Gardening. Do you love gardening? Are you good at it? What kinds of food and/or flowers do you cultivate? In my head, I am a great gardener. A true green thumb. In reality, I kill pretty much everything I try to grow. From herbs to flowers to food. You name it, everything eventually dies and usually death by no-water occurs before said plant yields anything pretty or of use in my kitchen. My wonderful, patient husband tries to help me. He will plant things around our house, water them and give them lots of TLC. As long as I am not in charge, these plants typically do well…for a good portion of the summer.
These days, my Facebook and Instagram feeds are runneth over with pictures and comments of the bountiful gardens of all my friends and acquaintances. While my husband can keep our flower pots alive for most of the summer, neither of us have been very successful in growing fruits or veggies. It’s one of the truly great misfortunes of my culinary life. From tomatoes to peppers to zucchini and squash, you name it, I can’t grow it.
Although I admittedly have no gardening skills, I am very blessed living in Lancaster that I am surrounded by farmer’s markets and road-side stands. It’s truly farm-to-table almost every day throughout the summer either at our famous downtown Lancaster Central Market or driving throughout any country backroad in the county. From the best sweet corn to beautiful heirloom tomatoes to amazing zucchini and golden squash. Eating local never tasted so good.
One of my favorite vegetables is zucchini because it’s so versatile and easy to work with in the kitchen. Growing up, my mom would often make Zucchini Bread and serve it warm with apple butter. All the end of Summer and beginning of Fall stuff going on at this time of the year, to me, is just all synonymous with eating lots of yummy Zucchini Bread.
Zucchini Bread
Now, as a mother myself, to my two cute and adorable (admittedly biased) boys, I am always looking for new or even tried and true ways to slip fruits and vegetables into their meals. Zucchini Bread is the perfect outlet for your kids to eat lots of vegetables without shedding one tear. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
THE WET STUFF
- 1 Cup Zucchini Shredded
- 1/2 Cup Greek Yogurt
- 2 Eggs
- 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 Tsp Vanilla
THE DRY STUFF
- 1 1/2 Cup Flour All-Purpose
- 3/4 Cup Sugar
- 1 Tsp Salt
- 1 Tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
- 1/4 Tsp Ground Cloves
- 1/4 Tsp Nutmeg
- 1/2 Cup Golden Raisins
- 1/2 Cup Black Raisins
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- In a mixing bowl, add all your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ground cloves and nutmeg) and sift thoroughly. Set aside.
- In a separate mixing bowl, combine all the wet ingredients (zucchini, eggs, yogurt, oil and vanilla.
