Luckily, we got our new upright freezer just in time, and I went to work on a bucketful of zucchini. Here it is shredded (in the food processor) and bagged in 2 cup increments and ready for the freezer. This winter I will use it in spaghetti sauces and anything else I might want to put extra veggies into. :)
And of course, it will also get used in zucchini bread. As you can see, I just had to sample it before I even took a picture. It was good and those 2 loaves are long gone!
8 comments:
Ok, that is a lot of zucchini.
Though I suppose I shouldn't talk since it seems we haven't quite got into our full harvest yet.
I just made two loaves of zucchini bread here, too!
Yeah, it just keeps coming. I put 11 more bags in the freezer today. And that's not even talking about the yellow squash! I think it will take a few years to figure out how much we'll use over the winter.
You'll have to make zucchini muffins at least once a week!
Janet,
Do have a good spaghetti sauce recipe for your zucchini? I've had a lot of zucchini also - not as much as you though! - but usually buy prepared sauce....
Emily,
I don't really use a recipe but I'll tell you what I do.
Brown some hamburger. When it is almost done, add some chopped onion and finely chopped garlic. After a couple minutes, tilt the pan and scoop out the excess grease. Then I put in chopped up green peppers (or whatever kind I have), salt and pepper, and saute for another couple minutes. Then if I have fresh tomatoes I add them in(chopped up) and stir. Then I add a can or two of tomato sauce and and stir it all together. Also at this point I think I would add the shredded zucchini (I haven't done the shredded before, so that might change!) After this cooks together for a while, I add fresh herbs if I have them (if I use dried-oregano, basil, thyme, etc. or just italian seasoning- I add them in with the tomato sauce. At this point I also evaluate the thickness of the sauce and add tomato paste if it is too thin. If I am using fresh zucchini I chop it up unpeeled and put it in about 10 minutes before I want to eat, so it doesn't get mushy. If the zucchini is big, I would also take out the seeds. I also taste the sauce and adjust seasonings as needed. All of the above takes about 30 minutes if I use canned tomatoes and about 40 minutes or so if I use fresh. I think. :)
Of course, adjust to whatever your family likes. One time I forgot to put in the onions and garlic and it still tasted good. In the winter I don't usually use peppers and sometimes put in black olives.
And it always seems to taste better leftover!
Kansas Mom,
Do you have a good zucchini muffin recipe?
I use the zucchini bread recipes in my Whole Grain Baking cookbook (http://www.amazon.com/Arthur-Flour-Whole-Grain-Baking/dp/0881507199/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1250124133&sr=8-1). If I double it, it makes 24 big muffins, though I often make them a bit smaller and make 30. The kids and I like them with raisins and nuts, but Kansas Dad prefers no raisins. I bake them for about 20-22 minutes. (I will often double quick bread recipes and make one loaf and 16 muffins. I can fit all that in my oven at the same time so they can all bake together.
The same cookbook is the one that has the zucchini chocolate chip cake recipe I like so much. I've made those as "muffins", too, but they're really cupcakes. I'm currently on a search for a good chocolate zucchini muffin recipe, one that would be yummy but healthy. (I think the cake recipe misses the mark a little on the healthy point.)
Of course, so far, the kids aren't interested in the chocolate ones so much, so perhaps I should just stick to the recipe I have.
By the way, I've used other summer squash for all the zucchini recipes without any problems.
For fresh zucchini, the Zucchini Parmesan Crisps in a cookbook called The Food You Crave (http://www.amazon.com/Food-You-Crave-Luscious-Recipes/dp/1600850219/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1250124583&sr=8-1) are my favorite. I'm not sure it would work with frozen zucchini, so we've been making it almost every day. The kids won't eat this, either, but that just makes us glad because we scarf them down ourselves!
Zucchini Parmesan crisps sound yummy! The space I have allotted to cookbooks is pretty full though. I guess I hadn't thought about using the zucchini bread recipe for muffins. It would be good that way, and faster to bake. Usually now if I want a new recipe, I look online, like allrecipes.com
By the way, I am afraid to go out to the garden and see all the yellow squash and zucchini that need to be picked. I know they are there!
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