How to diet fast 1 week

Yes, I realize a lot of you are still looking for Thanksgiving Recipes, but in the weird world of food blogging I've already tested a few recipe for leftover turkey and fallen in love with this Leftover Turkey Shepherd's Pie Casserole with Garlic-Parmesan Cauliflower Topping.  The days we sampled this recipe my nephew and cooking assistant Jake kept saying "This is really good" every time he took a bite.  The recipe uses turkey gravy, but if you don't have any leftover gravy from Thanksgiving, you really should buy some gravy (like we did!) and give this recipe a try.

I want to share one more recipe before I take most of next week off the enjoy the holidays with my family, and if you're making any kind of formal dinner this week, I recommend this Christmas Rice with Bell Peppers, Parmesan, and Pine Nuts as the perfect holiday side dish.  The rice is loaded with flavor from red and green peppers, thinly sliced green onions, Parmesan, pine nuts, and just the right seasonings.  It cooks in the oven (along with your main dish if you'd like) and doesn't require much watching.   And of course it's red and green, which is always fun for this time of year.   And before I talk more about the recipe, let me wish all my readers and friends a great holiday season, plenty of time with those you love, and lots of delicious food in 2013!

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this Artichoke, Kale, and Ricotta Pie is a dish that would be perfect for Easter brunch. I'd love this with any variety of kale to start out the day with a healthy dose of greens.)

How do you feel about kale?  Truthfully it's something I hadn't eaten much until a few years ago when I started growing Red Russian Kale in my garden.  That sweeter and less bitter red kale turned me into a kale convert, and for years I grew both Red Russian Kale and regular dark curly kale.  Growing kale is so much fun; I loved snipping a few leaves off the kale and cooking with them.  I tried this recipe when I also had half a container of ricotta in the fridge left from something yummy, and when I searched for recipes to use ricotta and kale, I found this interesting recipe for Artichoke, Kale, and Ricotta Pie from The Kitchn. 

I mentioned last week how I love the idea of Sneak Some Zucchini on to Your Neighbor's Porch Day, but I am puzzled as to why the holiday comes so early in the gardening season.  In Utah, zucchini grows at least until the end of September, and those last few weeks of the summer are when you're most likely to wander out to the garden and find a giant zucchini staring you in the face.  For a few weeks now I've been experimenting with the monster zucchini a good friend has been giving me, and this Three Cheese Zucchini Frittata was one of the happy results.  Besides using Mozzarella, Feta, and Parmesan cheese, I have a couple of other tricks here that made this one of the best tasting zucchini + egg dishes I've ever had.