The Goal, The Empty Drawer, The Farmer's Market, and The Squash Casserole

One of my new goals, and also a part of my plan to save my family money, is to stop wasting food! I am ashamed to admit the produce I’ve thrown out in the past. I would buy more than I ended up needing for a recipe or buy new fruit before we’d eaten all the old and the extra would rot in my produce drawer until I finally got around to cleaning out the fridge (meaning it began to smell!) and then it was thrown away. So now I am planning better, doubling recipes and freezing extras to use everything that I buy. I was so excited to actually achieve a nearly empty produce drawer (only one small packet of carrot sticks remained) without throwing anything away! My produce drawer is never that empty!

In case an empty produce drawer doesn’t fill you with excitement, I’ll quickly move on to my next point! How to restock the produce? A trip to the farmer’s market! Discovering the farmer’s market has been the best thing to happen to my family foodwise in the last couple years! The one I go to is called Canino’s and it is not nearby my house, but so worth the drive. The produce is the freshest I’ve seen and so much cheaper than the grocery store. I’ve bought Honeycrisp apples there for $1.69 a pound to find them a couple days later at the Central Market for $3.89 a pound – talk about a huge difference!

We eat so much healthier having all this fresh produce on hand and my kids love going to the farmer’s market and picking things out so it gets them excited about vegetables! I only go about every 3 weeks, so I stock up when I go. Check out everything I scored there a couple weeks ago! Oh, and they have great beans, honey, nuts, eggs and yogurt pretzels!











What did I do with all that yellow squash you ask? I made this Yellow Squash Casserole recipe and doubled it, freezing the 2nd casserole in a Ziploc with the cooking instructions written on the bag. Each casserole will serve as a side item for my family for 3 meals, so in one 30 min. session I created 6 meals worth of vegetables!

Yellow Squash Casserole from www.allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS:
4 cups sliced yellow squash
1/2 cup chopped onion
35 buttery round crackers, crushed
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Place squash and onion in a large skillet over medium heat. Pour in a small amount of water. Cover, and cook until squash is tender, about 5 minutes. Drain well, and place in a large bowl.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together cracker crumbs and cheese. Stir half of the cracker mixture into the cooked squash and onions. In a small bowl, mix together eggs and milk, then add to squash mixture. Stir in 1/4 cup melted butter, and season with salt and pepper. Spread into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cracker mixture, and dot with 2 tablespoons butter.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Picture of casserole ready to be baked and bowl with extra batch to be frozen in the bag on the right.










Check more food ideas on Tasty Tuesday at Forever Wherever