Summer Zucchini & Goat Cheese Tart

My Ina Garten recipe kick is going strong these days. I bought some zucchini the other week with no actual plan for what to do with them. After looking through some recipes, this one seemed like a winner. I had most of the ingredients at home and what I didn't have in the fridge was growing in the garden. This is a great way to use up zucchini if you have them growing in your yard. One note, if you don't have the goat cheese, lemon and herbs, you could make a slightly different variation by subbing Boursin or Alouette cheese instead. Though I recommend trying the original recipe first.

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Corn and Zucchini Orzo Salad with Goat Cheese

I was looking around for a recipe for a quick and easy weeknight dinner idea. I am loving all the summer produce available right now and wanted to incorporate that in to my meal. I wanted to keep it simple and luckily stumbled upon this recipe. The orzo salad makes an amazing side dish. I grilled some shrimp and added it on top to make a main course out of it. Just toss the shrimp (about 1/2 pound) with the zest of one lime, juice of half a lime, 1 tablespoons olive oil and salt and pepper and grill until cooked through. If you own one, a grill basket will make this step even easier.

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Spinach, Mushroom and Zucchini Quiche

Quiche is one of those great foods where you can use whatever vegetables you have laying around and still have a fantastic end result. I recently had a handful of mushrooms and half a bag of spinach sitting in the fridge and decided a quiche would be the best way to go. Feel free to use whatever vegetables you have on hand.

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Spicy Thai Noodles with Zucchini and Mushrooms

 

One of the easiest dinners to make is a quick noodle stir fry style meal. This dish is delicious and comes together very quickly for an easy weeknight dinner. Feel free to add your favorite protein to this dish if you're not a big fan of vegetarian dishes. I love this version and you can always add another egg to make it heartier. This is great fresh from the pan, or can be warmed up the next day. Feel free to adjust the seasoning to your liking. I like to add cilantro and peanuts, as well as use 1/5 tablespoon of chili garlic sauce in the sauce.

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Salmon Souvlaki Bowls

I made this recipe one night when I wanted to attempt a healthier dinner after a few days of eating terribly. I found this recipe and thought the idea of a "bowl" for dinner sounded great. Though couscous is not exactly the healthiest thing, it's still better than lots of other options- and this was delicious. I set up a build-it-yourself style dinner with all the bowl condiments in a line and everyone built their bowls how they preferred them. Personally I love tzatziki and would use more than most people, so I made more than the recipe asks for. You can't ruin this recipe and feel free to adjust based on your preferences. The fish turns out very flavorsome and your can grill it to your preferred level of doneness (I like mine still slightly rare on the inside).

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Zucchini and Carrot Muffins

When it comes to baking, I don't usually make an effort to use "healthy" ingredients (at most I'll mix in some whole wheat flour with my white flour). I stick with butter and sugar and am usually please with the results. Sometimes, though, I really want to have a breakfast muffin that doesn't make me feel guilty for having consumed something so unhealthy at 9 am (and lets face it, I usually have at least 2). I actually came across this recipe on accident and was really, really skeptical about the ingredients. I thought I would give it a try since, oddly enough, I had everything required at home. I was not expecting to like these. I was hoping that they would be good enough for an on-the-go type of snack or a quick breakfast option, but didn't think I would love them. I was so very wrong. Turns out these muffins were so good that the first batch of 20 were gone within 2 days and I made another batch a week later. I even made a third batch to put in the freezer so I could just snack on these when I wanted.

Now to clarify a few things. These muffins are probably not considered healthy by people who bake with alternative ingredients and count their calorie intake. They do contain sugar and white flour, but they require much less of both ingredients than many muffins do. There are also tons of healthy ingredients baked into the muffins, like zucchini, carrots, almonds, and apple. I also cut down the amount of oil required in half and added some apple sauce to the mix to keep things slightly healthier. They are unbelievably moist and stay that way even a few days after you bake them. I stored mine in an airtight container and they were still great on day 3.

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Kefta and Zucchini Kebabs

I'm a sucker for any food served with a yogurt sauce. Whether it's tzatziki, raita, or cacik, I love them all. When my sister first made this kebab recipe last summer, I was instantly hooked. The keftas are delicious on their own, but when they get smothered with yogurt sauce, they taste amazing. This is one of those barbecue foods that disappears withing minutes of being set on the table.

The kefta kebabs are a little spicy, so you can tweak the amount of cayenne pepper used to your liking. I also didn't put the kebabs on skewers because I find it easier to grill them on their own. If you do want everything to be on a skewer, make sure you let the kebabs begin to cook through before flipping them on the grill. If you get overly excited and turn them too soon, they'll probably fall off/break apart.

I love the zucchini kebabs and the flavor they get from the lemon juice. Make sure you cut them wide enough so they can be threaded onto the skewers. If you're not a zucchini fan, you can use other grill friendly vegetables, or just make the meat. But whatever you do, don't skip the yogurt sauce! It is really easy to make, so there's no good excuse not to make it (unless you're lactose intolerant). This is one of my favorite kebab recipes and has a great "Middle Eastern" flavor.

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