Zucchini with Spaghetti Meat Sauce

The other night for dinner I was inspired by a dish called buttery zucchini with ground beef.  But I made it to my preferences, healthier and with some of my farm fresh veggies.

Ingredients

lean ground turkey

spaghetti sauce

w sauce

black pepper

italian seasoning

olive oil

minced garlic

baby squash  (cut into little rounds)

baby zucchini (cut into little rounds)

onion (chopped)

red pepper (chopped)

low fat mozzarella cheese

fresh basil leaves (cut up)

I cooked up the ground turkey with w sauce, black pepper and italian seasoning.  Once it was cooked I added spaghetti sauce and let it simmer.  

To another pan I added some olive oil and minced garlic.  Once the pan was hot, I added onion and let it cook up for about 2 minutes.  I then added pepper slices and cooked for another minute.  After that I put the squash and zukes in and let it cook up.

Once the veggies were tender, I plated my veggies and added the spaghetti meat sauce on top.  I sprinkled some cheese on top and then some fresh basil.  It was good and tasted like spaghetti just without the noodles.  I will make this again.  :)

Roasted Veggies and Andouille Sausage

For dinner tonight, I was inspired by this dish I came across on pinterest.  I made it my own with what I had on hand and of course popped it in the oven to crisp up a little bit.

I used:

Farmers market veggies-  Zucchinis, squash, red potatoes, bell peppers, onion  (cut up)

bacon bits

andouille sausage (3 links, cut up)

sea salt

black pepper

red pepper flakes

parsley flakes

olive oil

minced garlic

broccoli pieces (left over from cook out)

I first got out my favorite skillet and heated it up with some olive oil and minced garlic.  Once the pan was hot I cooked up the onion for about 2 minutes.  I then added the peppers and cooked up for another minute.  I put the andouille sausage links in the microwave and heated them up.  I then sliced them up.  I added the veggies, some bacon bits, sea salt, black pepper, parsley flakes, red pepper flakes and sausage.  I let it cook up for a few more minutes.  I added everything to a foil lined cookie sheet and roasted for about 10 minutes on 400 degrees.  

This dish was spectacular!  All of the flavors were excellent.  I will def make this again and it was fun using fresh veggies I just got from the farmers market this past weekend.

Garden Update: Week 14 (Part 1)

My happy container garden.....

I took these pictures this morning since I didn't do an update on Sunday.

Here's my container garden.  :)

This past Saturday, I repotted the carnival squash and moved it outside.

I have more lettuce to harvest...

And more lettuce.  :)

I'm still waiting for my sunflowers to finish growing.

My red potatoes seem to get taller everyday.  It's day 70 for these potatoes.  About another 30 days until these are ready to harvest.  :)

It's day 30 of my white potatoes.  About another 70 days for these until they are ready.  I'm gonna dump the other pot because since there hasn't been growth from it then there probably won't be.

My pepper plants are growing.  :)

I have cherry tomatoes I started from seed in the house.  Here's how big they've gotten.  No tomato blossoms yet.  They still have more growing to do.

Oh yeah I harvested 2 more pea pods over the weekend bringing my total harvest so far to 15.  :)

2014 Marine Corps Half and Cook out

Nate and I got up early this past Sunday so he could run 13.1 miles in the Marine Corps Half Marathon.  This is the 3rd time in a row that Nate has ran this.  Overall it was his 9th half marathon run.

Here's Nate ready to run.  He went on down to the start and I set up my beach chair to wait.

And they are off......

Finally after a few hours here comes Nate.

He finished in 2:42.  Yay Nate!

Here's a close-up of the medal.

Later that afternoon, we had friends over and cooked out.

Dave made guacamole and it was sooooooooooooooo good.  It was all gone by the end of the cookout.

I made individual strawberry short cakes for dessert.

Fresh strawberries (I picked them myself at a berry farm)

Fat Free Cool whip

angel food cake cut into squares

Hershey chocolate bar shavings  (just use a grater)

Wash your berries, and cut them up.  Cut up your angel food cake into cubes.  Use a grater to shave hershey bar.  Take a solo cup and add some cool whip to the bottom.  Top with a few pieces of angel food cake, then berries, a few more cake cubes and another dollop of cool whip.  Then sprinkle chocolate shavings on top.  So yummy!!!  :)

Strawberry picking 2014

I went to a local farm today to pick berries.  It was Millers Farms.  I saw on their facebook page this morning that they opened the strawberry patch at 8am.  I got there about 9am.

I pulled to the strawberry field and parked.  I then checked in at the shed with the farmer and got a bucket to collect my berries.  You can also choose a box.  It just depends how many berries you plan on picking.  I chose the bucket.

I always loved picking berries with my mom or dad when I was little.  It was always so much fun and sneaking a few here and there was always a fun little treat.  :)

Here's the strawberry patch.  It's 3 acres.  I started down the middle row in picture.

I started picking berries and putting them into my bucket.

Some berries that aren't ripe yet.

There were a ton of berries.

The row next to me was really muddy and it had some plastic covering the mud and tires.

Berries....while picking there were several families picking berries.  The kids are cute because they find a strawberry and yell out "I found the biggest strawberry here" and I would love over and they would be holding it up.  I would laugh inside because this "big" strawberry was small.  :)

Can you spot any berries?  You have to carefully move leaves back and get in there.

The berry isn't quite ripe yet so I left it alone.  A few more days and it will be fully ripened.

I continued along picking more berries, adding to my bucket.

I heard a lady explain to her son (probably 5 or 6) that at first the strawberry plant grows and then makes a flower. Those then turn into little berries in white and green.  Then they turn red and we pick them and eat them.  Then she laughed at him and said to him "You've eaten enough berries.  I'm glad they didn't weigh you before we picked the berries".  LOL

Here's some strawberry flowers.  

Here is a nice juicy, plump berry.

Snipping with my fingernail at the stem and then gently tug.

Perfect strawberry

Into the bucket it went.

Beautiful berries

More berries

I got to the end of my row and then looked back from the starting point.  I was pretty far down.  I grabbed a strawberry and ate one.  :)  Then I heard some animal making some loud shrieking noises.  Not sure what was going on but I didn't want to see if it was the butcher so I continued to head back.  

I heard a kid yell out "that's scary sounding". 

 I walked over to another row that was empty and walked back to the shed to get my berries weighed.  I picked a few more ripe strawberries on the way back up.  I also caught an older woman taking a bite of a strawberry she just picked.  She laughed at me because I caught her and I said "No worries, I did it too.  You have to sample at least one".  And she laughed again and said "You're right sweetie".  :)

Here's the bucket of berries full to the max.

I plan on cutting some up for dessert tomorrow after our cookout.  :)

Farmers Market and Produce Stand

This morning, I got up early so I could get out the door and run errands.

I first stopped off at the farmers market.

Right now at the markets in Virginia you will find a lot of squash, radishes, beets, spring onions, broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, flowers, strawberries, asparagus, carrots, and potatoes.

Carrots and potatoes

Here's some yellow squash and bonita squash.

Beets.....in purple, red, and orange.  I never really had beets but I'm thinking next weekend I'm going to get some to try.  I guess I'll be busy looking for beets recipes on pinterest.  :)

Such vibrant colors

Radishes.....I am getting a bundle of these next weekend.  I want to try cooking with them.

More radishes at another farmer booth.

Kohlrabi......never heard of this.  The purple looks awesome.  I googled it and it seems to be in the cabbage family.  It can be eaten raw or cooked.  Get this....only 4 calories a slice!  You know that's healthy!!  

I might need to pick some up next weekend and give them a try.  :)

Plenty of flowers, herbs and starter plants for your own garden.  Best of all they are low price and grown by the farmer selling them.  You know exactly where they are coming from.  :)

Broccoli and cauliflower.

Dinosaur kale.....I just loved that they are named 'dinosaur'.  :)

Asparagus

Fennel and Spring onions

Greens

Swiss chard

More flowers

These zinnias were just a buck each!

These little baby squash/zukes caught my eye.  They are adorable.  Everyone seemed to be buying a container of them.  I picked up 2 containers to buy.  I have an idea for a dish for dinner this week with them.

Tons of strawberries!  So ripe and red.  They smell so good when you get near them.  

They are hard to resist their sweetness.

I didn't get any berries....I drove to a farm down the road and picked my own.  :)

I also went to my favorite produce stand to get some other things I needed for the week that I didn't find at the farmers market.

Do you want to see what I got?

cherry tomato starter plant

red potatoes

carrot

6 bell peppers

2 onions

1 greenhouse tomato

asparagus bundle

baby squash and zukes

2 yellow squash

1 bonita squash

1 huge cucumber

(the strawberries are from the farm I went to and picked myself)

How awesome is this bonita squash?  The farmer told me it's just like yellow squash.

The Cherry tomato starter plant.  Look at all the cherry tomatoes.  It's loaded!  It was $4 so I had to get it.

Here's a close-up of the baby zukes.

Baby squash close-up.