Garden Gifts: Zucchini

I am going to start a new series, during summer and harvest time, called Garden Gifts. The series of posts will focus on vegetables from our garden, a different vegetable for each post. I might share a recipe, a few pictures, etc. So with that I'll start!

Ashlyn with our largest zucchini.

I can't believe July is already here, and with July comes one of the busiest times for my family and I. The time when almost all the vegetable's in our garden need to be picked, cleaned, canned, cooked and eaten. This year, we have had a great abundance of zucchini which always seems to thrive in our hot Texas weather. It has been difficult to find recipe's that use a lot of zucchini in one recipe. We have had everything from Stir-Fry and Zucchini, Zucchini Casserole, Fried Zucchini... All of these meals are wonderful, but there is one all time favorite of ours, that we make over and over again. That is Zucchini Bread.

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Zucchini Bread

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

3 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup oil

1 cup honey

4 eggs beaten

2 tsp. vanilla

3 cups grated zucchini

1 cup walnuts (or pecans, whichever you prefer)

Directions:

Sift dry ingredients together. Beat oil and honey in large bowl. Add eggs, vanilla and zucchini. Stir in sifted dry ingredients; fold in walnuts. Pour into two greased 5x9-inch loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes or until loaf tests done. Cool in pan for 10 minutes; invert onto wire rack and cool completely. Wrap and chill or freeze. May substitute melted butter for oil, sugar or molasses for honey and carrots for zucchini.

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We have had this recipe for breakfast and sometimes we have it for a snack. It is especially yummy if spread with butter and eaten right out of the oven. The recipe says you can substitute carrots for zucchini, but we haven't tried that yet. Carrots don't seem to grow well in our garden

If you have any recipe's for Zucchini, leave a comment and tell me!

In Him,