Garden of Eatin'

My parents didn’t teach me to cook, I had to teach myself and there were no family recipes that I grew up on (we never had christmas or thanksgiving or easter dinner), so I abuse the internet recipe websites frequently. I figure any recipe that almost 1000 people give 4 or 5 stars for, has to be good.

So, thanks to allrecipes.com, I’m making these today:

Zucchini Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

And these cookies (which another member of mothering.com posted on the forums):

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Makes about two dozen)

1 egg, beaten
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

Combine in large bowl.

1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg

Combine in a separate, small bowl and blend into liquid mixture

1 cup finely shredded zucchini
12 oz chocolate chips

Stir these into other ingredients, mix well. Drop by spoonful onto greased baking sheet, and flatten with the back of a spoon. Bake at 350°, 10 to 15 minutes.

Stir Fry

I’m making stir fry tonight, for me, the kids won’t eat it. Normally I use frozen stir fry veggies, but tonight I’ll keep it simple and use zucchini, some crookneck squash, some green beans and maybe a little celery and onion from the store (the garden onions are still tiny).. I use a simple recipe for the flavoring: cubed chicken breast in a gallon baggie, 1/3c corn starch, 3-4T soy sauce and a bunch of ginger and garlic powder. Make sure the baggies is sealed tight, mix and let sit for 30 minutes. Fry in a little oil, remove from pan, fry veggies in a tiny bit of oil, add the meat back in, and season with more ginger, garlic and soy sauce if desired. Serve over rice. Before I started watching my calories and weight, I could easily eat 3 Corelle plate fulls of this stuff. Sooo good :drool Tonight I’ll eat a normal portion with more veggies then rice or meat :lol