Fall Garden recipes!

It's been a long time since I posted on here, but I've had a busy summer! I've been working my ass off (both at work and at the gym!!!), traveling back to MN a couple times for a family reunion and a friend's wedding, gone to a conference, and most importantly, been gardening! I'm going to make an effort on Sunday mornings to go to my fave coffee shop and write a blog post (except next Sunday since I will be in NYC!)
Now that harvesting season is upon us, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite recipes that I have used with my bounty from the garden.

Bruschetta: makes good with all of the tomatoes and basil from my garden and so easy to make and so delicious!

Ingredients:
About 10 ripe Roma tomatoes or 5 celebrity type tomatoes, minced
1 cup of fresh torn basil
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
Fresh mozzerella ball, cubed into like 1/4" squares
2 tbsp Olive oil
1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 loaf of French baguette

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice French baguette into about 1" slices and arrange on a cookie sheet. Brush the top of the slices with olive oil. Bake for about 8 minutes or until the crusts of the bread are golden brown.
2) In a separate glass bowl, mix together the tomatoes, basil, black pepper, salt, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and garlic. Put in the refrigerator for an hour or so to cool down.
3) When you are ready to serve, put about a wooden spoonful on one of the fresh baguette slices.

Carb friendly alternative! Caprese salad: Take a slice of tomato, a slice of fresh mozzerella, a basil leaf, and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Green tomatillo salsa: Really easy to make! I planted two tomatillo plants in my garden and have been supplied with an endless supply of them! I made this delicious salsa a few weeks ago with everything from my garden. I got the recipe from Cookography.com

Ingredients: 
3/4 lbs tomatillo, peeled, washed and halved (remove the stem area if it is large) 
1/2 small onion, diced 
1/3 cup of cilantro, stems removed, minced 
1/2 lime, zested and juiced 
2 jalapenos and serranos, halved, stem and seeds removed
1/4 tsp sugar 
1/2 tsp salt 
1 clove of garlic, minced or pressed

Directions: 
1) Heat the broiler to high. Place the tomatillo and jalapeno halves skin side up on a foil-lined baking sheet. Broil for about 4 minutes or until the skins of some of the tomatillos and jalapenos have blistered and browned. 
2) Place everything in a blender and blend until smooth with only a few chunks remaining. 
3) Chill the salsa and enjoy with chips, tortillas, etc!

Zucchini chocolate chip cookies: I made the mistake of planting two zucchini plants in my garden and ended up with more zucchini than one person should have in their lifetime. One of my friends brought these cookies into work and they were amazing! Zucchini-Oat dark chocolate cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (1 medium)

1 cup quick oats

10 oz mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease baking sheets.
2) Combine flour, cinnamon and baking soda in small bowl. Beat butter, sugar in large mixer bowl until well combined. Add egg and vanilla extract, beat well. Add zucchini; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats, nuts and morsels. Drop by rounded teaspoon 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets.
3)Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until light golden brown around edges. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature.

Pumpkin chocolate chip “cakies”: I received this recipe from a co-worker of mine at Mayo. They are so delicious! I call them cakies because they have a fluffy texture to them and are more cakelike than like cookies. I wanted to use pumpkin from my garden to make these, but my “pumpkin” plants turned out to be 4 more summer squash plants!

Ingredients:

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup vegetable oil

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp milk

1 tbsp vanilla

2 cups chocolate chips

½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350.

2) Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and stir well.

3) Add vanilla, chocolate chips, and nuts.

4) Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

I hope you enjoy all the recipes!