Corn, Tomato and Cucumber Salad

This month is all about what to do with our garden harvest of Cucumber, Zucchini and Tomatoes. The hubby doesn't eat beans, so I was delighted to find this salad recipe. It was perfect with fresh avocado chunks to be added when served. The fresh lime is the key. You could easily add black beans and serve with chips as a pico.

https://theblondcook.com/corn-tomato-cucumber-salad/

Crustless Spinach Quiche

My my my, it's been a long time since I took the time to blog. I haven't stopped cooking, but I have slowed down in exploring new recipes. Really glad that, lately, the hubby has asked for "less bread" in his meals, which means, no noodles or dumplings in soup, no crust in pie, and super thin crust pizza (or cauliflower crust instead). [In the near future, I'll be posting a recipe for Chicken Zoodle Soup. Can't wait to try that!

Crustless quiche is great because you can get lots of great protein and veggies without all the extra carbs and calories. I loosely used the below recipe. I added breakfast sausage from our pigs, used "fiesta" cheese and "queso" cheese blend. I also added tomatoes and mushrooms; the spinach was fresh. This is the perfect dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/20876/crustless-spinach-quiche/

Red Quinoa Salad

My aunt gave me the gift of red quinoa for Christmas with this recipe. It was yummy, like a Mediterranean salad. It was perfect timing on the ingredients too since the hubby has been buying too many cucumbers and tomatoes lately. He doesn't like mint, so I would opt for parsley instead. I also added red onion instead of shallots (since it's what I had on hand). I didn't think the red wine vinegar amount was enough, so I ended up adding fresh squeezed lemon juice--perfect! One trick I read after the fact suggested using chicken broth instead of water for the quinoa soak. Overall, a very healthy and delicious dish!

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/red-quinoa-salad

Bacon Macaroni Salad

Tonight is BBQ night (see post for Country Style Ribs and French Style Salad Dressing). What could go better with ribs and mashed potatoes? Ok, potato salad and coleslaw join in the rankings, but tonight macaroni salad is the winner. I like this recipe because it's more on the tart side. I love how cute the salad macaroni shape! I took the advice of the reviewers and added an extra tomato. I was also happy with the size of the salad for a smaller family; normally they are potluck portions.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/bacon-macaroni-salad?pmcode=IPIDC01T&_cmp=Top1010AM&_ebid=Top1010AM8/14/2016&_mid=108978&ehid=dfef5f62f666e299097ce5854fb7aea035676b6b

Baked Caprese Chicken

What a busy week! Last weekend the hubby bought 2 packages of chicken breast tenders and 2 packages of chicken thighs, so I took to google to get creative. I'm behind on my posts so I'm going to get caught up tonight. Monday started with 1 pkg of chicken thighs using one of our favorite seasonings from McCormick:

Tuesday: Baked Caprese Chicken using 1 package of the chicken tenders. [I was actually hoping to do this as a stuffed chicken breast, but the tenders were just as good. Power packed flavor with very little effort. I didn't marinade the chicken, I actually added the cooked down sauce, the basil, tomatoes and mozzarella halfway through the baking process. 

http://damndelicious.net/2015/05/02/baked-caprese-chicken/

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

Oh emm gee. I will likely never make tomato soup any other way. Let me first start by saying, I am still dealing with about a crisper full of tomatoes a week. I think I will be down to the last bit within the next 2 weeks. My husband found a (fancy) napkin in my pantry that had a recipe for roasted tomato soup and asked me to "please" make some. He knows I love adventure in the kitchen, so tonight is the night. As I said in the beginning, this is amazingly delicious. I added shredded chicken and used a hand mixer/food processor to puree it just a bit. It probably would have been just fine to skip the last step, but I think it blended the flavors well. If I were to serve it to guests, I would probably buy bread bowls.

I took a pic of the napkin but also found a Food Network version that is very similar. In the napkin version, the oil, garlic and onion are mixed in with the tomatoes and baked together at 375. I boiled chicken breasts and added bullion cubes, salt, pepper, oregano and fresh thyme as the base. Also added shredded parmesan  at the end.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/roasted-tomato-basil-soup-recipe.html

Spartan Tri Tip Chili

As I continue my quest for tomato recipes, and in combination with the hubby's weekly manager's special finds in the meat department, I found this awesome tri tip chili recipe (also known as Texas chili). It has over 20 ingredients (plus I added black beans), but it was well worth it; onions and tomatoes were from our garden. Cut up the tri-tip into cubes and put everything in the crockpot  the night before. It was our first cold and rainy day of the fall season, so it really hit the spot when we came home from work. Topped with a little cheddar cheese, avocado and sour cream, this one gets a thumbs up and perfect for any party. Plus, I just like the name "Spartan chili"--a man's chili. :D

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/230778/spartan-tri-tip-chili/

Creamy Tomato Bisque

Prepare!! Tomato recipes are here. :)  I used the food processor to make about 6-8 cups of pureed tomatoes for this AMAZING soup. The cloves really made it unique and delicious. I added basil...next time I will add dill which is my favorite version. I also added onion from our garden (as were the tomatoes). We also had ham and cheddar paninis (aka "Grilled Cheese"). The whole meal felt like we went out to a deli for dinner. Definitely will be making this one again. :)

http://www.food.com/recipe/creamy-tomato-soup-from-scratch-74263

(Mostly) Quick and Easy Zucchini Pie

As we transition from zucchini to tomato recipes, I managed to find another combination of the two. This was tonight's dinner and can we say-Yum! I ended up adding tomatoes, mushrooms, pepper, and a little oregano and put it in my 14x9 baking dish. I also used mozerella instead of parmesan (because that's what I had) and shredded fiesta cheese. I love my food processor's slicer/shredder attachment; I had sliced zucchini in minutes.  Of course the boys had to add Frank's Hot sauce, cuz you know they "put that stuff on everything". :)  I think if you added a little ground beef or sausage, this would make a great breakfast casserole dish that was fairly healthy (I replaced the canola with olive oil). Definitely a nice recipe to have on hand for visitors. :)

http://myrecipemagic.com/recipe/recipedetail/quick-and-easy-zucchini-pie

Fresh Spaghetti Sauce

Are you tired of posts about zucchini yet? Well, I can't say I'm quite done with that, but I can promise a plethora of tomato recipes next because hubby's garden exploded. Here is the first one--and I was absolutely delicious, and, well, technically a zucchini recipe too because I chopped it up real fine in the food processor (with onions and mushrooms) and added it to the sauce. No one seemed to notice. :) This was an absolutely amazing flavor. I left out the sugar-maybe the onions helped to sweeten it, but my boys don't really care for a sweet sauce anyway. I also added oregano and pepper. Served it with sliced, spicy brats and ground turkey and regular spaghetti. Definitely a keeper. :)  Next up tomato soup and pizza sauce.

http://www.food.com/recipe/fresh-tomato-spaghetti-sauce-10837

Baked Swiss Steak

The hubby went to the store this weekend and it looks like another week of "manager's special surprise" (meats).  Tonight it is going to be tenderized steaks (pre-seasoned) and the lucky winner is---Taste of Home for their baked Swiss Steak recipe. I think the teenager is just happy it's a zucchini free night, although he managed to wolf down the zucchini disguised as brownies. :)  This one would be an easy slow cooker meal; if I ever get this surprise meat again, I will probably try other variations. *The onions and tomatoes came straight from our garden--yum!
[The hubby doesn't like green peppers which is traditionally what I associate with swiss steak, so I have to think outside of the box.]

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/baked-swiss-steak