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These muffins give you a double dose of your veggies – carrots and zucchini – combined with hearty healthy whole wheat flour, wheat germ and pecans. In place of butter or oil, we’re using low-fat yogurt. To give them lightness and lift, the egg white are beaten to stiff peaks and added ever-so-gently at the very end. These muffins have a lot going for them, especially after you add the lemon cream cheese icing.
Zucchini-Carrot Muffins with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing
The key to great zucchini pancakes is the thickness – too thick, and the outside is nicely browned, while the inside is still gummy and undercooked. But spread thin, the pancakes cook up nice and crisp on the outside and cooked through on the inside. I especially liked the addition of the grated onion in this recipe – it made them more potato-pancake like, especially when you serve them with sour cream and chives. Another winning recipe from Barefoot Contessa at Home.
Zucchini Pancakes
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The adjustable mandoline slicer
The Black & Decker CJ525 CitrusMate Plus Citrus Juicer
Cuisinart TOB-195 Convection Toaster Oven
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It’s taken almost two full seasons of boxes, but I think I’m finally getting the hang of it. One of the biggest hurdles that I had to get over was the pressure that I put on myself to use all of the vegetables in creative and elaborate ways. I would pour over cookbooks and search online for that perfect recipe to use turnips or spend half a day cooking a meal with kale. And then I hit that ‘‘ah-ha” moment when I realized that I really didn’t need to do much at all with the vegetables – I could let them do most of the work for me and allow their flavor and freshness to speak for themselves. So I calmed down a bit and started preparing more simple dishes. The Simple Series brings some of these preparations to you, focusing on one vegetable at a time. Each Simple Series includes three recipes: Simple, Simpler and Simplest and all three require only a few ingredients and minimal time in the kitchen.
Simple Series :: Cucumbers
Compound Herb Butter
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Another triple play! – a creamy green goddess dressing, made with basil rather than the traditional tarragon, flavored with garlic, scallions and lemon juice tops fresh, crisp lettuce. This versatile dressing is the perfect consistency for dipping fresh vegetables or using as a condiment on sandwiches. Whisk in a little water, and it’s the right consistency for an all-purpose salad dressing.
Basil Green Goddess Dressing
In the past, radishes always got the best of me. We’d get a bunch in our box and I’d do my best that week to use up all of our veggies. Next box would arrive with another bunch of radishes and lo and behold, there’s that other bunch still in the bottom of the crisper. Part of the problem is that I don’t have a huge repertoire of radish recipes, and unlike my Dad, I can’t just pop them in my mouth raw like candy. But, then along came this recipe for roasted radishes and it uses two to three bunches! Perfect for when I get a little behind...
Roasted Radishes with Soy Glaze & Scallions
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This is the perfect recipe to kick off the new season — it uses three ingredients from this week’s box: zucchini/summer squash, scallions and parsley. If only we had gotten some of the famous Angelic Organics garlic, this would have been a home run, bases loaded! But a triple play recipe isn’t bad either. The couscous and squash soak up a lot of flavor, so don’t be shy with the seasonings – lots of garlic, lemon, salt and pepper. I really like the extra kick of color that the beautiful purple scallions add.
Mediterranean Couscous with Zucchini, Chickpeas & Feta
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Countdown to the first vegetable box... 8 days! We received notice that our first delivery will be Saturday, June 21. Until then, I’ve been enjoying shopping at the farmers markets. Green City opened on May 14 and our very own Wicker Park Farmers Market opened last weekend, which is where I picked up this rhubarb for the crisp. This recipe takes no time at all to prepare – 15 minutes tops (plus the unattended 30 minute baking time). The tangy, tart flavor of the rhubarb goes great topped with strawberry ice cream.
Rhubarb Crisp
I had a few bananas that were headed over the hill and needed to be used up before they completely turned to mush. My normal go-to recipe would, of course, be banana bread, but I was kind of tired of the same old thing. I found this recipe in Martha Stewart’s Cookies book and fell in love even before I made them. They’re basically a cross between chocolate chip cookies and banana bread – brilliant!
Banana-Walnut-Chocolate-Chip Cookies
It might be Spring on the calendar, but it’s not feeling like Spring on the ground – yet. This winter has been especially dreary and loooong, but when I make this creamy, light, bright pasta with a quintessential Spring vegetable, my spirits are lifted and I can actually imagine the sun coming out and the tulips blooming.
Goat Cheese Pasta with Asparagus
My work life and blog life are not the best of friends. They fight all the time and, being the bully that he is, work life almost always wins. Work life has been especially active over the past month as we grow and make exciting changes to our business. I have managed to sneak in some tv time (I’ve got to unwind somehow!) and my most recent find is a show on the Food Network called Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger. Rantings and complaints about Food Network programming aside (there are enough other blogs that handle that), I really enjoy this show and think that it’s a great addition to their line-up. The accompanying book, The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life, has quickly become one of my favorites.
I recently tried her revamped version of Sloppy Joes. Her recipe adds kidney beans for an extra boost of fiber, diced red pepper for flavor and Vitamin C and uses ground sirloin to replace higher-fat ground beef. The flavor was spot-on Sloppy Joe and really hit the spot.
Sloppy Joes
When a recipe calls for a half-cup of wine, opening a whole bottle doesn’t always make sense – especially if you don’t have company to help finish it! I found the perfect solution in these small boxed wine cubes from Target. They come in a variety of styles both red and white. Each cube contains 4 individual smaller boxes (250ml per box or approximately 1 cup each) and they cost $7.99. Not only are they the perfect pantry staple to have on hand, but they’re great to take on picnics, stash in a backpack for the end of a long day of hiking or if you’re dining alone and want just one glass of wine. Cheers!
