"Squashed" for Six Word Saturday

"I'm feeling a little bit squashed!"

and 

"If it grows, we'll eat it!"

After planting Zucchini Squash for the last couple of years, we decided to change it up some by planting Hubbard Squash last year and this year...Acorn Squash.
It doesn't matter which variety you choose,
three little plants can soon overtake your garden,
sending vines climbing up nearby shrubs, and can  produce enough squash to feed half the neighborhood.
One can tire very quickly of steamed squash,
so I am always searching for new recipes to liven things up. 
Here are just a few of the ways we've been
enjoying our squash....
 

Rice Stuffed Squash with a side salad.

Baked Brown Sugar Squash
This is the fastest and easiest way to cook squash.

Zucchini Casserole

Just because we didn't plant zucchini ourselves,

doesn't stop other people from giving theirs away.

The hubby brought home the mother load of all zucchinis from work

and I chopped it up to produce this yummy dish.

It is definitely a repeater!

Zucchini Casserole
8 cups sliced zucchini
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup reduced-sodium fat-free chicken broth
2 cups cooked rice (I used Brown rice)
1 cup fat free sour cream (I used plain yogurt)
1 cup shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese (4 ounces)
1/4 cup grated fresh parmesan cheese, divided
1/4 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
*(I didn't have Italian bread crumbs so I toasted 4 slices of bread, let them cool and them tore them up into chunky bread crumbs...the more bread crumbs the better for me and I threw a teaspoon of Italian seasoning into the casserole)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
cooking spray
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first 3 ingredients in a dutch oven, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until tender. Drain; partially mash with a potato masher. Combine zucchini mixture, rice, sour cream, cheddar cheese, 2 tablespoons parmesan, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and eggs in a bowl; stir gently. Spoon zucchini mixture into a 13 x 9 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray; sprinkle with 2 tablespoons Parmesan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbly and golden.
Preheat broiler. Broil one minute or until lightly browned.

For a fantastic zucchini recipe

to satisfy the sweet tooth in your family see 

"Dreamin' Zucchini."

Caribbean Zucchini Bread has become 

one of our favorite

zucchini bread recipes.

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SIX WORD SATURDAY

"Just checking out the digs here!"

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SIX WORD SATURDAY

Crimson Trillium

"Woodland flowers that make me smile."

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SIX WORD SATURDAY

" THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT!'

I feel like I just came off a big drunk...no I wasn't out partying last night but I did make the mistake of trusting hubby to get groceries and buy only what I had on my list. I normally write across the bottom NO JUNK FOOD but I didn't this time. I did have on my list a bag of Whole Wheat Tortilla chips as I like to have a few to go with a great soup I make. Hubby sees the Tortilla chips were more expensive than the PC chips that were on sale so he ends up bringing home not one but four bags of chips...and no tortillas...there are two things I can't have in the house...chips and ice cream...anything else I can control my urges...but not those two. Needless to say I ate a large bag practically alone and I'm feeling rotten now. Can't really blame him...he didn't make me wolf down a whole bag...!

I will be posting a recipe for Chicken Taco Soup next Tuesday for WHAT'S ON YOUR PLATE TUESDAY!

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HERE'S SIX FOR SIX WORD SATURDAY

"My journey into the dark zone."

"Don't try this one at home."

"Busting the fat burning soup hype."

"This was so not worth it."

"For your own safety, stay away."

"Proof why fad diets don't work."

I was entering my eighth week of my commitment to the 26 week X-weighted challenge and progressing slowly but steadily loosing an average of a pound per week through following a well balanced diet, paying close attention to portion size and exercising as much as possible when a friend told me about the "fat burning" soup diet. I won't post the recipe or the details of the diet here as you can google it yourself and find it or a variation of it. This is not a diet you can stay on over a period of time, but is a one week "boost" diet designed to give you a quick start at the beginning of a diet or as a "hump buster" to get you over the plateau stage most people experience when they've been dieting for a while. You can eat all the soup you want, the more the better, but you are limited to eating only the foods the diet specifies for each day, plus water, tea or coffee or light cranberry juice. According to claims, you can loose 10 to 12 pounds in one week if you follow it exactly.

So, with a large pot of soup simmering, I started my week of fat busting.

Day 1 - All the fruits, except bananas, I could eat plus all the soup I wanted...wasn't too hard...I love fruit and the soup was simply delicious.

Day 2 - All the veggies I wanted except corn or potato plus all the soup I wanted...boy, was I missing my usual yogurt and fruit breakfast and cravings were setting in...not for junk food but I would have killed for a slice of bread!

Day 3 - All the fruits, veggies and soup I could eat with a bonus of a potato for supper...finally some carbs...but not enough...I was feeling very tired and cranky.

Day 4 - All the bananas and skim milk I wanted (bananas never tasted so good) plus all the soup I could eat. I was on my second pot of soup at this point but it was still tasty. I was finding it very hard to do my morning walk and too tired to do much else.

Day 5 - Yea protein!!! A whopping 10 - 20 ounces of beef, sliced tomatoes and soup...I didn't eat that much meat...what I really wanted was bread to go with my soup.

Day 6 - More meat, up to 2 - 3 steaks were allowed plus all the veggies and soup I could eat.
Again, I couldn't stomach all that meat so I stuck with mostly soup and veggies and only a small steak. I was tired...tired...tired...a good time to keep your distance.

Day 7 -All the brown rice and veggies plus soup I could eat. The brown rice was welcome, but I was up to my eyeballs with soup and so glad the week was over.

What did I gain from my seven day excursion into the realm of fad dieting...nothing, but a lot of headaches, extreme fatigue, a step closer to a divorce and the grand total of a three pound weight loss which quickly turned into a one pound loss as soon as I started eating a normal diet again. Far from giving me the "boost" this diet is popular for, it set me back, so much so that two weeks later, I am still not feeling as energetic as I was prior to starting it...and I haven't lost any weight since.

The only plus to my week of torture...

The experience did make a sprout and avocado sandwich
taste like fine cuisine.

Bon Appétit!

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SIX WORD SATURDAY

"A 5km walk for my birthday"

...which proves that I'm...

"not ready for the pasture yet!"

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SWS

"Party pooper didn't want to play."

"So he missed all the fun!"

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for more Six Word Saturdays
at Show My Face.

SIX WORD SATURDAY

"Washed up Olympian Want- A- Be's."

I think we shouldn't have waited til our 50's before starting
our Olympic training..
Perhaps we would have mastered the "ant hill"
and progressed on to the
"bunny hill"
by now.

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AN UPLIFTING POST

Snow Boobs
" I Wish mine were that perky!

This is my first time participating in "Straight Out Of Camera" Saturday
hosted by Melody at Slurping Life.
Melody has fantastic blog that I just discovered recently.
Pop on over and take a look.
I'm sure you will enjoy it
and don't forget to check out some of the other participant's photos.

"Also works for Six Word Saturday."

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SIX WORD SATURDAY

"Focus on what you already have."
In our need for more, we sometimes end up with less.

Join with Cate at Show My Face to take part in the fun.