Zucchini

She was so excited about making bread with the big zucchini!

This past weekend Grandma gave us two GIANT zucchinis (they are seriously longer than my forearms) which are just perfect for making zucchini bread.

So this morning we woke up, had breakfast, kissed Daddy goodbye as he headed off to work and decided to have a baking session in our PJ’s. A perk of being a stay-at-home mum: you can do anything in your jammies! Here’s my recipe:

1 1/2 cups white flour
1 1/2 cups wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini (roughly two normal to small size zucchinis)

Preheat your oven to 325F.

Combine flours, salt, baking soda and powder, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Mix thoroughly, then set aside.

At this point, I like to get my zucchini grated. After washing, I cut this giant beast in half, and then in quarters.

I scooped out the seeds with a spoon simply because with a zucchini this big, the seeds are about the size of pumpkin seeds which aren’t great to get grated up for the bread. However, if you are using normal size zucchini’s just grate the whole thing.

Once grated, set it aside as it’s the last ingredient you mix in.

Next up combine your sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl.

Mix them thoroughly together.

Then pour your dry ingredients into the wet mixture, and combine very thoroughly. This will end up very thick – not as thick as a real dough, but much thicker than batter.

Then add in your zucchini and mix thoroughly. The moisture from the zucchini thins out the batter some, so it becomes much more pourable.

And as always, the assistant gets to sample the batter.

Pour in it whatever bread/muffin pans you prefer (I stick with my mini loaf pans) and bake for 45 – 60 minutes (for bread) and 25 – 30 minutes (for muffins). Let it cool in the pans for about 45 minutes to an hour once out of the oven.

Slice, and enjoy!

Until next time,

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I found a recipe on Pinterest titled ‘Rainbow Chicken’ which looked delicious. After a teensy bit of searching, I found the source of the recipe, which can be found here via Kitchen Parade. However, as I do with most recipes, I changed it up a bit, so here’s my version!

I refer to this recipe as ‘Kitchen Sink Chicken’ simply because it is so versatile. You can throw in any combo of veggies you want and it will still be delectable. That’s my kind of recipe. Also, my version feeds two adults + one toddler, however it can easily be adapted to more people – just up your ingredients proportionally.

Ingredients

2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts (This is just what I use – really use any kind of chicken meat you want!)
4 tsp paprika
2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp olive oil
2 tbl red wine vinegar (or in my case you can discover you are OUT of red wine vinegar and make your own using 1 parts red wine to 2 parts apple cider vinegar! Works like a charm.
1 lemon
1 medium sized onion

For the vegetables you can really use whatever you want! I used:

1 zucchini
1 summer squash
2 small red potatoes
2 1/2 carrots (aka all I had left in my fridge)
roughly 1 cup cauliflower florets
roughly 1 cup broccoli florets

Neither my little one or myself like peppers, so we left those out. But if you like them – toss them in for sure!

Preheat your oven to 425F.

After gathering all my veggies, I started off making the spice rub first.

Then it’s time to chop up the big stack of veggies (excluding the onion and lemon). I totally forgot to take a picture of my pile of chopped veg. . .whoopsie daisy.

Then, chop your onion and line the bottom of the pan with them.

Take your chicken out, and give them a good rub down of the spice mixture with your fingers. I’d say I used about 2 – 3 tsps of the mixture per breast, just to give you an idea. When finished, lay them on top of the onion bed.

Looks pretty good already!

Next grab a (giant) bowl – large enough to hold your whole pile of chopped veggies with room for stirring! I used a spatula to transfer my rub mixture into the big bowl. Had I thought ahead, I would have just made the rub IN the big bowl. . .but I didn’t. Next time! Pour your veggies in on the top of the rub and give them a good stirring to thoroughly coat them as much as possible.

Spread the veggies around and on top of the chicken.

Then slice up your lemon, remove any seeds, and lay on top of your meal.

How delicious does this look?! Om nom nom.

Cover with foil and bake! Mine took about an hour and a half but my chicken breasts were very thick. I’d still say an hour minimum is a good place to start. Once done, let cool for 10 -15 minutes, then serve and enjoy!

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