Green is good!

I say any green is good green so bulk up, add it to every dish and call yourself a success! 
 




Lemon Goat Cheese Pasta
1 pound linguini (I used a gluten free egg linguini)
1 pound slender asparagus spears, trimmed, cut into 1- to 1 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon plus more for garnish
1 5- to 5 1/2-ounce log soft fresh goat cheese log
Fresh lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste 


Cook your pasta in a large pot of well-salted water until it is almost tender, or about three minutes shy of what the package suggests. Add asparagus and cook until firm-tender, another two to three minutes. Drain both pasta and asparagus together, reserving one cup of pasta water.
Meanwhile, combine olive oil, lemon peel, tarragon and goat cheese in a large bowl, breaking up the goat cheese as you put it in. Add hot pasta and asparagus to bowl, along with a couple slashes of the pasta water. Add toasted pine nuts and toss until smoothly combined, adding more pasta water if needed. Season generously with salt and pepper, and lemon juice if you feel it needs a little extra kick.



Stuffed Zucchini 4 Ways

Slice zucchini in half. Slice off the bottom to keep stable. Brush with olive oil and top with garlic or garlic powder. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese, sliced tomatoes, salt and pepper and parsley. Bake 350outil golden.

Spreadable alouette spreadable cheese (pick your favorite variety)
Finely diced red bell pepper (half a pepper)
Panko bread crumbs ( I used vans gluten free)
Olive oil or melted coconut oil

Spread cheese into hollowed out zucchini.
Sprinkle with diced red bell pepper.
Cover each zucchini with breadcrumbs, and spritz with olive oil. Bake until zucchini is cooked and breadcrumbs are golden brown. Preheat oven to 350o

This next recipe comes from Family Circle Magazine. They did it just a little bit differently, but I actually loved the technique. 

Middle Eastern Stuffed Zucchini

2 zucchini
1/2 tablespoon olive oil  
1/2 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped 
1/2 medium-size onion, chopped 
1 clove garlic, finely minced 
1/2 pound ground chicken 
1 heaping tablespoon cup golden raisins 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1/8 teaspoon black pepper 
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese 
1-1/2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

Slice your zucchini in half, hollow out the flesh and set aside for another recipe. Place your zucchini in a glass baking dish upside down. Pour 2 tablespoons of water into the bottom of the dish and bake at 375o for 10 minutes. While the zucchini is baking, heat a skillet and add chicken, onion and garlic and saute until chicken is cooked through. Remove pre baked zucchini and set aside. Season your chicken mixture with cinnamon, pepper and salt. Remove chicken into another bowl and add raisins, toasted pine nuts, and shredded cheddar cheese. Stuff your zucchini and bake again until the tops are golden and cheese is melted.

This next recipe was a little tricky because as I was searching for fun ideas with Sam he said "how about pasta" So we found this image, but there was no recipe attached. It said it was lemony parm pasta, but that was all we had to go on. Now we know that lemon and zucchini is golden and so we played around with the recipe and here is what we came up with. The recipe makes more than you can stuff into two zucchinis, but we reserved the rest for school lunch and even added some hot pasta into a spinach salad with sweet green peas, diced ham and a splash of oil and vinegar dressing.  

Lemon Pasta stuffed Zucchinis
1 large shallot minced
1 tsp coconut oil or olive oil
1 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup heavy cream or you can use 1/4 cup half and half mixed with 1 tsp cornstarch
1 lemon zested and squeezed
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1/4 tsp celery salt
1 tsp garlic crushed or from the jar (we used jarred)
2 zucchini, halved and hollowed out
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 1/2 cups ditalini pasta ( used gluten free barilla brand)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt the water and add the ditalini pasta. Slightly under cook the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, saute your shallot in oil until soft, add garlic and let it sizzle slightly. This is the time you'd add your gluten free option like cornstarch and half and half, bring to a boil until it thickens. 
Drain pasta and place back in hot pot. Add zest, lemon juice, shallot and garlic mixture along with cream and seasonings to pot. Add panko crumbs and parmesan and mix until completely coated. Spoon pasta mix into your hollowed out zucchini and sprinkle with salt and pepper on top. You'll want to bake them on a rack or up on top of some tinfoil. Pour a couple tablespoons of water into the pan and Bake at 375o until golden.




Have you tried this before? It's new to me, but Sam recently had a snack at a friends house called "sour patch grapes". It's easy and fun and it gets him to eat green grapes so win win. 


All you need to do is take a zip-lock bag and add green grapes with a few scoops of melon or watermelon flavored Jello mix. Close the bag and shake so that the grapes are evenly coated with the Jello mix. Once they are coated, place the bag in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

Remove the grapes from the freezer and dig in. They don't last long.