Zucchini Challenge

I'm back! For now. Every night is a new adventure with a little guy who can't decide if he's teething or just an insomniac. Sometimes we sleep, sometimes we don't!

Our garden has gone out of control with zucchini this summer, as many of yours have as well I'm sure.

As the terrible blogger I am, I haven't taken photos of anything I've made with zucchini, but know that after two loaves of (delicious) chocolate chip zucchini bread and countless nights of sautéed zuc with dinner, I knew it was time to get creative.

I started shredding zucchini and adding it to every dish I made.

Classic Macaroni Salad? Shred one zucchini and squeeze as much water from it that you can. Mix it right in with the pasta and mayo; you'd never know it was there!

Italian Style Meatloaf? You know you can swap beef for turkey and sub an egg for a zucchini as a binder! Follow all the rest of the steps in the recipe and you'll have yourself a deliciously juicy meatloaf in under an hour.

How does Chicken Parmesan Casserole sound? Shred up a zuc and tuck it in there, no one will be the wiser!

I even used my own recipe for Easy Red Sauce and tossed zucchini shredded to the shape of spaghetti in with the pasta water for one minute. You get extra veggies and don't even know they're in there! Zucchini is excellent at camouflage. It really thinks it's spaghetti if you tell it to be.

What if you're in the mood for a little tortellini? You know you can add some zucchini!! I found the original recipe on Pinterest but my version is a little different (as my version always is...)

Best-Ever Tortellini
1lb bag frozen cheese tortellini
1/2 box chicken stock
1/2 jar marinara
1 can tomatoes with onions and garlic
1 large shredded zucchini (I prefer to use a box grater)
3C spinach
8oz cream cheese, cubed 

Plop all those delicious ingredients in your slow cooker and leave it on low for 5-6 hours. The results are just as delicious as any tortellini dish you'd get at your favorite Italian restaurant! 

I even went back for seconds of that tortellini...that's how much I loved it. I threw portion to the wind and totally had a moment of weakness. Followed by some cheesecake we found in the freezer. Two moments of weakness never hurt anyone, right?


Oh! That's another thing I've been up to. Over the weekend Hubs and I reorganized our garage, including the contents of our deep freezer. Who knew I had at least 4 boxes of pie crusts and over 10 lb of various ground meat!? Now I know!!

I found all of my old horseback riding gear too and donated most of it to a friend with a riding program. It felt like a weight was lifted to get rid of all that old stuff! 

Next up....Eggplant & tomatoes!

What are you growing and cooking this summer?