Spicy Zucchini Raisin Cookies

Coming in to summer its always great to have recipe ideas for the abundant summer produce that will soon be available. I'm pretty excited to have my vegetable garden begin to bear veggies but in the meant time, I guess I'll rely on my grocery store.

Does your grocery store have a produce clearance rack? Mine does. I know that Carrots-n-Cake has posted about her produce clearance rack as well. I'm in love with my grocery store's produce clearance rack. I tend to go grocery shopping in the mid afternoon - which is perfect. They have finished stocking the produce area for the morning and have taken away any of their imperfect produce. My store packages it back up at a significantly reduced price. It might not always be the prettiest produce but its much cheaper. I usually go there first to see what fruits and veggies I can score, then hit the regular produce section to supplement my bargains. I often get slightly over ripe bananas which I freeze and use in smoothies or replace for fat in recipes. I almost always get my peppers from the clearance rack. Sometimes I can get romaine, potatoes, apples, oranges, .... really anything.

Last week there was a giant package of zucchini. There were about 10 medium sized zucchinis and it was listed for $0.59. Steal. Thankfully, zucchinis are pretty easy to incorporate into recipes. There was a bake sale coming up at church for Relay for Life and I thought I'd try to bring the healthy option to sell.

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. The only change I made was substituted applesauce for margarine. You could also try this with wheat flour or ground oat flour instead of white flour or some kind of substitute like Splenda for the sugar. After making these I realized they sounded very similar to Megan's Low Fat Zucchini cookies but these have raisins instead of chocolate chips. (either way - sounds pretty tasty!!!)

As originally posted, each cookie provides: 84 calories 2.8 g fat 14.3 g carbohydrate 0.4 g fiber 1.1 g protein

Zucchini Raisin Cookies - BETTER

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 cup grated zucchini
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 cup raisins

In a medium bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg then stir in the zucchini. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cloves; stir into the zucchini mixture. Mix in raisins. Cover dough and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper (or spray with nonstick spray). Drop by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven until set. Allow cookies to cool slightly on the cookie sheets before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 36 cookies. Per cookie: 63 calories 0.2 g fat 14.7 g carbohydrate 0.5 g fiber 1.1 g protein

Tortellini with Zucchini Meatsauce

As I've said before, I'm not pretending that my recipes the most 100% healthy thing you've ever seen. But they're real. Its what I make for my real life husband and me. We're busy, we're hungry and we don't want food to rule our lives.

I say this because not every recipe I am going to post is the most awesome thing for you ever BUT I hope they are examples how small changes in your diet can make a big difference in your total health picture.

In this recipe, I simply made tortellini and meat sauce but made a few changes to health-i-fy it. I used ground turkey instead of ground beef. This saved me almost 160 calories and 19 grams of fat per serving. I also added in zucchini into the sauce. Every little extra serving helps!

Here is a pretty good list of substitutions you can try. You don't need to revamp every meal you've ever made but maybe one or two small changes can make a big difference in your family's eating habits!

Tortellini with Zucchini Meat Sauce

3 cups cheese filled frozen tortellini
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 pound ground turkey
2 small zucchini, sliced

Start a pot of water boiling for tortellini.

Brown ground turkey in a pan. Once cooked, push to side of pan and add zucchini. Cook zucchini until lightly sauted in turkey juices but still with a bite to it. Add spaghetti sauce and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, add tortellini to boiling water. Cook according to package directions (traditionally 2-3 minutes). Drain tortellini and plate. Top with prepared meat sauce.

Makes 4 servings, per serving:
522 calories
19.3 g fat
50.4 g carbohydrate
4.2 g fiber
35.4 g protein

Chicken Parmesan with vegetables

Before I was married, I lived alone from the time I was 19 until I got married at 26. I loved living alone. I was in charge of my own stuff, my own place and my own meals. I still cooked just for one and would have leftovers for lunches and dinners in the upcoming days. I've never been that big of a meat eater and could live off of cheese and beans for my main source of protein. When I got married, that changed. I soon learned that I needed to have a good protein source at every meal, whether it be eggs, chicken, beef, turkey, etc. There are only a few meals that I know my husband truly enjoys that are vegetarian. (This minestrone being one of his favorites!)

In the last month as I've been trying to increase my own protein intake, I've been trying to come up with meals that not only have protein sources that my husband enjoys, but that I enjoy as well. I decided to revamp a basic chicken and pasta recipe to serve both of our taste preferences.

Chicken Parmesan with Vegetables

2 Tbsp Olive Oil
12 oz chicken (four 3 oz breasts or two large breasts cut in half)
1 cup sliced zucchini
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
2 cups spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups cooked whole wheat spaghetti

Drizzle olive oil in a nonstick pan. Cook the chicken breast over medium heat until lightly browned on both sides. Add the vegetables. Stir and cook until tender-crisp.

Sprinkle with oregano. Add the spaghetti sauce and cook until heated through, approximately 5 minutes.

Put 1/2 cup of cooked whole wheat spaghetti on a plate. Top with a piece of chicken and generous ladle of veggies and sauce. Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp Parmesan cheese over each serving. Makes 4 servings.

Per serving (chicken, veggies and pasta!)
345 calories
10.9 g fat
36.8 g carbohydrate
6.9 g fiber
26.3 g protein

Zucchini Bake

Some people follow recipes to the tee. They carefully measure and level each ingredient. They make separate trips to the grocery store just to get some crazy ingredient that they probably won't use in any other recipe. Others kind of wing it. Oops... out of one ingredient? Guess we'll try it with another ingredient. They might follow the method of a recipe, but don't follow the ingredients to the letter of the law.

My mom is the latter type of cook and I think I learned it from her. This is where my original knowledge of tweaking recipes came from - long before my Experimental Food class in college.

My mom is also really good at making food for a crowd. When I was growing up, we often would joke around that we should open up a catering business when I got older since we were always putting on luncheons and other functions for our church. Our high school graduation open houses were a like a fun challenge for us.

About 6 months ago, my mom hosted a baby shower for me before my daughter's birth. She had quite the spread of 8-10 different items, all displayed beautifully on trays. Included in that spread were little squares she called Zucchini Bake. The original recipe was from the Bisquick website. But, of course, she tweaked it!

In the original recipe, each square provides:
80 calories
6 g fat
4 g carbohydrate
0 g fiber
2 g protein

My mom cut the recipe's oil in half. I suppose you could also use 1 cup egg substitute instead of full eggs as well but I did not do that. My mom also doesn't put all of the same seasonings in it. Overall - this is a really tasty appetizer. I have also packed leftover squares in my lunch to go with a salad. They can be eaten hot or cold or even just warm like a quiche. I have a weird thing about my food being extra hot, so obviously I eat mine HOT. Give them a try!

Zucchini Bake - BETTER

4 eggs, slightly beaten
3 cups thinly sliced zucchini (use a mandolin if you have one)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup oil
1 onion, finely chopped
salt/pepper to taste
1 cup Heart Smart Bisquick

Beat the eggs and add remainder of ingredients. Spread in a greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until inserted knife comes out clean. Cut into 24 squares (4x6).

Per square:
62 calories
4 g fat
4 g carbohydrate
0 g fiber
2 g protein