* Menu Monday (#3) *

Here is what we will be eating this week:

Monday: Sweet & Sour Meatballs, Rice, & Zucchini
Tuesday: Hamburgers & Green Beans
Wednesday: Homemade Gourmet Vegetarian Pizza & Salad
Thursday: BBQ Ranch Quesadillas, Spanish Rice, & Beans
Friday: Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches & Corn
Saturday: Breakfast Burritos & Fruit Smoothie
Sunday: Taco Soup & Fritos

* Oven Roasted Red Potatoes *

While our garden produced a plethora of russet and yukon gold potatoes, our neighbors grew an INSANE amount of red potatoes. They were nice enough to give us some of their red potaotes and we made this yummy side dish with them...recipe found here.

* Oven Roasted Red Potatoes *
6 to 8 medium red potatoes, washed and diced
8 to 10 baby carrots ( we did not use the carrots because we didn't have any but I'm sure they would've been good too!)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 (1oz) package dry onion soup
2 cloves garlic, minced
coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Thoroughly wash potatoes and pat dry. Dice into 1″ pieces and place into large ziploc bag. Add carrots.
In a small mixing bowl combine dry onion soup, olive oil, and garlic and mix to create a marinade. Pour mixture into ziploc bag with the potatoes and carrots. Close ziploc bag securely and toss potatoes and carrots until they are evenly coated with the marinade. Store vegetables in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350* and prepare a large baking sheet, line with heavy duty foil and spray a light layer of Pam.
On prepared baking sheet with foil, pour vegetables out a spread evenly. Add sea salt and pepper to taste. Bake for 30 minutes at 350.
At the 30 minute mark, stir the vegetables. Then turn the oven up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and continue to bake for 20-25 minutes until browned and crisp.
Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm

* Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches *

While browsing Pinterest (my new FAVORITE website), my hubby was looking over my shoulder at the computer and we saw this recipe posted. He loves buffalo chicken stuff so he wanted me to "pin" this recipe for future use. The original recipe is found here. We tried it out and it was good! I am not so much a buffalo chicken-spicy type of girl but this was pretty good. We halved this recipe and it was the perfect ammount for our family.

* Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken *3 lb. bag of frozen chicken breasts
1 bottle Frank's Wings Buffalo Sauce
1 packet Ranch Dip Mix
2 TBSP butter

Put frozen chicken, wing sauce, and ranch dip mix into crock pot.
Cook on low at least 6 to 7 hours
Using two forks, shred chicken & return to crock pot.
Add butter.
Cook on low for an additional hour.
Serve on buns and enjoy!

* Menu Monday (#2) *

Here's what's on our dinner menu this week:

Monday: Fettucini Alfredo, Garlic Cheese Biscuits, Salad
Tuesday: Easy Sweet Pork Tacos, Black Beans, Spanish Rice
Wednesday: Sloppy Joes, Sauteed Zucchini
Thursday: Chicken Roll-ups, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Cucumber Tomato Salad
Friday: Omelets (with ham, cheese, and tomatoes), Hash browns, Fruit Smoothie
Saturday: Grilled Steak, Baked Potatoes, Green Beans
Sunday: Crockpot Orange Chicken (recipe coming soon), Rice, Salad

What are you having?

* Zucchini Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies *

Are you sick of all the zucchini recipes yet? Sorry about that...you can tell we have a lot of zucchini, right? There might be a few more coming...I apologize in advance. This recipe came from here and it's pretty good! The recipe doesn't have any salt in it and I kind of think it could've used it but I had no idea how much to add so if you have any suggestions, I would love them!

* Zucchini Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies *
1/2 C. butter
3/4 C. white sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini (About 1 1/2 zucchini's, oddly)
1 1/2 C. flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 C. quick cooking oats
1 -1.5 C. semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350* F.

In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in the egg and vanilla, mix well, then stir in the shredded zucchini. Sift together the flour, baking soda and cinnamon, stir into the zucchini mixture. Finally, stir in the oats and chocolate chips.

Drop dough from a teaspoon onto an unprepared cookie sheet. Bake for about 11 minutes in the preheated oven. The cookies will stay soft and moist because of the zucchini.

* Sauteed Zucchini and Tomatoes *

Another zucchini recipe, as promised! :) This is really so good...I love the sweetness of the tomatoes paired with the zucchini. We usually leave the cheese off (mostly because we don't usually have mozzarella cheese around--although we have put colby jack cheese on it before and it was good too). The recipe comes from here.

* Sauteed Zucchini and Tomatoes *

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 medium zucchini, cut into approx. 1/4"-1/2" slices
a handful of cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in halves
1/2 cup (approx.) shredded mozzarella cheese
kosher salt and coarse ground pepper

Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add zucchini, season with salt and pepper. Let cook until golden brown on one side, about 3-5 minutes then flip and cook on the other side, 3-5 minutes more.

Add the tomatoes and heat through. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and heat until cheese melts. Season again with salt and pepper if desired. Serve immediately.

* Menu Monday (#1) *

Well, I'm starting something new this week. This may not help anyone but me but I am going to start posting my weekly dinner Menu Plan every Monday. That way, when I got to plan my weekly menus in the future, I can look back in the archives, pick a week,and my menu is planned! And since we pretty much eat the same meals over and over, I think this will work great! So here we go...

MONDAY: Navajo Tacos & Corn on the cob
TUESDAY: Stromboli (with pepperoni, ground beef, and tomatoes) & Sauteed Zucchini and Cherry Tomatoes
WEDNESDAY: Marinated Steak, Baked Potatoes, & Corn on the Cob
THURSDAY: Costa Vida Chicken Tacos, Black Beans, & Rice
FRIDAY: Whole Wheat Blender Waffles, Scrambled Eggs, & Fruit Smoothie
SATURDAY: Hot dogs, Hamburgers, & Corn on the cob
SUNDAY: French Dip Sandwiches & Green Beans

* Chicken Rollatini Stuffed with Zucchini and Cheese *

My sister told me about a food website called SkinnyTaste.com and can I say that this website makes healthy foods look YUMM-O!?! So as I was browsing through the recipes, I found this one here. It is so good and different from anything I usually make. I did make a few changes though...I didn't have mozzarella cheese so I used cream cheese (which of course makes it less healthy but tasty anyway). I also didn't use the lemon juice but I do think it would've tasted wonderful. Give it a try...your tastebuds and wasteline will thank you...unless you use the cream cheese.

* Chicken Rollatini Stuffed with Zucchini and Mozzarella *
(click on the link to see the picture that sold me on it...mine just doesn't do it justice.)
1 tsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 1/2 cups (1 medium) zucchini, shredded
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Romano cheese (or parmesan)
3 oz part skim shredded mozzarella
salt and pepper to taste
8 thin chicken cutlets, 3 oz each (I just used the frozen tenderloins)
1/2 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
1 lemon, juice of
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and fresh pepper
olive oil non-stick spray

Wash and dry cutlets, season with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 450°. Lightly spray a baking dish with non-stick spray.

In a large skillet, heat oil on medium-high heat. Add oil when hot then saute garlic a minute, or until golden. Add zucchini, 1/4 cup Romano cheese, salt and pepper and saute about 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool. When cool, add mozzarella cheese and mix to combine. ( I cooked the zucchini with the garlic and then mixed it in with the cream cheese).

Lay chicken down on a working surface and spread 3 tbsp of zucchini-cheese mixture on each cutlet. Loosely roll each one and keep seam side down.

Combine breadcrumbs and grated cheese in one bowl; in a second bowl combine olive oil, lemon juice, and pepper in another bowl.

Dip chicken in lemon-oil mixture, then in breadcrumbs and place seam side down in a baking dish (no toothpicks needed). Repeat with the remaining chicken. When finished, lightly spraywith oil spray.

Bake 25 - 30 minutes. Serve immediately.

* Fresh Salsa *

/My dad is awesome! He does so many things so great and one of them is this salsa! He gave us this recipe and it has been a favorite ever since! This year was so nice because we were able to use stuff from our garden to make it. The tomatoes were from my husband's Grandma's garden, the onion, peppers, & chilis were from our garden, and the cilantro was from the store (although we did grow some cilantro in our garden but it got too long and had weeds in it so I opted to get it from the store). It is so yummy and fresh and healthy...I LOVE it!

* Fresh Salsa *
3 lbs. Tomatoes (about 30 roma--if using regular tomatoes, squeeze out some of the juice before using)
3/4 Onion
1/2 bunch Cilantro
1 Green Anaheim chili
2 Yellow Anaheim chili
3 Jalepeno peppers
1 T. lemon juice
2-3 tsp. salt (to taste)

In food processor, chop all ingredients except tomatoes. Add tomatoes and chop to desired consistency. Salt to taste.
(I usually pour the chopped stuff into a bowl before adding the tomoates. I then chop half of the tomatoes up really fine and pour them into the bowl. Then I chop the remainder of the tomatoes more chuncky and add them to the bowl. I stir it all together and then add the salt a teaspoon at the time until is tastes just right.)