Couscous Casserole

The picture I took for this turned out just awful, so please don't be mad! ;-) This was a very tasty recipe. Adam and I both agreed that it needed more zucchini, and then maybe still served over pasta. Or leave out the zucchini, and make it into a sloppy joe. Oh, this is another recipe that I am unsure of where I found it. So please if you know, please let me know so that I may properly credit it.


4 tbp oil                             2 med. zucchini, thinly sliced (I would use more next time)
1 med. onion, chopped       1/4 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp garlic, minced          4 cups pasta sauce
1 lb. ground beef                1/2 cup uncooked couscous
salt and black pepper          grated Parmesan


1. Heat oven to 400. Oil a 2 quart baking dish.
2. Put 2 tbsp oil in a skillet over med-high heat. When it is hot, add the onion and garlic; cook about 5 min. Add the meat and stir, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until meat is no longer pink, 8-10 min; set aside.
3. While the meat is cooking, put the zucchini slices on a baking sheer, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven until tender, 5-8 min. Remove, set aside, and reduce the oven temp to 350.
4. Put the stock and sauce in a pan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Stir in the couscous, cover, and turn off the heat; let sit 10 min.
5. Spoon a thin layer of couscous on the bottom of the pan, top with zucchini and then some meat. Repeat until all ingredients are used; finish with couscous. Sprinkle with cheese, and bake for about 25 min.

Cookie of the Week! Lemon-Zucchini Cornbread Cookies

Okay, so welcome to a new feature on my blog. I am going to do a cookie of the week every Friday (which the people who work with Adam are very happy about, they get leftovers!). I am going to try some new and different cookie recipes. I can tell you what worked and what didn't. If I enjoy myself I will keep this up, but right now my goal is just until the end of September.

For our first cookie I really needed to use up some of the zucchini laying around the house. A bunch of my friends are growing zucchini and are giving them to me, so I have a big pile. Then the newest Everyday Food magazine arrived and lo and behold there was a cookie recipe with zucchini. I wanted to try it. I had to go buy the lemon and cornmeal, but those were not expensive at all. The lemons were on sale for .69 and the cornmeal for a large box was under $3. I had everything else in the pantry. If you are thinking that the cornmeal might be much, just think, now you can make polenta too!

So here is the recipe:


1/2 cup butter softened
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. packed finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp. coarse salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup fine cornmeal
1 medium zucchini grated on small holes of a box grater (about 1 cup)

1. Preheat the oven to 325. In a large bowl, mix butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until pale and fluffy. Stir in vanilla, lemon zest, and salt. Add flour and cornmeal and mix until mixture is crumbly. Add zucchini and stir until a thick dough forms.

2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonful, 2 inches apart, onto two parchment lined baking sheets. Bake until cookies are light golden brown at edges, 25-30 min., rotating the sheets halfway through. Let cool completely on wire rack.

Makes 25 cookies.



Now, this cookie came out without a heavy zucchini taste. I also didn't get the amount of cookies it claims! Not sure what I did wrong to not get that, but oh well! I even got the kids to eat them, and I would consider them some what of a healthy cookie ;-)