We didn't plant a garden this year [tear] for the first time in quite a few years. It was largely because our house is for sale and we didn't want to do all the work and not get any of the fruits of our labor (see what I did there).
While it's been nice to not worry about weeding and watering, we've missed bringing fresh produce in from the garden. And based on the way Liza likes to weed and water our flowers, we know she'd be a rockstar gardener!
Fortunately we go to the Farmers Market most Fridays and have our CSA on Tuesdays to get our fix + shop local. So when we stopped by our favorite farmer's booth and saw the plethora of zucchini we snagged a bunch of it - you know so we could pretend we have a bumper crop! This weekend we made two of my favorite zucchini recipes: zucchini lasagna and zucchini brownies. I pretty much just follow this recipe from the Biggest Loser for the lasagna.
For the brownies, I found a recipe last summer and have been tinkering with it since to get a chocolaty fudgy brownie but without all the processed gunk.
So here goes...
Zucchini Brownies
Adapted from All Recipes
Here's what you need:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup agave
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded zucchini
3/4 to 1 cup chocolate chips
[1] Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9 x 13 pan.
[2] Mix together sugars, agave, vanilla, and applesauce. In a separate bowl, combine flours, soda, cocoa powder, and salt; stir with a whisk to evenly distribute. Add to sugar mixture.
[3] Then, fold in zucchini (before you do this, you're going to think these brownies will taste like bricks because the batter is so thick, but the zucchini adds lots of moisture!!). Add chocolate chips.
[4] Pour into pan and spread evenly. Bake at 25-30 minutes.
Now, at this point, you can totally eat it without frosting. In fact, they were great with a tall glass of cold milk. However, you can also add cream cheese frosting. I don't follow any specific recipe for frosting, so here's what I 'sort of' did: 8 oz cream cheese, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 4 Tablespoons milk, and powdered sugar till it comes to the consistency and sweetness that you like. I don't think that cream cheese frosting has to be overly-sweet, I prefer some of the tang from the cream cheese to come through.
Anybody else with a boatload of zucchini lately? What are you doing with it??
[1] Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9 x 13 pan.
[2] Mix together sugars, agave, vanilla, and applesauce. In a separate bowl, combine flours, soda, cocoa powder, and salt; stir with a whisk to evenly distribute. Add to sugar mixture.
[3] Then, fold in zucchini (before you do this, you're going to think these brownies will taste like bricks because the batter is so thick, but the zucchini adds lots of moisture!!). Add chocolate chips.
[4] Pour into pan and spread evenly. Bake at 25-30 minutes.
Now, at this point, you can totally eat it without frosting. In fact, they were great with a tall glass of cold milk. However, you can also add cream cheese frosting. I don't follow any specific recipe for frosting, so here's what I 'sort of' did: 8 oz cream cheese, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 4 Tablespoons milk, and powdered sugar till it comes to the consistency and sweetness that you like. I don't think that cream cheese frosting has to be overly-sweet, I prefer some of the tang from the cream cheese to come through.
Anybody else with a boatload of zucchini lately? What are you doing with it??
