Jill Can Cook: Mini Zucchini Pizzas

Well,it's that time of year again! The time of year where we spend more weekends with family and less weekends cleaning our house (which is why I look forward to this time of year!)

Now, don't get me wrong, I go to parties and/or have parties all year long. But for the most part, there is a lot of time in between large get togethers. This time of year, between Halloween and New Years Day, we have a lot of commitments, thus making it the best time of year to try to make new appetizers and desserts. It's more fun to make a crap ton of food when there are a crap ton of people to eat it, not just me and Joe, my husband.

This post will be the first of four recipe posts, all of which that I put together for my parents second annual Halloween Evening Of Horrors.. I just made that up, but I'm pretty sure I love it! (Hey mom, you like that name?! Maybe that's what we should call it next year!!!)

This appetizer probably sounds pretty boring because who wants to eat healthy at a party? My brother does, actually. In the last few years, he's cut sugar and gluten from his diet. Normally, I'd be quite annoyed to have to go out of my way to find and make a recipe for someone with such demands, but I'm starting to like the challenge. Plus I like the accolades (You didn't think I was selfless, did you?! Silly)..

So, here it is: The easiest recipe in the universe...

Mini Zucchini Pizzas

Adapted from DamnDelicious

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 2-3 zucchini, cut into 1/4 in rounds
• salt
• pepper
• 1/2 grated cheese 
• 1/4 cup pepperoni minis
• 1 tbsp italian seasoning

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to broil
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, add zucchini and cook 1-2 minutes per side. Add salt and pepper to taste
3. Place zucchini onto large baking sheet. Top with cheese and pepperoni minis
4. Place in oven and cook until cheese is melted. 1-2 minutes
5. Sprinkle with italian seasoning and serve.

I can tell that I haven't blogged a recipe in about 4 million years because I never took a picture of my ingredients. It's not like I was rushed or out of practice even. I made a few other things this particular day. It just totally slipped my mind to take a picture of this recipes ingredients.  So, today we're starting with a picture of my cut up zucchinis.

I figured my bro would be the only person eating this, so I only used two zucchinis.

They cooked in one fell swoop in my new pan!

Laid out in the pan to bring them to the party.

This is how I transfered them to my parents house.

Picture Post: The Kids Fall Themed Half Year Photos!

My kid, Quinn, started school this fall and I'm still getting used to our new schedule. We now wake up a little earlier and get dressed every day. We take a nice walk to the bus stop, where Quinn gets picked up. Then Mitchell and I fart around for a couple hours, go get Quinn, run errands together or have lunch at home. Either way, we get back just in time for it to be the worst time to take nice pictures of the kids. It's just too sunny. And we've been busy most weekends so the kids photo shoots have not been a priority. 

Luckily, I found some time this weekend to take some pictures before all those beautiful leaves fall. Also, nearly every picture ended up coming out pretty well, so I have hardly any bloopers.... Just kidding. I still have a fairly decent amount of bloopers! Here goes:

Quinn's adult top tooth still hasn't come in even though she lost the baby one months ago.

As usual, I decided to take the pictures somewhere in our yard. The first few that I took, like this one, was technically in our yard, but the background is the neighbors yard. 

The neighbors yard will be covered in Christmas lights come December.

That orange colored tree was a vibrant red just a couple days ago. It bums me out that I missed taking the pictures when it was red because the background would've had a lot more fall colors.

I bought that overall dress last week for $3.00 brand new!

I moved the photo shoot to the other side of our yard where there were more leaves on the ground. And lemme tell ya; moving that big pumpkin around was a pain in the butt!

She did not want to sit on the ground in her pretty dress. It took a lot of convincing on my part!

Once I got her to sit on the ground, placed her hands on her knees and moved the pumpkins to better frame her, I knew the pictures I took would be gold. I just absolutely adore this one. I almost regret paying for boring pictures from the school when I have this picture for free.

I don't know if this one is my favorite or the next one...

It took a lot of coaxing to get Mitchell to sit on the ground. He really wanted to get up and run around. So, the when he finally did sit down, I snapped a couple of quick shots and this gem just happened to be first. His eyes are a little squinty, but other than that, I love how relaxed this picture is.

He looks pretty huge in this picture, even though he's a regular sized kid.

Again with the squinty eyes! I fear he may take after me and lose his eyeballs when he smiles. That's why I tend to not smile too brightly for photos. Anyway, he looks like a tween in this picture. He looks older than his 3.5 yrs. I don't know if it's the gelled hair or the pose or what. Gimme my baby boy back!!

I think the three of us were ready to be done taking pictures but just in case the earlier shots came out poorly, I wanted to take just a couple more of them together. So, I had them stand next to each other and smile. After a couple shots, I realized that Quinn was secretly tickling Mitchell on his neck to get him to smile for me. I just clicked away and ended up with some cute shots:

This last one was achieved by telling Quinn I'd have to start tickling her! It worked. Best smiles of the day! 

I love having new holiday and seasonal photos of the kids to display. I'm getting to the point in my kid photography that I change out the photos of them with the seasons. Pretty soon, I won't need to decorate my house otherwise, just with pictures I've taken. 

And a good bye kiss to end the post!

DIY: Big Red Shirt Into Little Red Shirt

Earlier this year I bought a big shirt and refashioned it into a peplum top. I really loved the result. I can never find peplum tops in my price range. Being cheap kind of sucks, but I deal with it.

Anyway, ever since then, I've been looking for another shirt to do the same thing to. I thought I hit pay dirt when I found this shirt in a bin at the thrift store for $0.20 =

Picture, why you so blurry!? 

I probably should've tried the shirt on in store. Had I done that, I would've realized that the neck hole was humongous. I wouldn't be able to turn it into a peplum top like I'd hoped. Oh well, not all was lost. I had an idea. It wouldn't be the most exciting refashion but it would salvage the shirt.

I turned the shirt inside out and pinned from the sleeves up to the neckline to create a new, smaller neck hole.

You can't really tell. Just take my word for it.

Sewing machine photo.

Bye bye excess fabric.

I forgot to take a picture of the next step. See that blob of fabric at the neckline? I cut it down, folded it over, and sewed it down. You're not missing much by not seeing it.

Anyway, I tried the shirt on at this point and realized that there was nothing left to do. It was perfect. It might have turned out better that what I originally pictured for it.

I need to clean the mirror! Didn't realize there was a huge smudge (looks like dirt on my pant leg).

 I ended up with sleeves in my favorite length, just long enough to cover my arm fat. And the rest of the shirt fits pretty well also.

Not sure why my eyes look so weird.

I threw on a thrifted suede coat to leave the house

As much as I love buying clothes that already fit and don't need any work, sometimes I really enjoy putting a little work in so that I can wear something that's "one of a kind!" Now, I'm back on the hunt for a large shirt to turn into a peplum.. Wish me luck!

Before                                                                                 After