The fastest chicken dinner I’ve ever made started yesterday at 4pm, when we finally rolled through the door. A sweaty group of kids fussing at each other. You know, the basic after-school mode. And on Wednesdays — hooray! — there’s an extra hurdle to leap over: gymnastics starts at 5pm. I don’t even have to…
Zucchini Banana Bread
Zucchini Banana Bread is what you make when you can’t decide which sounds better (or don’t have enough of either one). Combine the best of both breads into a moist and flavorful treat: Zucchini Banana Bread! When I cooked through Magnolia Table by Joanna Gaines, her banana bread recipe was delicious but you know what…
20-Minute Smokey Pasta with Turkey Sausage, Zucchini & Cheese Sauce
“I can’t believe you just made up this recipe,” she squealed. “It’s so good!” That was my third grader last time I made this smokey pasta with turkey sausage and zucchini. No big deal. Your kids say that all the time, right? Ha! Me neither. That’s why I decided this one was a keeper. With…
Cheesy Zucchini Bites
There is so much zucchini bursting out of my garden right now! The only question I have is… How do I get the kids to enjoy zucchini? They’ll eat it, sure. My kids are pretty good sports about food. (And we’ve worked at this for a LONG TIME, at one point even posting the 6…
Zucchini boats: An easy way to use zucchini kids love
If you have tons of zucchini, this is the recipe for you. Actually, let’s not sell these zucchini boats short. If you have even a few zucchini, this may very well be the recipe for you! I’ve made zucchini boats for my family no less than six times this summer. In the span of one zucchini…
Recipe: 4-Ingredient Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (on a John Deere Tractor Cake)
This is the creamiest, richest, most melt-in-your-mouth chocolate buttercream frosting you may ever have. And guess what, there’s no white sugar involved. Only honey. In fact there are only 4 ingredients. If you don’t count the tractors. All you need for this simple chocolate buttercream frosting is: vanilla cocoa powder honey butter For this particular birthday…
applesauce zucchini muffins
WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU 12 CUPS OF SHREDDED ZUCCHINI, FRESH FROM THE GARDEN, YOU… If you’re a crazy person like me, you hit the kitchen and make zucchini muffins. Lots of muffins. Now these are not our first healthy zucchini muffins. (So far we’ve done zucchini spice muffins and a zucchini chocolate cake.) But they’re some of…
easy pasta with zucchini, tomatoes & fresh mozzarella cheese
THERE ARE TIMES WHEN I NEED TO MAKE DINNER FAST. Before the Clifford video runs out. Before 2-month old Violet starts wailing for her own dinner. Before I turn from Pretty Nice Mommy into Awfully Frazzled Mommy. That’s where a quick pasta dish full of fresh vegetables like this comes in handy. There’s also the…
zucchini spice mini muffins
THERE IS A CERTAIN ZUCCHINI PATCH in my yard that is going totally crazy. Yours too? As a first-time gardener I am constantly amazed that more and more zucchini just keep appearing day after day, like magic. But now, after eating sauteed zucchini for dinner more times than my family would like, and baking five or…
healthy chocolate zucchini cake
WE’VE BEEN MAKING THIS HEALTHY CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI CAKE (and chocolate zucchini muffins) every week. Each time I pluck a couple of zucchini from our garden, they’re shredded and bound for batter. The recipe is easy, delicious and packed with veggies, which is more than you can say for most cakes, right? It’s a riff on the…
Beef & vegetable roll-ups with balsamic glaze made a little simpler
I CAN’T LIE TO YOU. THESE DELICIOUS BEEF ROLL-UPS WITH BALSAMIC GLAZE WILL NOT BECOME ONE OF YOUR GO-TO WEEKNIGHT DINNERS. But you’ll love making them once in a while. With a tangy, sweet sauce plus a built-in veggie and playful presentation, there’s a lot to like here. The only trouble is the number of steps it…
zucchini chocolate chip breakfast cookies
YEP, ZUCCHINI. Barbara Kingsolver wrote in her amazing book, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”, about the windfall of zucchini she had after planting her first garden. They had piles of the stuff everywhere, on every surface of the kitchen. That’s when her daughter decided to get drastic. Bake them into cookies, she said. And that’s just what…
Our Most Popular Casserole Recipe Ever: Sausage, Rice, Zucchini & Cheese
PHOEBE WASN’T EXACTLY PLEASED. Suddenly my four-year-old is opposed to everything being combined into a one-pot dinner. “Only one thing?”, she asks as incredulously as only a preschooler can. And to that I say (at least in my head), “When you start doing the dishes my dear, we can use all the pans for every…
Double chocolate zucchini muffins, a Muffin Madness contender
THERE’S A MUFFIN BRACKET GOING ON. It’s between Easy Peasy Organic’s sweet potato muffins and these double chocolate zucchini muffins from Mom’s Kitchen Handbook. Since we’ve already started hearing from you about the sweet potato muffins, we tried baking the zucchini first. After patiently waiting driving me crazy while the muffins baked and cooled off,…
Healthy chocolate-zucchini muffins for kids (a Paula Deen zucchini bread makeover)
STOP EVERYTHING. THESE ARE THE BEST MUFFINS you’ll ever make. And don’t tell Ina Garten because I’ve strayed again and updated another Paula Deen recipe for this one. Right now Paula’s zucchini bread is the most popular thing on the Food Network website; and my remake of her pumpkin cake (now pumpkin spice mini-muffins) is…
Sauteed zucchini
ESTELLE IS ON A ZUCCHINI KICK. And by “kick” I mean she doesn’t spit them out. Unlike, say, shrimp, which will be its own post soon… Instead she eats them happily and heartily every time. And since they’re so fresh and easy to find this time of year, why not indulge the little one? Especially…
Baby food recipe: Roasted zucchini
UNLESS YOU’RE A TODDLER, roasted zucchini is one of the most delicious ways to eat this ubiquitous squash. (If you’re a toddler, you will likely only try a bite because you’ve been promised a sticker and even then will probably spit it out. A sticker can only get you so far…) But if you’re a…
Zucchini mini-muffins with dried cranberries
LET IT BE SAID THAT COOKING WITH FOUR KIDS under three is crazy ill advised. A fact, now burned clearly into my brain, was somehow unknown when I went into this project last week. A fellow ex-pat brought her toddler and baby over for some pint-sized baking at my suggestion. Along with my own toddler…