A Week of Menus

I took Miss No-No and my 3yo cousin to see Cars2 last weekend! They loved it! :) To get them "ready", I made these goodie bags for them:

I also added snacks and candy braclets, silly bands, and the key chains that I told them went to Lightning McQueen's car :) I made each thunderbolt out of construction paper and then tied an old key to each one. For the bags, I printed out the picture (from Family Fun Magazine) and then cut it out and put it on the front of each (lunch-sized) paper bag. I put their names on both the key chains and the bags.

I thought that the keys were a great idea - - unfortunately, my little ones didn't understand why they were getting the key to the car and they kept wanting to know where the car was!!! But, they liked everything else in the bags!!!

I really am over-run with zucchini! I think that when my mom planted her zucchini plants, she didn't realize how MUCH zucchini she was going to end up with... And, secretly (shhhhh!), I think that she is pawning it off on me because she doesn't have anyone else who will take it...

Thanks to all your comments last week about what YOU do with extra zucchini! :)

This is what we are eating this week:

Monday
Zuke Boats
Spinach Salad
Brown Rice (or Couscous)

Tuesday
Baked Tofu
Zucchini "pasta"
Garlic Bread

Wednesday
Cuke Rounds with "Tuna" salad topping
Couscous

Thursday
Garden Burgers
Zucchini Slaw

Friday
Left over Bonanza
Make-your-own Salad

Saturday
Out for dinner

Sunday
Pasta Dinner
Salad
Rosemary Foccacia

Notes:

1. Zucchini (Zuke) Boats were something that I was going to make last week, but never got around to....So we will be having it this week! I pre-cooked the zuke shells / boats and the filling. When it's time to make dinner, I will pull everything out of the fridge, stuff the shells, put breadcrumbs on top and toast in the oven for about 10 mins, take out add (vegan) cheese and cook for another 5 - 10 minutes - and - waalaaa! dinner's done!

2. Baked Tofu: easy recipe! I cooked the tofu right after I took the zukes out of the oven and let them go for about 45 minutes (while I got the dinner we were eating last night served up and eaten), so that's ready for dinner on Tuesday. When I am ready to make dinner, I will pull that out of the fridge, put it under the broiler on low to heat up while I make the couscous. For the zuke pasta: I will use a spiralizer (or you could use a mandolin or veggie peeler) to make long pasta-like shapes and will put that on a baking sheet in the oven (with the tofu) to dry it out a little bit. You can top with (vegan) butter and some salt and pepper and maybe a little (vegan) cheese - or you can hide the "noodles" with tomato sauce. After the pasta dries out in the oven, it has more of a chewy, pasta-like consistency.

3. Cuke Rounds are like little appetizers at a fancy party. Cut the cukes into slices about 1/4" - 1/2" thick and using a sharp knife, take out a little section around the seeds (just pull out a little to make a depression - or you could cut all the way through, but leave the round intact - it's like a plate for the "tuna" salad). For the "tuna" salad: Take garbanzo beans (if canned, remove from can and rinse), put beans in a microwave safe bowl, cover with water and heat on 70% power for approximately 90 seconds. The beans should be very soft. Using either a knife or food processor, finely chop beans until they resemble tuna flakes. Add in some diced celery, some (vegan) mayo, a little bit of mustard, some salt and pepper to taste, a pinch or two of dried dill, and (optional) some kelp or dulse flakes (sold at Whole Foods or another health food store; this will give the "tuna" a more fishy taste). Mix to desired consistency and, using a teaspoon, mound a bit on top of each cuke round. It's perfect finger food for little ones!!

Thanks to everyone who left comments last week about what they do with extra zucchini!! I had been thinking about using the zukes to make "fake apple" muffins (subbing in zukes for apples), however two people suggested that I use extra zucchini to make chocolate brownies or zucchini chocolate cake!!! What?!?!??! I never thought of that, but you know now I.have.to.try.it!!! It sounds like a delicious, HEALTHY indulgence. And, for the sake of my readers, I will happily be your guinea pig and try it out and let you know how it is. It will be hard for me to suffer through baking and TASTING chocolate muffins and chocolate cake, but I will do it for you all. :) Overall, this makes me glad that I didn't use a lot of the zukes this weekend to make zucchini bread - which was my original intention but I ran out of time to make them last night.
Someone else suggested grilling the zukes - which I ended up doing on Friday night and putting over salad. MMMMMmmmmmm.

Thanks guys for your comments, keep 'em coming!!

I am hoping to link up to some of these parties this week :)

Happy Eating!

More later! :)

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