Zucchini Favorites of our family!

YES, it's that time of the year...
time for LOTS and LOTS of the GREEN stuff from our garden;
aka...
Zucchini

Every family has their favorite zucchini recipes!
Since this is my recipe journal for all of our family favorites, I thought I had better post these.

The last time I posted about zucchini was in June 2009 when I was pulling zucchini from my freezer that I had froze the previous year and using it up.

Harvest Time
wouldn't be the same without making up these three yummy dishes.

Zucchini BREAD

We enjoy zucchini bread
ALL through the winter because of this helpful tip!!
Thank goodness for being able to preserve things through freezing!
If I were to think of my family's favorite "sweet bread" recipe, it would hands down be Zucchini Bread!

Zucchini Bread
3 eggs, well beaten
1 cup oil (I use ½ cup oil and ½ cup applesauce instead of 1 full cup of oil)
1 ¾ cup sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
3 tsp. Vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Mix first 5 ingredients.
Sift and add the rest.
Grease 2 loaf pans and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour (OR until toothpick inserted in comes out clean.

This is always a hit with everyone
ANY TIME of the year that it is baked up!

Zucchini CASSEROLE

I just LOVE any kind of casserole
that has "stuffing" in it.
I remember being a young girl and enjoying SO much when there would be leftover stuffing from Thanksgiving dinner and we would take leftover stuffing, turkey and add in some broccoli and bake it in the oven.

This recipe kind of reminds me of that kind of a casserole.
I never buy store bought bread crumbs...
because it's just so easy to make them yourself.
I just take a few slices of my French Bread (here) and then slice them into small cubes and toast them in my toaster oven until lightly browned.
I then sprinkle on 1 tsp. sage and 1 tsp garlic powder and mix well.
Add in the rest of the ingredients and Voila...
a delicious casserole using
bread you baked and veggies from your garden!

Zucchini Casserole
1 chicken breast (cooked and chopped)
Sautee 1 onion and 1 cup of celery until tender

Cook 3 medium zucchinis (chopped) and 3 chopped carrots until tender.
Drain well.

Take 4 cups of bread crumbs and
season well with sage and garlic powder (I use 1 tsp of each)

Mix altogether and add 1 can of cream of chicken soup.
Cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

This is delicious and really easy!

Zucchini QUICHE

We recently had a bad frost and even though we covered our garden, it still left the leaves of our squash plants looking pretty ugly. Ethan overheard Tracy and I talking about our garden and he chimed in and said:

"I'm so sad! Does this mean you won't be able to make anymore of that Pie with Zucchini, Eggs and Cheese... I was really looking forward to having some more of that!"

Well a few days after the frost, we started noticing more zucchini's growing so YES, my little Ethan Kip, we definitely will be enjoying more of this yummy Quiche!

(as easy as 1, 2, 3
and you can whip up a delicious quiche for dinner)

Zucchini Quiche
(click here for pie crust recipe)
5 cups zucchini sliced thin
1 onion chopped
2 Tbsp. butter
½ to 1 cup cooked ham chopped (optional)
Cook in skillet for about 15 minutes. (may need to add a little bit of water)

Mix together:
2 Tbsp. Parsley flakes
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp basil
¼ tsp oregano
Combine vegetable mixture and spices together

Blend together
8 oz grated Swiss cheese
4 eggs

Make pie crust and press in un-greased 10” pie plate, prick with fork and
Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes (or until lightly browned).
Pour vegetable/spice mixture evenly over crust.
Pour cheese and eggs over the top.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Feeling SO grateful,
that even though we got the latest start ever this year in planting our garden
(didn't get it in until the first week of July...yes, it was a busy summer),
we are still enjoying a bountiful harvest
of cabbage, LOTS red potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, a few ears of corn and
LOTS of Zucchini!!