Hey Everyone!

I promise, I'm not dead!! I'll be back soon, when I get the chance to sit down and actually write something!! I've been pretty busy canning and freezing things lately. Namely free fruit that I've been getting from kind neighbors! Here's to a winter with out many trips to town!! In the meantime, here is a nice soup recipe for you. It's a family favorite and sure to warm you up!! Because if your weather has been anything like this crazy Idaho weather, your probably kind of cold right now!! Sorry I don't have a picture of this one right now, but I promise to make it soon and post a picture of it! I know you'll love this one, it yummy!!

Edited to add a new picture!

Vegetable Ham Alfredo Soup

2 cans chicken broth
2 cans evaporated milk
1 tablespoon dried parsley
pepper to taste
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup celery, diced
4-5 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 cup frozen french cut green beans
1 ½ cups chopped ham
1 jar alfredo sauce
4 oz. cream cheese

Add all ingredients except for the alfredo sauce and cream cheese to a big pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook until potatoes are soft, then add alfredo sauce and cream cheese. Heat through until cream cheese melts. Serve with hot rolls.

Chicken Stew

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My oldest son, who is four years old, recently started taking karate classes. The classes happen to be at 5:00 in the evening, which means that dinner needs to be cooking at home while we're at karate class. Thank goodness for crock pots!! I've got two crock pots that I use pretty often, and I love! This dinner was made up one day before karate class, as both a way to use up some chicken thighs that were in the fridge and a way to get dinner done and ready by the time we got home from karate. My kids ate this up and wanted more! I think they just really love good home style foods like stews, soups and casseroles. Things that fill you up and make you warm inside (not that we need to be warm in August, but you know what I'm talking about!). So if your family loves that kind of food too, they will be sure to love this chicken stew! I served mine over white rice, that I cooked when we got home from karate along with some homemade wheat bread. I hope you enjoy!

Chicken Stew

1 ½ pound boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces and seasoned with salt and pepper
1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and chunked
½ pound baby carrots
1 onion, chunked
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can water (use the empty soup can)
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
½ cup frozen peas

Brown the chicken pieces in a large skillet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Cook, stirring often until chicken is cooked through. Once the chicken is done cooking, place in a crock pot. Add in all ingredients except for the peas and mix well. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 7 hours, or until the veggies are soft. Half an hour before serving, add in the peas and mix in. Continue cooking until the peas are warm, about 30 minutes. Enjoy with biscuits, rolls or over cooked rice.

Yellow Squash Casserole

I found this recipe over on The Provident Pantry and let me tell you, this is the best way I've ever eaten yellow squash, in my entire life! Seriously, it was that good! So, if you still have over-active squash plants in your garden and you have a bounty of yellow squash that still needs to be used up, make this recipe! You won't be sorry!! I'm thinking of even slicing and blanching some yellow squash so that I can make this recipe during the winter months! I know my family won't complain about that! I hope you visit The Provident Pantry for more great food storage ideas.

Yellow Squash Casserole

2 pounds yellow squash, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
salt and pepper to taste
1 (6 ounce) package dry stuffing, prepared according to box directions

Boil the yellow squash and onion together in a large pot filled with water, until they are soft. Drain and place in a large bowl. Mix together the soup, sour cream, cheese and salt and pepper. Add the soup mixture to the squash and onions and mix well. In a 3 quart casserole dish, layer half of the stuffing, then pour on all of the squash mixture, followed by the remaining stuffing. Bake in a preheated 350° F oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until hot and bubbly and stuffing on the top is slightly crunchy. Enjoy!

Zucchini, again?

I know, your probably all sick of zucchini, right? I swear, our plants are growing like crazy this year. We are getting so much zucchini I can barely keep up with it! Here is another way that I've made it this year. I usually just saute it in some butter with salt and pepper, but I decided to get a little more creative with it. This turned out really yummy! The bacon and mushrooms give it a nice flavor and this was a nice way to use up part of a purple onion that I had. You could use any color onion though. Enjoy!

Zucchini, again?

4 slices bacon, cut into strips
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
4 cups sliced zucchini
½ onion, sliced (any color)
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon dried parsley

In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Add in the remaining ingredients and cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are soft. Enjoy!

Savory Zucchini Pie

This is another yummy way to use up some of your zucchini, after all we all know that zucchini grows better than weeds! This savory zucchini pie is a sort of quiche, made with a tube of crescent rolls. I found the idea on recipezaar.com and modified it to my likings. You could use the reduced fat crescent rolls and reduced fat cheese in this recipe to make it a bit more healthy. It sure is yummy though and my kids gobbled it up! Enjoy!

Savory Zucchini Pie

4 tablespoons butter
4 cups zucchini, sliced and halved if large
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded & divided
2 eggs, beaten
1 (8 ounce) tube crescent rolls
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 375° F.
Melt butter in a large skillet. Add the zucchini, onion and garlic and cook on medium high heat for 10 minutes, or until onions are translucent and zucchini is soft. Mix in the parsley flakes, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning so that the vegetables are coated well with the seasonings. Turn off the heat and let sit while you prepare the pie plate. To prepare the pie plate, take a large 9 or 10 inch pie pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray and line it with the crescent rolls so that there are no holes, you may have to stretch out the crescent rolls and cut them up to make it fit. Once the crescent rolls are covering the bottom of the pie plate, spread the Dijon mustard evenly across the crust. Now stir in one cup of the cheese and then pour the beaten eggs into the zucchini mixture and pour everything into the prepared crust. Sprinkle with remaining one cup of cheese and place in the oven to bake for 20-25 minutes or until no longer runny. Let cool a few minutes before slicing into it and enjoy!

Zucchini Lasagna

Here is another way that I use up some of my bounty of zucchini. It's basically a lasagna without the noodles, using zucchini slices in place of the noodles. So, if your doing the low-carb thing, this would be great for you! I used a pretty big zucchini when I made this, so that the pieces were bigger, but you can use whatever size you have. If your still looking for ways to use up your zucchini, be sure to make this for your family!

Zucchini Lasagna

1 pound bulk Italian Sausage, browned into bite-sized pieces
2 pounds zucchini, sliced
1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 (26 ounce) jar favorite pasta sauce
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350° F.
In a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan layer a thin coating of pasta sauce, on top of the pasta layer zucchini, Italian sausage, sauce and mozzarella cheese. Continue layering until all of the ingredients are used up, ending with mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on the very top, cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. After the 45 minutes are up, take off the foil and bake another 10 - 15 minutes, to brown the cheese. When done baking, take out of oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving. This dish does have a lot of juices in it because of the zucchini, so it needs some time to set. Enjoy!

Printable Recipe

Summer Yellow Squash Fritters

We have a few yellow squash plants in our garden that are just growing like crazy and I needed to come up with a new way to cook them. Something that my kids might actually eat too, so I thought about fried squash and then got to thinking that they could probably still tell that it was squash if I just sliced it and then battered it and fried it. So, I was looking online and got the idea for these fritters. I combined a few different recipes and came up with this one that is really really yummy. My kids even ate them up! Dip them in ranch dressing or fry sauce and they are just too good! If you have lots of yellow squash in your garden, be sure to make these soon!

Yellow Summer Squash Fritters

1 cup yellow squash puree
1 egg
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning salt
½ teaspoon onion powder
vegetable oil for frying

Combine the yellow squash puree (to make, boil sliced yellow squash in water until soft and then drain and puree in blender or food processor) and egg in a large bowl with a whisk. Add flour, cornmeal, baking powder, Cajun seasoning and onion powder, mixing well until there are no lumps in the mixture. Heat oil over high heat until hot and drop batter into hot oil by the tablespoon. Fry one to two minutes on each side, or until a nice golden brown color is achieved and the fritters are cooked through. Drain on a paper towel lined plate and enjoy!