Ratatouille Egg Bake

I absolutely love our CSA.  We got fresh eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash this week.  There is only one thing that comes to mind when hearing those ingredients... Ratatouille!! I love ratatouille!  It reminds me so much of Paris, even though we never had it while we were there.  Maybe it's from the movie.  I made ratatouille for the first time after watching the movie with the cute little mouse and it was so delicious! Nick didn't really care that much for it because he was still hungry afterwards.  So this time, I added an egg and served with homemade focaccia bread.  It was very filling and healthy and delicious.  I love the addition of the egg.  It really adds a lot.  Enjoy!

Ratatouille Egg Bake
Serves: 3

Ingredients:
1 eggplant, cubed
1 zuchini, cubed
1 yellow squash, cubed
1 red pepper, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1 tbsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste
3 eggs

Directions:
Chop eggplant and toss with a tablespoon of salt.  Let drain for 30 minutes. Rinse well, squeezing out excess water.  Pat dry and set aside
Meanwhile, add oil to a large skillet and place over medium heat.  Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally.  Add eggplant, zucchini, squash, oregano and salt and pepper.  Cover skillet and cook to soften vegetables, about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and 1/4 cup of basil.  Cover and simmer until tomatoes are softened and flavors are concentrated.  
Make nests in the ratatouille and crack an egg into each nest.  Cover pot and cook eggs to desired doneness, 2-5 minutes.  Enjoy!

Chicken Stuffed Avocado Salad

This a perfect meal on a hot summers day.  It's filling, fast, and healthy and you don't have to heat the house! It's a super easy meal and looks really fancy too. 

Chicken Stuffed Avocado Salad

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1 avocado, pealed, cored, and sliced in half

1 chicken breast, seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

2 tablespoons salsa (make your own fresh salsa here)

1 tsp. cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Salad fixings such as lettuce, red pepper, corn, tomato and red onions. 

Directions:

Shred the grilled chicken and mix with yogurt and salsa and add cumin and salt and pepper to taste. Mix until well blended.  Top each avocado half with the chicken and serve over the salad fixings of your choice.  Enjoy!! 

Fresh Salsa

Our garden literally has millions of tomatoes.  That is not even an exaggeration... maybe a little.  I love having great organic fresh tomatoes always on hand though.  And there is nothing better than fresh salsa to make with all those tomatoes.  This is the second big vat of salsa we've made in 2 weeks.  You can eat it on anything! Chicken, tortilla chips, salads... even ice cream... if you're daring.  When I'm making this, I really don't measure or pay attention, but here are estimates of what I put into the salsa.  Just taste and adjust according to your liking.  Enjoy!

Salsa
Makes: 2 cups? (I really don't know... it goes too fast.)

Ingredients:
5 medium sized tomatoes, diced small
1 small red onion, diced small
1 small jalapeno pepper, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 lime, zested and juiced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp sea salt

Directions:
Once you finely chop all of your ingredients, add them to a large mixing bowl and stir.  You can seed some of the tomatoes for a less juicy salsa, but I like the seeds and extra liquid.  Serve with chips... or however you like your salsa! :)

Gluten Free Monster Cookies

This is by far my favorite cookie recipe.  My aunt makes these for our road trips back home and we have them devoured by hour 4.  We pretend they are healthy and eat them at breakfast because they have oats in them.  Beware, once you make these, you won't be able to stop eating them!  Since they are my favorite cookie, I decided to try and make them gluten free by subbing regular flour (original recipe calls for 2 cups of regular flour) for oat flour.  I just took a bunch of gluten free oats and blended them up in our awesome Ninja blender for 20 seconds.  Then measured out 2 1/2 cups.  They were really sticky with only 2 cups, so I added another half.  They turned out really delicious! You didn't even miss the flour.  By far the best gluten free cookie I've ever had.  They were still moist and delicious by day 2 as well.  They didn't turn into hard bricks like most gluten free cookies.  Not sure if they will make it to day 3 though... meaning they will be gone.  Highly recommend this recipe.  It's awesome and I'll make them this way from now on! :)

Gluten Free Monster Cookies
Makes: 48 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter    

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups oat flour (I just grind up gluten free oats in a blender until powdery)

1 cup oats

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups chocolate chips

1/2 cup M&Ms

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, oats, baking soda and salt.  Set aside. 

In another large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, peanut butter, vanilla and eggs. Add in the dry ingredients and mix until blended. Add in the chocolate chips and mix until everything comes together. 

Blob by the tablespoonful onto a baking sheet and flatten.  Add M&M's to the top of the cookie and bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes.  Remove from baking sheet and place on cooling rack.  Enjoy!