Dinner this Week

Italian Herb Kebabs

from cooking light

1/2 c packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 c fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 c fresh parsley leaves
2 tbspn fresh lemon juice
2 tbspn water
1 garlic clove
4 tsp olive oil
some chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces (the recipe calls for shrimp or scallops but those are expensive so i am making it with chicken)
1 medium zucchini, cut into 20 slices
salt/pepper

1. prepare grill
2. place first 6 ingredients in a blender, add 2 tsp olive oil. process until smooth. transfer basil mixture to a bowl. add chicken and toss well to coat. let stand at room temp at least 15 minutes.
3. thread marinated chicken and zucchini slices alternately onto skewers. drizzle kebabs with remaining olive oil. place on grill coated with cooking spray if needed. grill on each side until done. sprinkle evenly with salt/pepper.



it suggests making the meal with these as a side:

tomato bruschetta
grill 4 slices country style sourdough bread 1 minute on each side or until lightly toasted (you could also just use a toaster with some yummy artisan bread)
remove bread from grill, rub one side of each bread slice with cut sides of a halved garlic clove. combine 3/4 c chopped tomato, 2 tbspn chopped fresh basil, 1 tbspn balsamic vinegar, 2 tsp olive oil, and 1/4 tsp salt. top each bread slice with 3 tbspn bread mixture.


sounds really good!

Zucchini Bread

this recipe is in the oven right now. so it's not rated yet, but it comes from Paula Deen. Have you ever seen her show on the Food Network? She's from somewhere deep south, and she's pretty funny b/c of it. anyway, anything she makes is extremely fattening and usually extremely good.

Zucchini Bread
Recipe courtesy Paula Deen
Show: Paula's Home Cooking
Episode: Weekend House Guest
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup water
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add nuts and fold in. Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.



i sprinkled chocolate chips on top of one. i have troubles getting my zucchini loaves to come out of the pan whole. they always stick to the bottom of the pan. this time i put extra oil in the bottom of the pan so hopefully it will all come out.