Cooking Light: The Summer Squash Episode

We made spaghetti this week. You would think...oooh. Big deal. Right?

Well THIS spaghetti was actually made with Homemade Marinara Sauce. Yup. Tomatoes from our garden made this blissful sauce, and while I will ALWAYS love the sauce I grew up on (with good old trust McCormick's spaghetti sauce seasoning packet), I have to admit this sauce was quite amazing.

And I'm sure you are thinking, that's a great shot of summer squash but where is the spaghetti? Well, here's the deal. Remember this craziness?

Well, I finally had to put my foot down and say: NO MORE baked goods out of zucchini. One can only consume so much zucchini cake, zucchini bread, and chocolate chip zucchini muffins until one must purchase a larger size of pants.

And so we got creative. How to use a never ending supply of summer squash and zucchini? Well, the above photo shows one of my personal favorite uses: Smothered in Balsamic, Basic and Parmesan Cheese. Yummmmm.

The reality is we started simple. How about a little Zuke and Squash saute? Or, a little marinated grill action?

And then we started to get bored with that. So we move onto a Almond and Zucchini Orzo salad.

It was good. Decent really. But didn't hold our interest.

And so we moved onto Spicy Summer Squash Soup.

Yup. Soup in the middle of summer.

But you know what this one was REALLY good, especially with some avocado and cilatro.

One that will have a repeat performance this weekend.

Then, we tried to get fancy.

Carrot, Zucchini, and Summer Squash stuffed Chicken breasts.

I was a little weirded out by this one, mostly because it was a weird cooking method that I can't even remember right now. But trust me. It was weird.

Keeping with the theme of complicated, we also tried a Summer Squash and Potato Torte.

Very. Good.

And GREAT leftovers. Arguably better.

But quite an involved process to make (or so I heard since Nate completed this one all by himself while I was out at a movie!)

And so we went back to the basics, but added a twist.

This one was a Greta-creation, and was quite tasty if I do say so myself. I've got no fancy name for it, but all it was was corn on the cob cut off, squash (of course), red pepper, lime juice, cilantro, and some fiesta lime salt.

And the latest and greatest (although I am sure not the last) of our squash adventure was a

Zucchini and Summer Squash Quinoa that had amazing spices that ramped up the taste.

And so the summer squash saga continues, because it keeps growing. And i cant' give it away fast enough. It is sad when the biggest accomplishment of the week is finding a recipe that uses BOTH zucchini and summer squash (SUPER MAJOR DOUBLE BONUS SCORE!).

So if I've talked to you in the last 2 week and told you that I'm not doing anything. It's not true. I've been cooking, and eating a LOT of squash. Lots and lots and lots.......