Zucchini Bread and More

This is actually another kind of bread, I ran out of batteries to take a pic of the zuke bread!

The zucchini and pumpkin patch.

Happy first Saturday of August! Saturday means baking and the Preparedness Challenge over at Homestead Revival. Today I'm making more chocolate zucchini bread for the freezer, as well as some muffins to freeze. (Believe it or not, all the zuke bread form last Saturday is GONE!) I'm hoping to process some zucchini to freeze as well.

I'm posting the chocolate zucchini bread recipe today for you all. It comes from The Taste of Home Cookbook: REVISED EDITION, but I've tweaked it to make it healthier. My kids absolutely love it and my niece said that I could give it to her for her birthday and Christmas presents, so it's kid approved! This recipe makes 2 loaves.

• 1 C. all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 C. whole wheat flour
• 1/3 C. baking cocoa
• 2 C. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 C. canola or vegetable oil
• 3/4 C. unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 C. shredded zucchini
• 1 C. chocolate chips

mix dry ingredients (flours, cocoa, sugar, salt, powder, soda and cinnamon) in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl mix the eggs, oil, applesauce, and vanilla. Add the wet to dry ingredients and stir until just moist. Add the zucchini and chocolate chips and stir well. Pour into two greased 8 x 4 x 2in loaf pans, bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10-15 minutes before turning out of pans to cool on wire racks.

Some tips for this bread:

• if you are using a very large zucchini, remove the seeds. The seeds don't usually shred well when they are large
• replace regular chocolate chips for 1/2 C. of mini chips for less fat and sugar
• use your food processor to shred zucchini to freeze in 2 cup portions
• add nuts and/or dried cranberries for more flavor and vitamins

In the next week I'd like to share some more ideas to use zucchini up. The Lord has truly blessed our garden this year, and I intend to not let any of it go to waste!

Beyond baking to stock the freezer, in the area of preparedness for this week I've mostly done research and some planning for the fall. I'm planning on going through the freezer and pantry to make up weekly menus and hopefully cut down on money spent and time wasted when it comes to dinner and lunch. For this coming week I checked the forecast on the Weather Channel so that I know how best to cook. You don't want to use the oven when it's 90 degrees of grill when there's better than a 70% chance of a down pour!

I've been reading The Self-Sufficient Suburban Garden by Jeff Ball. It outlines a five step plan to produce your own food in the garden, eventually adding small livestock, and a solar green house. It has information not only on gardening, but on storing and preparing your crops, saving your own seeds, bee keeping, and so much more! Although we don't live in the suburbs, we still have limited space due to the geography of our land. And it seems like a very informative book for both newbie gardeners and pros alike. It's really gotten the wheels turning in this Mama's mind!

This week I'm planning on working on emergency preparedness as well getting some veggies put up in some manner or another. I did buy a canning set from Ball, but have yet to use it. I don't have a pressure canner (or the funds to get one right now!), so I'm looking into the hot water bath method and ways to preserve some of my veggies by pickling. I'm not sure if any of the kitchen pots I have are big enough, so I just might have to use my darling hubby's syrup pot!

That's all for today! We're headed over to Billings Farm and Museum for the Antique Tractor Day tomorrow after church. We're looking forward to seeing the tractors and I''m hoping to have a chance to see the quilt exhibit they have going on. And of course, I'm always on the lookout for information that pertains to homesteading!  Hope you all have a great weekend!
Blessings,
Kelly