Zucchini Pie

This is one of those recipes I found wandering around the Internet one day, printed the recipe and I just found it last week.  If you are like me, you have a pile of papers with all sorts of recipes that you might SOMEDAY try.    I need to go through that pile more often!!

The top of the recipe says "Allrecipes.com" and it was by "IMTHECOOKSTER." As luck would have it, yesterday I was at one of the local farmer's market. One of the vendors had these wonderful zucchini for sale - not too big, but just the perfect size and he made me a deal I couldn't refuse!  So this recipe was meant to be!!  And it is a pretty easy recipe to make, the most work is just chopping up the zucchini and onion.

Zucchini Pie by IAMTHECOOKSTER

Ingredients:

3 cups zucchini, diced
1 onion, chopped
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup buttermilk baking mix (I used bisquick)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp dried marjoram (I didn't have it so I used oregano)
1 tsp dried parsley
pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a large pie plate with Pam or something similar
Using a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients and mix well.
Spread into the prepared pie plate.

Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly brown.

Entire Recipe:

Zucchini Pie by IAMTHECOOKSTER

Ingredients:

3 cups zucchini, diced
1 onion, chopped
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup buttermilk baking mix (I used bisquick)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp dried marjoram (I didn't have it so I used oregano)
1 tsp dried parsley
pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a large pie plate with Pam or something similar
Using a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients and mix well.
Spread into the prepared pie plate.
Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly brown.

Verdict:

I was very surprised by this recipe.  I was expecting to be kind of bland, but it was really very good!  Even, my resident expert (aka, my husband), loved it.  Yep, we have a keeper!  This will definitely be appearing on our kitchen table again!  Thank you IAMTHE COOKSTER for the great recipe!

Chicken Breasts with Mushroom Sauce

I found this recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens Healthy Family Cookbook that my sister-in-law gave to me many years ago when my husband was diagnosed with heart disease.  It is a pretty simple recipe to make and I had most of the ingredients (I did substitute 1 can of mushrooms instead of the fresh mushrooms).

Chicken Breasts with Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients:

3 Skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
1/2 t crushed. dried thyme (I didn't have crushed thyme, just dried thyme leaves)
1 cup fresh mushrooms, chopped (see note above)
4 t cornstarch
1 cup light dairy sour cream
1/4 t ground sage
pepper to taste

Directions:

1, Rinse and pat dry the chickens breasts.  Place chicken in a large skillet and pour in the chicken broth.    Sprinkle each breast with the dry thyme. Bring the chicken broth to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover the skillet and simmer the chicken for about 10 to 12 minutes (so the chicken is no longer pink).

2. Remove the chicken from the skillet and set on a separate plate. For the sauce, add the mushrooms and let simmer while you are preparing the rest of the sauce.  In a small bowl, mix together the sour cream, cornstarch and spices and add to the chicken broth.

3. Cook and stir until the sauce starts to thicken.  Pour over each chicken breast.

I added brown rice and steamed broccoli to complete the meal.

Verdict:

My resident expert, i.e., my husband, loved it.  I thought it was really good for a "lo-cal" meal.  So far I have been really pleased with my "new" diet menus.  We will definitely be seeing this again on our dinner plates.

Turkey Meatballs and Whole Wheat Spaghetti

What better place to start losing weight with than Weight Watchers!  This is a slightly modified Weight Watchers recipe since I haven't had a chance to start completely changing over all my "menus."  This is just my first attempt and please don't take anything I post up as "gospel."  I have had very limited instructions as what to do with my current diagnosis, so I am just feeling my way.  I am going to try to stick with the American Diabetes Association recommendations as much as possible - i.e., limited red meats, limited amounts of sugar, etc.

So I bought the cookbook, Weight Watcher's 50th Anniversary Cookbook.  I thought this would be a good place to start.

This recipe is pretty easy to make and is not entirely "lo-cal" as I did not have "low-fat" Parmesan  cheese or low-cal spaghetti sauce.   Sometimes you just have to make due with what you have in the refrigerator (and, of course, my husband wanted garlic bread with his spaghetti).

Turkey Meatballs by Weight Watchers

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey
4 T bread crumbs
1 large egg (I know Weight Watchers says egg whites)
2 T parsley

Directions:

Mix all 4 ingredients together.  I used my pastry cutter (works great!!!)
Shape into meatballs.
Sprinkle a skillet with vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
Cook the meatballs until browned.

Add your favorite spaghetti sauce to the meatballs and simmer.

Prepare the spaghetti according to the package instructions.

ENJOY!!

Verdict:

My husband said he loved it. If I hadn't told him the meatballs were made out of turkey, he would have never guessed (I think he was being nice). It was good.  I think next time, I might add a little grated onion to the meatballs, otherwise they were pretty good. 

A Wake Up Call!

No, this wasn't ONE of THOSE calls in the middle of the night.  This was one of THOSE "calls"  from your doctor about the latest results of your blood tests.  I have known for the last year and a half that I have chronic kidney disease very early stage 2.  And supposedly, I am on medication that will, hopefully, slow down the progression of the disease.

The last blood tests results showed those numbers were slightly elevated.  The doctor didn't seem too concerned about those.  The other blood test, showed that I am "prediabetic" - in other words, at a very high risk of developing diabetes.  Hmm, hadn't planned on that!!

She, the doctor, assured me that we shouldn't jump the gun just yet.  Hopefully, with a few lifestyle changes, we can stop this.  I must try to eliminate as much sugar from my diet as possible and, she suggested, that I should try to lose some weight, 5 to 10 pounds.

So from now on, look to see more "healthier" recipes on the blog.  I have thought about writing about my journey.  We'll see.