Harvest Recipes

Now that the garden season is almost over, it's time to share some of my favorite dishes I made with all the bountiful harvest.  All that is left in my garden is a few green tomatoes still waiting to ripen ( I'm not sure they'll make it before frost),  and A LOT of squash.  I could pick the squash today, but then I'd have to store it longer.  So I'm gonna just leave it on the vine till the first frost, because I still have squash in the freezer from last year I need to eat up.  Hubby and I plan to dig up the last of the potatoes today.

2023 was the year of abundant zucchini for me.  I planted four zucchini plants:  2 regular zucchini and 2 summer squash.   I normally only plant one of each, but last year I had a couple die, so this year I doubled it, and guess what?  All the plants lived and produced like crazy!  I was making every dish that had zucchini in it that I could find and I froze a ton of zucchini too!

So other than the usual zucchini recipes, like zucchini bread, here are some news ones I tried.  Hands down my families favorite zucchini recipe was this one:

Zucchini Pizza Casserole

Oh my gosh, this recipe is so good!  It really taste like pizza and your loved ones will have no idea they are even eating zucchini even though it contains four full cups of the stuff!  It is gluten free for people that love pizza but can't handle the crust.

Now, I must admit, I did change the recipe.  It's suppose to be a "healthy" recipe made with ground turkey, but to make it really taste like pizza I used Italian Sausage and pepperoni.  I know,  I'm so naughty.

You can find the recipe HERE.  I don't put the recipes I tried on my own posts, because they are not my recipes.  So I will only provide the links.

Yellow Squash Tots

Did you know you can make tater tots without taters?  These are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING and a great way to get veggies into your children.  They seriously taste so good.  I made a bunch to eat right away and I froze some to eat later.  I made one mistake in that I was in too much of a hurry to dice the onions small enough.  They were hard to shape because the onion pieces were too big.  Next time I make them I will use a food processor.

You can find the recipe HERE

Chicken Zucchini Bake

This high protein low carb meal was good, but a little tasteless.  You would think it would have been loaded with flavor with all the cheeses and sour cream, but it was a bit bland for us.  If I were to make it again, I'd probably try to jazz it up a bit somehow.  

You can find the recipe HERE

Zucchini Patties

Ok, I know everyone makes fritters with their zucchini, but I've never had much luck with them.  They always ended up burnt before they cooked through.  But then I tried this recipe and they turned out great!

You can find the recipe HERE

Zucchini with Feta, Egg, and Tomatoes

Say goodbye to Avocado Toast and hello to Zucchini Feta & Eggs!  This is my new favorite breakfast that I ate almost everyday this summer.  It's a Weight Watchers recipe so I can't link it unless you have an account, but it's so easy to make you really don't need the recipe.  Just spiral a zucchini and slice cherry tomatoes and sauté in olive oil with some onion and garlic.  Next, make a well, drop an egg with some feta chunks and your favorite seasonings like Italian Seasoning, cover and cook until the egg is done to your liking.  YUM!

I also loved doing the Feta Zucchini Eggs that's raging all over the Internet right now.  It's another simple recipe where you just shred 1/2 cup of zucchini, add some diced onion, and sauté it a bit in a pan with some olive oil.  Pop on some feta and an egg and cook till the egg is done.

Zucchini Frittata Recipe with Ricotta

Another great way to use up zucchini is in baked egg dishes like frittatas!  This one used 3/4 pound of zucchini!

Find the recipe HERE!

I made a couple of different zucchini soups that we really enjoyed but I didn't take photos.  

Summer Corn and Zucchini Chowder

and

Zucchini Soup

We loved both of the soup recipes, but I must admit, I added Italian Sausage to the Zucchini Soup recipe.  It was so much better with some meat in it!

Well I think that does it for NEW recipes with zucchini in it.  I made a lot more zucchini recipes but I've shared those with you in previous posts HERE and HERE

I tried

The Last Zucchini Cookie Recipe You'll Ever Need

But I didn't particularly care for this cookie recipe.  It tasted more like a bar or cake than a cookie, but I could have done something wrong.  It says in the instructions to add the zucchini just until combined and not to over stir, but it's impossible not to!  I couldn't get the zucchini to mix with the batter uniformly if I didn't over stir it.

I tried a couple of other new things in my kitchen this year, like scones!  Would you believe I never made scones before?  I absolutely love scones, but I always considered them a special treat I'd have out on a girl's date, and not something I would want having something around the house to tempt me, that's why I never made them.  But we went blueberry picking this year as always, and before freezing all my blueberries like I usually do, I decided to make a couple of treats for myself first...like blueberry waffles and scones.  So here is my first scone attempt!

Master Scones Recipe (Any Flavor!)

They turned out yummy and were a lot easier to make than I thought they would be.  I ate one, and froze the rest, so they wouldn't be a temptation to me lying around on the countertop.

You can find the recipe HERE

And lastly, I found a great way to preserve cherry tomatoes other than to freeze them.  I had so many cherry tomatoes this year I couldn't eat them fast enough.  I don't like to freeze them.  I tried that last year and didn't like them.  I didn't know what to do with all my excess cherry tomatoes until I saw this recipe:

Cherry Tomatoes Roasted in Oil and Herbs

According to the creator of this recipe, these tomatoes should keep in your refrigerator up to six months.  I will believe it when I see it, but since my cherry tomato plants are just about done now, I will probably start using these roasted ones soon.

You can find the recipe HERE

Well, that's all the new garden harvest recipes I can think of.  I'm sure I'll have more, once I harvest my squash, so I may be back with more.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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What I've Been Cooking Lately: Tuscan Style Bean Soup, Easy Fajita Chicken Bake, and Parmesan Baked Pork Chops

I love to share new recipes I've tried with my readers.  None of these recipes are my own, I just tried them for myself and review them.  I often giving suggestions on things I'd try next time I make the recipe.  This month, I tried three new recipes:  Tuscan Style Bean Soup, Easy Fajita Chicken Bake, and Parmesan Baked Pork Chops.

My first recipe I found on one of friends blogs.  It looked so good I tried it out the same day I found it!

Tuscan Style Bean Soup

This soup was super easy to make, and so, so delicious!  I absolutely loved it.  The recipe suggests chilling it for 24 hours before eating it to let the flavors marinate.  I tried it both ways...hot right off the stove and the next day, and I didn't notice a difference in the flavors.

Even though it's a great vegetarian recipe, my husband and I both agreed that the next time I make it to try sautéing some Italian sausage in with the vegetables.  We think it might taste even better with some meat.

The recipe recommends serving with grated parmesan cheese, and they are so right!  It's even more yummier with the cheese!

Easy Fajita Chicken Bake

This recipe is super quick and easy to make, just like the recipe suggests.  I did enjoy the taste, however, if I make it again I would make some changes.  I would saute the peppers and onion in olive oil just a little bit before topping them on the chicken.   And I also wouldn't add the cheese on top until the last 10 minutes of cooking.  The recipe says to put the cheese on when you put it in the oven, but my cheese got so over-baked it disappeared!

I served my Easy Fajita Chicken Bake over rice.

My last recipe was so good, I've made it multiple times since.

Parmesan Baked Pork Chops

Pork has been so inexpensive in the markets lately, so I've been buying it a lot.  My husband however is not a fan of pork because he always thinks it's too dry, so I'm constantly looking for pork recipes that will please him.  For a pork recipe, he really liked this one because he liked the taste of the coating.  I couldn't agree more.  The mix of Parmesan cheese with the Italian bread crumbs, garlic powder, and olive oil is delicious!  And it's super easy to make too!

Because the recipes are not my own, I do not put the recipe on my blog post.  The link to the recipe is provided in the title.  If you want to make any of these dishes,  just the click the title and it will take you to the recipe.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

My Favorite New Cookie Recipes

I know everyone is on a diet this time of year as we are all desperately trying to lose the annual holiday weight gain, but I had to share with you some new cookie recipes I found that I absolutely loved.  I made all these cookies for the Christmas season, but they would be good any time of the year, or even for Valentine's Day;  so if you're on a diet right now, just pin and save for later!

Salted Caramel Snickerdoodles

These are absolutely delicious and super fun to make.  I love poking the holes in the cookies and filling them with the caramel.  And oh my, that caramel, was it yummy.  It was the first time ever I made a homemade caramel.  I had no idea caramel was just made basically of sugar, butter, and cream.  The only drawback to these cookies is they do harden a bit after a few days (not the caramel, that stays nice and soft), but that was OK with me because I love to dip cookies into hot tea.  It softened them up just fine.

This is what the cookies look like before you bake them.  I used the end of a wooden spoon to make the holes.  Be careful not to bake them too long as my first batch got a little too dark underneath.

 Caramel Chocolate Shortbread 

What I love most about my next recipe is the shortbread and the toasted coconut.  I was so surprised by this recipe because I usually don't like coconut (it's a texture thing not a taste thing).  But I think because the coconut is toasted, it changed the texture and it tasted SO GOOD.  And the shortbread...oh my, delicious!  I could have eaten just the shortbread alone, it was so good.

The only thing I didn't like about these bars/cookies was they were a little too chewy, especially when they started to get a few days old.  I noticed in the reviews people said they had a hard time getting the caramels to melt (I did not.  Mine melted perfectly) and they would use a caramel sauce next time.  I think if I ever make this recipe again, I would do the same because I think the candy caramels re-harden once cooled making the cookies hard to chew.  But other than that, a wonderful recipe!

Cranberry, Walnut, Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dried cranberries, walnuts, and dark chocolate chips all in one cookie, what's not to love?  Well, my husband does not love dried cranberries, so he did not like these cookies;  but I LOVE dried cranberries, so I loved them.  There's something about biting into a cookie and tasting the slightly bitter dark chocolate with the walnuts and then getting that sweet, yet tart, cranberry flavor at the same time.  YUM!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

If you love Reeses' Peanut Butter Cups you will LOVE these cookies!  Out of all the cookies I made over the holidays, these were the only ones that I didn't have any leftovers .  They got gobbled up so fast!  But beware, they have a lot of sugar and calories...over 300 PER cookie!  But the good news?  They are gluten-free.  Absolutely no flour was used whatsoever.  My daughter, who is gluten-free, loved the cookie shell and said she would love cookies made with just the shell and not even put the peanut butter cup inside.  I might have to try that sometime.

The recipe calls for a full Peanut Butter Cup per cookie.  I used a a snack size peanut butter cup and found that size worked perfectly.  Also, be careful about what peanut butter brand you use.  A lot of reviewers complained that their cookies were too oily.  Mine were not oily at all.  I used Aldi's Natural Creamy Peanut Butter.  I would think any "healthier", natural peanut butter would work well. The cheaper peanut butters that contain a lot of vegetable oils probably caused the "oily" problems other reviewers had.

I had trouble finding the "course sanding sugar" the recipe  called for, so I just bought a bag of natural , chunky sugar.  You can see it in the pictures...it looks like sea salt.  It really makes a difference instead of using just regular granulated sugar.

If there was any complaint about these cookies it was that were too sweet.  So I ended up cutting mine in half and eating only a half of a cookie at one sitting.

Is your mouth salivating yet?  Mine is.  These pictures make me wish I still had some of these cookies in my cupboard.  But it's probably a good thing, as my waistline couldn't handle it.  But I will definitely be making this recipe every birthday and holiday from now on!

 What about you?  Did you try any new holiday goodie recipes this year?  I'd love to hear from you!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

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What I've Been Cooking Lately

I love to try new recipes that I find on the Internet and let my readers know what I thought of them, good or bad.  This month was a huge hit because all three new recipes I tried were delicious and super easy to make!

Panda Express Mushroom Chicken 

My husband LOVES Panda Express so when I saw the title to this recipe I knew I had to give it a try. This was SO GOOD!  I can't even begin to tell you how much we loved the flavor.  I've always struggled finding just the right flavor to my homemade Asian-American dishes:  either they're too sweet, too spicy, or too salty.  The flavor in this recipe was absolutely perfect!  And it is super easy to make;  less than 20 minutes from prep to table.  My husband's only complaint was that he wished it had broccoli instead of zucchini, so next time I make this I will add some broccoli for him.

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

My next recipe was also a winner for both taste and ease to make.  It's so simple to make because you literally just throw everything in a crock pot and walk out the door!  The taste was so good too;  and it made a huge amount so I had lots of leftovers that I could freeze and eat another time.  Win, win, win!

Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli

My final recipe was also cooked in a slow cooker so it was super easy as well.  My husband LOVED this recipe because it had broccoli and red meat...his favorite.  The flavor was wonderful!  The recipe says to cut up a roast, but I actually found pre-sliced chuck roast meat at my butcher so I used that.  It saved me even more time.

Let me know if you try any of these recipes.   I'd love to hear from you!

Have a Great Day!   Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Back In the Kitchen Again

Well it's fall so I'm back in the kitchen again!  Ha-ha!  In the summer months I tend to grill or have a lot of salads because I'm too busy in the garden or out having fun to cook.  But once things slow down a bit in the fall, I start scouring Pinterest and Blogs for new recipes to try.  I've discovered something about myself recently:  I don't really enjoy cooking, but I love to try new recipes.  If I've made it a dozen times before, it's not fun;  but there is a sense of adventure in trying a new recipe.

If you read any of my recipe posts before, I don't create the recipe myself (sometimes I make modifications) I just make the recipe and tell you what my husband (the pickiest eater ever!) and I thought of it.  I always link back to the original recipe too!

The past two weeks I tried four new recipes.  We liked two of them, disliked one of them, and LOVED one recipe in particular!

Here is one recipe we liked:

Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas

This is a vegetarian recipe so I was really worried my meat-and-potatoes loving husband wouldn't like it.  But to my surprise, it was quite tasty and my husband liked it!  It's mostly just corn and black beans inside.  I never had a burrito or enchilada with corn inside before, but it tasted really good.  It's quite spicy, so if you don't like spicy foods you might want to give this one a pass.  We just ate ours with lots of sour cream and tortilla chips to offset the spiciness!  It was very easy to make too!  There was a suggestion on the website to add shredded chicken for the meat lovers in your family.  I think I will try that next time I make it!

Next up is a recipe we didn't like.

Chicken and Bacon Pasta with Spinach and Tomatoes in Garlic Cream Sauce

You're probably thinking "with a name like that, what's not to like?".  Well first of all, it was a lot of work.  I don't mind putting a lot of work into a recipe if it tastes amazing, but this one was just "eh".  We ate it, but the flavor just didn't thrill us.  I was surprised so many people on Pinterest liked this recipe and had nothing but wonderful things to say.  I couldn't figure out if it was a hot dish or a cold dish at first, so I tried it both ways.  It doesn't taste good cold at all.  You have to eat it as a hot dish.  I tried eating it cold for leftovers and let's just say it wasn't easy.  I wouldn't recommend this dish, but if you want to try it and don't mind all the work and all the dishes...go for it!  Everyone on Pinterest seemed to love it!

Now my next recipe was a huge hit, so much so that my husband ate all the leftovers!  That's always a good sign in my house cause he normally doesn't like to eat leftovers.

Cheesy Gnocchi and Sausage Skillet

My husband took one bite of this dish and said "I have no idea what this is, but it tastes like pizza so I love it.  No, I take that back, it tastes better than pizza!".  He was so funny!  You should have seen him devour this dish.  It's super easy to make because it's cooked and baked in one pan.  I did make a couple of modifications.  I didn't have heavy cream, so I used half and half with a pat of melted butter.  I also added a lot more cheese to the top than the recipe called for.  This recipe was so good, it will be inducted into the Johnson Family Recipe book now and become a regular at the dinner table.

My final recipe we also loved a lot, but I made a lot of modifications to the original recipe.

Ham Chowder

This was absolutely delicious and another hit with my meat-and-potatoes husband.  I did make some modifications, which I think probably made it more delicious than the original recipe.  First of all, I used a meaty ham bone instead of just throwing diced ham in the pot.  I also used vegetable stock instead of water and chicken bouillon.  While I was busy dicing up all my vegetables, I cooked my ham bone in the vegetable stock (probably 20-30 minutes).  Then I added my vegetables (I also added two chopped up carrots which were not in the original recipe).  After the vegetables were tender, I pulled out the ham bone to cool.  While it was cooling I worked on the rue and the milk portion of the soup.  I used 2% milk because that is what I had on hand, plus, skim milk from my experience doesn't work well in cream soups.  I added the milk mixture to the soup and set it on low while I worked on cutting the ham meat off the bone.  I then added all the ham to the soup and scattered shredded cheese on top.  I did not add bacon because I didn't think it was necessary since I already had ham in the soup.  It was so, so good!  I think cooking with meat bones is just so important when making soups, they add so much flavor!  Most butcher shops sell meat bones for just a couple of dollars.  They are great ways to make inexpensive meals.

Let me know if you try any of these recipes.  I'd love to hear what you think!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE.
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My Favorite Home & Crafting Projects of 2016

At the end of every year I like to  reflect on all my favorite posts in the three categories of fashion, crafts, and travel.  I've already shown you my favorite outfits of the year HERE, and today I'd like to share my favorite crafting projects of 2016.

I will be the first to admit that I did not spend a whole lot of time in my craft room this year.  One reason is that we had a glorious early spring and a long, warm fall, so I used those great weather opportunities to rejuvenate my overgrown gardens.  I was quite pleased with my progress and I'm beginning to see some hope of getting my yard back to it's original glorious state again.  Another reason I didn't spend much time in my craft room was because I quit doing a card ministry so I did not need to make as many cards this year.  I also made the change from paper scrapbooks to digital ones.

Here are the highlights of this past year's home and crafting projects.

                                                  January

Original Post HERE

With January being an indoor month, I actually completed a lot of crafting projects.  It was hard to choose just one project for this month, but in the end I chose my "How to Make a Swag in Minutes" post.  I really liked this project because other than the twig base, I was able to use products I already owned and I didn't have to spend much money on it.  It also took hardly any time at all to put together.

February



In February, I made this cute little country boy card.  You can see that post HERE.
March



Easter came early in 2016, (so happy it's back in April, as it should be, for 2017!) and my favorite crafting projects were these Easter cards I made for my children.  The original post is HERE.

April

April brought a special photography project I worked on with my daughter.  I spent two weeks with her in Florida and I took a lot of fun pictures of her on the beach and other beautiful locations.  You can see more photographs of Ashley on this post HERE.

                                                       May

May was a happy month because my new beauty room that I worked most of the winter on was complete.  I did many hand-made projects for this room, but one of my favorites was when I made two king size pillow shams out of a vintage chenille bedspread.  I loved the way it turned out, and that it didn't cost me a dime!  You can see that post HERE.

                                                    June

By June, all the crafting and sewing projects for my new beauty room were complete and I was able to show it off.  You can see the big reveal HERE.

                                                     July

July brought a lot of computer problems so I wasn't able to post much.  I also spent a lot of time in my garden since I did not have a computer, so my pick for this month would be a garden post.  You can catch a glimpse of my midsummer garden HERE.

August

In August I decided to try putting some of my leftover fabric scraps to use and I made this cute little owl pot holder.  You can get instructions HERE.

                                                September

In September I made this cute thank you card for a good Samaritan.  You can read that story HERE.

October

In the fall I ended up with more garden tomatoes than I knew what to do with, so I hunted the web for recipes.  My favorite recipe of all was this home-made tomato soup, but I also liked the Pasta Pomodoro I made in this post as well.  Get the recipes HERE.

November

In the fall I made Halloween cards for my children (see that post HERE), and also this birthday card for my dear old friends.  You can see the original post HERE.

December

In December I didn't do any home or crafting posts other than this Winter Garden post HERE.  I was too busy doing Christmas stuff...you know, shopping, decorating, cooking, having fun with family.  But I did want to show you how I wrapped my Christmas presents this year.  I used red and white snowflake paper, and I wrapped each present with a big white bow from ribbon left over from my daughter's wedding six years ago.  Then I hand made a snowflake and tags using paper-crafting dies.  

And that is my year of home and crafting projects for 2016.  And you know what, I'm really glad I took the time to write this post.  I did a lot more crafting than I thought I did...I just crafted in different ways other than just paper-crafts.  My beauty room took up most of my crafting time this year, along with my garden.  I'm looking forward to seeing what 2017 brings to my creative side.  I know I have a LOT of sewing projects I need to complete!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE.