Vegetable Archives - GimmieRecipes

Sour Cream & Chives Cucumber Bites Recipe {Great After School Snack}

September 1, 2020 by Wendy

Sour Cream & Chives Cucumber Bites Recipe

Perfect after-school snack idea! Cucumbers are low in calories and high in good stuff. And, if you’re like me you have tons of cukes from your garden right now! They’re low-cost at the grocery store too. yay!

You can purchase low-fat or low-calorie sour cream if you prefer. I like to limit serving size and go for the good stuff, myself. 🙂 Whatever you do, this is a great way to get veggies in, and curb hunger between meals. You can even make this in a clean-eating and low-carb way to suit any diet plan!

If you don’t feel like going to the effort to make the dressing, you could opt for creamy ranch dressing instead. Yum!

I love Top the Tater (see my Top the Tater recipe) in this, but there are lots of options besides that.

You can mix a dry ranch dressing mix into sour cream (1 pack per 16 oz or a half pack for 8 oz), or use a pre-made chip dip. Just go easy on the dressing to keep this a healthy snack.

Step by Step

First, gather your ingredients. Choose fresh vegetables that are firm and ripe.

Next, peel either 50% or 100% of the peel off of the cukes. Peels provide vitamins and nutrients, but some find that they’re bitter tasting. Also, it creates a fun, more culinary look when you peel in stripes!

After peeling, slice the cucumbers into slices about 1/4″ thick.

After slicing the cucumbers, use an apple corer to remove the center and seeds.

Finally, fill the center holes with dip and garnish with a slice of baby carrot to add color and taste!

Sour Cream & Chives Cucumber Bites Recipe {Great After School Snack}

Author: Wendy
Total Time: 5 mins
Yield: 4 servings

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Description

Healthy, quick and affordable, and a great choice for after-school snacks or in-between meals. Filling and low calorie, low carbs and clean eating!

Ingredients

Cucumber, partially peeled, cut into thick rounds and seeds removed
Carrots, peeled, cut lengthwise (I used baby carrots)
Top the Tater, or Sour Cream and Chives, or Ranch Dressing

Instructions

Prepare cucumber by peeling whole, or peel stripes.
Cut into thick rounds, remove seeds (I used an apple corer but a spoon works fine)
Cut carrots into small pieces
Spoon filling into hole in cuke, add carrot garnish

Prep Time: 5 mins
Category: Appetizer
Cuisine: American

Southern Style Smashed Potato Salad Recipe

July 4, 2015 by Wendy

Southern Style Smashed Potato Salad Recipe

Last month we went to Arkansas and Texas to bring my mother-in-law to a bluegrass festival. While there we enjoyed all the southern cooking, sweet tea, and I actually got to try something new that I fell in love with: Southern Style Smashed Potato Salad!! Forgive me, I’m from Wisconsin originally and had never tried this. All I can say is YUM!

What is Mashed Potato Salad?

It’s basically the same as regular potato salad, but you mash – or smash – the potatoes before you mix them in. Cook them a little more firm than you’d cook mashed potatoes. So, they’re not mushy.

Also, Southerners seem to be torn on whether to use mayonnaise or Miracle Whip in this recipe. So, I compromised and used half of each.

When I cook, I like to try new things. While that’s awesome, it also means that I may never make something the same twice. It’s also hard to write down what I’ve done after the fact!

Smashed potatoes are the perfect side dish for your summer barbecues and picnics. If you like potato salad, you’ll love it!

Southern Style Smashed Potato Salad Recipe

Author: gimmie
Total Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 8-10 1x

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Description

If you haven’t tried this spin on traditional potato salad, you’re missing out! Southern Style Smashed Potatoes is served all over the South with mouth-watering barbecue and sweet iced tea. You can’t beat it! But, now you CAN make it!

Ingredients

Scale

3 lbs yukon gold or russet potatoes, cut into chunks
salt & pepper
2 Tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup Miracle Whip (or use total of 1 cup Mayo instead of half of each)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sweet pickle juice
3 Tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
3 hard-cooked large eggs, chopped
3 green onions, sliced thin
1/2 cup chopped sweet pickles (I used baby gherkins)
1/2 cup finely chopped celery (about 2 stalks)
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 – 14 ounce can black olives, sliced (optional)
smoked paprika (optional)

Instructions

Prepare potatoes (see notes) by washing well and cutting into medium-size (about 1″) chunks.
Put the cut potatoes in a large pot, cover with water and add 1 T salt. Bring to a boil over High heat. As soon as it starts to boil, reduce heat to Medium. Then, cook until the potatoes are fork tender.
Pour potatoes into a colander to drain water. Place 3 cups of potatoes to a large bowl, and add 1 T vinegar to it. Then, coarsely smash them with a potato masher. (Coarsely, meaning you don’t want smooth mashed potatoes – you want them a bit chunky.)
Spread out the remaining potatoes on a cookie sheet, and drizzle 1 T vinegar, tossing carefully to mix. Let them cool completely.
In a separate bowl, whisk the mayo/Miracle Whip, water, pickle juice, yellow mustard, Cayenne seasoning, along with 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Mix well, and then add this mixture to your smashed potatoes.
Finally, fold in the eggs, celery, green onions, pickles, onion and the rest of the potatoes.
Cover and refrigerate until fully chilled (about 2 hours).
Season with additional salt & pepper if needed and sprinkle with smoked paprika if desired.

Notes

If using russet potatoes, remove peels. If using Yukon Gold or Red potatoes, then you can leave the peels on.

Don’t forget, the salad needs to be refrigerated for a few hours before serving!

Prep Time: 10
Cook Time: 35
Category: Side Dish
Cuisine: American

Keywords: potato salad, picnic, barbecue, southern style, smashed potatoe salad

Easy Homemade Sundried Tomatoes Recipe

April 18, 2015 by Wendy

Easy Homemade Sundried Tomatoes Recipe

Besides tasting amazing, this Easy Homemade Sundried Tomatoe recipe is a low calorie, healthy snack. There are only 22 calories in a medium tomato. Consider that you’re slicing it onto 5-6 slices or more and you’re talking around 4 calories per slice. And tomatoes come backed with health benefits since they contain carotene lycopene, one of the most powerful natural antioxidants. They also have Vitamins A and C.

I dried mine in my cyclonic air cooker (which is like a Nuwave oven), and was done in less than 30 minutes (25 of it was cook time!) Nuwave suggests more like 2 hours, so adjust accordingly. Theirs are much more “done” than mine but both are good! At this rate of speed, I make them as I need them. But, you can store them for a long time (see storage tips below).

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Price Breakdown

I love sun dried tomatoes, but hate the pricetag! I once found them at the dollar store (ONCE!) and stocked up. But when I ran out, and my addiction already fully in force, I had to find another way. The regular price on sundried tomatoes can be upwards from $5 for a small bottle! Larger bottles can be $9 or more. There’s probably only a few tomatoes in there!! And, if you want organic – it’s even more! This recipe calls for approximately 2 lbs of tomatoes. I can usually find them for under $1 a pound, making this a fraction of the price of store-bought sun-dried tomatoes!

Sundried Tomatoes Storage Tips

DIY Homemade Sun-Dried Tomatoes: IF you can resist eating them all up (lol!), they can be frozen or stored in the refrigerator. Sun Dried Tomatoes keep for at about 3 months in the fridge, or up to 6-9 months in the freezer. See recipe below for storage tips. I haven’t actually tried storing them long-term. Every time I make them we eat them right away!

How to use Sun-dried Tomatoes

Use them in salads, side dishes (add to broccoli and throw in pine nuts for an amazing treat!), or in a large number of dishes that call for sun-dried tomatoes, such as Cheesecake Factory’s Sundried Tomato Fettuccine. Yum!

Easy Homemade Sundried Tomatoes Recipe Step by Step

Easy Homemade Sundried Tomatoes Recipe

Author: gimmie

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Description

Easy homemade sun-dried tomatoes are a great way to use up your garden excess, and they’re much cheaper and healthier than store-bought!

Ingredients

Scale

2 lb roma tomatoes, halved Pinch of salt and pepper
1/3 C olive oil
2 sprigs rosemary

Instructions

Prepare tomatoes, then toss with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, and rosemary.
Lay on baking pan or rack (I used a cyclonic cooker similar to Nuwave).
Place in oven cooker.
If using a Nuwave or similar with this setting, set to “Dehydrate” on 200 ̊F for 8 hours. If you don’t have a cooker with this setting, just cook at 200 for 8 hours.
Once finished carefully remove from the oven and let cool. Serve and enjoy.

EASY Stuffed Zucchini Boats (Seasoned Zuke Logs) Recipe

January 18, 2015 by Wendy

EASY Stuffed Zucchini Boats (Seasoned Zuke Logs) Recipe

Here’s a GREAT low calorie EASY Stuffed Zucchini Boats (Seasoned Zuke Logs) appetizer for the game day! It’s SO tasty, and it’s good for you!

This is the perfect way to use up zucchinis from your garden during summertime, too. Especially when you’re looking for creative new ways to eat healthy.

Party Appetizers

When it comes to football, my home-state boys are always a force to be reckoned with! The Green Bay Packers are practically a whole state away from me (I live in Western Wisconsin, while GB is on the Eastern WI border), but that doesn’t stop fan loyalty. Even though they’re not going to the Super Bowl this year, my heart still belongs to the green and gold. I have to say that or my big brother will sit on me!

But, admittedly, I don’t watch football very much during the season. For me, same goes for basketball, baseball, hockey – you name it. I’m a playoff fan. Don’t worry, Mr. Gimmie watches enough for the whole family. All. Season. Long.

I would be remiss if I didn’t admit my true reason for watching the Big Game – Super Bowl Commercials! Last year’s commercial, narrated by Paul Harvey, “So, God made a farmer” was probably my favorite of all time. I’m from a small farming community. You could say it really hit home. And I love me some Clydesdales, Coca-cola bears and all those wacky and outlandish marketing ploys. It’s really the Super Bowl of marketing and advertising too.

But, enough about that! What better way to celebrate the Big Game than with FOOD?! It’s the one sporting event every year that sets records on how much food we consume as a nation. Gluttony runs amok. We celebrate our fandom by feeding our faces.

EASY Stuffed Zucchini Boats

I made Seasoned Zuke Logs for the first time yesterday, and today they’re nothing but a fond memory. I ate almost all of them, stopping only to share a few with my mom! They were crazy good! This is one low-cal snack that everyone will love. The no-meat version has only 20 calories per piece. So, you can pig out without feeling guilty.

Grown-up Pretty Food

Cooking pretty food is FUN! I felt all grown up and fancy, making these gorgeous appetizers. Then, I preheated the oven and forgot to remove what was stored in it. Of course, I never used to do that – store stuff in the oven. Apparently I shouldn’t do it now. There was a plastic pie pan container thingy which was really quite messy when it melted all over, leaving long strands of black plastic half-stuck to the oven and rack. I giggled the whole time while cleaning it up, and went on about my day making these lovely appetizers.

Gear up

For this recipe, I used my new Good Cook Air Perfect Nonstick Baking Sheet which I am IN LOVE with! I have a Good Cook air-filled cookie sheet that I bought 15+ years ago, and it’s still going strong. As a matter of fact, I love it so much that I just bought two more. The Good Cook Air Perfect baking sheet is unique in that there are two layers of metal with an air pocket in the middle that allows heat to distribute better than any regular cookie sheet.

I can’t bake cookies on a regular cookie sheet anymore. This Air Perfect sheet never, ever, NEVER burns them! It’s magic! And of course, this baking sheet comes with the Good Cook Lifetime Satisfaction Guarantee.

This miraculous large cookie sheet is a baker’s delight. Its size is perfect for baking over a dozen cookies, toast garlic bread for your next family dinner or heating up your favorite pizza rolls. Features innovative air insulated design to distribute heat evenly for thorough baking without “hotspot” or burnt edges, flat edges allow baked goods to easily slide off onto the cooling rack and extra wide handles offer a comfortable grip for secure handling.

For the Big Game or any time you want a low-calorie, healthy & amazingly yummy treat, try making these seasoned zucchini appetizers. You will not believe how good they taste! This is one recipe you’ll want to SAVE and make often!

Step by Step

EASY Stuffed Zucchini Boats (Seasoned Zuke Logs) Recipe

Author: gimmie
Total Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 4 1x

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Description

Stuffed Zucchini Boats are a super healthy way to get your daily intake of vegetables, that’s so tasty and fresh – and a great way to use up those zucchinis from your garden!

Ingredients

Scale

4 medium zucchini (about 8 inches long, each)
2 C shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 C chopped tomatoes (or blend into a sauce)
1/4 C chopped red onion
1/2 C loosely packed, chopped, fresh basil
1/2 t. of each: minced fresh garlic, rosemary and thyme
3/4 pound ground beef (optional)
Optionally, you can add chopped vegetables such as fresh mushrooms, sweet red pepper, chopped green pepper (optional)
Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Prepare zucchini: Cut off ends, and cut lengthwise. Scoop out pulp and seeds (use a spoon), leaving 1/2-inch shells.
Drizzle the zucchini shells with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Prepare the zuke’s stuffing (filling): finely chop vegetables
If using meat cook it a skillet, with onion, mushrooms and peppers over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Remove from the heat. Add 1/2 cup cheese, salt and pepper; mix well. Spoon into the zucchini shells. If not using meat, and not cooking, then simply add ingredients to shells.
Place in a greased 13×9-in. baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Bake, uncovered, at 350° until zucchini is tender, 25-30 minutes.

Notes

When scooping out the pulp for Zucchini Boats, use a teaspoon.

Prep Time: 15
Cook Time: 30
Category: Appetizers
Cuisine: American

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 zucchini

Keywords: zucchini, vegetables, vegetarian, garden, healthy, app, appetizer, snack

Spicy Grilled Sweet Corn Recipe

July 7, 2013 by Wendy

Spicy Grilled Sweet Corn Recipe

This Spicy Grilled Sweet Corn Recipe tastes great! Serve it at your next cookout and dazzle your friends and family!

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Spicy Grilled Sweet Corn Recipe

Author: gimmie

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Description

Grilled sweet corn is soooo good! But add this spicy butter mixture for a kick you’ll love. Spice up your summer!

Ingredients

Scale

6 large ears sweet corn in husks
2 tablespoons butter
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Instructions

Peel corn (leaving husk on) and remove silk. Replace husk and tie closed. Soak in cold water for 1 hour.
Lightly coat grill with cooking oil (be careful! a long tong works well for this).
Cover and grill corn over medium heat for 25-30 minutes or until tender, turning occasionally.
While corn is grilling, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the garlic, brown sugar, red pepper flakes and chili powder. Serve it with grilled corn.