I read a good number of blogs. I get a LOT of recipe ideas from those blogs, but rarely do I ever make what the other bloggers make. Why not? Usually, I don’t have enough of the ingredients on hand. Additionally, I usually opt to get “staples” instead of fancy ingredients on my weekly grocery trip. Being on a tight grocery budget isn’t necessarily fun, but this week, some of my favorite bloggers posted delicious and economical eats! If you don’t care about recipes, scroll down to the bottom of the post for some silly zucchini squash pictures!

First up- “Roasted Pesto Potatoes” from Chelsey at Clean Eating Chelsey

Chelsey posted this recipe for pesto from another lovely blogger named Jenna at Eat, Live Run- so I clicked on over to Jenna’s site to check it out.

Here’s how we made our pesto:

Basil Pesto

Ingredients

• Big bunch of basil- about 1 cup, packed
• 2 garlic cloves (mmmm stinky!)
• 2 TBSP white miso (check out Jenna’s post for why miso makes this GREAT!)
• 3 “parsley ice cubes” (which I think equals like 1 full tablespoon of chopped parsley)
• 2 TBSP nutritional yeast

Directions

Put everything into a food processor and let it whir! Scrape down the sides as needed, add water as needed until you get the desired thickness!

I then followed Chelsey’s directions for roasting the potatoes- here’s our final product!

Another one of my favorite bloggers is Mama Pea over at Peas and Thank You. Mama Pea is always whipping up super healthy meals for her husband and two ADORABLE girls. Just to show you a glimpse of the “Pea-family”- here is one of the girls, Lulu singing “BAH BAH PICKLE”. (it’s the second video- although the first video is wonderful as well!)

Mama Pea has a recipe series called “Recipe Makeover” where she remakes a recipe that a reader requests! This week’s recipe? A remake of Trader Joe’s Spicy Black Bean Dip.

Click on over to see all of the step-by-step instructions- here’s what our version looked like (I seriously need some better blogging plates/bowls…)

I’ve got a few other recipes up my sleeve for this week (Cooper Originals!), but we’ll see how they actually turn out.

We’ve had a bit of “zucchini overload” this summer. I love zucchini, but we just can’t manage to eat EVERY veggie that comes off of that plant! Enter- OPERATION FREEZE:

Then, I found ANOTHER gigantic zucchini in the garden, and tried to convince Silas to pose with it for a photo- I didn’t have much luck.

And THEN, after a hot and sweaty Run on Saturday night, I found this giant (and proceeded to take self-timed photos using the garbage can as my stand):

…. and we’ll be eating zucchini all week….

Sorry we’ve been MIA lately. Life is busy. Daniel is taking 2 summer classes (an entire semester condensed to 8 weeks or so=LOTS of work). I’ve been busy working at the gym and hanging out with the triplets. I do have something rather exciting to share though!

For the past few months, I’ve been helping Martin Stein, CEO and President of UturnUptick Consulting, put together an eBook chock full of tips and ideas for successful business. After MANY revisions, cover designs, edits and e-mails, I am proud to say that Martin’s book, 99 Creative Ideas for Successful Prospecting is now available on Kindle, Nook and iBookstore! Martin (or Marty, as I know him) has been in the business world for over 30 years, and this book is his compilation of ideas, tips and advice pertaining to the world of prospecting.

Not sure what prospecting is? I had no idea either when I first started work on this project. To make a sale, you need a customer, right? Well, in order to find potential customers, you’ve got to get your name/business out there! This eBook is all about getting in front of the right people so that you can successfully sell your ideas, products or services. It’s more than just sales, it’s about making personal connections with people, and becoming the best that you can be! If you have any interest whatsoever, please, PLEASE check out this book! (Note: right now I only have the active link to the Amazon listing, but I’ll put up the Barnes&Noble (Nook) and iBookstore links soon!)

We’ve also experienced an abundant amount of zucchini from our garden, and this weekend, I felt the urge to make a delicious dip to eat with the tender, young squash.

I landed on a hummus recipe, and got to work. I decided to make my own tahini (sesame seed “butter”), and I think this hummus really shines because of that little extra step. And guess what? I made about 3/4 c. of tahini, and it cost $0.78 (plus whatever a drizzle of oil costs). But seriously, tahini for under $1? (If you go to the grocery, in the Mediterranean aisle, a 2.5 c. jar of tahini costs like $6)

Homemade Tahini

1. (optional) Toast your sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring often until the seeds are slightly toasty and the scent of sesame fills your kitchen (although this is optional, I would HIGHLY recommend this step!)
2. Grind 1 c. sesame seeds (hulled or unhulled) in your coffee grinder until the seeds are pulverized into a fine powder.
3. Transfer the sesame powder to a bowl and slowly drizzle in olive oil until you get the desired consistency.

Homemade Hummus

(slightly adapted from this original recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 cans chickpeas, drained (save the liquid from 1 can of chickpeas)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced finely (I used jarred, sue me)
• 4-6 TBSP lemon juice (to taste)
• 4 TBSP homemade tahini
• 1-2 tsp salt (to taste)
• 3 TBSP olive oil
• black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Add chickpeas, garlic, 4 TBSP lemon juice, tahini, 1 tsp. salt and 3 TBSP olive oil to food processor. Blend until smooth.
2. Add in the liquid from the chickpeas to get your hummus to the desired consistiency.
3. Add in extra lemon juice, salt or black pepper as desired.
4. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of paprika for a colorful pop!

Another frittata recipe (yes, those are all links to 3 other frittata recipes). I know, I know. Boring, redundant, not exciting. Would you rather hear about my poison ivy? I could post some gross pictures, or I could tell you about all of the calamine lotion I’ve been dabbing on. Not fun. Somehow I had made it 23 years without ever getting poison ivy, and then when we went to the Gorge 2 weeks ago, things changed. Oh well. Maybe I’ll get lucky enough to go another 23 years without another splotchy red patch. My fingers are crossed.

I can tell you about something awesome that I did with my sis last night- Maggie got her first tattoo! Our cousin, Anthony Hall is an AWESOME tattoo artist. So, if you’re here in Lexington and need some ink, I’ll gladly give you his number! Here is a link to his profile- Reigning Ink. And here is my baby sister getting her first tattoo!

The flower is actually a Paw-paw flower. Our wonderful grandfather, whom we lovingly called Pawpaw passed away almost a decade ago. Maggie searched for a flower that she liked online, and amazingly enough, the one she liked happened to be the Pawpaw flower- how cool is that? Here’s a great post that Maggie did about the significance of the phrase “Breathe the world in” (which is also the title of her blog!)

Another fun fact before I bore you to death with a frittata recipe- I have a tattoo as well! I got my first (and only, for now) tattoo from Anthony as well back in 2009. It’s done with UV ink, so it’s pretty much invisible in plain light. BUT, when you put it under a black light, it GLOWS! (I haven’t even told my parents, Hi Mom, Hi Dad! See, Maggie isn’t too rebellious!)

It’s on the inside of my right calf. The phrase says “I surrender my life”, written in Hebrew. After seeing Maggie get her AWESOME tattoo, it really makes me want another, so I’ll definitely be thinking long about my next piece.

Daniel has a tattoo too, but for whatever reason, I cannot find a good picture of it! I’ll post it as soon as I can snap a pic!

Onto the recipe!

Squash Blossom Frittata

Ingredients

•   4 whole eggs (or 3 eggs and 2 whites)
•   3 small zucchini (from the garden)
•   5-7 squash blossom flowers (from the garden)
•   1/4 c. milk
•   1/2 pint mushrooms (about 10)
•   2 tsp. butter
•   Fresh Parsley and Chives, chopped (1 TBSP total)
•   Salt and Pepper

Directions

• Preheat broiler
• Chop your veggies- thinly slice mushrooms and zucchini. Chop your squash blossoms (after removing the centers (aka the stamen and pistil (the part with all of the pollen))

• Melt butter in a skillet with a metal handle (or put 2 layers of foil around a plastic handle)
• Sauté mushrooms until brown, add sliced zucchini and cook until they are tender (add a little bit of salt to season your veggies)
• Add your chopped squash blossoms and sauté just until the blossoms are warmed
• Pour in egg mixture and LEAVE IT ALONE! (make sure your veggies are distributed in the pan before adding your eggs)
• Let mixture cook on the stovetop for 3-5 minutes, or until the center is starting to set
• Put your pan into the broiler for 3-5 minutes so that the eggs set and the top gets lightly browned and puffed

To be honest, you can’t taste the squash blossoms at all. This would have been REALLY good with some sharp (asiago or parmesan) cheese, but we didn’t have any. A creative recipe indeed, but you really won’t know that there’s a strange ingredient in there!