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Author: Mary | Just Take A Bite

Pearsauce

I thought I had posted the pearsauce canning recipe last year, but I guess I didn’t. I just kind of mentioned it. I made pearsauce yesterday and today. I still have to can it (probably tomorrow), but figured I’d post the recipe now. I got a half bushel of Bartlett pears last week and figured out that there are about 80 pears in a half bushel.
Pearsauce

40 small – medium pears, peeled, cored and sliced
2 cups water

Cook pears in water in large pot until soft. Mash with potato masher for chunky pearsauce. Run through foodmill or blend in a blender for smooth pearsauce. Can in boiling water bath 20 min. for pints, 25 min. for quarts.

*I did a batch with 60 pears and 3 cups of water. I got 2 quarts and 5 pints out of it.

*If you want a real treat add a little strawberry puree to the pearsauce. We had some left from the strawberry cake I made so I did that. Wow, is that good! I just stirred a little into the sauce I was serving for dinner last night to try it out. I haven’t added it to a larger quantity.

I’m In Control

For once I feel like I’m in control and not my anxiety/OCD/irrational fears. I can think logically, clearly. It’s amazing how much my mentality has changed over the last few months. I look back at how I used to live and wonder how I did it. How I could be so concerned about what other people thought of me. How I could try to meet some unrealistic standard of perfection. I also wonder why it took so long to get to this point. I still have a long way to go, but I feel like I’ve climbed out of the valley/out of the shadows. And I can see the view, see the world around me. Every day it seems like I notice little changes. Things don’t seem so overwhelming like they used to. We had dinner guests both Monday and Tuesday (2 nights in a row!). It was a lot of work to do all the baking, cooking and cleaning. But it was also a lot of fun! And no tension, no headaches. I actually felt quite energized! And although it’s nice to have some downtime at home today (and to not have to cook…we’ve got lots of leftovers :), I’m already thinking about what else we can do this week/where we can go/who we could visit. I used to do one thing and need lots of time to “recover.” But not anymore. We went to a wedding reception on Saturday. I ate whatever I wanted. I talked to lots of family and friends. I truly enjoyed myself and didn’t even give a thought to how I was feeling. What a treat! And the next day I did fine. I didn’t need a few days to get my body back on track.

One main area that I’ve gained control is with food. Food used to have such control over me. Not anymore. I used to have very skewed ideas about how much and what I ate. I feared being fat and being too thin at the same time. So it was always a constant battle of eating too much or not enough. I had major issues with portion control. Even just a few months ago it was really bad. But I’ve noticed a big change latley. And especially this week. Monday we celebrated my SIL’s birthday. I made a cake. And for snack before bed I had some cake with ice cream. I had a normal size piece of cake and a couple little scoops of ice cream. A good amount to get a taste of a nice treat. And enough to fill me up. But not stuff myself. Just a few months ago when I made a cake for my BIL’s birthday (in March) I cut myself a huge piece and topped it with a mound of ice cream…I had to use a big bowl to fit it all. And then I actually had seconds on the ice cream…and finished the container! I felt so sick afterwards, and it makes me sick just thinking about it now. I’m learning to listen to my body. Eat when I’m hungry, don’t when I’m not. What a concept 😛 So simple and yet so profound.

I know ultimately God is in control. And I am SO thankful for that. But I am also in control now. Not my distorted thinking. I don’t want to live a life in fear. That is a life of sin. I want to live a life of faith and hope. I’m getting there.

French Toast

I made french toast for dinner last night. I haven’t had it in forever. And I LOVE it. Just the smell reminds me of being a child. My mom made it for breakfast/brunch/lunch (depended what time we all got up:) every Saturday. I tried a combo of my mom’s “recipe” (eggs and milk) and a Deceptively Delicious recipe. It worked really well. And we got a tiny bit of veggies in our french toast 🙂 I don’t have my cookbook with me at the moment, so I can’t write the exact recipe. But I’ll write down what I did. I used butternut squash puree. There is a whole list of purees you could try it with…whatever you have on hand/is easiest. I served it with organic maple syrup, powdered sugar (Justin wanted to try that) and some cut up fresh fruit (peaches, nectarines and apples from the farmer’s market and pears from my in-laws). We all loved this. Even Rebecca gobbled it up…she would hardly eat anything else :p

French Toast
makes 5 large slices

3 large eggs (hormone free, cage free)
2 Tbsp. butternut squash puree (from our garden/freezer)
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
cooking spray/butter
5 large slices whole wheat bread (natural)

Whisk eggs, squash, milk and cinnamon in shallow bowl. Heat a skillet over medium heat (I used an electric skillet set at 375). Spray with cookin spray or add a little butter. Dip bread in mixture until totally saturated. Place in hot skillet. Cook about 3 minutes on each side, until golden.

Zucchini Enchiladas

For dinner on Monday I made zucchini enchiladas. I got the recipe from my SIL Shannon. This was so good!!! I made the sauce and the filling in the morning. Then assembled and baked at dinner time. I just used the tortillas we had in the freezer…4 Ezekiel and 6 flour. And there was still filling leftover. I added a little diced green pepper, tomato and roasted red pepper to the filling since I had some to use up. And I served them with sour cream, salsa and diced avocado. You definitely don’t miss the meat in this dish. Filling, great flavor and good for you! Definitely something I’ll make again. It made a lot, so there is enough for lunches, another dinner and some to have on hand in the freezer.

Black Bean, Corn, and Zucchini Enchiladas
Prepare the Enchilada Sauce a few days ahead of time, and refrigerate (I just made it in the morning).
Yield 8 servings (serving size: 1 enchilada)

1 tsp. canola oil (I used EVOO)
2 cups diced zucchini (from our garden)
1 (10-ounce) package frozen whole-kernel corn (organic)
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained (organic)
3 cups Enchilada Sauce, divided
Cooking spray
8 (8-inch) whole wheat tortillas (I used 4 (10″) Ezekiel, 6 (6″) flour) (use corn or other GF tortilla to make this GF)
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 350°.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 cups zucchini and corn; sauté for 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remove from heat, and stir in beans.
Spread 1 cup Enchilada Sauce in the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Spoon about 1/2 cup zucchini mixture down center of 1 tortilla; sprinkle with 2 tablespoons cheese, and roll up. Place seam-side down in baking dish. Repeat procedure with remaining tortillas, zucchini mixture, and 14 tablespoons cheese. Spread remaining 2 cups sauce evenly over enchiladas.

Cover with foil; bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Uncover; top with remaining 1 cup cheese. Bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until cheese melts.
　
Enchilada Sauce
Yield 3 cups (serving size: about 1/3 cup)

1 tsp. canola oil (I used EVOO)
1/2 cup diced red onion (I used yellow, from the farmer’s market)
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 cup organic vegetable broth (such as Swanson Certified Organic) (I used organic chicken better than bouillon w/ water)
1 Tbsp. chili powder

1 Tbsp. honey (locally made, I used a little more than this to balance out the spice for us)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, undrained (I used petite diced)

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Stir in broth and remaining ingredients. Reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.

Peaches – Canned

I did it. I finally tried out my pressure canner. And I finally canned peaches! Boy that is a lot of work. I had intended to can a full half bushel. But ended up freezing half of it. I just didn’t have the time or bowl/pot capacity for canning that many peaches. And I had to use them up yesterday. They were getting pretty ripe…probably riper than they should have been, but Thurs. was just too busy to deal with them. Anyway, I’m glad I tried it. Now we have 3 qts. and 6 pts. of peaches in the pantry. That’ll do for this year. I think I might hold off on peaches again until we don’t have young children. It’s a long process, and I don’t have several hours at a time that I can devote to canning. I am also glad I got to try my pressure canner and figure it out. It’s kind of a pain to use on our stove. Our microwave is above our stove…and the canner BARELY fits. You have to have it partly off the burner to get the lid on and off. Anyway, I’m glad I have it so I can can more foods and for canning more jars at once. But I’ll still use my boiling water canner too. For the peaches I used a very light syrup…not much sugar at all. Hopefully they taste good 🙂

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Last night I made some red pepper hummus for our picnic today. Super easy and very good! I’m excited to have it tonight. This was my first time using tahini. Probably something I should keep on hand for good hummus 🙂 I got the recipe from All Recipes. Not the best picture but I was in a hurry.
Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
1/3 cup tahini
1/3 cup lemon juice (I only used about half this much)
1/2 cup roasted red peppers
1/4 teaspoon dried basil

In an electric food processor, combine garlic, garbanzo beans, tahini, and lemon juice. Process until the mixture is smooth. Add roasted peppers and basil; process until the peppers are finely chopped. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer hummus to small bowl, cover and chill until you are ready to serve.

Pesto, Goat Cheese and Zucchini Quiche

For dinner last night I made a modified version of a quiche I’ve made before. This time I used a crust (no gf :), homemade basil pesto, goat cheese and sauteed zucchini and onions. So yummy!!! We all loved it! Yet another recipe with zucchini that Justin loves. I’m starting to think he doesn’t dislike zucchini as much as he thinks :p Anyway, I’ll link to the original recipe and post what I did yesterday. I doubled the eggs this time since it was so thin last time.Pesto, Goat Cheese and Zucchini Quiche

1/2 cup pesto
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust (I made it from scratch…replacing all of the shortening with butter for the first time…worked really well) (you can make it without a crust for it to be GF…still tastes great!)
4 Tbsp. crumbled goat cheese
6 eggs
1 3/4 cups milk
1 small yellow and 1 small green zucchini, chopped
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 cup shredded cheese (I used a combo of mozzarella and cheddar)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
pinch of nutmeg
Saute zucchini and onion in skillet with a little EVOO. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread pesto evenly in the bottom of the pie crust. Sprinkle goat cheese over pesto.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs and milk. Season with salt and pepper and nutmeg. Add cheese and veggies. Pour over goat cheese in pie crust. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until set.

Tuna Zucchini Cakes

I created a new recipe last night. I combined fish cakes and zucchini pancakes (I’ve made them both before). I based it on a Robin Miller recipe I made once. I didn’t measure anything, just added and mixed as I went. I prepped these in the morning. Then right before cooking them I coated them in a cheese breadcrumb mixture. They were really good!! Definitely something I’ll make again. We both loved them. I’ll try to write down what I did…so I can remember next time 🙂 This can easily be doubled or tripled if you want to freeze a bunch. They are pretty filling. We each had 1 1/2.

Tuna Zucchini Cakes

 
1 can chunk light tuna in water, drained well (you could use any kind of fish)
1 small yellow zucchini, grated
1 small green zucchini, grated
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 – 1/2 seasoned dry whole wheat bread crumbs
1 Tbsp. dijon or spicy brown mustard
1 1/2 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
1 tsp. Italian seasoning

 

1/4 – 1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1/4 – 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

 

Mix first 8 ingredients. Add extra breadcrumbs if too moist. Form into patties. At this point you can place them on wax paper and refrigerate or freeze them. When ready to eat mix last 2 ingredients on a small plate. Coat the cakes in the mixture one at a time. After coating place on a hot non-stick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat. Cook 7-8 min. per side. Serve plain or with tartar sauce. Makes 5 cakes.

Zucchini Waffles

Last week I made blueberry topping (froze most of it). So I wanted to make waffles for a meal to try it out. And then I thought, I wonder if I could put zucchini in waffles?? So I did a quick search. Sure enough, I found some zucchini waffle recipes. I found one that uses whole wheat flour too. They turned out great!!! And a little healthier than some waffles. Plus they were very easy to make. I made a half batch and got 3 waffles out of it (the large belgian waffle style). I had a little overflow. I probably could have gotten 3 1/2 out of it. So a full batch would make about 7 large waffles. The next time I make them I’ll probably do a full batch and freeze some. Whole wheat zucchini waffles, homemade blueberry topping, walnuts and readi-whip (I don’t like the stuff, but Justin does)…yum!!! And some sliced fresh peaches and homemade blueberry buckle on the side. What a treat.

Zucchini Waffles
2 cups nonfat milk (I used 1%)
3 eggs
1 zucchini, grated
2 cups white whole wheat flour (try King Aurthur’s brand) (I just used regular whole wheat flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
 
Beat first 3 ingredients together, with a wire whisk or a fork, until well blended. Add dry ingredients and mix gently until well combined (but don’t overmix). Cook according to your waffle-makers instructions.

Zucchini Fries

Yes, another zucchini recipe…and another success!! My husband and I both really liked these. I don’t remember where I got the recipe. I didn’t tag it. But they are very easy  to make and very tasty – a great side dish. We had them with grilled hot dogs (organic, all grass fed beef…very good) and grilled corn on the cob (from the farmer’s market). A great summer meal. I only used 1 zucchini. If I were using 2 (like the recipe says) I would double the bread crumb mixture I think.

 
Baked Zucchini Fries
2 medium zucchinis, cut in 3″ sticks
2 egg white
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded parmesan
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
 
Heat oven to 425.
 
Beat egg white and milk in bowl. Mix cheese and bread crumbs in another bowl.
 
Dip the zucchini in the egg mixture, then in bread crumb mixture.
 
Place on a baking sheet.
 
Bake 25-30 min. Flip them half way through to evenly brown.