During the summer, beautiful, green zucchini is abundant. I have friends that grow it and I was privileged recently to receive the biggest zucchini I’ve ever seen in my life. My friend Aundrea grew it so it was organic, huge, and beautiful. Seriously, I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of this thing – it looked like a gourd! Now, when a zucchini gets that big, apparently it isn’t very good for roasting, but it is good for baking. Naturally, that’s what I gravitated toward so I made 6 mini loaves and 1 large loaf of zucchini bread. However, I still had a ton of zucchini left!
I read in a cookbook of mine that you can shred zucchini and freeze it for later use. I was concerned about it turning brown, but guess what? It worked like a charm! I used my food processor to shred several cups and then froze them in 1/2 cup, 1 cup and 2 cup portions (label your containers!). They froze beautifully and when it’s time to use them, just run them under hot water to defrost. But what to do with the zucchini? You can make bread, of course, but you can also add it to spaghetti sauce or chili, soups, even meatloaf! I read that you can even add it to brownies, but I’m not willing to try that just yet!
Here’s what it looks like, all chopped up:
Here is 1/2 cup shredded zucchini in my spaghetti sauce:
And here’s the gorgeous caprese salad and fresh strawberries I served with my spaghetti – mmm, mmm, good!:
TNT Tip
If you have a picky eater like I do, you know that getting fiber into their diets is difficult. One way I’ve been helping this little matter is by sprinkling a generous portion of ground flaxseed on my son’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Since the flaxseed has a nutty taste, he is none the wiser! (Just make sure you get ground flaxseed, or flaxseed meal, found in the baking aisle!)
Love,
Amy
3 comments:
About the flaxseed, it is significantly cheaper at Trader Joes.
I did the same thing w/ my zuchinni from Zerbert Babe!!!! Impressed by the caprese salad. B-E-A-utiful!!!
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