WIAW: Baked Tilapia and Zucchini & Corn Fritters

Hello & Happy Wednesday!!!  Time to have a peek into my daily eats!

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Breakfast: Egg Sandwich

For breakfast over the last few months, there are few days when I don't want eggs for breakfast.  Today I had a whole wheat English muffin with a wedge of Laughing Cow Swiss cheese (35 calories for cheese is okay with meeee!), some avocado and an over easy egg.  Such a perfect sandwich!

Snack: Pear & Animal Crackers

For snack I had brought a pear, but then saw these (100 calorie) animal crackers in the kitchenette..so I had both.

Lunch: Tuna Melt & Veggies

It was raining at lunch (meaning we did not walk the dogs like we usually do), so I took my time preparing some tuna melts.  I used those pre-made pouches of tuna from Starkist (there like 80-100 calories, depending on the flavor you get).  I made us (my boyfriend and I) one of each flavor I had: one lemon pepper and one classic tuna salad.  Just smeared the tuna on a little piece of toast, topped with mozzarella and tomato and broiled until melty.  On the side we had veggie chips and actual veggies with hummus.

For dessert we had homemade iced coffee and a teensy baby cookie.

On the way to/from lunch everyday we pass this one yard that normally is just green, but it's lily season so they were poppin!  Since it stopped raining, I had to stop and take a picture--so pretty!!! (I'm pretty sure people who passed me taking pictures of a stranger's yard thought I was insane...but whatever.)

Dinner: Baked Tilapia, Healthy Zucchini & Corn Fritters, Sweet Potato

For afternoon snack I had a Fresca and a 90 calorie granola bar, but I sure forgot to take a picture!  Oh well.

Dinner was a winner, though!  I saw these little zucchini fritters over at PaleOMG and thought it would be a fun way to serve veggies with dinner.  I halved the recipe and added corn and goat cheese..

Baked Zucchini & Corn Fritters
makes 6 muffins

1 medium zucchini, shredded
1/4 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup flour
1 egg, whisked
1 ear of corn, cooked and kernels cut off (or 1/2 cup of frozen corn)
1/4 cup cheese (I used goat cheese)
1/2-1 garlic clove, minced (I used half a clove because our cloves were huge)
salt & pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven ot 400F degrees.
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and either grease a muffin tin or line with parchment cupcake liners (they are non-stick--I love them), then scoop the batter into the pan.  Mine made 6 not quite full muffin cups.
Bake for 30 minutes.

These are like little frittatas!  They would be great to serve to people who aren't crazy about veggies or just to change it up with your veggies on a weeknight.

I seasoned my fish with a tbsp of butter with a squeeze of lemon juice and some Old Bay seasoning (along with some torn, fresh basil) and threw it in the oven to bake for the remaining 10 minutes for the fritters.  Also, I microwaved a sweet potato for about 7 minutes (it was a big potato) and split that between my boyfriend and myself.
Such a lovely dinner!

After dinner, the weather was sunny and beautiful, so Bizzy and I headed out on a walk.

She's a happy girl!

Later that night I had a scoop of ice cream--yum!

Thanks for reading!  See ya on the flip side!

Healthy & Delicious Zucchini Bread

Is your garden overflowing with zucchini?  I hear that's a thing.  I don't actually have any edible stuff growing in my yard, except for rosemary.  

But, I love reading summer blog posts, because fresh, homegrown zucchini tends to steal the show.  I love zucchini!  Which I'm sure you have noticed (maybe) from these posts:

Stuffed Zucchini

Zucchini Chili

Zucchini "Pasta"

Veggie Baked Penne

Chicken Sausage Veggie Hash

Veggie Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Summer Vegetable Pizza

So, even though I can't walk out the back door and pick some zucchini, I stocked up at the grocery this week to make a few zucchini themed recipes.

This one is very, very good.  It's a flavorful and hearty quick bread that will rock your socks.  If there are any zucchini haters in the house, I assure you that the flavor is undetectable. 

Zucchini Oatmeal Bread

Makes 1 loaf

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup quick oats

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 eggs

2 egg whites

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups shredded zucchini (about 3 medium zucchini)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9×5 inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. Combine the first 8 ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Combine the eggs, applesauce, and vanilla in a bowl and mix until blended. Stir in the zucchini.

Slowly add the dry ingredients just until moistened.

Pour the batter into loaf pan.

Bake for about 1 hour. Cool in pan for 10-20 minutes before removing from pan. 

I'm sure you will see this bread again on Wednesday ;)

Recipe from Sweet Tooth, Sweet Life

Fabulous Fall Fridays: Zucchini Chili

Well, the weather has definitely been getting chilly (pun intended) in our neck of the woods this past week. We even had snow. In November. Seriously.

So, with that in mind I had to change my kitchen chalkboard (painted with chalkboard paint) to a more appropriate theme (it was fall leaves).



Then, I had to make chili. Which is sort of like a soup, I guess. Helping my transition into the inevitable crossover to soup blog. All soup all the time.

No, I'm just being silly. Speaking of silly, my husband kind of gripes about the fact that I throw icky vegetables in basically everything I cook. So I threw in the zucchini on purpose. To mess with him.

I guess the joke's on me, because this is some dang good chili :)
We both enjoyed it thoroughly and it is a great, quick weeknight meal.

Renee's Zucchini Chili

1 lb lean ground meat (I used 93% lean ground sirloin)
chili seasoning packet
can of mild chili beans
1/4-1/2 onion, diced
1-2 zucchini, diced
1/2 cup spaghetti sauce
1/4-1/2 cup broth (I used 1/4 c beef broth-it depends on how thick you want it)
1 clove garlic
seasoning blend (I used this one)

Put some water (or oil) in the bottom of your soup pan (just enough to coat the bottom of the pan to prevent sticking) and throw in the meat to brown. After it is halfway browned, throw in the garlic and onion and cook until meat is brown. Add your chili seasoning packet, then scootch the meat over to one side. Add the zucchini to the opposite side to cook for a bit. Season with seasoning blend (mine has a bit of a kick, which was welcome here). After about 5 minutes, stir everything together, add the spaghetti sauce and broth and simmer on low for about 20 minutes or until awesome.



In other news, my cookies for the cookie blog swap are going out today! I'm really excited about them.



I made a cutie pie little bottle cap snowman ornament for each recipient, too. Inspired by What I Live For blog.

If you are interested in making one, I hot glued 3 bottle caps together (and a piece of yarn to hang), painted the inside white (they were kind of greyish in the middle) and then Sharpied on the eyes, nose, mouth and buttons.



The cookie has the incredible trifecta of browned butter, toasted coconut and cocoa dusted almonds. They are currently my obsession.

Recipe will be posted right here on this blog on December 12th. Mark your calendars ;)



Have a great weekend, everyone!