Some Things That Actually Taste GOOD With Zucchini!!!

Who knew that zucchini could actually taste good?!? Not me. That is, until I went visiting a great gal, who shared some amazing chocolate zucchini bread with me. Holy cow!!! It was so good. Even better than that, she gave me the website where she found the recipe. Here it is: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/08/chocolate-zucchini-bread/
I liked it so much that after baking the recipe myself, I bought the cookbook from the bloggers linked above. So far everything I've tried has been pretty fantastic. I especially like their recipe for chipotle chocolate chili. Delicious!
But this is a post about zucchini. In my quest to become a better cook, I've also been trying to learn more about food. Like what's healthy and what's not. Besides the obvious stuff. Enter zucchini. Or really, enter vegetables in general! For a long time I've been really good about feeding (by that I mean, making available in the fridge or on the counter and everyone can fend for themselves...) my family fruit. I have several kids who love apples. For a while my now four-year-old was eating at least four (or more) a day...can there be such a thing as too many apples in a day? Doesn't that just keep the doctor extra away?!?? Anyway, we pretty much always have lots of fresh fruit to choose from. Vegetables are a different story though. We are pretty good about eating carrots and cucumbers. But other veggies have a harder time making it into our diet on a regular basis. Ummm, even the cucumbers and carrots do if I'm being totally honest.
That's why I was so excited to find both of these recipes that actually taste good with zucchini. (The pasta one isn't on their website; it's in the cookbook). Of course the bread is delicious, but not really the kind of thing you can eat every day and reach any kind of fitness goals...However, the zucchini chicken pasta was also fantabulous, so I now have a new recipe to add into the rotation. And it has vegetables!!! And we liked it!!! And the kids ate it!!!
Who knew?
:-)

Peaches, Peaches, and More Peaches

I learned last summer that you can't wait too long to do something with a wonderful box of peaches. Otherwise, you end up with rotting, fruit-fly attracting blobs that smell of regret. :-(
BUT, before I learned that about peaches, thankfully, I did something with the other box!
Here is my first ever peach cobbler. It came out fabulous! The only problem was, a little bit went a long way, and we ended up with too many leftovers. Even with sharing! That's ok; next time I'll know to invite some friends over when I want to make this recipe. :-)

This was my first time really working with peaches. A friend who knows way more about stuff like this than me, pointed me in the right direction. Yay for friends!! I looked up how to prepare them for freezing (and my friend gave me directions too), and I was so proud of myself when I finished the first box up! It took what felt like forever to boil all of the peaches, peel their skin and cut them into slices. I had NO idea if I was doing it right....but we've been enjoying the fruits of that labor all winter long, so I guess I did ok.
Here are the peaches ready to be bagged for the freezer.

 So beautiful!! They are absolutely delicious. The kind that melts in your mouth and leaves juice running down your arm. Yum.

 And here are all of the gross skins and pits!! Ewww! This part was not so fun. Does anyone have any good tips on how to remove the peach from the pit? I tried the twist method with these...yeah...about that...didn't work so hot for me! Maybe I just need more practice?!? At any rate, the job got done. It was a pretty fun learning experience all in all. I'm looking forward to it being peach season again this year, so I can try it all over! Maybe I'll actually get to try canning some of them, too.

Here's a little video I took right after taking the cobbler out of the oven. A little cheesey, I know! But it was exciting!!!