I cooked with meat! And modified a recipe to be vegetarian! Yay!

Summer is over. Yep, I'm going back to work and I don't want to end my culinary adventures from the summer! I decided I'd make some freezer meals and I also bought a freezer so I can freeze meals to easily reheat on those days that I have meetings that go late - which are endless!

There is a great cooking message board over on thenest.com, and freezer meals are a common thread topic. I found this recipe from a great blog and decided I'd make it - with a twist!

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't eat meat. And I never will. But I've been wanting to cook more with it for my husband's sake, though he never complains. This seemed like a great start because it had veggies in it too. But not only he was going to get the yummy benefits!! I decided to alter the recipe and make a vegetarian version too.

Dinner straight from the garden!

 I'm harvesting a lot of fresh veggies from the garden this week. It's the best feeling to eat food that I picked an hour before! This year, I'm growing beans for the first time, thanks to my father in law building me an awesome trellis! I've eaten several but um... they usually don't make it inside! I have been letting up and picked these bad boys for dinner.

Because of how the trellis is, some grow inside of it and are hard to see, so grow HUGE!

Yes, you're reading that right. If I stretched it out it would be a foot long!!

The other thing that I have A LOT of is zucchini. They get big fast so I had a couple huge ones to use. I have bookmarked several zucchini recipes, but one that I've wanted to try for awhile is zucchini pancakes. This was the day. I love potato pancakes and zucchini ones sound a lot healthier! Now, to shred zucchini you can either do it by hand, or you can have a cool gadget to do it for you. I chose option B. I have the best attachment ever for my Kitchenaid mixer, the slicer/shredder. All you do it cut the zucchini into smaller pieces, get rid of the seeds, and put it in the slot and it shreds it for you!

Viola!

Then I mixed in some panko breadcrumbs- these ones were "Italian" style, and very tasty. I also mixed in garlic, dried oregano, shallot, parmesan cheese and 2 egg whites to keep it together.

I made the patties and put them in a little olive oil - not too much, didn't want to deep fry them! I tried them in the oven too but they didn't get the crispy edges and were more like burgers - fell apart.

Dinner is ready!

The best seasonal dessert ever!

It's one of my favorite times of year - peach season!

Peaches in season are unmatched in flavor. And we are lucky enough in St. Louis to have wonderful local peaches that you can find at any farmer's market! You can even buy local peaches at Schnuck's. Or, go peach picking at Eckert's!

One of my favorite desserts is my mom's peach crisp. Peach crisp is basically peaches with a crumble topping. I ask for this pretty much every year for my birthday instead of cake. This year, I tried it myself and we've had a steady supply of it! Everyone who has tried it is a fan. Here's how to do it:

1. First, you need to buy PEACHES! The amount really depends on how big they are. So prepare how many you think you'll need and you can always add more. Just buy a lot and eat whatever remains!

2. Peel and slice the peaches thin. Peeling is so easy! All you do is boil a pot of water and drop the peaches in. Leave them in for about 5 minutes (or longer - I usually leave them in while I peel one, then get another out). I take them out with a ladle and then dip them in cold water. The peel literally falls off. Then slice! This is a great recipe for over ripe peaches too - they work really well.

3. Slice enough so your pan is filled to about 2-3" from the top and fill up. This recipe is for a square 8x8 glass baking dish. I have also doubled the recipe and made it in a 9x13. You can't have too much crumble topping!

4. Mix in 1/4 cup sugar and 3 tbsp flour with the peaches.

5. To make the crumble topping, put following in a bowl and mix - my Kitchenaid works perfectly for this. Mix until it has a crumbly texture.

- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup flour
- 1/2 cup oats
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3/4 cup (stick) of cold but slightly softened butter

6. Spoon mixed topping over peaches.

7. Bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes.

Word of wisdom: The peaches can get a little bubbly, so if you filled your pan to the top, you might want to put a cookie sheet with foil under the pan in case it bubbles over, because it can be a sticky mess!

Serve warm or cold with ice cream or without. YUM!