Sides Archives • Page 13 of 15 • New Nostalgia

Simple Summer Squash Recipe

One thing about blogging that continues to amaze me is how I can ask a question and within minutes receive answers from readers. It is such a fun reminder that there really ARE people out there reading and they actually care enough to take a moment to talk to me! That is just so fun.

This is exactly how I got this recipe. I wrote a post bragging and giddy about my garden harvest, and ended it with asking you all what to do with my overgrown summer squash. I got quite a few great ideas, but the first commenter was Megan from Just The Scraps, and her simple preparation of summer squash really appealed to me. I tried it last night and I was so happy with how it turned out! My 3 daughters and little niece all ate it and enjoyed it. Thank you so much, Megan, for commenting and sharing how you make summer squash.

This is more of a “method” then a recipe, or a “no recipe” recipe.

Megan’s directions from her comment:
Try cutting the squash in bite sized pieces. Melt some butter in a pan and add some minced/chopped garlic. Stir in the squash and cover, so it can steam a bit. Stir occasionally until it reaches desired tenderness.
I sliced mine pretty thin and took out most of the seeds because my squash was overgrown and the seeds were large and tough. It only cooked for about 5 minutes once I put the lid on, and was perfectly tender.
I added salt and pepper. Simple!

Here is another suggestion from her:
Last night I made kabobs with chicken, sausage, and chunks of zucchini, on the grill. Sprinkled it all with some salt and pepper. DELISH!
This post is linked to:
Saturday Night Special @ Funky Junk

Gardening/ RECIPES/ Sides

Harvest

For those of you who have been gardening forever, or those who are just not interested, please bear with me as I FREAK OUT ABOUT GARDEN SUCCESS!
I’m a newbie gardener and have so enjoyed the process, and EATING the outcome.
See that big tomato? We ate it tonight on BLT sandwiches. Mid-sandwich, my husband looked at me and said “wow, that is one goooooood tomato!” It is ridiculous how happy a compliment on my tomato made me, he’d be a smart man to keep complimenting my tomatoes!:)
See that monster cucumber I am cradling in my right arm? It’s huge and yellow. Not sure it is edible, we were out of town for a few days and came back to that beast hanging on the vine. Anyone know if it will taste good?
I’ve had a hard time catching my squash while they are still young and tender. It seems like one day they are babies and the next day they are too big! I’m planning on using my food processor to chop up the big ones, then freezing them in 2 cup portions to make a zucchini type bread. I love to grill the tender, young ones-I just got to get on top of harvesting regularly!
So what do I do with all these cucumbers besides making pickles, and raita? Does anyone have any good summer squash recipes?
To view my square foot garden, click here.
This post is linked to:
Gratituesday @ Heavenly Homemakers
30 Minute Blog Challenge @ Steady Mom
Saturday Night Special @ Funky Junk

RECIPES/ Sides

Teriyaki Pasta Salad Recipe

I posted a recipe awhile back for Veri Teriyaki Bowtie Spinach Salad. It is an awesome recipe, and I’ve made the dressing from the recipe just to use on lettuce salads because my kids love it so much. I wanted to make a pasta salad and happened to have some of the dressing in my refrigerator so I decided to use it to make a pasta salad. I served it to guests and got a thumbs up, so I thought I would share it with you!

Teriyaki Pasta Salad

Cook:

1 lb. bowtie pasta

according to directions. Drain and rinse with cold water until cooled.

Add:

Misc. Vegetables, chopped, {1-2 cups total}- according to taste.

{Broccoli, Carrot, Red, Orange, or Green Pepper, Tomatoes}

Make Dressing:
Dressing:
1 cup oil ( I used canola, wondering if olive oil or coconut oil would taste mild enough for this)
2/3 cup white wine vinegar (didn’t have any, used rice vinegar-was great!)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2/3 cup Soy Vay Teriyaki sauce (or any brand-I recommend Soy Vay b/c there is no HFCS in it)
5 Tbs sugar (I used rapadura-pure cane sugar)

Put all dressing ingredients in a jar, and shake. {or put in a bowl and whisk)
Pour dressing* over noodles & toss. Refrigerate until cool.
*I only used 1/2 the dressing, and saved the rest for lettuce salad

********

Italian Pasta Salad

I make another version of the above recipe, but with an Italian twist. It is one of my favorites, I’ve been making it for years.
The pasta and veggies are the same as above, (could add cucumber & cauliflower & peas) but the dressing is bottled Italian dressing + red wine vinegar, to taste. (about 1 cup of dressing to 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar, I usually just add the dressing and vinegar from the bottle, eyeball it and taste) I like to add shredded Parmesan cheese. (1/2 cup)

I will be making one of these 2 versions for our family 4th of July get together. It is a perfect dish to make ahead because the flavors get better after they refrigerate for awhile.
this post is linked to:
Tasty Tuesday @ Balancing Beauty & Bedlam

Homemade Gifts/ RECIPES/ Sides

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Tis the season of strawberries! It’s the perfect time to make strawberry jam!

My girls and I went to the strawberry patch with some friends recently. We came back with a TON of strawberries-they were only 99 cents a pound! We hulled them, pureed them, then froze the puree. I love having a freezer full of strawberry puree, sitting there ready to be used in Strawberry Bread, Strawberry Smoothies, and yes, Strawberry Jam.

I have never made jam before, but now that I have, I don’t know if I will ever buy store made again! It is so very easy to make your own, especially if you freeze it instead of can it. You can make jam with just 3 ingredients:

~Fruit
~Sugar
~Pectin

It is just a matter of mashing your fruit, and stirring in the sugar and pectin. That’s it! (detailed recipe below)

If you read up on jam, you will find there are 2 versions out there. One uses Sure-Jell Pectin, the other uses Ball Pectin. With the Sure-Jell version, you have to cook it, and it uses 4 cups of sugar to 2 cups of strawberries. The Ball version is no cook, uses 11/2 cups of sugar and 4 cups of strawberries. I’ll give you one guess which one I chose.:)

I usually do not use refined white sugar when I make things here at home, but I have found that there are just a few food items that I am willing to compromise on! Example-until I can find a Homemade Lemonade Recipe I like that does not use sugar (I’ve tried quite a few with honey and a couple with maple syrup), then by golly, I’m gonna use sugar! Same with Jam. I was up to my elbows in strawberries, and misplaced a recipe that I had found that used honey and grape juice instead of sugar, so white sugar it was. (gasp-ha!)

Kimba, at A Soft Place To Land, did a GREAT post on Strawberry Jam. She tried both brands of pectin and both recipes, just to see the difference between the two. She ended up with 25 containers of jam in her freezer! She is crazy awesome.

I used the low sugar recipe, and it perfectly sweet. Granted, our taste buds are now accustomed to food that is less sweet in my family due to the recipes I make, but I really think it is plenty sweet for everyone, and I have had very positive feedback from those who I have given a jar of jam to. Kimba thought you would need fairly sweet strawberries, to begin with for the ball recipe, but ours were not super sweet and it still turned out plenty sweet.

Here is the Ball Recipe I used (the insert in the Ball Pectin box has these same instructions)

Ball No-Cook Strawberry Freezer Jam

1 pkg. Ball No Cook Pectin
11/2 cups of sugar
4 cups crushed strawberries (about 4 lbs or 2 quarts)

~Wash & hull strawberries.
~Use a potato masher to mash up the strawberries for a more chunky jam. If you prefer less chunks, use a food processor or a hand blender.
~Add the sugar and pectin and stir.
~Ladle into containers, these can be any type of jar, or plastic containers with lids. (make sure to leave some room at the top for expansion when freezing)
~Let sit for 30 minutes. Put into refrigerator or freezer.
~A jar will keep in the refrigerator for 3 weeks, and in the freezer for up to a year.

I love that I now know how easy this is. I put mine in cute little jars and have already given many away to friends, family and new neighbors. We use it over ice cream and put a spoonful or 2 in our oatmeal in the morning–mmm–Strawberry Cream Oatmeal.
I will make this even in the winter, using frozen fruit that I can hopefully find on sale!

Have you made freezer jam?
Do you have any favorite strawberry recipes for me? Even if they use sugar, send them on through, most recipes that use sugar can be modified to use other forms of sweeteners, such as honey, or pure cane sugar.

RECIPES/ Sides

Oatmeal Whole Wheat Quick Bread

I’m super happy about this recipe. We were having spaghetti for dinner and I really wanted some bread to go with it, but only had about 30 minutes. I found this recipe and it was so easy and really tasty! I will be making it often!

Oatmeal Whole Wheat Quick Bread
1 cup rolled oats
11/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
11/2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used coconut oil)
1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Grind oatmeal in a food processor or blender. In a large bowl, combine oatmeal, flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, dissolve honey in oil, then stir in the milk. (I mixed the milk, coconut oil and honey in a one cup glass measure and microwaved it until the coconut oil melted (the cold milk made it into a solid state, so I needed to liquify it). Combine both mixtures and stir until a soft dough is formed. Form the dough into a ball (I had to add a bit more flour) and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet.
3. Bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes, or until bottom of loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
This post is linked to:
Show Off Your Stuff @ Fireflies & Jellybeans
Make It From Scratch

Gardening/ Healthy Eating/ RECIPES/ Sides

Swiss Chard From My Garden

This photo was taken about a week 1/2 ago. You would not believe the size of the swiss chard leaves now! I have been very pleased with how fast and easy it is to grow swiss chard. I’ve enjoyed it raw, cut up in a salad,(using the lettuce pictured above), and just recently I learned how to cook it.

I scoured the internet looking for ways to cook swiss chard. I have heard stories of swiss chard tasting bitter once cooked, so I was skeptical that I would like it, much less my kids!

I found a recipe at Simply Recipes, (recipe below). It caught my eye because it was simple and easy to prepare, plus the author had this to say about it:

” I never liked Swiss chard, until several years ago I had some that had been freshly picked from a friend’s garden. It was so sweet and buttery I couldn’t believe it was actually Swiss chard. It was then I learned that freshness was the key determinant to whether chard was delectable or detestable.”

“Sweet” and “butter” is all I had to hear to get motivated to cook up these garden greens.

I think swiss chard is such a beautiful vegetable! The stalks come in different colors and the leaves are such an amazing bright green. The stalks remind me of celery, but a bit more bitter. I didn’t care for the stalks, but I liked looking at them!

These nine, good sized leaves cooked down to one palm sized serving of chard. I was flabbergasted! Guess I need to plant more next year! Can you imagine the content of vitamins and antioxidants in that one palm full of cooked chard?? Impressive.

Nutritional Profile

Swiss chard is an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, magnesium, manganese, potassium, iron, vitamin E and dietary fiber. It is a very good source of copper, calcium, vitamin B2, vitamin B6 and protein. In addition, Swiss chard is a good source of phosphorus, vitamin B1, zinc, folate, biotin, niacin and pantothenic acid.

Here is the palm full of the finished product. I loved it. It was mild, sweet and buttery. I told my girls that I made it for me, but I would let them have a taste. They skeptically tried a small bite, and within seconds I had 2 (my oldest one was not into the texture) little bird mouth hanging open for more bites. Now that excites me!

Here is the recipe:

Swiss Chard Recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 large bunch of fresh Swiss chard
1 small clove garlic, sliced
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp water
Pinch of dried crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon butter
Salt

METHOD

1 Rinse out the Swiss chard leaves thoroughly. Remove the toughest third of the stalk, discard or save for another recipe (such as this Swiss chard ribs with cream and pasta). Roughly chop the leaves into inch-wide strips.

2 Heat a saucepan on a medium heat setting, add olive oil, a few small slices of garlic and the crushed red pepper. Sauté for about a minute. Add the chopped Swiss chard leaves. Cover. Check after about 5 minutes. If it looks dry, add a couple tablespoons of water. Flip the leaves over in the pan, so that what was on the bottom, is now on the top. Cover again. Check for doneness after another 5 minutes (remove a piece and taste it). Add salt to taste, and a small amount of butter. Remove the swiss chard to a serving dish.

This post is linked to:
Made It Monday @ The Persimmon Perch
Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative
Making The World Cuter Monday @ Making The World Cuter
Tasty Tuesdays @ Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

FUN/DIY/ Homemade Gifts/ RECIPES/ Sides

Onion Pepper Relish Recipe

I am a huge fan of Harry & David’s Onion Pepper Relish, (just not a fan of the price!) so when I saw a recipe for it at Skip To My Lou, I knew I had to try it! Oh boy, am I glad I did. I could not believe how similar it tasted to Harry & David’s, I actually think it is slightly better! It is sweet relish with a bit of a spicy bite. I served it to a group of my girlfriends last night and it got rave reviews!

Onion Pepper Relish

36 oz canned diced tomatoes, drained (I used 2 1/2 14.5 oz cans)

3 bell peppers, seeds and ribs removed (I used one green, one yellow, and one orange)

3 cups sugar (I used pure cane sugar called Rapadura, it keeps your blood sugar levels from spiking!)

1 Tablespoon salt

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

3 jalapeno peppers, seeds and ribs removed

11/2 medium onions

1 cup white vinegar

1 small box powdered pectin (1.75 oz, found in canning supplies of most stores)

Chop all vegetables. This is the hardest part of the whole recipe, the rest is a breeze. A food processor makes the chopping go much quicker.

Mix everything together, except for pectin, in a large pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about one hour. Add the pectin and let boil for 1 minute.

Pour relish into half pint jars, leaving about 1/2 inch room. Store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or freeze for up to 2 months. Or, if you are into canning, this would be the ideal recipe!

I love to serve it dumped over a block of cream cheese surrounded by pita chips or crackers. You can also mix the cream cheese and relish together to make a creamy dip.

This would make a great gift, just attach a tag with serving directions on it.

This post is linked to:
Show Off Your Stuff @ Fireflies & Jellybeans
Make It From Scratch
Its A Hodgepodge Friday @ Its a HodgePodge LIfe
Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest
Designs By Gollum
Food On Fridays @Ann Kroeker. Writer.

Older Posts

Newer Posts