A First for Everything - Boiled Beets!

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I know that this post is a bit very late...  but I wanted to share this super simple beet recipe anyway!
Our last CSA delivery for the year came with beets. 

Beets is another vegetable avenue that I have NOT explored in the past. 

My only memory of beets is my mom trying to force me to eat them once as a child.... I'm still sure I didn't finish them <enter dog?>! Well... I also knew that they turn your pee a different colour... (TMI?)

But since I paid for them, and since I'm supposedly an adult now, I thought I could try them again. 

The recipe came from my mother-in-law and was actually VERY easy. 

Ingredients:

Beets (I used 6 medium sized ones)

1/4 cup vinegar

2 tbsps. of butter

1/2 small onion

Directions: 

1. Cut off stems and boil beets with skins on. 

2. Once boiled for 15 minutes (approx. or until soft). Remove beets and scrape off skin - should slide off easily). 

3. Slice beets into slivered pieces

4. Sauté beets with vinegar, onion, and butter for a few minutes until well mixed.

I was pleasantly surprised by the taste (honestly I was skeptical the whole time! lol).

I would definitely make them again! 

This might be the last of our vegetable adventures for awhile, since out CSA share is done for the year. Time to start buying my own veggies from the store again *sigh*. 

(Except of course for the plethora of potatoes, onions, and carrots from my garden!)

Enjoy!

{xoxo}

Spaghetti Squash Pasta and Zucchini Salad

Remember these veggies?? 

Well we got more of them! 

I made some new meals and side dishes with them already, but this time wanted to try something new again. 

First stop: Zucchini Parmesan Salad.

Ingredients:

1 medium zucchini

zest and juice from 1/2 lemon

2 tablespoon olive oil

pinch salt and freshly cracked black pepper

a dash of basil (or a handful of fresh leaves if you have them!)

a block of parmesan cheese (And Don’t worry, I am not going to use the whole block)

 

Directions:

1. Make the lemon vinaigrette- in a mixing bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, lemon zest, and extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

2. Using a vegetable peeler, shave the zucchini into ribbons. You should stop the peeling when you see the “core” and “seeds” of the zucchini. Place the zucchini ribbons in the mixing bowl; toss them with the lemon vinaigrette gently.

3. Add basil and mix them with the zucchini. Top with shaved Parmesan cheese and some more freshly cracked black pepper. Serve. Enjoy!!

Then came time for spaghetti squash pasta! 

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash

pasta sauce of your choice

parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Bake the spaghetti squash. I have a weak wrist that doesn't enjoy cutting large uncooked veggies, so I poked holes all over the squash and put it on a baking sheet in the oven at 350F for approx. an hour.

2. Add pasta sauce. I usually make my own (the hour of baking would provide ample time for this!), but this time I just added a pre-made one.

3. When spaghetti squash is baked (should be soft to the touch with a fork), cut it in half. Scoop out the seeds and discard them. Then scoop up the delicious spaghetti squash noodles! Serve with sauce. Sprinkle parmesan on top. Enjoy!!

This made for another delicious fresh garden meal!
The spaghetti was actually SUPER filling too - I was surprised and definitely unable to eat my whole meal. 

I think everyone (except me) may have eaten this before, but if not, give it a try!

{yumm}

Taste of Autumn

I L-O-V-E the fall. 

It is easily my favourite season.

I love the temperatures, the colours, the leaves falling, pumpkins, apples, & cinnamon. 

What's not to love?!?

Our fall came with handfuls of fresh apples from mom's tree - perfect baking apples!

Clearly I put these apples to good use :) 

Apple pie was first on the agenda.

Then, since we had more crust, and more apples - mini individual apple pies were made too :)

We shared the goodness with neighbours and family. 

My mother-in-law told me the crust was as good as hers! Wow - that's a compliment!

Unfortunately I didn't snap any photos til after... but here are the leftovers!

Two slivers of pie, and one mini pie :)

Since we still had more apples to spare we also baked some quick apple cinnamon pancakes for breakfast!
I just used my normal pancake recipe and threw in the apples and probably a tsp of cinnamon.
Pancakes are the easiest breakfast because they are so quick to make, you can add virtually anything to liven them up, and they're made with simple ingredients that I always have lying around my kitchen! 

Even without whipped cream, these pancakes were delicious!

I'm sure there are more fall treats coming - I haven't even gotten the pumpkin out yet!

{yumm}

More Vegetable Experiments {baking}

Veggies! 

Since I still had an abundant supply of veggies following all my cooking experiments, I decided to try my hand at baking some of them :)

I've never baked with Zucchini before so I decided to start with something that had a very high likelihood of tasting delicious when it was done. 

Zucchini chocolate chip muffins were my recipe of choice. 

And they were de-li-cious! 

Honestly, my husband and I had to give some away to make sure we didn't devour them all in one day! 

Super easy to make, and well worth it. 

Why have I not jumped on this bandwagon before?!? 

Then I found a link on Pinterest for delicious looking zucchini and cheddar biscuits. 

I thought, "I could make that!". And I did.

Here's a link to that recipe :) 

And here are the pics of my creation:

This banana bread wasn't made with any veggies at all... I just had bananas that were turning brown. 

Plus, it's a classic in my kitchen. 

Good old wholesome banana bread - good for any meal or snack!

I'm very much enjoying my experimenting in the kitchen this year. 

Maybe this will give you some good ideas for your own summer veggies! 

{yumm}

More Vegetable Experiments {cooking}

Veggies! 

These days I have vegetables overflowing from my kitchen. 

Either from our CSA shares, from my own veggie garden, or from friends. 

The spaghetti squash and zucchinis below came from my sister-in-law's garden. 

(the phone is there so you can really see how massive they are!)

I have never cooked spaghetti squash before!

[sidenote: this year seems to be jam-packed with new things for me!]

I scoured facebook for suggestions of how to eat it :)

What we ended up doing was baking the spaghetti squash until it was tender, scooping out the insides and mixing it with butter, brown sugar, salt and pepper.

Since I also had these massive zucchini's I was looking for new ways to bake them. 

The classics for me are always to roast them with other veggies, eat them raw, or toss them in salad. 

This suggestion to grill zucchini with garlic butter and parmesan cheese was right up my alley!

Both creations were delicious :)

And then there was Swiss Chard.... another vegetable that I have not dared to cook before.

I looked for a simple side dish to make with this.
I came across these simple sauteed swiss chard recipes frequently, so I thought this was a good place to start. The veggie looks a lot like Kale and I figured it would taste somewhat similar when sauteed.
Here are some pics from a simple recipe with garlic and parmesan:

Long story short: it tasted gross.
Mr. A ate it all, but I didn't. I was not a fan!
Anyone have any other swiss chard recipes for me??
This one was a flop!

Oh well... 2/3 ain't bad!

{yumm}

Turnip & Carrot Casserole

In looking for more creative ways to use our abundance of vegetables from the local CSA, I stole this recipe and made a casserole out of the turnips and carrots.

It was extremely easy to make, very fast, and very tasty. 

(Although, I didn't have bread crumbs, so I used a crumb mix and it was a little too salty - bread crumbs recommended!)

Certainly not my favourite recipe, but it was tasty, and a great way to use up some veggies for a good creative dinner! 

Best served with fresh salad :) 

Definitely will try this again with bread crumbs when I get a chance! 

{xoxo}

Saskatoon Berry Pie [& Muffins!]

Now that I have all these beautiful Saskatoon berries, it's time to bake them into some delicious treats! 

Here I am cooking my delicious Saskatoon berry pie :) 

And here's my flour-covered baby bump after baking said pie :) 

If that isn't the nicest pie crust you've ever seen... then you're not invited to my house for pie, lol. 

Step two: Saskatoon berry muffins! 

I really just made blueberry muffins and switched up the berries :) 

Both treats were delicious! 

And I have enough berries frozen to make at least one more batch of each :) 

{yumm}