The Not So Simple Mommy: June 2015

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Ultimate garlic bread

What you will need

6 cloves roasted garlic, mashed into a paste (I made garlic oil earlier today, so I used the poached garlic that I saved from that)

1 cup shredded Italian cheese
1 stick of butter, room temperature

I go heavy on the garlic but cut back if you aren't a big fan. (and don't try to kiss any vampires afterwards, well or anyone) I actually used garlic confit instead of roasting in the oven. I made a large batch of garlic infused oil and saved the poached garlic for this recipe and it was fantastic!

Mash the roasted garlic into a fine paste.

Stir in to 1 stick of room temperature butter
Add in cheese

Slather over a french loaf that has been cut lengthwise in half

Bake at 400 degrees until the bread is crusty and topping is gooey and melted

Slice and Serve

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Stuffed Zucchini

Our garden has been over producing like crazy here lately with the amount of rain we have been getting here in the south. Not only do I already have a freezer FULL of squash and zucchini to last half of a century, but I have also been playing around with different cooking techniques. This one was delicious. Stuffed Zucchini. oh yes. I went there

What you will need

3 zucchini, cleaned and cut lengthwise. center scooped out

1 pound ground beef

6 cherry tomatoes

1 cup of Italian breadcrumbs

1 cup Italian blend cheese

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp onion powder

2 cloves garlic, minced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

After washing your zucchini, cut lengthwise and scoop the center out. I went fairly deep and packed them as full as I could with the delicious filling.

For the filling start by browning your ground beef

Season with salt, pepper and onion powder

Once it is about halfway cooked, drain the excess grease off

Add in chopped cherry tomatoes and garlic to your ground beef and cook until the tomatoes start to get soft.

Remove from heat

In a large bowl combine meat mixture with breadcrumbs and cheese

stuff zucchini and pack in the filling

bake at 450 until the zucchini is soft. (This does not take long since the zucchini is hulled out so keep an eye on them.) Remember that your filling is already cooked!

Remove from oven and drizzle sauce of your choice over them

I covered with my easy homemade pasta sauce. GET THE RECIPE HERE

These made 6 stuffed zucchini and they are so delicious and filling! My husband has asked for me to make this again this week!

Monday, June 1, 2015

Homemade Biscuits

What you will need:

2 Cups All purpose Flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 pinch of salt

8 tablespoons of butter

3/4 cup milk

Stir together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder

Cut in butter

YES BUTTER!

Why??

Because Butter has FLAVOR!

It should start to look like Cornmeal

Make a well in your mixture

add milk

mix

add mixture on floured surface

flatten about an inch thick

use a glass or biscuit cutter

to cut biscuits to ensure they are the same size

Bake 425 for 10-13 minutes

add some extra butter over hot biscuits

Yellow Cornbread

Love Cornbread?? Hate when it comes out flat dry and crumbly? Try out this yummy sweet cake like cornbread. It's sure to knock your socks off!!

What you will need:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup sugar

3 1/4 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/3 cup of oil

Stir together cornmeal,sugar,salt and baking powder

Add Flour

Stir in one egg

Add Milk

Then Oil

Stir until smooth and looks like cake batter

Bake at 400 until golden

(depending on oven, 18-22 minutes)

Make sure to coat pan with nonstick cooking spray

or a little extra oil

WARNING: This is NOT your moms cornbread

THIS IS ADDICTIVE

Freezing Squash

I have had a ton of people asking me about putting vegetables up for winter. If you don't have a vacuum sealer, I've found that the best way is to blanch and freeze. This is how I do squash and zucchini.