End-of-Season Cream of Summer Soup
September 27, 2009 in Appetizers, Entrees, Healthy Fare, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Entrees
Fall is upon us and the end-of-summer bounty must be used! Now!!! Read the rest of this entry →
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Oven-Fried Zucchini Crisps
September 14, 2009 in Appetizers, Healthy Fare, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Entrees
If you need one last way to use up that zucchini that has been making you feel guilty, here it is! I’ve tried planks, slices, breaded, deep fried – I just love crispy zucchini any which way!
Most of the food blogs that have written about crispy zucchini as an appetizer have cut the zucchini into planks. I like thin slices because then the whole thing is crispy, not just the outside. The trick to making these crispy is to slice them on the diagonal so that you increase the surface area and the water can bake out. These are easy and fast and can be used as a side dish or an appetizer. You can use the frugal cheese in the green can for this – it is so finely ground that it adds the right texture. Be sure to spray the wire baking rack with oil, because the slices will stick if you don’t. Bake them in a screaming hot oven to add extra crunchiness to the crust. Yum!
My Salad Days: Spicy Thai Peanut Drizzled Wilted Spinach
September 7, 2009 in Appetizers, Gluten Free, Healthy Fare, Side Dishes, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Entrees
It’s strange. I don’t like peanut butter, but a good spicy Thai peanut sauce is one of my favorite things. I love it drizzled on just about everything. I had trouble making good peanut sauce until it finally dawned on me: to have really good Thai peanut sauce, you must start with really good peanut butter. It was one of those “Duh” moments for me! So, forget the popular brands and go for the good stuff for this recipe. It is a little more expensive, but you only use a little and it is well worth it. I like the all-natural kind that says “dark roasted” on the label, and only has two ingredients: salt and peanuts. I made this recipe with the idea of serving it cold on salads, so it is more like a vinaigrette than a sauce you would serve warm with chicken.
With a garden full our second crop of of spinach and Swiss chard, I have plenty of dark greens to spare, and they are a perfect match with peanuts, it turns out! I very lightly and briefly sauteed some rough chopped spinach for less than a minute until it just barely started to wilt. You could also blanch it quickly in boiling water. I then drained it and drizzled it with my Thai peanut sauce recipe, and sprinkled with some diced roasted peanuts. Wow! Such an explosion of flavors!
This peanut sauce is so delicious I just want to sit and eat it with a spoon!
Fab Frugal Friday: White Bean Smash
July 31, 2009 in Frugal Tips, Healthy Fare, Side Dishes, Uncategorized, Vegan Recipes
I recently discovered a fab side dish that you can throw together with an ingredient that you can always keep in your pantry: canned white beans. So, if company shows up at the last minute, you can always grill something and smash some beans!
This dish has the same ‘comfort’ factor as mashed potatoes, and yet is so much healthier. Beans are almost always in the budget-friendly Top Ten Healthy Foods and Super foods lists. They are packed with protein and are a very frugal protein source.
This ‘mash’ has much more flavor than mashed potatoes, and is so, so , soooooo much easier to make! No peeling and boiling chunks of potatoes. I am very excited to have discovered this fun and flavorful side dish, and I couldn’t wait to share it with all of you! It will become one of my top side dish standbys.
