Squachos

The Zucchini Fairy made these zukes appear overnight. Most will be made into zucchini bread.

Thanks to an early and prolific summer garden, the squash/zucchini-to-person ratio in our house is currently about 5-to-1. We plucked five giant zucchini (and I do mean giant; the biggest one weighed in at 1 pound, 7 ounces) from our plants this weekend and doled them out to neighbors. But we still have plenty in the produce drawer at home.

Dinnertime was upon us, and I'm not sure if I was inspired by the thirst-quenching Lone Star I enjoyed or the garden surplus, but suddenly I had the second-greatest idea I've had this year:

Squachos.

Squachos: grilled yellow squash and jalapenos top run-of-the-mill nachos, elevating them to new heights.

Go ahead and let it settle in your brain for a moment. Squash and nachos coming together in one unmistakably easy and delicious dinner. Mmmm-hmmm.

The word popped into my head and I got myself into a full-on giggle fest, right there in the middle of the kitchen, with a chef's knife in one hand and a frosty beverage in the other. The absurdity of it all is not lost on me.

Growing up, my dad made us oven-broiled nachos every Sunday night. They are the perfect weekend-send-off food—cheap, easy, fast, tasty; qualities I appreciate now more than ever. I've even figured out how to make them healthier (black beans instead of refried, fresh veggies on top, and a little less cheese than before).

The squachos version involved just one extra step: grilling strips of pattypan squash in some olive oil and season salt prior to adding them to the nachos. I'm not sure this merits an actual recipe; you get the drift. Tortilla chips topped with cheese, black beans, grilled squash, fresh jalapenos, and baked at 450 until everything is toasty and the cheese is melted. I topped ours with store-bought tomatillo salsa and a few dollops of Greek yogurt.

Squachos are inspiring; I'm already thinking that squashadillas will be a regular part of our summertime diet, and I can't believe that I haven't already come up with the name "squacos" for these squash and zucchini soft tacos from last week.

The moral of the story is this: If you can't have fun cooking, why do it at all?

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Just let me whip something up!

Last week after Ryan and I opted to work out in the gym, we were so hungry by the time we got back home that we almost caved and ran out for food. Knowing we had a smattering of fresh veggies in the fridge, I put up my argument for staying home.I insisted: "Just let me whip something up!" The skeptical BF looked at me warily, so I shot back. "Or YOU can go get whatever YOU want and I'll cook something for me here."

He stayed (lucky for him). I boiled some capellini (almost a whole package!) and topped it with butter, parsley, and lemon. I threw together a salad and an easy citrus dressing...and voila. Dinner on the fly, and healthy to boot.I think part of eating sustainably is learning to work on the fly like this--bringing together what you do have to make something delicious. It's so much better than spending money, not to mention adding to your carbon footprint, by going out to grab food. PLUS, the hungrier you are the more likely you are to opt for fast food. Quickly becoming a strict no-no in our household! (See Ryan's quote from yesterday's post.)

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Improv Lunch

So I mentioned that I received Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything book for Christmas. This book is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. I have had it for less than two weeks and have already gleaned a wealth of information from its pages. My favorite new recipe so far is a million times easier than pie: the Simple Yogurt Sauce. Of course, me being me, I couldn’t just use his recipe. I had to alter it in my own darn way.

His calls for a cup of yogurt and only one clove of garlic... In the interest of wanting to not waste any yogurt (just in case I didn't follow through on my goal to make the sauce), I purchased two individual 6-oz yogurt cups and surprisingly made two separate recipes right away.

For the first batch, I used 6 oz of plain yogurt (whole milk, cream top), mixed with one minced clove of garlic, the juice of half a lemon, salt and pepper to taste. I skillfully sliced half of an avocado (currently on sale at the grocer!) and smashed it in the best I could. What resulted was a creamy, tangy dip that pleased both me and my dear friend Ellen when coupled with chips and celery stalks. It even served as a nice spread for our sandwiches...on fresh homemade bread, might I add!

Batch two came into being last night when I craved ranch dressing to go along with the super-unhealthy pizza Ryan brought home (football watching food--Hook 'Em!). I had one more 6-oz container of yogurt, but this time I added two cloves of minced garlic, a whole mashed avocado, and plenty of garlic salt and pepper. Ryan played taste-tester, and we agreed it needed something but weren’t sure what. After trying a few bites with celery salt, chili powder, and extra garlic salt, we decided to leave it as it was.

This dip came in handy for lunch today. Did I mention my delicious-but-ugly loaf of cinnamon swirl bread? (I didn't photograph it, therefore I didn't blog about it I suppose...) Apparently I did not roll the dough thin enough when I dumped the raisins and cinn-sugar on top and rolled it up... Because what came out was a thick loaf of sweet bread with a fat L-shaped blob of cinnamon-sugar raisins in the middle.

The heel of the loaf was void of all sugar-coated fruit, and I packed it along with a couple of slices of Muenster, some turkey, a pear, blackberries, and celery for lunch. After a jaunt in the toaster, I topped the bread with the meat, cheese, and thin-sliced pear, and that was a deliciously sweet and savory compliment to the tangy yogurt dip and crisp celery stalks. The blackberries were my delectable dessert.

Don't tell anyone, but I pride myself on bringing lunches that evoke "oohs" and "ahhs" from my colleagues who are nuking canned soups or frozen dinners in the communal kitchen while I assemble my tasty towers. I waltz down the hall, lunch in hand, shoulders held high, and eat it at my desk while I read my favorite food blogs and dream up the next meal.

Ahh, food--it's all I can think about, really.

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