Some of the meals of the past week...

The yellow squash in the photo above is an average-sized yellow squash.  And Carey swears that the day before he picked each of these, the zucchini was the same size as the yellow squash.  I think that's what most amazed us most about the garden, is how rapidly things can grow from one day to the next.  And what do you make from a zucchini this large?  My friend recommended either zucchini bread or stuffed zucchini.

This is not the best photo, but the Stuffed Zucchini was fabulous!  I sauteed onions, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, mushrooms, and bacon...oh, and the squash that I scooped out to make room for the fillings.  Once I piled it all back into the zucchini, I topped it with a slice of Provolone cheese and popped it in the oven.  Carey LOVED it!  He usually isn't a fan of strong flavors, so I really expected that he wouldn't care for the kalamata olives, but that was part of what he liked best.  

Quinoa Salad Bowls.  You can't see it well, but these toppings are on a bed of cabbage slaw mix.  Clockwise (from the top) we added cooked chicken (from those vacuum-sealed packages in the freezer), dried cranberries, sliced red onion, orange segments, garbanzo beans, avocado, and in the middle is quinoa.

After adding a Honey Mustard Dressing (made with orange juice instead of vinegar) we tossed it before eating.  YUM!

Twice-Baked Barbecue Sweet Potatoes are a common repeat at our house, and I'm sorry for showing it yet again.  After the sweet potatoes are baked till tender, I remove most of the flesh of the potato, mash it and add a little butter, sour cream, dry Ranch Dressing mix, Parmesan, and the barbecued brisket.  Mixed and piled it back into the potato skins and topped with a slice of Provolone and put back in the oven to heat through.  After they came out of the oven, I drizzled (a little too heavily) with barbecue sauce.  

We love these, and they are so easy, because while one of us are out running errands, we stop by the barbecue joint and pick up a half pound of sliced brisket to put in them.  Of course, Rudy always begs a few bites of brisket before it makes it into the potatoes.

The rest of the week we ate leftovers, takeout, and one night a friend sent me home with a meatball sandwich for Carey.  She had fed them to us during a gathering at her house where we wrote get-out-the-vote postcards.