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| Our Veggie Patch - look at all those beans and Zucchini plants! |
And now we have zucchinis coming out everywhere. He does now concede that 16 zucchini plants is a bit much considering we are a family of 4, 2 under 4 years old, you can only eat zucchini so many days in a row and well zucchini can't really be kept for any great periods of time. So the end result is that we have dropped off zucchini to our neighbours and I have done a lot of dinners with zucchini and now am baking with it.
Best use of a zucchini on the sly...grating. I grate it into everything possible when I cook. It gets chopped into sauces, mixed in stir fries, put in tacos and grilled very often. I hide it in burgers and meatballs. Recipe for tasty chicken meatballs is included below.
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| Chicken Balls with grated Zucchini |
My first baking adventure was Zucchini Bread. It is great. Has chocolate melted through the batter and has chocolate chips. Kids think it is cake. I also made it into muffins as an easy snack. I thought with the 3 loaves and dozen muffins I could put some in the freezer, but it was not to be. Just too tasty to save for later. This recipe is below as well.
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| Chocolate Zucchini Loaf |
But now for the best one of all. Zucchini cookies! These look like chocolate chip cookies and have the essential ingredients of a chocolate chip cookie, but they are a little bit more on the cakey cookie side - almost like a muffin top. They are divine. They taste great, they look great and once again other than a little green mixed through (I used white zucchini though) you wouldn't know there was zucchini in it. This one I made a double batch (got rid of a monster sized zucchini I had in the fridge) and have a huge amount for my freezer. Great for after Kinder snacks.
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| Zucchini Cookies with Chocolate chips! |
Hope you enjoy all three of today's recipes!
Zucchini Cookies
- 3/4 cup 175ml butter
- 1 1/2 cup 375ml sugar
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups grated zucchini
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 cup almonds or other nuts - I substituted and put in oats as we're allergic to nuts
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, vanilla then zucchini. Add dry ingredients, spices and nuts and stir in chocolate chips. Drop by the teaspoonful on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 F/ 180 C for 12 - 15 minutes.
Chocolate Zucchini Loaf
- 56 g unsweetened chocolate
- 3 eggs
- 400 g white sugar
- 235 ml vegetable oil
- 250 g grated zucchini
- 5 ml vanilla extract
- 250 g all-purpose flour
- 5 g baking soda
- 6 g salt
- 2 g ground cinnamon
- 125 g semisweet chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate until melted. Stir occasionally until chocolate is smooth.
- In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, grated zucchini, vanilla and chocolate; beat well. Stir in the flour baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans.
- Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean.
500g chicken mince
1 grated zucchini
1 egg
1 small red onion finely chopped
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp coriander/cilantro
1 tsp cumin
1/2 cup grated cheese
Combine all ingredients and roll into golf ball sized balls. Roll the balls in a small amount of bread crumbs. Place on non-stick baking tray. Cook for 30-45 minutes (depends on size of balls) on 180 C or 350 F. Serving suggestion - dip in sweet chili sauce. Yum! And my kids gobble these up!
