Recipes We've been Making Lately

By the end of summer I'm usually struggling with new and creative ways to eat all the veggies we get in our CSA boxes. My boys aren't the greatest about eating their veggies so I'm always looking for new ways to sneak veggies into our diet. 

In putting this post together I found it rather ironic that nearly all of the recipes included cheese of some kind since I really try to limit our diary/cheese. We honestly eat cheese less than once a week but for whatever reason most new recipes we tried these past few months were quite cheese and dairy heavy.  

I made these eggplant meatballs to go with our spaghetti and homemade marinara one night. I roasted the eggplant in the oven along with the garlic and 1/2 an onion (diced). Then I followed the rest of the recipe as is. Again my family surprised me by eating them all (the recipe only made a dozen or so). Next time I'd like to try swapping out the cheese with some form of ground meat since we're trying so hard to get away from dairy. But man, it's tough! 

I did flip them 1/2 way through baking to get them browned on both sides

We tried this zucchini casserole with sour cream; I didn't have the heavy cream so I used the 1 cup of sour cream the recipe suggested as a substitution. I also used some form of cheddar/ jack cheese in place of the Gruyere cheese. It was really good but it did get quite watery so I drained it before serving (just held some foil over it leaving one corner unsealed).  No one but my husband and I ate this one which is what I suspected would happen. 

I tried out this French Onion Soup Pasta one night and it was a big hit with the whole family. I used almond milk in place of the evaporated milk and used a bit more cornstarch to help thicken up the sauce. 

 

I made these ground turkey stuffed bell peppers one night since I had lots of farm fresh peppers to use up. I did omit the cheese and subbed out a giant, very juicy, orange tomato for the tomato sauce. They were delicious! 

I made this eggplant Parmesan casserole for dinner one night using a very large eggplant I got in our CSA box. I omitted the fresh basil though since I had used a basil heavy marinara/ tomato sauce. It was delicious and a huge hit with most of the family. 

Evan spied these Biscoff cheesecake cupcakes on my Pinterest board and asked if he could have them for his birthday. While I had a hard time finding ingredients nearby I did manage to make them. I followed the recipe as closely as I could but did end up subbing out the cookie butter whipped cream with our family's favorite sweetened whipped cream recipe (though I had lots of problem with my dispenser!). They were delicious. 

 

I made this raspberry vinaigrette; only when I went to measure out my homemade raspberry jam I realized it was strawberry so we had strawberry vinaigrette instead. It was so good and so easy with only 4 ingredients.  

We made this crispy porgy fish recipe for dinner one night; like my oldest says you can never go wrong with frying! It was so yummy.

 

This maple roasted butternut squash was so good! I didn't have pecans or craisins though so I made a few substitutions. I used walnuts and apple chunks instead. The apple look like they melted into mush.. but oh man it tasted SO good!

 

I made a cookie cake for my husband's birthday following this recipe; though I had to use a 9.5" pie plate since I don't have a cookie cake pan. I just cooked it for 4 extra minutes; checking it each 2 minutes to make sure I didn't over bake it. 

 

Lining up with: Thinking Out Loud,