Recipe: Baked Zucchini and Cheese

We were given some zucchini earlier this week by my father-in-law. I have to confess, I'd only ever eaten zucchini fried or baked into zucchini bread. A friend of mine gave me this super easy recipe and it was delicious. My family enjoyed it so much that I didn't even get pictures until someone had already been sampling :) To make this, you just wash and slice the zucchini. Then, you pour olive oil into a glass baking pan. Line your pan with zucchini. Sprinkle garlic powder and pepper on the slices, and then cover the slices in mozzarella cheese. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Saving money: Cooking at home

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We usually have a garden each year, but we don't have one this summer, as my husband would have to care for the garden by himself. I'm pregnant and I've passed the point where I can bend down easily. I surely miss our garden though. Thankfully, there is still the farmer's market and some of our family members with gardens have generously passed some goodies our way. We eat a lot of fresh produce for dinner all summer long.

Last night, our dinner table looked like this:

That would be fresh corn on the cob, cucumbers, tomatoes and peaches from my father-in-law, fried squash from my parents' neighbors, and watermelon and cantaloupe from the farmer's market. The entire meal cost right around $5 and it was delicious. 

If you have the room for a garden, this can save tremendously on your grocery bill. Plus, the taste of the food is amazing. 

Come back tomorrow for a tasty zucchini recipe.

Linking to Stonegable, Worthing Court, Cedar Hill Farmhouse, Confessions of a Plate Addict, and French Country Cottage!

Recipe: Sauteed Italian Chicken

There is a wonderful Italian restaurant near my home that I love. It isn't a chain; it's an independently owned restaurant. They have many things on the menu I love to eat, but one of them is amazing. It's called "chicken French," and it's a type of breaded chicken with some sort of lemon and olive oil sauce.

I found this recipe on the back of a bread crumbs box and thought that it might come close to tasting like chicken French. It wasn't too far off, but I couldn't quite figure out the sauce.

Recipe: Sunday Brunch Casserole

Boy, does it feel good to be back! Teachers often find the last few weeks of school are the busiest and most stressful. That was definitely true to me, so I took the past two weeks off from blogging. I'm glad to be back with you- I feel like a farm boy happy to be back in the tractor seat. 

I can already tell you pictures of this dish won't be very pretty. Don't judge the book by its cover- for all the ugliness it has, the flavor is spectacular. This dish contains some of my favorite things- sausage, cheese and eggs. I appropriately made this dish for my family on Sunday morning. My husband immediately commented that it would make a great cold-weather food. 

Recipes: Easy pan-seared pork chops

Two weeks ago, I posted a recipe for brown sugar glazed pork chops. Today, I am posting another recipe for pork chops. I promise, we do eat things that aren't pork chops. As you well know, I am constantly on the search for low-cost, easy to make ideas for dinner.

Simplified cooking: Easy Taco Soup

Lately, as the weather is getting colder, I am on a quest to find delicious soups I can make that will also make more than one meal and are not expensive to prepare. I've never made taco soup before, but a local restaurant makes an amazing taco soup. I decided to attempt to make a copy cat version.

 The most expensive part of this meal was the ground beef, at $5.29 for 1.2 pounds. The Ro-tell and Dell Monte diced tomatoes were each $.97, and the taco seasoning and ranch packets were about $1. I paid $.92 for the pintos, kidney beans, black beans and corn because I bought store brand.