Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread

 

Hello lovely Friends! 

Happy Thursday to you. 💗

I hope wherever you are the sun is shining and that you'll have a nice gentle day today. We had some storms come through last night and give everything a nice big drink. Today the sun is shining and summer is in the air. ☀️💛

Summer makes me think of things like the strawberry rhubarb sauce I shared and you can find it here.

But it also makes me think of zucchini bread. Mmmm - with chocolate chips of course. 😋 Do you know the blog sallysbakingaddiction.com? I LOVE her recipes. I have made several through the years and they're always great. Here is one I recently made - and added the chocolate chips (if you know you know😉)

I definitely recommend you give it a go - or any other recipe she has on her blog. I even receive updates in my email from her. That's how I came across this recipe. 

Here's the loaf I made.

And here's the recipe off of her site:

Ingredients

• 1 and 3/4 cups (220g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil (or melted coconut oil)
• 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup (60g) unsweetened applesauce (or sour cream or Greek yogurt)
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/2 cups (180g) shredded zucchini (no need to blot)
• optional: 1 cup (180g) semi-sweet chocolate chips (or chopped nuts, raisins, etc)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan. See notes for muffins.
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla together until combined. Whisk in the zucchini. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Gently stir or whisk until *just* combined; do not overmix. Fold in any optional add-ins like chocolate chips or nuts. Batter is slightly thick.
3. Spread the batter evenly into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 55-70 minutes. (I like to loosely cover the bread with aluminum foil halfway through to prevent heavy browning on top.) Baking times vary so keep an eye on yours. The bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out *mostly* clean with zero raw batter. Remove the bread from the oven and set on a wire rack. Cool in pan for 1 hour before removing from pan. You can slice the bread at this point, but it will still be warm in the center and may not slice neatly. For neat slices, continue cooling bread directly on a wire rack and then slice once cooled.
4. Cover and store leftover bread at room temperature for up to 3-4 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead. 

xoxo

Cooking Thursday: Spring Inspired Recipes I Want to Try

 

Hello my Lovelies!

Today I'm diving right in with some recipes from this cookbook I picked up not long ago. Do you know Sally of Sally's baking addiction website? She is amazing and any of her recipes I have tried have all turned out great! I recommend you try to make at least one of her recipes -maybe even start with her cookbook. 

In her cookbook these recipes particularly said Spring/Summer to me. I didn't try to capture the full recipe - but to give you an idea. If you look online you may be able to find these full recipes. Or if you would like the full recipe of any of them just let me know. 

Annie's birthday cake she wants me to make her this year includes homemade strawberry buttercream. Mmmmm 😋

How adorable do these look and sound?

I've always wanted to try to make a pavlova. They look so pretty and meringues are so yummy!! 

Do you have any special recipes you've never tried, but want to give a go? 🍓💗

Happy Friday & Some Holiday Recipe Ideas

 

Hello Beautiful Friends and Happy TGIF to you! 

Do you have some fun plans for the weekend? We will probably be pretty mellow around here, other than church Saturday and maybe grab dinner out. And watch the Pack on Sunday of course. 💚💛

I got my stitches out yesterday so that's another step towards full healing. The line where the stitches were looks great and the doc did an amazing job. It's still a little red and has some minimal tenderness around the site so he wanted to be extra cautious and put me on an antibiotic for a bit. I will have it bandaged up when I'm out in the world to keep it free from contamination (& look less jarring for others) - but around home I'm keeping the site clean and just a little vaseline to try to prevent any scabbing. It will be a process to fully heal yet but so glad to be done with all the worst parts. Thank you again so much for all the prayers, love and support! Now Matt is up next and has his excision on his leg right before Thanksgiving. So if you could throw some more prayers his way...that would be wonderful and so appreciated. His issue is actual melanoma (the bad skin cancer) so praying they get it all and that will be that! 🙏🏻

Ok, enough health updates hopefully for a while. Lol I thought I would share that we were able to see the northern lights over our home the other night. They weren't as bright as when we saw them last Fall - but beautiful none the less. And a couple pretty sunset/twilight time photos too. It gets dark so early now and it sure looks like late Autumn around here. 

And since I missed posting for Cooking Thursday I thought I would still share a few recipe ideas today. 

First, I wanted to share that you can click on this link here and it will take you to a post where I shared some of the Thanksgiving recipes I like to use each year for Pioneer Woman's make ahead mashed potatoes and homemade pie crust. 

Also, this is a pic of the "liquid gold" I make each year to use for other Thanksgiving recipes. I like to do this as it gives me many cups of homemade turkey stock to use for them.

Here is what I like to do. 3 - 4 days before Thanksgiving I like to roast some turkey parts in the oven with some butter and herbs, and seasoning. (I will pick up some wings, thighs or a leg) I then use the parts to make a homemade stock in my big slow cooker. Sometimes I'll even get it all going in the evening and let it cook all night while I sleep. I will take the roasted parts and put them in the slow cooker with some onion, garlic, veggies, herbs, seasoning and about 10-12 cups of water (whatever fills it to the top) and cook on slow for 8- 10 hours. When it's done, or when I wake up the next morning, I will strain out the parts and veggies and I then have my liquid gold bone broth I keep in the fridge. I use it to do my make ahead homemade dressing, homemade gravy, and what's left I use for turkey noodle soup after Thanksgiving is done. The way this has so much flavor and allows me to make dishes ahead of time...makes it well worth the extra step of work. 

Since I have the Thanksgiving menu on the brain, I also thought I would share some recipes I may try new this year. One is for this homemade cranberry sauce from Sally's Baking Addiction. It's similar to one I've done before but different enough I'd like to try it. You can find it by clicking here.

I had pinned some appetizers that look and sound wonderful for the season and thought I would share a few. Like this one for roasted pear, cranberry & brie flatbread. You can see the recipe if you click here.

Or I like this idea for a roasting sweet potato rounds in the oven and topping with seasonal toppings. This one uses goat cheese (& I'm the only one that likes goat cheese) - so I would probably change it to a ricotta cheese that I would add a little honey and lemon zest to. And then top with craisins, candied walnuts and a drizzle of hot honey. Or maybe a sweet balsamic drizzle.  You can find the original recipe I plan to adapt if you click here.

How about you? Do you host Thanksgiving? Or do you go somewhere and bring a dish? Do you have tried and true favorites...or like to try something new? 

Happy Homemaker Monday

Happy new week my Friends :) 

September has been coming in cool, clear and crisp. And I can't say I'm mad about that. Granted, there are still more pontoon rides I hope, and some golf. And it's kind of sad the garden is all done - I picked the last of the cukes this weekend. 

But we've also been getting in some long walks on nice sunny but chilly days. And watching football is always such a fun thing we share together. Our Packers looked pretty great yesterday! And they won, yay!  We went for a 2 mile walk and then we made fun snacks and just had a living room picnic watching the game... and that was our dinner. Autumn perfection in my book. Over the weekend we also had dinner with my Mom and step Dad one night and helped them get out their Fall decorations for their apartment. We also went to church and grocery shopping. 

Throughout the weekend I texted and kept up with my kiddos. Annie often likes to facetime too. In productive news I've been working to complete our wedding scrapbook. I was doing a little watercolor painting over the weekend too. As well as getting in lots of reading...often with the accompaniment of hot tea. Lately I've been on a mint tea kick. Matt and I have also been playing our usual cards or games that we always enjoy. Instead of just sitting in front of the tv we like to do things like that. Living room picnics aside, we sit at the table every night for dinner and catch up on our day. Then either play cards, go for a walk, sit out on the deck & play with Ruby in the yard, or go out on the pontoon. It feels kind of nice to have a routine to our lives again now that we're back to the "Fall schedule". 

So life here has been feeling cozy, fun, and filled with gratitude. I hope you can say the same my blogging Besties. 🙏🏻💗

 

 

 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

hot coffee with cafe latte premier protein and vanilla almond milk foam, an apple cider donut for special 😋

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

errands, go to gf's daughter's game, might run around with my Mom one afternoon, having honorary Aunties over for brunch, dinner with my Dad & step Mom, make list of home projects for Fall (clean windows, go through closets, get out decorations etc), hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

How proud I am of my sweet Hubby. He is 11 years sober today. He has shared stories with me about his past and it, at times, is quite an entertaining one (his really young days especially). But as a more mature adult he realized he had a problem, and over a decade ago changed many things in his life. At that time he discovered even more of a relationship with God too. As well as so many other wonderful areas of his life he nurtured to become the amazing kind, honorable, loving man I know as Husband. He is such a good person to the core... I don't think that ever changed in him. But He continues to work to be healthy and the best version of himself every day. I love that about him so much! The kids and I are so very grateful for the gift of him in our lives. 

Matt is wonderful and God is so good!! 

❤️❤️❤️

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

Finding a wonderful new candle for the season...and even getting to smell all different kinds during the search. :) 

CURRENTLY READING

I've decided to finish all the Dream Harbor series before moving on to my other books. Still enjoying these and some seasonal magazines.

ON THE TV TODAY:

 Americas Got Talent, Jeopardy is back, The Office, Football, Big Brother,The Last Kingdom, I think we may both watch the House of Guiness when it comes out later this month (I think on Netflix)

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY -  low carb BBQ chicken stuffed sweet potatoes, asparagus

TUESDAY -  leftovers from weekend and Monday

WEDNESDAY -  dinner with Dad & Mary: brats on the grill, veggie tray, deli salads, fruit

THURSDAY - protein pasta with marinara and Italian chicken sausage, veggies (I didn't make it last week)

FRIDAY - maybe out for dinner?

* for the Aunties brunch I'm making cheddar broccoli quiche and melon. I will also have a charcuterie tray out to start and to pick at during the meal (veggies, grapes, crackers, salami, cheeses, nuts, preserves) And I will have a pitcher of peach iced tea with frozen peaches as ice cubes. 

Then we can do "dessert" out on the deck and have coffee and I'm baking some cherry almond scones with cinnamon glaze for that.

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

scrapbook, painting, reading

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

I work to be better about recycling and the environment. I turn off the water while I brush my teeth, I buy the k-cups for coffee that are fully compostable, I recycle our paper, plastic and glass. I work to cut down on using so many paper towels and paper plates etc. And I've also started doing more thrift shopping for clothes. I will buy some new pieces now and then....but I've been using the site thred up especially. I have found amazing pieces for a fraction of what I would normally spend for brands I love. I put in sizes to sort my searching (you can also sort by cost etc). And I then put in the brands of clothes I like - or even something specific I'm looking for like "skirts" And I look through what is offered in my size. It will state the condition of the piece and I have only bought "very good" or "excellent" condition pieces with great success! It even states on the site how much you save the environment by buying used pieces. They're still new to me and I feel good about spending less money and helping the environment. Win-win. They have tons of options of brands and sizes. 

And I just recently also got a bag from them that I can load with some of my old things and mail back in. If my items sell I will get credits for buying things I want on the site. They have handbags, shoes and accessories like that as well. 

I'm not getting paid for this or anything. Just a recent discovery I've really been liking. I have received a few boxes now and only had a skirt that didn't fit and it worked for Annie and she took it to college! Just thought some of you might be interested too. 

FROM THE CAMERA:

Life is good when you can take long walks in cool crisp air, instead of sweating like crazy. And to see some leaves turning makes my heart go pitter pat. 🧡 

And then to be able to put the feet up and watch some football is the best. Especially to watch and cheer for our Green Bay Packers! And our snacky dinner consisted of taco dip (with veggies instead of chips), apples with a little caramel, pickle salami roll-ups, and slow cooker buffalo ranch meatballs with a little bit of bleu cheese dip Matt made. So fun and so tasty! 

Go Pack Go! 

A couple watercolor painting moments I did over the weekend:

The screen on our fridge this AM - 48* and love the fall leaves :) 

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear. For peace and unity in this country, especially from hate and shootings or violence.  For anyone sick, suffering, in pain, fear, loneliness etc ... that God bring them comfort and peace. For real change to happen to prevent another shooting from ever happening in our schools again and protect our children.

For Christ's Light and Love to cast out the darkness everywhere and help the world find its way. 🙏🏻

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

Nice cozy hugs to you all from the northwoods! Have a blessed week ahead. xoxo

I'm sharing this with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.