Roasted veggie tacos

Ingredients:

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 medium summer squash

1 medium zucchini 

1/2 purple onion

8-10 mushrooms

8-10 grape tomatoes 

1 avocado

1 can mexicorn (the original recipe called to roast corn on the Cobb and then cut it off. I didn't have any on the cobb)

1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)

Sour cream

12 crispy corn taco shells

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut veggies into roughly equal sizes (about 2 inches) except tomatoes leave them whole. Quarter the avocado and leave in the skin.  I drained the corn and roasted it with the rest of the veggies.  The beans I just rinsed and cooled. Melt half a stick of butter and add a table spoon of taco seasoning. Coat all veggies with seasoned butter. Place veggies evenly on a buttered cookie sheet. The mushrooms cook a little faster than the others so you may want to put the on their own baking sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the veggies are tender and slightly golden. Place all veggies on a platter and set for serving along with shells and condiments. Enjoy!

Black Bean Quesadillas

These were great! A recipe I found on Pinterest. Super simple, super quick, very little cooking so no heating up the house, and very filling! Oh and inexpensive too!

Ingredients:

2 cans black beans, rinsed

1/2 can mexicorn, drained 

1/2 - 1 cup salsa, I used 1/2 because I was afraid of it being too spicy for the kids. 

1/2 - 1 cup shredded mexiblend cheese. A spicy cheese would be good if you like spicy cheese.

 8 medium sized tortillas. I had wheat and white, both tasted good so what ever you prefer.

3 teaspoons oil, I used olive but I think regular vegetable oil would be fine.

Directions mix filling ingredients together in a bowl. Warm fry pan to slightly above medium heat, add 1 teaspoon oil and brush evenly over pan. Put filling in tortilla, put on one half so you can fold over. Place two quesadillas in the pan cook on one side about 3 minutes, so it is crisp and not floppy. Then turn and repeat. 

We all dipped ours in sour cream. I think guacamole would be good too. Enjoy!! 

Tostada

Summer weather has arrived! Time to change up meal plans.  Today we started with an old favorite, tostadas.

These are super simple and most of the ingredients I have on hand at pretty much any given time.

Ingredients: 

Tostada chips (you can buy them precooked or just cook up some corn tortillas.

Refried beans (we like traditional)

Shredded cheese

Salsa 

Sour cream

Shredded lettuce

Mexicorn

Warm the beans (I add a little water to make them more spreadable). Put all toppings on table. Smear beans on the tostada and add toppings as preferred. My kids really like these!  

Zucchini Bread

I had never made this before, I had seen it made by my Mother and Sister as a kid, but never actually done it myself.  I have to say, it is really easy! and seems to be a huge hit! So, try it if you have not. If you have never had zucchini bread it is very much like spice cake. MMM  This recipe is based off of the one I found in the Fiddler's Canyon Relief Society Cookbook.  I made two alterations to the recipe from the way it was printed 1) I did not put in nuts 2) two I increased the amount of cinnamon and vanilla and added nutmeg. So, if you want a good basic "traditional" recipe, just google one, but this one is really quite good, even if I do say so myself.

Preheat oven to 325'

Prepare 2 small loaf pans, grease them with margarine or butter. I do not add flour as I do to most other cakes.

2 cups peeled and shredded zucchini

3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups white sugar
3 tspn vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tspn baking soda
1/4 tspn baking powder
1 tspn salt
3-4 tspns cinnamon
1 tspn nutmeg

Mix wet and dry ingredients separately. I prefer to put the dry in my mixer and then beat the eggs sugar and oil together by hand adding them to the already blended dry ingredients. After mixing those I add the zucchini.  After it is all well mixed pour evenly between the two prepared loaf pans.
Bake for about 60 minutes, mine takes a little longer but I have quite small pans, just start checking it at about 50 minutes and cook until a thin knife comes out clean.  Leave in pans to cool for 10-20 minutes before turning out to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!

Stuffed Zucchini

Much to our surprise and pleasure our little garden has been quite bountiful! We have many zucchini squash and summer squash plus cucumbers, beets, and peas. In an effort to use what we have been growing in more than one or two ways I have tried a couple new recipes of late.  For the record Matt heard about stuffed zucchini from a friend at church and he told me about it and I came up with the following as an attempt. We found it very delicious, possibly a new favorite, but be warned it is an Erin Jeanne-make-it-up-as-I-go recipe. There are two variations, one with beef and a tomato based sauce and the second with chicken and a soup based sauce. Again, we found both delicious and though I am always thinking of ways to change a recipe,or improve it, I will post the basic here, for now. =)

Red Stuffed Zucchini

Preheat oven to 350'

1 large zucchini, or 2 medium

1lbs hamburger
one 6 oz can tomato paste
one Small belle pepper
Parmesan Cheese
Garlic salt
Onion salt
Oregano
Sweet Basil
Sugar

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Prepare Zucchini: Cut in half then cut each half length-wise and de-seed. Rinse, dry, sprinkle with a touch of garlic salt and Parmesan cheese place in a buttered baking dish.

Filling: Brown the meat and drain off grease. Mix in tomato paste.  Add other ingredients to taste, I only use about a table spoon of sugar.  I basically just added them like I was making spaghetti sauce. Sorry I do not have exact measurements for the spices. I would start with teaspoons or half teaspoons if you are new to this type of sauce, you can always add more.....  I put a small amount of Mozzarella in the mix, but saved it mostly for the top.
Put the filling int the prepared zucchini slices. Cook for 20-30 minutes, depending on the thickness of your zucchinis, until tender. Cover with cheese and continue cooking for another 10-15 minutes to melt cheese, we like our slightly browned.  Enjoy!

White Stuffed Zucchini:

Same basic principle as above, just with out the tomatoes or beef. =) I am just going to list the ingredients. You do all the same things as above!

one 13 oz can chicken breast
one 10.5 oz can cream of chicken soup
one small belle pepper
Parmesan Cheese
Garlic salt
Onion salt
Oregano
Sweet Basil

Mozzarella cheese

Apple Muffins

The first muffins I made with my muffin mix. Winners. Definitely winners! I happened to have some homemade applesauce from last fall, which my minis prefer to the store bought. They were really good!

Apple Muffins

2 1/3 cups Muffin Mix (recipe here)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I left these out)
1/4 teaspoon cloves (I did not have these either)
1 cup sweet applesauce
1/4 cup milk
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 400'.  Butter muffin pans or place baking cups. In a medium bowl, combine Muffin Mix, nuts and cloves. Combine applesauce, milk and egg in a small bowl. Add all at once to dry ingredients. Stir until just moistened; batter should be lumpy. fill prepared muffin pans 2/3 full. Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Makes 12 muffins.

Cornmeal Muffins

Cornmeal Muffins

These are sweet yellow cornmeal muffins ala "Jiffy" muffins. We LOVE them!

2 1/2 cup Cornmeal Mix (recipe here)
1 egg
1 1/4 cup milk
1 table spoon honey (my addition to original recipe)

Preheat oven to 425'. Butter muffin pans, or place baking cups. Put Cornmeal Mix in a medium bowl. Combine egg and milk in a small bowl.  Add all at once to Cornmeal Mix. Blend Fill prepared muffin pans 2/3 full. Bake 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Makes 12 muffins.