Fudgy Zucchini Brownies {aka what to do with all that zucchini}

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??

Week 4: CSA & Recipes

Today we ventured out to Coveyou Farms again to pick up our CSA.  I always get anxious to find out what will be in our box this week and how pretty it will look.  They are seriously works of art…proof here.

 Here’s what we got this week:

Kale

Broccoli

Broccolini

Beets

Basil

Garlic Scapes

Summer Squash

Cucumber

Red Lettuce

Sweet Spanish Onions

Talk about yummy.  So far, we’re planning on some stir fry using the kale, broccoli, garlic scapes, onion, and snap peas from our garden.  As for the rest of the produce, I’ll post recipes for whatever we make!

Tonight for dinner we actually just finished up some of last week’s CSA goodies: Napa Cabbage.

Have you ever been to Dublin Square Pub?  It seems like there are a decent amount of them, but it was one of JW and I’s favorite places in East Lansing.  It was a fun bar/restaurant to be at and it had such amazing architecture and authentic Irish touches we frequented this joint.  In fact, we went there on our first date!   

Pic from here

Anyway, the next time you spy one, you should stop in and try their coleslaw.  DE-LISH-OUS!  I’m not a big creamy-mayo coleslaw fan.  Doesn’t strike my fancy.  But Dublin Square?  They have a green-apple cranberry coleslaw that is sooooooo good.  So with a big ole head of napa cabbage to use up, I tried to recreate the recipe.  I started with a recipe from here, but like always I switched a few things up.

Here’s what you need:
5 cups cabbage (whatever color works), shredded

½-1 cup dried cranberries

2 ½ cups green apple, chopped

½ cup pecans, chopped

Dressing~

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon agave nectar (or you can use a bit more sugar)

2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 teaspoons mayo (or miracle whip)

[1] Chop cabbage into small shreds.

[2] About 1 hour before serving, mix together dressing.  Pour over top of cabbage and refrigerate.

[3] Just before serving, add cranberries, apples, and pecans, tossing to coat all ingredients. 

We like to mix up the dressing, but keep it separate from the cabbage.  That way, we can mix up small amounts seeing as this coleslaw doesn’t always keep the greatest overnight.

 So that’s the coleslaw.  It’s not quite the Dublin Square recipe, but it’s light and sweet – perfect for summer.  In fact the first time I made it, we paired it with some BBQ ribs!  Tonight it was a little more basic – bread with oil, balsamic vinegar, and spices.

We are seriously in love with our CSA goodies and all the ways they're bringing 'green' into our lives :)

Who wants kale chips???

MEEEEEEEEE!  I know they sound gross, but hear me out here.

Our CSA officially started this week and I picked up our first box o' produce today!  But before I tell/show you all the goodies in it, let me chat about CSA's and why we're so excited about this.

Our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is through Coveyou Scenic Farms.  They are not technically organic (mainly because of the price to become certifiably organic), but they do practice green farming and use minimal if any pesticides/other products on their produce.  In order to be part of the CSA we had to reserve our spot early.  Here's why we chose to go with a CSA:

[1] They are almost organic.

[2] We love supporting a local business.

[3] We also love the fact that this food is fresh and local - meaning the only carbon footprint it has is from me driving the box of produce home (which is on my way home from summer school anyway).

[4] We weren't sure how our garden would do this year so we like the idea that we have back-up and if we have extras, you can bet we'll start trying to freeze, can, and preserve the food for us and perhaps even Baby Liza.

And now, here's what we got in our 'box' this week:

KALE
BOK CHOY
LETTUCE

KOHLRABI

STRAWBERRIES

Still thinking about those kale chips aren't you?  I know they sound delicious.  Ok, really, they sound disgusting.  But we had 2 bunches of kale in our share this week and so I needed to try something different!  Kale chips it was.  Are they better than a bag of potato chips?  NO.  But I have to admit, they are pretty decent!

So here's what you do.  Slice up the kale.  Dry it off.  Toss it with olive oil.  Spread out on a cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with salt, cumin, and garlic powder.  Bake for 350 at 8 minutes.

 Ok, now we need some more recipes to try with all of our goodies.  Any ideas?  Because we got a whole new box coming next week and we need to gobble this stuff up!!