Meal 95

Tonight we tried a marvelous french recipe...ratatouille.  All our ingredients were totally fresh except for the mushrooms (which were canned)...and Wayne & I had a great time in the kitchen together chopping away. 

Here's what we started with on the cutting board.

Here's the link to the recipe we used:
http://www.eggplantrecipes.net/EggplantRecipes/Ratatouille.htm

You start by sauteeing eggplant with garlic & parsley.  Then add that to the bottom of casserole dish.  Top that first layer with parmesan cheese.  Then add a layer of sliced zucchini - followed by another layer of parm. Wayne was totally in charge of slicing the zuke layer.  Here's what he did:

Next came a layer of chopped up tomatoes, green peppers, & mushrooms.

Then one final layer of parm. 

And, here's what it looked like fresh out of the oven.

Since we were baking, we also threw some bratwursts in an iron skillet & stuck those in the oven too.  Then we boiled some fresh corn.

There's nothing better than meals made with summer bounty!
Meal 95 done, 205 to go!!!

Major Catch Up!!

It has been so long since I've blogged!
And I don't have time right this minute to do a great detailed job of catching up.
So, here's a quick run down of the last five meals I've prepared at home.
I prepared a huge meal for a bunch of teenagers one night with a SUPER SIZED meatloaf...left-over zucchini casserole from the last meal I had blogged, potato salad (made with a dry ranch dressing mix), baked cabbage and another cucumber salad. That was meal 91.

Another meal was some grilled deer tenderloin with grilled cabbage & potatoes.  It was okay...we are not excellent grillers - so this is an area that we need major improvement in!  Grilled Meal 92.

I baked home-made croutons one afternoon for one of our farmer's market customers & us to keep at home too.  Those croutons were part of awesome lunchtime salads that I'm definately counting as one meal....fresh spinach, boiled eggs & awesome croutons....Meal 93.

Meal 94 was bruschetta & cherry salad.  I'm pretty sure I've shared both recipes before.  They are both quick & easy.

There may have been more that I've forgotten, but that's all the time I have right now to think.

Meal 90

As I mentioned before we haven't turned the air conditioning on yet & it's starting to really affect the way I cook & think about cooking.  Tony didn't even get in from tractor work until after 9 p.m....so we didn't eat until around 9:30.  I broiled some hamburgers in the oven - enough for two meals.  I made some more cucumber salad, only this time I added sour cream too.  The cucumbers are hard for me to get prepared because I just want to eat them as fast as I can slice them up!!  They're so wonderful right out of the garden.

And, I baked a zucchini casserole from a new recipe.  It was okay.  I mainly chose it because the zucchini was already grated & I've had a box of stuffing in the pantry for a long time that I haven't used.  Here's the link:

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/summer-zucchini-casserole/Detail.aspx

I didn't cook the zucchini first because it was already grated up & I didn't use onions or carrots at all. 

Meal 90 done...210 to go!!

Meal Out

Just wanted to mention a meal Tony & I ate on our date last night.
We traveled to Bardstown, location of "My Old Kentucky Home" and ate at Kreso's.  It was a perfect, wonderful meal in a great atmosphere.  It felt like we were on a little vacation just for the night. 

Meal 89

It's getting really warm here & we still haven't turned on our air conditioning, so I've started "thinking" alot about cooler foods.  Especially foods that can be prepared without much heat. 

So, meal 89 was chicken salad.  Add to that some more leftover pasta salad & some cucumber salad & you have our meal.  Cucumbers were fresh out of the garden & I used an extension recipe.  Sliced cucumbers, a little sugar, a little apple cider vinegar & some fresh dill.

89 meals down.

Meal 88

Meal 88 was totally scavenged from tailgating...a friend left us her pasta salad, we took home some of the chicken & even though I HATE to admit this, we also had some chips (dill pickle!)

Meal 88 eaten - even though it wasn't all that healthy!!

Meal 87

Meal 87 was a tailgating meal combined with baptisms at our town's river park.  I made an another zucchini casserole & a great cherry salad that a friend makes often.  It's so simple, light & refreshing.  One can of cherry pie filling, one can of crushed pineapple, one can of eagle brand sweetened milk, and two small containers of cool whip or one large.  It's super simple & so good.

Here's a scene from our afternoon of tailgating fun!

Meal 86

I had thought about meal 86 all day before I got it made & I was so excited about the vegetables that I honestly didn't care if we even had a protein.

My favorite dish of the meal was wilted spinach & lettuce salad.  Here's the link:

http://cookeatshare.com/recipes/wilted-spinach-bacon-salad-172946?ref=p_title

The only major change I made in this recipe was that I more than doubled it & used about half & half lettuce & spinach.  The steam rising up from the saute smelled so wonderful, it was almost as exciting as actually eating.

The second amazing vegetable dish I tried was a zucchini casserole from this link:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1850,136177-228204,00.html

We took pictures of both dishes, but I accidently deleted them, which is totally unlike me.  We ate this meal outside on the deck, enjoying the summer night. 

O, I also sauteed some chicken to go with this, but it was totally unneccessary..the eggs in the zucchini casserole could've held their own without an additional protein.

Hope you have time to enjoy these recipes too, Meal 86 done!

Meal 85

Tonight was grilled chicken/spinach salads - very simple sauteed chicken with fajita seasoning....fresh spinach from our garden & homemade croutons.

Meal 84

Remember those salmon patties from your childhood??  That's what I did this past Thursday night....two drained cans of salmon, 2 eggs, some crushed saltine crackers...mixed up, patted out & covered in cornmeal...then browned in some olive oil.  They were quite a treat!

I also boiled some new potatoes, barely smashed them & then added salt & pepper.  We also had plain old cornbread the way mom used to make.  Cornmeal, a little flour, one egg & some milk.

Meal 83

Today I cooked a big meal for lunch....I've fallen behind on cooking, so I'm gonna' have to make up some lost ground somewhere.  Plus, our kids got up & had a big morning of rock picking up on the farm so I knew they would be really hungry when they came in.

I fixed a four pound meatloaf.  I added mustard, tomato puree,worcheshire sauce, oatmeal, onion & two eggs.  I never end up with a meatloaf that tastes the same because I'm always changing what I put in it based on what there is available in the pantry & frig. Like this morning I would've used ketchup, but we were out.  I found a can of tomato puree in the pantry & decided that would work, but then I couldn't find our can opener anywhere??  A friend called to say he was coming by to pick up a key, so I asked him to bring a can opener with him.  He did & our meatloaf was saved!  Thanks Jeremy. 

I also baked a large pan of cornbread with chopped up jalapenos instead of the habanero relish this time.

My two favorite things on the plate were the new potatoes & zucchini.  I boiled a quart of small red potatoes, drained them & just added some butter, salt & pepper.  New potatoes are such a treat that they stand simply on their own. 

I also roasted some zucchini....which was wonderful!  I sliced up one large zucchini & tossed it in olive oil, garlic salt, black pepper & some fresh thyme.  I roasted them in the same oven with the meatloaf.

Meal 83 cooked & eaten, now I've just got to go clean!!

(And go buy a can-opener!)

Meal 82

Friday I brought home some wonderful zucchini from the farmer's market. Tonight was the first time I've cooked since then!!

The highlights of the meal were the fresh zucchini, garlic & lettuce - all from our local farmer's market.  I used the following recipe:
 
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Creamy-Zucchini-with-Linguine/Detail.aspx

 
I'm convinced that the farm fresh garlic (thanks Athyleon!) made a big difference in the taste.  I also changed the recipe a little by grating the zucchini instead of chopping it.  I thought this would make the zucchini a little more palatable to my kids!  Of course we added some freshly grated parmesan.  That has become our favorite thing to do lately.
 

 
I also sauteed some chicken in olive oil & just seasoned those with salt and pepper.  Then our kids went & picked some fresh lettuce from the garden. 

We added home-made croutons that I had made earlier in the week for our farmer's market.  And, our meals were complete.
 

Meal 81

Frozen pizza, spinach salad, & home-made croutons.
We were in two separate places for supper on this night, but I did prepare the salad, croutons & pizza for those who were staying home.

Meal 80

Today was farmer's market so tonight we had a rich farmer's market meal of spinach, onion, mushroom & parmesan eggs with toasted herb bread.  Plenty of protein, fresh veggies & yummy herbs.  And, it is always a quick meal.

80 meals down!!  Woohoo!

Meal 79

Campfire Cookout at Jadaway Farms!!  Meal 79 was roasted hotdogs, marshmallows & Funyuns. (We LOVE funyuns!)

The conversation around our campfire included summer planning & dividing out summer responsibilities.  This is a tradition for us.  Everyone takes turns sharing 3 or more things they'd like to do this summer before school starts again...then we do the best we can to make everyone's summer dreams happen!

Summertime goes too fast!