Thursday, July 19, 2018

30 Days of Summer - Post #14 - A Lazy Day At Home

I really debated as to what to title this post...A Lazy Day At Home? One of The Hottest Days of the Year And Guess How I'm Spending It? Or More Than You Really Want To Know About How I Use Zucchini! But A Lazy Day At Home sounded better and, besides, it was shorter! 😆

Not that it's really been a lazy day, but I did sleep in later than usual this morning. That in itself made me feel lazy. 😴 Usually I'm up anywhere between 6:00 a.m. and 7:30; this morning, however, I didn't get up until almost 9:30, which is highly unusual! I usually run on between 4 to 5 hours sleep a night and can't seem to sleep in past 7:30 at the absolute latest anymore. Anyway, didn't get up until 9:30; didn't get showered and dressed until after noon! Again, highly unusual! 😳

For the first time in I don't know how long, I didn't have anything pressing to attend to today. I talked with my daughter and a friend on the phone, chatted with a couple of daughters-in-law online, piddled around the house, and tried to figure out how I was going to spend my day...when, suddenly, I remember the squash!!! ðŸ˜²

Not only do we have an abundance of zucchini coming in from the garden, but a friend blessed us with a big box of yellow squash and a gorgeous watermelon last night. I gave away half the box of squash, but still needed to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of it. 

And...don't misunderstand...I am NOT complaining in the least! We are in summer squash heaven here and feeling blessed beyond measure! 😇 We love it and to me it's a challenge to figure out new ways to prepare it...which is what I've been working on all day.

For breakfast I sauteed two yellow squash in coconut oil (one for my husband and one for me) and served them with a little shredded cheddar and a fried egg on top. THAT is one of my favorite breakfasts and that is probably how I will use most of the yellow squash that is left. 

My dilemma, however, was, I had this one HUGE zucchini that had gotten away from us in the garden. I decided that my goal was to do something with it today and get it out of the way. 

Now, of course, I could have done something quite easy with it...like spiral-cut the whole thing up into zucchini noodles and pop them in the freezer...but I was feeling adventurous! I mean, seriously, I had the whole day (or what was left of it) ahead of me and at my disposal! I was ecstatic! 😄

After looking through my recipes, and several cookbooks, I started out by cutting the over-sized behemoth in half. I took out the seed cavity, cut it into manageable pieces, and started grating it. 

I made a double batch of my regular zucchini muffins and a batch of zucchini brownies and I had only used about half the shredded zucchini. So...back to the cookbooks I went! 

Zucchini Muffins

Zucchini Brownies

In my lovely, old Betty Crocker stand-by I found a recipe for Spicy Zucchini Cake. My dad used to love spice cake, so, I thought, "I'll make that up and see how it is!" And I did! And I STILL had shredded zucchini left! 😨 

After that, it was back to the cookbooks again and, eventually, the internet!

Spicy Zucchini Cake

Next, I found a recipe for Cheesy Baked Zucchini Bites, so I made those...and, yes, I STILL had zucchini left! 😱 (They are delicious, by the way!) 😊

Cheesy Zucchini Bites

And, I, finally, used up the last of the zucchini by making Chocolate Chip Zucchini Breakfast Cookies.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Breakfast Cookies

So...one super humongous zucchini made 24 zucchini muffins, a 13 x 9-inch pan of zucchini brownies, a 13 x 9-inch Spicy Zucchini Cake, 15 Cheesy Baked Zucchini Bites, and a dozen LARGE Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies! ONE ZUCCHINI!!! 😲

Some of what I made today will be shared with others and what's left will be packaged and put into the freezer for use in future...which my husband is absolutely thrilled about! 😉

But, yes, one of the hottest days of the year (98 degrees with a heat index of 106) and I spent my lazy day at home baking! What in the world??? 😳

Oh, well!

How'd you spend your day?

Until next time...
~Rebecca

(P. S. - In the process of all this today I picked up three new zucchini recipes which I will be sharing in a (or several) future posts. 😉

Recent and related posts that you might enjoy reading...

30 Days of Summer - Post #13 - The Summer Bounty - Zucchini












4 comments:

  1. Wow, that was one BIG zucchini! We didn't have the heat today so much. I worked at the preschool and it was so nice out I pushed for a little extra outdoor time for us (hooray!). Then, another thunderstorm WITH hail came through in the afternoon. Nice to have some extra rain. Imagine tomorrow's gonna be steamy though.

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    1. Tell me! I couldn't believe that one squash made all that! It was amazing!!! Glad you got a break in the heat. It was really hot here, then this freaky storm blew through and this evening has been super nice! Have really enjoyed it! Have a great Friday! :)

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  2. Yellow squash is excellent for squash patties. We love them. I freeze both yellow squash and zucchini for winter. They do come in handy and it's not wasted.

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    1. How do you make your squash patties, Kristina? Sounds like something I'd like to try. If you're willing to, please, share your recipe! Thanks! :)

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