If you planted even one zucchini plant you are looking for ways to use it. If you planted more than one, you are probably the one dropping them on neighbors doorsteps at night, desperately trying to get rid of it.

Don’t worry, there are so many ways to use zucchini, millions of things even, but I am going to show super easy uses for Zucchini.

Zucchini has such a mild flavor it can be used almost anywhere and in the process you can get your 3-5 servings of veggies in daily.

You can bake and cook all kinds of things, I mostly just find meals I can add them too, since I am not much of a rule recipe follower, so no casseroles in here.

DINNER ::

Grilled Zucchini Side Dish (get this down because it is the base for a lot more things)

1. Toss with olive oil and salt and pepper. Not just any salt and pepper, use freshly ground pepper and sea salt.
2. Grill for about 4 minutes per side or until you have grill marks.
3. Always make extra
4. If using a grill pan, mix it with other veggies like green beans, snap peas, onions, peppers, baby carrots sliced thin, broccoli, cabbage or any other favorite.

Fajitas - When sauteing onions and peppers, add in zucchini.(I use Chipotle Olive Oil for a bit of kick.) Top Fajitas with veggies. Heck, forget the meat and make tons of veggies and fill fajitas with veggies and beans.

Zucchini Pancakes - love these as a side dish.  This one has a great tutorial if you are still questioning the process.

BREAKFAST ::

Farmers Market Frittata – These change all summer long, but they always seem to have zucchini in them diced up real small.

Veggie Scramble - If the frittata sounds to overwhelming then just do a scramble.

1. Saute 1/4 c. onions and 1/4 zucchini (take some of the work out by grilling or sauteing extra from another meal) in 1 Tbsp. olive oil.
2. Add 2 beaten eggs
3. Continue to cook until eggs are cooked through
4. Top with 2 Tbsp. cheese
5. Serve

LUNCH ::

Grilled Veggie Sandwiches - take some of the work out by grilling extra the night before.

Quesadilla - Finely chop any left over veggies from dinner.(I made these the other night and couldn’t make them fast enough for my family.)

1. Add to flour tortillas
2. Add cheese
3. Cook until cheese is melted.

Zucchini Bread - this is a great treat, but I won’t lie, I think my mom thought the only use for zucchini growing up was zucchini bread. Therefore, I have only made it a few times as an adult. I would just make sure the recipe had yogurt or sour cream in it to make it extra moist.

Smoothies - Kids love smoothies and they are good for you, so that’s ok. But make them even better by adding veggies. The beauty of zucchini is it’s the one veggie that is so bland it can’t be tasted in a smoothie, yet you will be getting your veggies.

1. 1/2 cup frozen or fresh fruit (if using fresh add ice cubes)
2. 1/4-1/2 cup fruit juice
3. 1/4 cup yogurt
4. 1/2 small zucchini
5. Blend and serve

Slice and serve – Believe it or not you can actually just eat these raw. Dip them in your favorite veggie dip or hummus.

Plus the beauty of zucchini is that is so super affordable and available all year long. Don’t be afraid, just embrace your zucchini.

What other things do you do with zucchini?

Over in Sherwood we have a nursery called Loen’s. It’s fun to walk around and check stuff out and see the different plants and get an idea of what things are. There are several things worth buying here, but…

You can go across the road to the wholesale lot. At the wholesale lot they have big trees at a discount. It’s open to the public, so just go in and check it all out. But….

If you drive to the very back you will see a sign that says “GOOD DEALS”. These are marked down even more. I just discovered this myself. I don’t know if all places have this or if this is just unique to our place.

The thing I love is you can get huge trees for a fraction of the price. The pictures aren’t great, but check this out. The original price of the this blooming crab apple tree was $250. It is about 20 ft tall and looks healthy.

I got it for just $30. Now this was the deal of the day, but other things were priced really well too.

I got a variegated leaf maple that was about 5-6ft tall for just $15.

My friend picked up the best looking dogwood for just $15.

Bushes are as low as $5. We saw one tree that was huge. The ‘crate’ that it was in was almost was over 3ft tall. It easily came up to my hip. It was a blooming cherry tree or dogwood, I can’t really remember, but it was just $75. Not sure how you would get it home, but if you had the means you could have a tree that feels full grown for such a cheap price.

So next time you are at one of those places and you see it’s open to the public, take a look around. Ask, see if they have a discount lot.

I had my friend go with me. I am not super good at this kind of stuff so she showed m how to look to make sure the trunk looks fine.

Where do you get things at a discount for your yard and garden? There must be more secrets I didn’t know about.

Here are other ways to Save in your Garden.

Plus Frugal Gardening at it’s Best.

Linked to
Thrifty Tuesday
Works for Me Wednesday

The Garden Corner in Tualatin is offering a $30 gift certificate for just $15. I love this place. It’s right down the road from me and I drive by and drool a lot. They have everything from small plants to large out door decor. It’s a fun place to just go walk around.

I am always watching for Garden Corner Coupons or Garden Corner discounts, so you can imagine how excited I was when I saw this.

The deal is available for 2 days. So if you are in the Portland area jump on this deal. You won’t be disappointed.

The place is so well done you even get ideas on how to create outdoor living spaces. It’s like the IKEA of gardening.

If you other Mom’s are like me, you know it’s best to sometimes just choose your own Mother’s Day gift. This is a great gift!

If you have never used Sharing Spree before, it’s just like all the others. Simply create an account. The deals will come to you daily. Choose the ones you like, pass the ones you don’t.

This deal is located under Portland. And by the way, I have already purchased it.

Enjoy!

I just read the upcoming spring report and yes it did make me grumpy. I love gardening. Not so much the flowers, although I am getting better at that, but I love my edible garden. My tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, zucchini and squash. Just to name a few.

Last year we had an awful spring and many of us didn’t have great luck with our gardens. Here in Portland it barely stopped raining by July and even then it never got hot. I remember being at a friends house in August for an evening outside party and it was almost 2 chilly to be outside.

If you plan on gardening again this year you need to

1. Don’t be overly optimistic
2. Have a plan to make it work better.

Here is my suggestion and what I have done in the past here anyways.

1. Don’t even plant your garden outside until late April early May, and that’s at the earliest. I have waited until June some summers and done well.
2. If you are getting that ichy green thumb, start stuff indoors then move them out doors later. When you decide to move them outdoors be aware of the upcoming weather. If it still looks like rain and not super warm, then cover them with plastic to create a green house effect. It won’t be pretty, but it will help them grow.
3. If our spring, as predicted, is supposed to be as wet as it was last year, make sure you have your garden in an area that drains well. My best sun spot does not drain. I know sad right?

The first thing you should put in the ground are your peas. If you have some that are going to be a little later, make sure they have some afternoon shade.

I can’t wait to really get into it, but for now this is a start. Although I can slack a little this year since I decided to get a CSA.

What have you done in your garden this year??

I grew up in a small town, I mean really small town.  Population 150.  I moved away 23 years ago knowing I would never make that my home, but I love love to visit.

There are things that take place in a small town that you read about, and you always wonder, “Do they really happen?”  The answer is yes, yes they do.

I am “home” right now for the long weekend.  I marvel at what takes place here.

My dad’s garden is going crazy.  He has tomatoes coming out his ears.

Today he took a huge bag of tomatoes to the local hardware store and placed them on a bench.  All the locals do it.  Then anything you want, you just pick up and take home for yourself.  Or the elderly might come in and grab something.  Or others just might grab something they didn’t raise.

As he left the owner let him know that they would be gone by the end of the day and thanked him for dropping them off.

That’s the only reason my dad drove into our small town today.  Just to drop off the extra tomatoes.

The neighbor lady comes down and picks berries out of my parents gardens.  They take turns picking.  My mom one week, the neighbor the next.  They also share garlic and other goodies from their garden in exchange.

If you haven’t been spotted for a few days you can almost expect a phone call or someone dropping by.

For years my dad would give sweet corn to the Pastor, making sure they had enough to freeze for the winter.

The high school sports are a community event.  Not just for home games.  I remember growing up one of the teams we played was 5 hours away.  We always had a good crowd cheering us on.

In a few short days I will head back to my home in the suburbs.  I will greet a neighbor if I see them.  No food will be exchanged, no gatherings will happen that we will all attend.

Instead I will join others in their very busy lives that goes in all directions.  Barely taking the time to look up and wave.

I would love to have this community if a large town.  Is it even possible?

I love gardening, but my garden has been one big FAIL this year.  I have to say in all the years that I have gardened this one was the worst.  I even broke down at one point and put Miracle Grow on.  I know, now it’s not organic, but I was getting desperate.  Don’t worry nothing grew….not even weeds, I kid you not.

My cucumbers are still just over 6″ tall and have blooms, but nothing else.  My zucchini plant just sprouted, but don’t worry, it didn’t continue to grow any larger or bloom and my green beans grew big and green and tall, but no beans.

The one thing that did actually have some success was my tomatoes.  Since we have had a chilly summer it really helped that I remembered to plant the tomatoes on their sides.   This allowed the heat to get to the root ball much easier plus getting enough water is never a problem.

I love tomatoes, so I am thankful that at least they did produce something this year.

I hope others had much more success than me.

Linked to
Things I Love Thursday

It’s the weekend and for that I am thankful.  It’s been a busy crazy week.  I continue to fight with my health insurance company over my surgery.  We turned in a 44 page appeal and we have finally stopped them dead in their tracks or at least we think we have.  We have learned a lot in this process, and if anyone every has questions I am willing to share what I have learned along the way.  We make a lot of phone calls checking in to see what they are doing yet we are still getting the run around.  But don’t worry their motto is: We’re committed to providing Oregonians with access to quality healthcare and peace of mind about their coverage.

We also refinanced our house.  Why you ask?  Because we just found a 3.75% interest rate.  That big price cut will be greatly appreciated, that’s for sure.

Needless to say those 2 things take up time with phone calls and paper work.  The weekend is nice because neither office is open.  I just get to sit back and pretend it’s all ok.

We also finally got rid of cable TV and our landline.  We have started downloading most of our TV shows from the internet.  Our kids are older and the evenings just seem to be busy with some kind of activity or sport, so we don’t tend to watch a lot of TV.  When we do finally sit down we usually do marathons of our favorite shows. By doing this we cut our phone/cable bill in half and that also included bumping up our internet access.

My husband is also the techy guy that set up a “home phone” that is just a answering service.  We get an email when we have a message.  But he also set it up so we can make calls on it, and activated the 911 service for emergencies.

Summer has been crazy here and I have finally resigned myself to the fact that I won’t be having a garden.  The one thing that is producing, that others seem to not be getting, is tomatoes.  I plant my tomatoes on their sides and I think that was key this year in keeping the root ball warm as our warm weather has been slim.  So much for saving money in my garden this year.

With school slowly creeping up we start the process of careful clothes shopping.  We have been watching the sales for school supplies and I think my kids are mostly done.

Some of these things we didn’t intend to do, they just fell in our laps and we took advantage of the savings. Any cool money saving things going on for you right now??

We finally watched the movie Food, Inc.  Truth is I have wanted to watch it for quite some time, but put it off because I knew I would have to rethink a lot of things.

Today I am your typical American.  I live in the suburbs, where the houses are close and raising your own food is nearly impossible. We have a small garden, but we will never have animals.

I was raised quite differently though.  I am the daughter of a farmer.  We raised our own chicken (eggs), cows, turkeys and at one time pigs.  We got our milk from the neighbors and I remember bringing it home, large jar on my lap, still warm.

Our garden was huge, so my mom canned, froze things and shared with all the neighbors.

We were part of the processed food generation.  I like to think more towards the beginning of it.  We did partake in some of it.  I remember the only yellow cheese ever brought into our house was Kraft singles.  Not sure why mom thought that was a good idea.  I remember trying to cut it into strips to put it on our tacos. (I think I just threw up a little in my mouth with that memory.)  There weren’t many things brought into our house, but there were some things.

Our snacks were home baked goods and fruit and veggies.  Our cereal was limited because of money and the single serve snack bars were unknown to us, but we ate well.

I know we need to be buying organic, but I struggle with that too.  I mean is Organic really Organic?

But back to today, I am your typical American, I live in the suburbs, what do I do?  What are you doing?  It becomes Money4This is food from local farmers and Not4That is processed foods in stores. How does the typical American afford that?

Linked to Works for Me

I love summer and I love grilling.  Yep, you have heard me say that over and over.  I grill everything.  Mini pizzas, large pizzas, dessert, and whole meals.  I also grill fruit.  Check out this beauty I just found with vanilla sugar.

Today I made Grilled Veggie Sandwiches with Marinated Mozzarella and some with Goat Cheese.

I slice my veggies and drizzle with EVOO and salt and pepper.  You will see that I was using marinated mozzarella and I did use some of the herb oil they were packed in as well for extra flavor.  I had left over caramelized onions that I heated up and added as well.

I used good quality crusty garlic bread (that was in the day old section marked down) that was already sliced.  Again I used some of the herb oil on the inside of the bread for added flavor.

I topped each sandwich with caramelized onions, grilled veggies and cheese.  This is the mozzarella cheese, sliced, so the sandwiches go together easier.

I also used goat cheese too.  My daughter and I liked the goat cheese so much better.  It becomes so creamy when it’s melted and goes great with grilled veggies.  Yes, that is bacon in the background.  We also tried BLT’s on the grill.

I place the sandwiches right on the grill.  I have the heat on medium to medium high.  You will need to watch the sandwiches, but you want it warm enough to melt the cheeses.

Once the cheese is melted and there are grill marks on your sandwiches you will know they are done and ready to eat.

I hope you didn’t want to see pictures of them plated and ready to eat, because my family ate these so quickly I couldn’t even grill them fast enough.

With the veggies from the farmers market this meal was very frugal.  The mozzarella is spendy, but worth the splurge and even though the cheese is gone I have kept the herb olive oil.  I will use it for sure, maybe on my potatoes.

What did you grill this week??

Don’t have a grill?? You can do the same thing on a George Foreman grill or even a waffle maker.

Linked to Good Cheap Eats Sandwich Contest If you think this sandwich recipe looks awesome then please vote for me.

1.  Dig a Hole

2.  Plant Tomato

That’s how I have been doing it for years, until last year when I bought my plants at a Farmers Market and I was taught a new way.  I called to confirm with my dad and he agreed.  Still not sure why he was holding out on me all these years.

Here is the correct way to plant tomatoes.

1.  Take your perfectly good tomato plant out of the container.

2.  Cut off all the leaves, stems whatever you would like to call them all the way to the top.

3.  Once you have a Charlie Brown tomato plant you are ready to go.

4.  Dig a shallow and long hole because you are going to lay the plant down on it’s side.

5.  The root ball will be in the deepest spot, but the stem of the tomato will be just under the ground.  Cover with dirt.

You may be wondering what my reasoning behind this is.  Or why the farmer told me too.  The roots are close to the surface and get so much more heat and they are easier to water, thus producing tomatoes sooner.

Last year was the first year I did it and it did work wonderfully.  Once the plants grow you have no idea that they were even planted on their sides.

If you have a little plant it cannot be done, only do this with the tall ones.  I had one that had a few flowers and I even saw the start of a tomato.  I didn’t mess with that one, I just plopped it in the ground just the way it was.

I was just glad with all that was happening last weekend that I even had time to get these in the ground.  Getting my garden in that is what I am celebrating this week.

Finer Things in Life

What’s Happening in Your Garden