The Vegetable Garden In August

We have had a hot, sticky summer, which is very rare for us up here in the mountains. 

I can't say I like it much....but  my veggie garden sure does!

Zucchini & Roasted Veggie Lasagna

I know I've been swamping you with zucchini recipes but I truly can't help it. As soon as I cook off a few zucchinis, five more are ready to pick! 

Five Ways To Use All That Zucchini!

I know I'm not the only one who has an abundance of zucchini and yellow squash coming out of the garden right now....after all, 'tis the season!

I've been trying out some new recipes lately for all that zucchini goodness....and so far, each and every recipe has been an overwhelming success!

Sausage and Bean Crockpot Stew

I made an incredible stew in the crockpot yesterday that was not only super easy to make but oh, wow, the flavors were amazing!

 As an added bonus it's healthy, to boot - what's better than that? 

This time, not only did I take photos, I also took note of measurements. 

I hope you will add this to your recipe bucket list - it's worth it for sure!

Ingredients

13 oz Hillshire Farm Sausage, Hardwood Smoked, Chicken, Sliced. 

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

1 large onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 cup sliced carrots

4 garlic cloves, minced

2/3 cup celery, chopped

15 oz can Bush's Cannellini Beans, drained and rinsed 

2 cups fat free reduced sodium chicken broth

1 1/2 tsp McCormick Mediterranean Herb Seasoning

2 cups chopped greens - I used beet greens that I had chopped and froze at the end of gardening season. You can substitute any greens you prefer, such as Spinach, Kale, Escarole. 

Throw all ingredients except for the chopped greens into the crock pot, set it on low, and go do something else for the day. I went to work. 

When I came home, the house smelled divine! 

I took some cornbread out of the freezer, and the beet greens, and poured a glass of wine. 

When it was time to serve dinner, I threw the beet greens in a few minutes before we ate just to wilt them. 

I topped the soup with freshly grated Parmesan and served with warm cornbread. 

And the rest of my wine. 

It was a very, very good meal. My tummy was happy. 

This made 8 portions, which makes this a very inexpensive meal. 

And if any of you are following Weight Watchers (the current Oprah version) this stew is only 3 points per serving. 

Guess what's for lunch today? 

I can't wait. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Sharing at

Simple Saturdays

Inspiration Monday

Share It One More Time

Tweak It Tuesday

Tuesdays at Our Home

Inspire Me Tuesday

Pumpkin Lasagna - No, Really!!

I know what you're probably thinking....Really? Pumpkin Lasagna? 

I know. If I had seen it on a menu I would have kept on going. Not a chance would I order it. I honestly am NOT a pumpkin person. Does nothing for me. 

And I did not start out my day with any thought in my head of making pumpkin lasagna, that's for sure!

Nevertheless, that's exactly what happened. 

And it was so incredibly fabulous I had to share it with all of you!

It all started because I have all this fall produce that is still around. I cannot waste food . So, although I had no idea what I was going to do with this pumpkin I bought at the farmer's market, I simply knew that someday I would cook it up and give it a go!

Well, that someday was yesterday. It was time. The pumpkin needed to be cooked....even though I had no clue what I would do with it. 

I started with a tip from a dear reader - thanks, Pat! 

Pat suggested when she read my post on My Favorite Butternut Squash Soup that, in the future, I should put the whole butternut squash into the crockpot and cook it that way, no peeling required. 

I figured if it will work for a butternut squash it will work for a pumpkin!

So, in it went while I puttered around doing a bunch of chores. I figured once it was cooked I would figure out what to do with it. 

But while I was puttering around I kept thinking about it. I felt like making some sort of pasta dish and I remembered some pumpkin ravioli I tried many years ago - I recall being very surprised at how much I liked those ravioli!

Now the wheels were turning. I looked online to see if anyone else had the same idea and I saw a few recipes out there. But none were quite what I was looking for, so I did what I normally do in that case - take a little of each recipe, add them to what's whirling around in my head, and create my own concoction. 

And here it is for you. Because it was beyond amazing! This dish absolutely blew me away! 

I confess, I did not write down precise measurements however I did photograph the steps involved as I went on. 

Here is my photographic journey of the creation of my very first Pumpkin Lasagna. 

I can tell you for sure it will not be my last!

I started in the morning by cutting the top of a small pumpkin and putting it in the crockpot with about a half cup of water in the bottom of the crockpot. I did not use any seasonings at this point but just put the lid on and went about my day. 

I put the crockpot on high for the first hour and then set it to low for the next 5 hours. I cooked the pumpkin for 6 hours total. 

When it was time to cook dinner I removed it with tongs to a cutting board and scraped out the seeds. 

I then took a large spoon and scraped the cooked pumpkin flesh away from the skin and discarded the skins. Well - not quite discarded but rather into the compost bucket. 

The pumpkin flesh went into a bowl - I would guess I had about 2 cups pumpkin total. 

I mashed it up with a half stick of butter, some freshly ground sea salt and pepper, and about a 1/4 tsp nutmeg. I then added some chopped flatleaf parsley (1/3 cup) and a handful of sage leaves, which I also chopped. 

I had frozen both the parsley and sage at the end of the gardening season so I have fresh herbs for cooking all winter long. The parsley was chopped prior to freezing but the sage was frozen in whole leaves, which I pulled off the stems prior to freezing. Look how wonderful they still look all these months later!

The beautiful herbed pumpkin puree is ready to go. 

While I was preparing that, I was also sauteeing two sliced onions in a little olive oil. 

When the onions were nicely caramelized I made a hole in the center, dropped in a tablespoon of butter and sauteed a half a head of garlic, minced. 

I added a half bag of spinach once the garlic was fragrant and put the lid on the pan for a few minutes. 

Gorgeous! Wilted fragrant spinach. A sprinkle of freshly ground pepper and salt at this point and this layer was ready. 

I grabbed a glass lasagna pan and got busy layering. In the bottom of the pan I poured about a cup of fat free milk. 

Into the milk went two no-bake lasagna noodles. The milk will give them the layer of moisture they need to cook properly. 

On top of the noodles I sprinkled about  1/4 cup grated Romano cheese, 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella, and some salt and pepper. 

Two more noodles went on top of this mixture, and the spinach mixture on top of those noodles. 

Two more noodles on top of the spinach layer, and then came the herbed pumpkin layer. 

More noodles on top of that, with a layer of Mozzarella and Romano cheeses. 

Another layer of noodles and then the final layer of Ricotta, Mozzarella, and Romano cheese. 

I poured a little half & half over the top to make sure all the noodles would have enough moisture for cooking, gave it a good sprinkle of freshly ground pepper, and covered it with foil. 

Into a 375 oven for about an hour or so. I took the foil off for the last few minutes and turned the oven to low broil to brown the top - and when I took it out it looked like this:

Isn't that just gorgeous?

I let it 'set' for a good 10 minutes before serving. 

A sprinkle of freshly shaved Parmesan cheese set off the final dish beautifully. 

I think it's fair to say we were all absolutely delighted with my latest experiment!

The creamy cheesy layers complemented the pumpkin herb layer so beautifully!

The sage and nutmeg were just enough to set the dish apart from my usual veggie lasagna but they were subtle enough that they just blended beautifully with all the other flavors. 

The spinach, onion, and garlic layer added enough savory to complement the sweet of the pumpkin. Amazing, seriously!

All in all, I am so incredibly pleased with my experiment and I only regret I didn't make another for the freezer. 

But that's ok....there's another pumpkin that needs to be used before long. 

And I know just what to do with it now!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Sharing at

Simple Saturdays

Inspiration Monday

Share It One More Time

Tweak It Tuesday

Tuesdays at Our Home

Inspire Me Tuesday

My Favorite Butternut Squash Soup

Winter has been teasing us thus far this season with a frigid few days followed by unseasonably warm temperatures. 

Well, today we are supposed to get our first "real" snowfall of the season.  Ok, only a few inches, but that's still more than we've gotten at any one time so far. 

Just bizarre. 

Anyway, it's a perfect day for a nice hot bowl of soup! 

I made this amazing soup on Sunday and wanted to share the recipe with you - it's just so incredibly good and I'm glad I had a little extra for the freezer. 

I had a couple of butternut squashes I grew in my veggie garden that were crying out to become soup. In addition, I gathered up some potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, and the frozen turkey broth I made after Thanksgiving. 

I started as I always do, by heating up my best friend on low-med, with a drizzle of olive oil. 

(Have I told you how much I love, love, LOVE this pot? Worth every penny. Without a doubt.) 

Anyway. I chopped two large onions and cooked them until soft. While they were cooking I was prepping the rest of my veggies, starting with the garlic. 

An entire head of garlic, minced, was next. I made a hole in the onions, dropped in a pat of butter, and cooked the garlic just until golden. 

In went the still very much frozen turkey broth - 2 quarts to start. While the broth was thawing in the pot, I kept on prepping. 

The butternut squash was next, peeled and cut into large cubes, seeds and pith discarded. 

My knife was struggling with the squash! But we got it done. Isn't it gorgeous? 

You could also use frozen butternut squash to make things easier on yourself. 

The squash went into the pot while I got the potatoes peeled and chopped. 

2 sweet potatoes were cut into large chunks and thrown in next. 

After about 10 minutes I put in the 4 white potatoes, simply cut in half as they cook much more quickly than the squash and sweet potatoes. 

Did I mention that while I was doing all this I was also making a pot of rice pudding? 

Yup, I had cooked white rice to use up so what better to do with it than a good homemade rice pudding? 

Yummmmmm!

(By the way, did you notice that my new best friend now has a baby sister? Yup, my other favorite pot. I'm telling you, I'm hooked! Foodie's dream!)

At this point, the lid went on and I simmered on the lowest setting for at least an hour while I worked on other projects.  Like hanging pictures. Which took me a while to get right with all the measuring, I'll tell you!

After about an hour I tested the squash and potatoes and they were soft and ready for the next step. 

A little whirl around with my immersion blender and the addition of a quart of chicken broth (the soup was quite thick) and we were ready to season. 

I added: 

Freshly ground sea salt and pepper to taste - (always more pepper than salt for us)

1/4 tsp Allspice

1/4 tsp Paprika

1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1/4 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 cup shredded cheddar

And the end result?

It was simply amazing! Just enough of a tiny kick from the cayenne (which I have always found this type of soup benefits from.)

The Allspice and Cinnamon really complement the squash and sweet potato. 

The soup is lovely and creamy without adding a drop of cream. 

Heaven in a bowl, right there!

We had a light supper with some soup and an egg salad sandwich on whole grain bread. 

Followed by a little warm rice pudding with a sprinkle of cinnamon. 

The perfect end to the meal. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recipe:

You will need:

2 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into large cubes

4 large white potatoes, peeled and cut in half

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes

2 large onions, chopped

1 head of garlic, minced

3 quarts of stock (I used 2 quarts turkey stock + 1 quart chicken stock)

1/2 cup shredded cheddar

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

salt & pepper to taste

1 tbs Olive oil 

1 tbs butter

Heat large stockpot on low- medium heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil. 

Saute onions until soft and slightly browned. 

Make a 'hole' in the middle of the onions and drop in the butter. Saute the garlic in the butter just until golden brown. 

Add in 2 quarts of the stock. 

Add the butternut squash and sweet potatoes and bring to a boil. 

Let simmer about 10 minutes and then add in the white potatoes. 

Cover, reduce heat to the lowest setting, and simmer for about an hour. 

When potatoes and squash are all very tender use an immersion blender to puree the soup. 

Add the other quart of broth if needed to create desired consistency. 

Add in spices and whisk to combine. 

Taste and adjust seasonings as needed..and then share it with someone you love!

Enjoy, friends!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sharing at

Tweak It Tuesday

Inspire Me Tuesday

Amaze Me Monday

Tuesdays at Our Home