I’m having a wonderful food day.
After a brief lull, my zucchini plants caught their second wind and provided me with another batch of monster veggies. My kitchen counter has a police lineup of 5 large zucchini. I have been staring at them for a few days, quite dispirited. I was wondering about the Plant a Row for the Hungry program that gives extra veggies to food pantries but no pantries around here will take perishable food.
By coincidence I just started reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It is a non-fiction book about a year when her family made a commitment to eat locally and grow most of their own food. It is inspiring. Maybe too inspiring because I want to grow a bigger garden next year (still only two zucchini plants). I even for a few pages thought owning water buffalo sounded like a good idea. I wised up. But it inspired me to do something with the zucchini.
I made “lasagnas”. Each one was made in a loaf pan so it will be 1 – 2 servings. I put aluminum foil in the pan and then layered zucchini and filling. Then I pulled it out of the pan, wrapped it in another layer of foil, labeled it, and put it in a bag in the freezer. I made 2 Mexican-type with zucchini ribbons, beans, salsa jack cheese, and salsa; 1 with zucchini ribbons, mushrooms, and alfredo sauce; and 2 Italian-style with cottage cheese, mozzerella, and basil. That’s 5 personal meals all ready to go. The bad news – I made all that out of one zucchini. There are four left!
The husband and I also met for lunch at a local Greek restaurant today that we had never visited. I had a great Greek salad. It was gigantic (I’m finishing it for dinner now) and has such good tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives on it that it doesn’t need dressing. That’s my favorite type of salad.
I do eat cheese and ice cream. I always said I couldn’t be vegan because it would mean giving up brownie sundaes. I don’t eat a lot of eggs and I usually bake without them. That’s mainly because I don’t need them enough to be able to use a whole dozen when they are fresh. I’ll only use them if they are free range from a local farm. I don’t drink milk because I don’t do lactose well so I’ve moved to soy milk for everything I cook at home.
Oh man, I understand your pain. I planted almost 30 zucchini plants this summer in my garden. I had never planted a garden before, so I didn’t realize just how much zucchini I would have. Currently, I have frozen enough zucchini to eat it at least once a week until next summer. I tried freezing slices because a website said that would work. We will see how it tastes when I cook it later. I also grated a lot to freeze for zucchini bread.
At least people like zucchini, so I have been able to give most of it away. I wish people liked yellow squash and cucumbers as much.
Man. I’m bummed hearing about folks who got a haul of zukes this year. I didn’t get a single one. *sigh* I’d take 2 of them off your hands, if I could. Shred some for zucchini bread later in the winter!!! That’s always a yummy breakfast (esp. when slathered with cream-cheese)!
I’m curious. I know you’re a vegetarian, but I’m wondering if you simply draw the line at meat, or do you also exclude eggs & dairy from your diet??? Just wondering. (Though, from looking at what you put in your zucchini lasagnas, I’m seeing that you DO eat dairy, at least sometimes.)