Zucchini and Carrot Muffins

These tasty zucchini muffins would also be delicious with about 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans, either in addition to the carrots or to replace them.
Prep Time: :
Cook Time: :
Ingredients:
•2/3 cup vegetable oil
•2 large eggs
•2/3 cup granulated sugar
•1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar, packed
•1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•2 cups all-purpose flour
•1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•1/2 teaspoon baking powder
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
•1 1/2 cups finely shredded unpeeled zucchini
•1/2 cup finely shredded carrot
Preparation:
Grease and flour 12 muffin cups. Heat oven to 375°.
In a mixing bowl, beat the oil with eggs, sugars, and vanilla extract.

Combine the flour, soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; add to the wet ingredients; stirring until blended. Fold in the shredded zucchini and carrots.

Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full; sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or granulated sugar, if desired. Bake for 20 minutes.

Makes 12.

My Beauty Queen

What can I say.....

Ride 'em cowgirl!

Can you see her under the hair?


She wanted to have breakfast with her animals. Pretty cute!

Fajitas

Last night I made fajitas for dinner. I made the marinade that I had posted about 2 weeks ago. It was an Asian marinade for fajitas and they were really good. I used flank steak and marinaded it for about 2 hours before grilling. Sorry no pictures, the camera battery was being charged. On the side I sauteed onions and red bell peppers, had sour cream, cheese, avocado and lettuce. Also made corn with it. Make sure you cut the flank steak against the grain so it will be tender.

Marinade

1/4 cup soy sauce
I used fresh ginger since that is what I had. I cut off a piece and used it in my garlic press. It just takes the juice out of the ginger so you don't have ginger pieces.
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup white wine
Pepper to taste

I also made salsa

6 roma tomatoes
1 jalapeno
1 bunch cilantro
1/2 white onion
1 lime
salt to taste

Grilled the tomatoes, jalapeno and onion until charred. Peeled the tomatoes and cut the jalapeno and onion up and put it in the blender. Added the cilantro and lime juice and salt to taste. Added about 2 tbsp of water and blended it all together.

Meal Plan Monday

Sunday- BBQ Hamburgers and baked beans

Monday- Chicken alfredo pasta w/mushrooms

Tuesday- Fajitas w/guacamole, homemade salsa w/all the fixings

Wednesday- Quick dinner night...Mac and cheese that I have in the freezer ready to go

Thursday- Stir fry with the left over fajita meat

Coconut Cream Pie

So easy!!!!

1 box cook and serve vanilla pudding
2 cups coconut
Crust, make it yourself or use Pillsbury
1 container of cool whip

That is it! Just follow the directions on the pudding box, bake the pie crust. When the pie crust is cool, mix in the the coconut into the pudding mixture. Let it sit in the frig a couple of hours to set, add whip cream and sprinkle with toasted coconut. It tastes good and is so simple.

And yes, you can do it with chocolate too. I just shred some chocolate over the top of the whip cream to make it pretty.

My pie maker

Little man asked me to make a pie, so I made a coconut cream pie. He helped me make the crust. He is becoming a good little baker.

Here he is rolling out the crust.


Here is our crust.

Our coconut cream pie.

Lunch is served....

Since eating salads all summer, I am ready to mix it up and I am willing to try different butternut squash recipes. Since today is nice, I did not mind cooking lunch today. I made Barley and Kielbasa Pilaf. I made it a little healthier by not adding the breadcrumbs and using light Kielbasa which I liked better since it was not as salty.

In the pan I browned is the cauliflower, Kielbasa and butternut squash. I did roast the squash before cutting it up and adding it to the mix. It has a better flavor when it is roasted. Just cut in half length wise, drizzle w/evoo and salt and pepper. Roast in a 425 degree oven until tender about 45 minutes.

I mixed the barley in at the last. I did not put the parsley in since the kids do not like fresh herbs, atleast they don't like the looks of them.


Recipe:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/4 cups barley (cheap, 1 bag .79 cents)
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 butternut squash peeled, seeded and cubbed
3/4 pound Kielbasa chopped
1 head cauliflower
1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1/2 cup chopped parsley

1. Heat a saucepan and add 1 tbsp of evoo and garlic. Add the barley and toast for about 3 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups of water and 1/2 tsp salt and bring to a boil. Cover and turn down to low for 40-45 minutes.
2. In a large skillet toast the breadcrumbs over medium heat for 7 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add 2 tbsp of olive oil and add the Kielbasa and brown. Once the butternut squash is finished roasting, chop it up and add to the Kielbasa for a couple fo minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
3. Add 3 tbsp of evoo to the same skillet and add the cut up cauliflower. Add 2 tbsp of water and season with salt and pepper. Using a second skillet, weigh down the cauliflower until browned (I put a layer of aluminum foil in between). Turn and cook until tender. Add the Kielbasa and suah and stir in the barley and breadcrumbs and toss with the parsley,

Farmers Market

This is why I go to the Farmers Market every week!
We can't get enough of the raspberries. They are sooooo good right now.

I get my honey there. It is good and cheaper than the stores. $7.00 for a big bottle. I also buy my espresso beans there. It is the best espresso!

I bought some okra to fry up and see if my kids will like it. I think my hubby has been wanting country fried steak, so I will make a southern meal this week. Reminds me of my Grandma East cooking up her Southern meals.

I also bought eggplant and zuccini. I am going to try a Greek dish, Moussaka. It has eggplants, zuccini, I am going to use ground turkey, garlic, crushed tomatoes, cottage cheese and gruere cheese.

One more meal I am going to make with my butternut squash is, Brely and Kielbasa Pilaf. I do not think hubby will like it but I think me and the kids will. It has barely, breadcrumbs, butternut squash, kielbasa, cauliflower and flat leaf parsley. I wish I had some for lunch right now!

Forgot to add, espresso beans 1 lb, $12.00. This will last me 3 months. That would only be about 4 Starbucks Lattes and I have to say this tastes better. I use my Mukka Express that I love!

Fajitas

This is more for me, but I was watching Throwdown with Bobby Flay tonight. It was a fun show. Bobby Flay did a showdown against a priest who was hilarious. Anyways, the fajitas looked so good and it was a Asian marinade on them. The marinade had:

soy sauce
brown sugar
white wine
red vinegar
onion powder
ginger powder

He also made guacamole with it, used flank steak as his meat and added hot sauce into the sour cream and mixed it together. Looked good and did not want to forget the ingredients I saw him using. I think this will hit our table in the next week or so.

Saturday Mornings

This is how it goes around here on Saturday mornings around here.

7am Hubby goes yard selling
9am Hubby comes home I go to the gym
10:15am I go to the Farmer's Market
10:45am I come home hubby goes with the truck to pick up whatever he bought that was too big to fit into the car. Today a tree trimmer.
11am Me and the kids splurge on fruit that I brought home
11:15am Finally a shower, nothing like a 4 year old telling you that you stink!
11:45am Lunch time

Yes, we do a lot of tag teaming on Sat. mornings. Now what to do for the rest of the day!

Cookie Cutters

Lately Little Man has wanted his lunch in the car right after preschool and enjoys his sandwiches in different shapes. Sur la Table has their $1.00 cookie cutters on sale for .56 cents right now. They are not the sturdy ones, but for sandwiches they are perfect. I picked up some more today. I have a heart, star, round, letters, leaf, butterfly etc... Today I told little man there is a shape cut into his sandwich and he has to tell me what it is. Right away he said "B". It's the little things that make it fun. Just my little story of the day.

Watchamacallit????

This week I am cleaning out my frig and freezer. All I spent on groceries this week was $17.00 at the Farmers Market and $41.00 at the grocery store buying the essentials. So, this is what I came up with and I used a lot of ingredients out of my frig.

I grilled corn, red bell pepper, jalapeno and onions. I made a corn salsa. I was going to cook everything on the outside grill, but no propane. I hate when that happens!

I baked flour tortillas and added the left over chili verde sauce to them with cheese and melted the cheese on top.

The corn salsa: I cut up all the veggies and in the blender I added my jalapeno, juice of 1 lime and 1/4 cup olive oil. Mixed that in with the veggies and cut up some cilantro and added salt and pepper to taste.

I grilled 2 pork chops that had marinated in the chili verde sauce for 2 hours and this is what I came up with!

You can not see this in the picture, but I made a mambo rice too. I cooked white rice and when that was finished I placed the rice in a bowl and added the juice of 1 lime, cilantro and parsley with salt and pepper.

I placed the cheesey tortilla on the place, added a mound of rice, placed the pork chop on top of the rice and topped it off with corn salsa. It was pretty good too!

Little man said he did not like it and barely ate, but the three of us ate it up. Can't please everyone at every meal.

What's for dinner tonight?

I have pork in the frig thawing, but do not want to make BBQ pork again, so I have some chili verde sauce and will make something with that. I think I will marinate the pork for a couple of hours in the chili verde sauce, grill it on the grill, make a corn salsa and a rice with cilantro, parsley and lime in it. Kind of a tex mex thing going on. Maybe bake some tortillas and put it under everything. If it turns out I will post it later.