Grilled Zucchini Caprese Sandwiches with Avocado

We have made these twice now and I know we will be making them again.  I wish I had a garden right now, but I don't.  If I did, there would be zucchini and tomatoes (and probably some basil somewhere!) in my backyard right now.  Maybe next year.  For now, I will just pretend I got these veggies from somewhere other than the grocery store.  Consider yourself lucky if you do have fresh vegetables in your yard.  You are cooler than me and I am completely jealous.  

Mexican Lasagna

If you haven't noticed, I will eat just about anything with black beans and corn.  And most of the time, I end up loving it.  Funny for a girl who doesn't think she likes Mexican food, huh?  So when I saw this on Annie's blog last week, I knew I wanted to try it and I almost had everything to make it.  This was delicious and fairly healthy.  

Lasagna

Tyler has a list of recipes he keeps requesting I write down.  In case I die.  Romantic, right?  I think he is only half joking when he says it, but he says it a lot.  

Marinara Sauce

We are a spaghetti-loving family, I feel like you should know that about us.

Calvin had a treatment on Tuesday so yesterday we (well just he had to but we all did) had to avoid meat.  He loves pasta and I knew he wouldn't miss the meat so I decided to make marinara sauce.  I usually make  meat sauce and in the past when I have made marinara, I have just thrown a few things together.  I remembered seeing Giada make her sauce a while back and have wanted to try it.  Yesterday was the day.  

Southwest Fiesta Salad

I guess the trend in the food blogging world is to post sweet things on Friday.  I haven't caught on to that yet.  Unless we are saying sweet-as in awesome, because then this is pretty sweet.  

We have this salad quite often and have had a few different variations so it's pretty versatile.  You can add pretty much

Avocado and Mango Salsa

 Look at this!  A healthy recipe!  And you guys didn't think I had it in me.  Okay, I know I have a few healthy ones on here, but I probably don't want to know the percentage of healthy vs not-healthy.

My brother, Davey, and I made this recipe about a year ago and served it with tortilla chips.  It was a hit.  When we went to prepare the ingredients, I was a little nervous.  I had never worked with mango before.  Davey said he knew what he was doing.

5 1/2 layer dip

We had a little family New Year's Eve party last night (I guess since it's past midnight, it was technically the other night.)  Me, Tyler and the kiddos.  And what does a party mean?  Food!!  We had 5 1/2 layer dip, (extra pico de gallo) with chips, some chocolate chip cookies I will share at a later date (probably tomorrow) and some virgin margaritas (strawberry and plain).  The kids got to stay up until 10:30!  We played Mario Kart, watched Tron, painted toenails and fingernails (the girls, anyway) and ate, ate, ate.  I hope you guys all had a wonderful Holiday season.  I guess it's time to get back to reality although I am not looking forward to it.  

I know this dip isn't a new notion.  You have probably made it before but I like when I can take recipes I already have and turn them into something new and delicious.

Pizza X 3 (thin crust)

We don't usually eat a lot of homemade pizza.  I have never really found a recipe that I loved and Tyler is more partial to the Papa Johns type of pizza.  We had dinner with some friends this week and I left feeling a little inspired.  She does most of her cooking without meat!  Not that they are vegetarian, but she said she doesn't really know what to do with it.  I was a bit baffled, because I feel like I, more often than not, plan my meal around the protein.  One of the reasons I wanted to start this blog was to have a reason to challenge myself and try new things.  Before I left her house, I told her I was going to try at least 2 meat-free meals this week.  I also recently bought a new cookbook that included a pizza section and it called to me.  I decided that my first meat-free meal was going to be a pizza. 

I am now in love. 

Navajo (Indian) Tacos

Where I grew up, we always called them Navajo Tacos, but when we lived in South Dakota, they were Indian Tacos.  It doesn't matter what you call them, they are good.  This is my version of it.  I am not going to claim it's an authentic Navajo or Sioux Taco but it's delicious.  This last time I made them I decided to top them with Pico de Gallo and Guacamole, but I really didn't like the way it all came together.  I think the lime in the two sides really didn't go well with the chili.  In the end, I ended up eating mine with just diced tomatoes and avocados (and, of course, the sour cream, cheese and lettuce).  Sometimes the simpler it is, the better it tastes, I just have to be reminded of that every now and then.  Remember in the chili post when I talked about doubling the batch of chili and freezing half?  I think this would be a great use for the chili in the freezer.  If you don't want to make the scones, I have used frozen, thawed bread dough (Mrs Rhodes) before and they were almost as good. :)

Hamburger Soup

This is a great soup and in our rotation of favorites.   It's really quick, easy and inexpensive.  The original recipe calls for ground beef, but I usually substitute ground turkey.  The recipe is intended to use garden vegetables but I rarely have since we haven't really had a garden.  If you have garden-fresh corn and tomatoes I bet it would be even better.

Hamburger Harvest Soup
Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey (or ground beef)
1 med onion, chopped
6 cups water
8 beef bullion cubes (or tsps bullion, or substitute water and bullion for beef broth)
2 carrots, chopped
14.5 oz can stewed, diced Italian style tomatoes (or 1.5 cups fresh tomatoes, diced)
2 cups frozen (or fresh) corn
3-4 diced potatoes
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
3 T sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
Serve with mozzarella or Mexican-style cheese.

Directions
Over med-high heat, brown turkey and onion until turkey is done and onion is tender.  Add remaining ingredients and cook until potatoes are tender.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 8

Great served with Dinner Rolls.

Adapted from The Essential Mormon Cookbook

Pico de Gallo

I didn't know it was spelled like that, I just educated myself the other day when I emailed this recipe to a friend.  Now I wonder if I am saying it right.....

If you had a garden and you have tonz of tomatoes lying around then I am so jealous of you. 
I wish I did, I love tomatoes. 
This is an easy recipe for fresh salsa.  I have some recipes I want to post later that this goes really well with but we also just eat it sometimes with chips. 
I really wish someone could send some garden tomatoes to me!

Spaghetti

Spaghetti is always a big hit at our house.  It's one of my comfort foods and I think I have forced everyone else to love it, like it or not.  I used to buy 3 different kinds of tomatoes and would make sure I simmered the sauce for at least an hour.  While it was good, I realized I didn't have to spend all that extra time or money.