Kiddo/Adult Recipe: Baked Zucchini Sticks

Are you ready for the easiest little recipe ever? This is a side dish/snack our whole family loves, but one that Henry especially enjoys thanks to my Mom, who originally introduced it to us!  These baked zucchini sticks take 5-10 minutes to prepare, 25 minutes or so to bake, and one second to eat! But really, Henry scarfs these things down. You can also make a healthy dip to use with them, or eat them on their own.

Here's what you need:

Zucchini
2 egg whites (for a vegan option try using non-dairy milk to bread)
Panko bread crumbs (here are the kind we use - click through to see their GF options also)



Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350. Peel the zucchini and cut into small strips, about the size of a french fry. You can make them thinner to get more of a crispy strip, or thicker for a juicier one.



2. Dip each slice into egg white, then cover with bread crumbs. If you're feeling adventurous, feel free to add some spice to the bread crumbs too!



3. Place the strips on a baking sheet (I prefer to use parchment paper for easy clean up) and bake for about 25 minutes at 350. Your cooking time may vary, but just look for the edges of the strips to get slightly brown and crispy looking.



4. Enjoy!

 
See more of my Kiddo/Adult meal and snack ideas here.

Kiddo/Adult Recipe: Veggie Baked Ziti

This week I'm sharing with you a "Hawthorne girl" tradition- a dish that is always present during holidays and the dish that stands for the vegetarian substitute for Hank on any given Sunday at my Mom's. "Oh, we're having steak? Don't worry, we have a ziti in the oven."

Over the past eight years I've inched away from being vegan, Hank has remained vegetarian, and my Mom and sister have gone that route also, with all of them dabbling in long stints of veganism. So these days it's really just my Dad, brother-in-law, Grandma and myself who will eat any meat during dinner. Because of that my Mom always has a meat-free item available, and many times you can count on it being some variation of ziti. Luckily Henry loves it too, so it's been a quick all-in-one dinner idea for us that doesn't take long to prepare at all.

The best part about this dish is that it is completely open for interpretation, much like my quiche recipe- and it's VERY easy to make...and easy to hide veggies in it too, for your picky eaters. 

What you'll need:

*I don't really use exact measurements when I cook a recipe from memory so hopefully this still makes sense.

1 box/bag of penne pasta
1 jar of tomato sauce
2 lb. container of ricotta cheese
mozzarella cheese
veggies of your choice - I used frozen spinach, peppers, and broccoli
oregano/basil for seasoning



Directions:

1. Preheat your over to 350. Boil your pasta in a large pot. While your pasta is cooking, spread a thin layer of ricotta cheese on the bottom of your ziti tray or pan. Add a nice dollop of tomato sauce on top and mix it up a little. This will be your bottom layer.



2. Cut up all veggies. You can add them to your ziti raw like we did, or sautee them beforehand with some olive oil. I prefer a little crunch so I just throw them in there raw. You can also add frozen veggies straight into the ziti, like I did with the frozen spinach.



3. Get your pasta off the stove, drain, and get ready to LAYER!




4. There isn't a wrong way to do this, as long as you make sure to have a bottom ricotta/sauce layer and at least two layers of noodles. First add a layer of noodles on top of the bottom cheese/sauce layer. Then add some more sauce, top with some veggies, and then some mozzarella cheese. Then add more noodles, some ricotta cheese and tomato sauce, more veggies, and mozzarella cheese again. If you have room and want to go for a third layer, do it! The more layers, the more delicious it is, but just be sure to end with a layer of mozzarella and sprinkle some basil and oregano on top.



5. Pop your layered beauty into the oven and cook for about 45 minutes at 350 degree, or until you see the insides beginning to bubble up. I love the cheese on the top to get a little brown, but if you're not into that sort of thing feel free to cover with tin foil for the first 30 minutes and remove it towards the end.



6. Enjoy! And on a side note, this ziti tastes even better heated up the next day! We actually make a big tray sometimes and enjoy it throughout the week.

Meal-Planning

When we're on top of our game, Hank and I will take Sunday night and plan out what we want to eat for dinner over the next week. This is awesome on so many levels. For one, it makes my weekly food shopping so much more focused and two, it keeps us on the same page. There are so many times when I'll want to make something for dinner only to have Hank come home and tell me he already went out for said food for lunch. This way we're organized, can look forward to delicious meals, and we have a lot of fun cooking together too.  Hank takes leftovers to work, or Henry will have them for his lunch or dinner the next day, so it saves us a lot of money (and time!). 

Below you'll find our plan for this next week. All of the meals are homemade outside of a few of the products that go into the meals. Tonight we'll be traveling and just end up grabbing something random when we get home, so this week is just a four-day plan.

Dinner 1 (Tuesday): Spaghetti and vegetarian meatballs w/semi-homemade sauce and garlic bread/salad
Dinner 2 (Wednesday): Bean, cheese, and veggie burritos w/guacamole
Dinner 3 (Thursday): Brown rice and veggie stirfry
Dinner 4 (Friday): Vegetarian Pot Pies (using Quorn "chicken") w/salad

From here I then break it down to a shopping list based on what we have and what we need after a simple look in the pantry and fridge.  Once you make lists like this for a couple of weeks you become very aware of all of the food you have that you don't use, food you buy that goes to waste, etc. I love the mindfulness meal-planning gives me. Another bonus is that usually a couple of the days will have overlapping items and this saves money too- simply reserve enough of whatever item you'll need again and you can get two or even three meals out of it.  For instance we will use many of the same vegetables in meal one, two, and three, and then again with our salads.

Here's this week's shopping list- things we need for our meals that we don't already have at home. Always be sure to check for available grocery coupons too. 

veggie meatballs (you can also make your own)
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
broccoli
yellow onion
cherry tomatoes
3 avocados
salad greens
block of sharp cheddar
loaf of French bread
tortillas

And that's it! We try to buy organic whenever we can, so most of our shopping is done at our local natural grocer but I'm always sure to check the ads and buy as much as I can on sale.

Do you meal-plan? If not, this is the perfect time to start! If you're interested, my friend Rachel did an informative post on how she meal plans, and it's a great read. I'll also be sharing our meal ideas throughout the week if you guys would like, so let me know if that's something you'd enjoy reading about. We usually don't cook anything super complicated or crazy, but we do keep it very healthy and typically vegan or vegetarian. 

Have a great Monday!