I’m still amazed when we go to the grocery store and find we spend a lot of our time in the produce section. A year ago that was not the case, but since we starting focusing on eating more light, healthy meals that’s naturally where we’ve gravitated.
On Monday, dinner was all about zucchini. Just a few short months ago my husband wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pool – no way, no how. Unfortunately, my son still won’t eat it, but we make do and hopefully he’ll come around.
I had planned for us to have this Mediterranean Baked Fish with Olives & Artichokes dish from the Kraft Foods website for dinner that night. This was the dish that kicked off my new-found love for cooking. It couldn’t possibly be any easier to make and rates a 3 out of 4 in our family. Don’t be fooled by the photo on the Kraft website. Although I forgot to take a picture of our finished product, it looks nothing like their photo. It’s basically a big jumbled mess of fish, feta cheese, tomatoes, olives and zucchini. It’s not pretty but it sure is good.
Personal notes on this recipe:
- If you don’t like olives, don’t sweat it. Neither do I, but it’s easy to eat around them and the flavor doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the dish at all.
- If you can’t find the Lemon, Garlic & Oregano flavored feta cheese just use whatever crumbled feta you can find. We’ve used plain as well as other flavors. It still tastes great. You can always add the same flavors with fresh ingredients.
- I find it hard to find pitted kalamata olives. My husband prefers the flavor of the kalamata olives even if they have pits in them. You could also substitute for other olives or pit them yourself, which is wear I draw the line.
I also discovered a new cooking site on Monday called Smitten Kitchen and the first recipe that came up was this Zucchini and Almond Pasta. It sounded delicious in this hot weather so I decided to make it too. It only ranked a 2 out of 4 with my family. Nicholas of course wouldn’t eat the zucchini. Emily doesn’t count this week because she’s been sick so hasn’t eaten even some of her favorite foods. It was super easy and, although not great for dinner, would be perfect for a light lunch. I also had it for lunch the next day and it was still good.
Just one personal note on this one… be sure to let the zucchini sit in the strainer for 20 minutes like the recipe says. I didn’t because I didn’t see the point. That is until after I’d finished making it when I immediately realized it’s meant to dry the zucchini so it doesn’t all stick together. Lesson learned. Follow…the…recipe!
Let me know what you think.
Photo courtesy of iLoveButter on Flickr.
