Garden Update - June

Grafted Big Beef Tomato

Yellow Squash

Serrano Peppers 

Watermelon & Strawberries

Broccoli-- sadly the bunnies got to it. 

July 2nd pics

Herbs going crazy & loving the rain!

Tomato types for my notes!: 
Grafted Big Beef
Grafted Brandywine
San Marzano (Roma)
Sun Sugar (Orange Cherry Tomato)
Sweet Baby Girl (Cherry Tomato)
Julite (Grape tomato, holds onto the vine longer, resists drought & disease)
Red Grape (Grape tomato, small super sweet fruits with long clusters of 10 or more, heat tolerant)
Cupid (Grape tomato, sweet)

Not veggies, but pretty....

Grilled Veggie & Feta Pitas

I love summer! I love grilling! I love these grilled veggies! 

This is a super easy recipe. 

Ingredients: 

1 zucchini 

1 red pepper

1 red onion

Italian dressing

1 T honey

feta

Veggie seasoning (optional)

Bread or Pita for serving

Directions: 

Chop veggies and place in bowl. 

Pour 1/2-1/3 cup of Italian dressing over the veggies. Sprinkle with veggie seasoning. 

Let sit for 10 minutes. 

Heat up grill to medium heat. 

Place veggies in a veggie grill pan. 

Cook to your liking, I like mine slighlty charred. 

When veggies are finished, place them back in the bowl and add 1/4 cup Italian dressing, feta, and honey. Stir. 

Serve with pita, bread, or plain! 

Glazed Carrots

I'm usually not a huge carrot person, but I accidentally ordered them in my bi-weekly Door-to-Door Organics order. 

I decided I wanted to make sweet ones, they are my favorite. I even have canned carrots in the pantry, I have been meaning to try this recipe with! 

Ingredients
1 pound of carrots, pealed, rinsed, and cut (you can also use baby carrots)
1/2 stick of butter
2 T  of light brown sugar, packed
1/4 t. of ground cinnamon
1/2 t. of honey

Directions

Boil carrots in salted water until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain well; set aside.

In a small sauce pan, add the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. 

Bring to a slight boil. 

Add carrots to the pot and toss until well glazed. 

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Garlic Aioli

Brussel Sprouts are one of those foods that I have always thought of as EWW! My mom NEVER made them for us, I never had really ever tried them.  I finally tried them at a nicer restaurant and thought that the roasted ones were actually pretty good. (And not bad for you!)

Ingredients for Brussel Sprouts
1 bag frozen Brussel Sprouts cut into wedges
Canola Oil
Salt & Pepper

Directions For Brussel Sprouts:

Place brussel sprouts on a baking sheet and drizzle with canola oil. 

Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Mix around brussel sprouts on pan to ensure they all get nicely coated in the oil. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown on at least one side.

Ingredients For Aioli:

6 T. mayonnaise
1/4 t. minced garlic
1 t. lemon juice
1 T. flat leaf parsley chopped 

Directions For Aioli:

Mix together mayonnaise, garlic, parsley and lemon juice. Serve in a ramekin or drizzled on top.

Stuffed Peppers- Italian Style

I have been trying to find a good stuffed pepper recipe for a while. I think I finally found one I like! I had a coupon for these Johnsonville Chicken Sausages and decided to try some with that, instead of ground turkey or beef.

I found a recipe to go off of, but since the sausage had so many great flavors, I decided to simplify it, and use up a few ingredients, instead of going out to buy more. (This would be why it calls just a little bit of yellow peppers, and petite diced tomatoes/marinara/tomato sauce)  I didn't want to open a 14 oz can of tomato sauce, so I used a tomato marinara I made up last week to go with my zucchini meatballs.

So feel free to mix it up a bit for your stuffed peppers too!


Ingredients: 
1/4 onion, chopped
1 cup chicken stock, divided
3 peppers cut in half with seeds removed. (I used red)
2 T. diced yellow peppers
4 chicken sausage links- Johnsonville 3 Cheese Italian Style
1 t. minced garlic
1 cup COOKED rice
1/2 cup petite diced tomatoes/marinara/or tomato sauce
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
olive oil


Directions
Preheat oven to 400* and cook rice, if it is not cooked.

Drizzle a little olive oil in a medium sized pan.  Add onion, garlic, and sausage.  Cook until onions are translucent and sausage is slightly browned.

Add 1/2 cup tomato mixture and 1/2 cup chicken broth.  Mix and simmer on low for 5 minutes.

Add rice to mixture.

Place peppers in a baking dish. Fill each pepper with as much of the stuffing mix as you can.

Pour the remainder of the chicken stock into the bottom of the baking dish.

Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes.  Remove foil and sprinkle cheese on top. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.

 Last night we made them with just Spanish rice, Rotel, and cheese, but followed the basic directions.
We also made some with parmesan couscous and cheese on top! So really you can put what ever you want in them!! It is a great way to sneak in some veggies!

Roasted Broccoli

Earlier this summer I went to Vegas, and had this AMAZING broccoli at the Social House.  While, this isn't exactly like it, it is pretty close.

Ingredients: 

Broccoli Florets

olive oil 

garlic 

fresh lemon juice

salt & pepper

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 425*

Open the bag of broccoli and pour in 5T of olive oil, salt and pepper, and 4 cloves of garlic. Shake it up. It is important to start out with dry broccoli, so it gets nice and crispy! 

Line a cookie sheet with foil and dump the broccoli on it. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes. 

Drizzle a little more olive oil over it and squeeze lemon juice. 

You can top it with parmesan cheese if you would like, or some bread crumbs, but I thought it was delicious with just the lemon juice! 

Veggie Sandies

I seriously can't believe I haven't blogged this recipe yet! It is one of my FAVORITES! It's definitely a keeper! I found it the old fashion way, in a cook book.

In the summer, most of the ingredients can be found at the Farmer's Market.  I like to go on Saturday mornings and buy everything, and then make it for lunch!

Ingredients: 
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 T honey
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
2 small zucchini, sliced (or one zuch, 1 yellow squash)
1 medium red onion, sliced 1/2 in thick
2 red bell peppers, sliced into wide strips
1 foccica flat bread - or your favorite bread or roll
feta cheese ( or herb-flavored goat cheese)

Directions: 
In a zip lock baggie, marinade the veggies in the soy sauce, lemon, honey, and red pepper flakes.
Grill veggies or cook in pan to your liking (reserve a little bit of the marinade to drizzle over your sandie)
Toast the bread
Assemble sandwich!

Here is the real recipe if you want to follow it! It is from Taste of Home