idea did seem to complement the entrée better.  (Yes, I am admitting he had the better idea. . .)  With a steak sub topping salad planned we had to choose which ones we’d want in our salad.  We decided to go with the simple, yet flavorful, combination of peppers and onions.

This salad was delicious and would be a great weeknight dinner option, as we served the salad warm and thought it was fantastic served in that manner!  Plus, with very little oil needed to make this dish and no other fat-laden ingredients, this was a healthy salad.  It wasn’t just a feel-good sort of salad, it truly is a good for you salad.

Brussel Sprout Salad

1/2 Tb. olive oil

1/2 lb. brussel sprouts, sliced thin

1/2 roasted red pepper, chopped

1/2 yellow onion, sliced & caramelized

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 tsp. honey

Heat oil in a large, nonstick frying pan over medium heat.  Add brussel sprouts, and sauté until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.  Transfer brussel sprouts to serving dish.  Add pepper and onions to brussel sprouts and toss.

In a small bowl, whisk vinegar and honey together.  Pour on top of brussel sprout mixture, and toss well.  Can be served immediately, or allowed to cool to room temperature.