Tag: kid approved

Zuchinni All-Star

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You’ll need approximately 4 medium zucchinis for this combo recipe. If you plan on making both, shred all your zuchinni first and take out a heaping cup for the muffins and set aside. My future self will be thanking me for this discovery when my garden is growing wild with produce!

Zuchinni Pizza Casserole and Zuchinni muffins. I purchase a 3 lb. package of ground beef and split it into 5 – 1/2 lbs. I had enough time to do this between the zuchinni de-juicing and the first 10 minutes of it baking. This particular recipe left me with half an onion and half a green pepper which I also sealed up. I already have a tasty plan for those, so stay tuned for a future post!

Make sure to get all the zuchinni juice out!

Zucchini Pizza Casserole

Ingredients

  • 2 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
  • .5 pound ground beef
  • 1/2 chopped onion
  • Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes to taste
  • 1 can (8 ounces) Italian tomato sauce
  • 1/2 medium green or sweet red pepper, chopped
  1. Preheat oven to 400°. Place zucchini in colander; sprinkle with salt. Let stand 10 minutes, then squeeze out moisture.
  2. Combine zucchini with eggs, garlic, parmesan and half the mozzarella and cheddar cheeses. Press into a greased 9×9-in. or 2-qt. baking dish. Bake 20 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink, breaking meat into crumbles; season to taste. Add tomato sauce; spoon over zucchini mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses; add green pepper. Bake until heated through, about 20 minutes longer.

If you’re making muffins, grab that heaping cup of shredded zuchinni you set aside and scroll down.

*Also keep in mind to drop your oven temp to 350°F after you pull the casserole*

leave the zuchinni juice for this tasty morsel

Zuchinni Muffins

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • ½ cup apple sauce
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • ¼ cup milk
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup shredded zucchini
  • ½ cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups, or line with paper muffin liners.
  2. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Mix egg, apple sauce, oil, milk, lemon juice, and vanilla extract in a bowl; stir into dry ingredients until just moistened. Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips, and walnuts. Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full.
  3. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.

Enjoy these muffins for dessert or breakfast! They’re absolutely fantastic!

I only put walnuts in a few of our muffins so there were no choking hazards for our 1 year old, consider skipping them if you have a child younger than 4. They can be a choking hazard for young children, largely due to children’s inability to grind food properly.

Week 45

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Wrapping up the end of the 45th week with a gluten and dairy free nibble, Brazilian Bliss Bites. Yum. We decided to enjoy them with a cup of tea and a game of chess on a snowy afternoon.

Dates contain more than double the amount of potassium than a similar amount of bananas. Cacao is high in Magnesium; Magnesium is important for many processes in the body, including regulating muscle and nerve function, blood sugar levels, and blood pressure and making protein, bone, and DNA. Brazil nuts are high in Selenium; Selenium is important for reproduction, thyroid gland function, DNA production, and protecting the body from damage caused by free radicals and from infection.

Brazilian Bliss Bites

  • 2 cups organic walnuts
  • 1 cup raw cacao powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 16-20 soft Medjool dates, pitted
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
  • 1/2 cup brazil nuts, coarsely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons chia seed

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. In a food processor, add in the walnuts and process until a crumbly texture is formed (about 15-20 seconds).
  2. Add in cacao powder and sea salt and pulse to combine.
  3. With the machine running, slowly add in the dates, a few at a time, through the feed tube, so they can fully incorporate into the mixture. Make sure that the dates are blended into the mixture before you add more. Process until all of the dates are incorporated into the mixture.
  4. The cacao mixture should resemble brownie crumbs at this point. You can test the mixture by pressing it in-between your fingers. It should easily stick together and you should be able to easily mold it into a ball, if not, then add more dates, but if you use 16-18 dates, your mixture should be perfect!
  5. Transfer the cacao batter to a medium-sized bowl and add in shredded coconut, chopped brazil nuts and chia seeds.
  6. Take the mixture and press it down into a parchment lined 13 x 9 pan.
  7. Cover and place the cacao mixture in the refrigerator to cool for a couple of hours, (or freezer to have them cool faster) as the bites taste better when cooled and are easier to cut.
  8. Once cooled, lift the parchment paper and cacao mixture out of the pan, and cut it into bite sized bars or squares.
  9. Storage: Wrap the cacao bites up tightly in the parchment paper and then with a layer of tin foil, or store them in a sealed container in the refrigerator or freezer. Bars will keep fresh for up to one week, but they probably won’t last that long.