Unexpected Awesomeness and another Farmer's Market favorite - Zucchini Pasta

Today was full of pleasant surprises! After a great total body workout at the gym and lunch out with the girls, I got a text message from Kara who said "There's a Prius outside with sustainable1000.com written on it." So I looked it up to learn more about it! Turns out a man named Shane Snipes is traveling the country in his Prius in 250 days, and he's set out to do 1,000 interviews about sustainability. How cool is that?! AND he showed up in Lawton and is staying with a friend in my apartment complex! I was really excited to find this guy in my apartment complex, and I really wanted to talk to him. So of course I went stalker-status and walked by his car about 10 times, hoping he would come outside. The 100-degree heat was getting to me, so I ended up leaving him a note on his car, saying that I wanted to talk to him, and I left him my phone number and blog address. He called me about an hour later, and we walked around my apartment complex while we talked about sustainability! He even took a little video interview of me that will *hopefully* end up on his YouTube site, which you can access on his website.

It was so cool to meet him! I think it's really awesome that he has set out on such a prestigious project in an effort to define sustainability on a wider scale and show that it's not difficult to be sustainable! He has been traveling around the country since April 2, and Oklahoma was his 17th state he has visited. Check out his website and become a fan on Facebook; help get the word out there that he is doing this!

On to a new recipe! If you've noticed, I've been using a lot of zucchini and squash in my recipes. That's because it's a great summer vegetable, it's really healthy for you, and it's so versatile. You can make so many different dishes with zucchini and squash. Also, it's very popular at the farmers market; everybody has it and they are really cheap. I usually buy 3 or 4 zucchini or squash every week!

This recipe is a quick and easy favorite of mine. I think I mentioned it a few posts ago in passing, so I wanted to share it with you. This is great for a quick dinner or even lunch, and it's healthy and very tasty!

Zucchini and Whole Wheat Pasta

Ingredients:

Extra virgin olive oil

1 large or 2 small zucchini, chopped into half-moon slices

3 cloves of garlic, minced

Lemon juice

Whole wheat penne pasta (I use about half a box for my husband and myself for dinner)

Fresh Parsley, minced

Fresh Basil, chopped

Parmesan cheese

Optional: fresh mint (I tend to leave it out because the mint is never really fresh here and it doesn't taste very good)

1. Boil water in a pot and add pasta.

2. While waiting for the water to boil, and for the pasta to cook, heat the oil over med-high heat in a large frying pan.

3. Add the zucchini and cook, stirring and turning from time to time for about 5 minutes.

4. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so, until the garlic starts to brown.

5. Remove pan from heat. Squeeze some lemon juice over the top and stir.

6. Add the pasta, parsley, basil, and parmesan cheese and stir until thoroughly mixed. The amount of parmesan cheese is up to you, I personally can't use self-restraint when it comes to parm!

One great thing about this meal is that if you have other vegetables you need to get rid of, you can add them in. Broccoli, carrots, bell peppers, or onions would all be great additions to this recipe. I had a half of a tomato I needed to get rid of, so I diced that and threw it in at the very end. It turned out great!

Answers and Awesome Stuffed Zucchini

My dear friend Sonya at Sonya Ruth Photography left a comment the other day, asking if it's ok to work out twice a day. After some research, I finally have an answer.

You can work out twice a day, as long as you pace yourself and it's not every day. Your body will be too worn out for you to effectively exercise if you keep it up for too long. According to Kristie Leong, M.D., and Jeff Bayer, fitness specialist, if you work out twice in one day, you should take the next day off. If you don't, your muscles won't have enough time to rebuild themselves to get an effective workout. Leong also recommends doing a 20-30 minute cardio session in the morning and 20-30 min resistance training/weights/toning in the afternoon or evening. For more on twice-a-day workouts, see askmen.com or ehow.com

Now! Onto my super yummy stuffed zucchini recipe. I got the idea for this recipe when I went to the farmers market a few weeks ago; someone I bought some zucchini from handed out recipes, and they handed me one for stuffed zucchini. This recipe, in my opinion, looked bland and boring, but it put the idea in my head that I could stuff zucchini with something wonderful! Then I checked allrecipes.com and found a recipe that had some more elements to it I could use. The one major flaw with this recipe is that it didn't use and herbs or seasonings, which can make it quite boring. So after reading what some people did to spice up the recipe, I came up with my own version of stuffed zucchini. One of my favorite things about this recipe is that you can make it super healthy if you want, or you can make it a little indulgent. Enjoy!

Ingredients

One very large zucchini

1.5 lbs of ground meat - I like to do half 93% lean ground beef and half spicy italian sausage. You can still get the flavor of the sausage if you do less, and be more healthy

Two fresh tomatoes, chopped

1 red onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

Fresh Parsley, thoroughly chopped

Fresh Basil, roughly chopped

1 egg

1 15 oz can tomato sauce

Parmesan cheese

Mozzarella cheese

Breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 350

1. Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise. Take a spoon and scoop out the seeds. DO NOT DISCARD THE SEEDS!

2. Brown the meat in a frying pan. I also sprinkle some dried parsley, basil, oregano, thyme, and salt and pepper over the meat as it's browning. Especially do this if you are using more ground beef than sausage.

3. Transfer the meat to a large mixing bowl. If you used sausage, make sure to drain the fat off the meat in a strainer or with a slotted spoon before transferring it.

4. Saute the onion and garlic in a small amount of vegetable oil until the onion starts to become translucent, then transfer to the bowl as well.

5. Chop the zucchini insides you saved in step one. Transfer to bowl along with the tomatoes, basil, and parsley.

in this picture, you can see (starting at the top and going clockwise) the chopped zucchini insides, minced garlic, red onion, and chopped tomato.

6. Add the egg and tomato sauce to the bowl, along with some salt and pepper, and a few dashes of the parmesan cheese. (If you are going healthier, you can omit the cheese from this step)

7. Mix everything up until all the ingredients are covered in the tomato sauce and egg, and everything is thoroughly mixed together.

8. Place the zucchini halves onto a baking sheet covered in foil. Scoop the contents of the bowl into the zucchini halves. It will probably run over onto the foil.

9. Sprinkle some mozzarella, parmesan, and breadcrumbs on top.

10. Place in oven and cook for 35-40 minutes, until zucchini is soft and cheese starts to brown. Be sure to let it cool for a few minutes before eating it!

This is big enough to feed 4 people. I hope you try this one, it's my favorite recipe I've posted so far!

Chicken Tenders and Zucchini Gratin

I was flipping through my favorite issue of Fine Cooking (the May issue of quick and healthy meals) that my mother-in-law gave to me to find an exciting new recipe to try. I came across one of my favorite go-to pasta meals, whole wheat penne with zucchini and fresh herbs, and along the side were quick and easy ways to prepare zucchini. One of the recipes I came across was a gratin with zucchini, and a lightbulb went off in my head! I could use the vegetables that I got from farmers market. I decided to try it, but since Ryan almost always has to have meat in his meal, I thought I would add some chicken to the recipe. So here you have it, Chicken Tenders and Zucchini Gratin, a la Steffani!

Ingredients

Thinly sliced chicken breasts, or chicken tenders (about 3 per person)

Breadcrumbs

Salt and Pepper

Vegetable oil

2 tomatoes*

1 zucchini*

1 yellow squash*

1/2 red onion*

Fresh basil, roughly chopped

Fresh parsley, finely chopped

Parmesan cheese

Mozzarella cheese

Extra virgin olive oil

*if cooking for more than 3 people, increase the amount

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Coat the chicken in breadcrumbs, and season with salt and pepper.

3. Heat some vegetable oil in a skillet over med-high heat, and brown the chicken.

4. While the chicken is browning, chop the tomatoes, zucchini, squash, and herbs. Be careful to keep an eye on the chicken, though!

5. When the chicken is browned, remove from heat and spread over a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil.

6. Top the chicken with the zucchini, and then sprinkle a little bit of basil, parsley, onion, and salt and pepper. Then layer the squash on top of it, topping it with the onion, herbs and seasonings. Last, layer the tomatoes.

7. Top the tomatoes with the rest of the herbs, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

8. Put in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown and the squash is soft.

Enjoy!