"Pasta" Carbonara

Carbonara is a pasta dish made with bacon or ham, egg, and cream.  This version is a veggie-filled take on the traditional pasta carbonara, with several substitutions that make it very nutritious and incredibly delicious.  To be honest, it is actually very reminiscent of fried rice!  I'm pretty sure it's the peas and egg that give it that taste.  Either way, this is a unique dish that would be great served for breakfast, as a non meat-heavy main dish, or as a chicken side dish.  

"Pasta" Carbonara

1/2-3/4 lb. of bacon, cut into small pieces
2 candy onions (very small onions), minced (about 1/2 c onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups frozen peas
freshly ground pepper
6 egg yolks (I used yolks because I made biscuits with the whites the day before, but you could use 3-4 whole eggs instead!)
3 large zucchini or squash, spiralized

Cut bacon into small pieces and saute in a large dutch oven or high sided pot.  Once the bacon is crispy, remove the pieces but leave the fat in the pot.  Add the onion, cooking until soft, then add garlic and cook until fragrant. (This dish is very much based on feel- I don't have exact cooking times or temperatures, you just have to go by the look of the ingredients!)  Then add peas and saute until the peas are hot.  Sprinkle a generous amount of pepper on top of the peas.  Pour the egg yolks on top of the peas and stir everything until the egg yolks no longer look wet.  Then add the zucchini/squash noodles, and add the bacon back in as well.  Cook, stirring occassionally, until the "noodles" are soft.  For us, this made about 4 servings!

Pad Thai

This is a super flavorful, easy meal that Rem and I made the other night and both LOVED!  We adapted it from many paleo pad thai recipes we found on various blogs out there.  I suppose I could call my version "two tablespoon" pad thai since I added that much of almost every ingredient.  This would be an easy recipe to memorize!

Instead of the traditional noodles used as the basis of pad thai, I decided to try using zucchini in their place.  I've never tried making "noodles" with zucchini before because I thought I needed a vegetable spiralizer, but as I searched for pad thai recipes I noticed that many cooks just use a vegetable peeler to create noodles from the zucchini.  I tried it and it worked perfectly!  Ironically, we also made brown rice pasta to go along with the pad thai (which you can see in the picture).  Also pictured are some steamed green beans.  I hope you enjoy this meal as much as we did!

Pad Thai

2 T coconut oil

2 large onions, diced

5 cloves garlic, minced

2 T ginger, minced

2 T apple cider vinegar

2 T raw almond butter

2 T sriracha

2 T fish sauce (I used Dynasty brand, which is only made from anchovies and water)

2 T lime juice

3 medium sized zucchinis, sliced into thin strips with a vegetable peeler (I tried to make the strips about 1/4 inch wide by turning the zucchini each time I sliced)

1-2 lb. chicken, cubed and cooked in sesame oil (exclude if you want to make just the noodles)

Heat coconut oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet or wok.  After the coconut oil melts, add onion, garlic, and ginger.  Saute for about 5-8 minutes or until fragrant and the onion has begun to soften, stirring around occasionally.  Stir in apple cider vinegar, almond butter, sriracha, fish sauce, and lime juice.  Add zucchini, cover wok, and cook about 10 min. or until zucchini is soft.  Take the lid off and stir occasionally during this time.  Then add chicken and cook for about 5 minutes more or until chicken is hot.  Enjoy!

Zucchini Hummus and Baba Ganouj

A few weekends ago it was SO beautiful outside that we tried out the rotisserie on the grill and made our own rotisserie chickens!  And by "we," I mean Rem.  I was just the assistant who did things like run to the store to get butcher twine.  (On a side note: The Kroger on East Broad St. in Columbus has wonderful employees.  I went there looking for twine and asked a manager if they sold it.  He said he was sorry, but no they did not.  He asked me to wait for just a minute, went into the back of the store, and came back with about 4 feet of butcher's twine from the meat department.  He just gave it to me for free!  I was so grateful that I did not have to run around to other stores looking for it, and that this kind man just gave me what I needed!)  Anyway... the chicken was more tender than a store bought rotisserie chicken and more flavorful too. Plus it didn't have any extra sugar or artificial flavorings.  It was quite the process figuring out how to use the rotisserie for the first time, but boy was it worth it.  

To go along with the chicken we made a big salad and some Mediterranean style dips.  Both were equally delicious and paired perfectly with the chicken and salad for a light meal on a day that felt like summer!  Is it summer yet?  I can't wait!

Zucchini Hummus

Originally from Amazing Paleo

4 large zucchini

3/4 c tahini

2 T olive oil

8 T lemon juice (or about 4 fresh lemons, juiced)

4 garlic cloves

1 T cumin

1 tsp coarse salt

1/4 tsp paprika

Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth.  I added the zucchini in about 3 batches because it wouldn't all fit in the food processor at first.  Refrigerate.  

Baba Ganouj

2 eggplants

1 T extra virgin olive oil

2 T tahini

2 more T extra virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove

1/2 tsp cumin

2 T lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

a few shakes of cayenne pepper

Cut eggplants in half and brush cut side with 1 T olive oil.  Place cut side down on foil lined baking sheets and roast at 375 degrees for 35 minutes or until eggplants are very tender.  Let eggplants cool for about 10 minutes, then scoop out the flesh into food processor.  Add 2 T olive oil, tahini, garlic, cumin, lemon juice, salt, and cayenne pepper.  Process until smooth, then refrigerate.  

  

Savory Zucchini Muffins

When we got married two years ago, Rem and I got Topsy Turvy planters as gifts.  We were pretty excited to start growing some fruits and vegetables, and last summer we had the best intentions, but they never went up.  This May, we finally planted some strawberry, Serrano pepper, and tomato plants!  My dad also gave us some zucchini and squash plants that we planted in our front beds.  So far the plants look pretty good and have lots of flowers on them, but we've only gotten about 5 strawberries and 3 Serrano peppers so far.  Hopefully we’ll have some more produce soon!  I’m just excited that we finally started growing some of our own food.

Tomato plant

Strawberry plant

Serrano pepper plant

Zucchini and squash plants

My dad, who is a very experienced and successful gardener, has a fantastic garden right now!  He grows kohlrabi, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, and cucumbers, just to name a few.  This weekend he gave us some HUGE zucchini and squash from his garden, which I promptly put to good use!

I used the shredder blade on our food processor to shred the zucchini, which made the whole process quick and easy!  I froze part of the shredded zucchini and used the other half to make these savory zucchini muffins.  I don’t think I’ve ever made savory muffins before, as I have a tendency to prefer sweet baked goods.  These muffins were awesome though, and had a very complex flavor.  The roasted peppers, sautéed onion, rosemary and oregano all come through in layers as you chew each bite.  These were delicious straight from the oven, but they can be refrigerated for up to a week.  I also froze some and plan to reheat them in the toaster oven.  Today I ate a refrigerated muffin reheated in the toaster oven for about 8 minutes at 400 degrees.  It was just as delicious as the one straight from the oven!  Of course they’re also good cold if you don’t want to wait that long!

I love cooking and baking with zucchini this time of year!  Other than these muffins, we like to sauté zucchini, squash, onion, green beans, and cherry tomatoes with some olive oil, salt and pepper.  Yum!  What do you like to make with zucchini? 

Savory Zucchini Muffins

Adapted from Thyroid Diet Coach

½ jar (6 oz.) roasted red and yellow peppers (I used TraderJoe’s brand), diced 

1 large onion, diced

1 very large zucchini, shredded (about 3 cups)

½ c extra virgin olive oil

½ c plain, fat free Greek yogurt

1 egg

2 c oat flour (I processed Bob’s Red Mill gluten free oats in the food processor until finely ground; 2 ½ c whole oats gave me 2 c oat flour)

½ c cornmeal

1 tsp salt

3 T fresh rosemary, chopped

1 T dry oregano

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line muffin tins (you will need 2 tins) with liners or coat with olive oil.  (I used muffin liners.)  Sauté onion on medium high in a little olive oil until brown and soft (caramelized).  Combine all dry ingredients (oat flour, cornmeal, salt, rosemary, oregano, pepper and baking powder).  Combine all wet ingredients (chopped peppers, shredded zucchini, sautéed onion. olive oil, yogurt, and egg).  Mix wet and dry ingredients together until fully incorporated.  Spoon into muffins cups.  For me, this recipe yielded 21 muffins.  The muffin cups can be pretty full because they don’t rise very much.  Bake 25-30 minutes or until the tops are firm.  Eat right away, or cool in pan 20-30 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool the rest of the way.  Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator, or take remove muffin liners and freeze. 

Note: There are approximately 2590 calories in the entire recipe.