The Baking Girl (and Mom) : Egg-less Zucchini Bread

I don't remember the last time I baked or cooked with The Baking Girl.  Since she took over the kitchen I have sat happily on the sidelines offering very little baking input but enjoying every delightful morsel. When a friend gave us zucchini (thanks Angie!) the girl asked what I was going to do with it.  My first idea was just the usual zucchini parmesan crisp.  Then Angie posted on Facebook that her daughter made zucchini bread.  I love zucchini bread!  My mom's recipe was particularly exceptional but as typical of her, it was not written down anywhere.  She only wrote down recipes if we ask for it.  Unfortunately for me, I didn't bother asking about the zucchini bread before she passed away.

The idea of a vegetable in baked goods seemed "gross" to the littles over here.  So to prove a point I told them there will be zucchini bread and they will love it.  The Baking Girl was game so the search started for an egg-less recipe. We decided on this vegan version from Allrecipes.com sans arrowroot and flax seed.

The result was a moist and delicious bread and no hint of "gross" was heard from anyone.  In fact, there is a demand to make more. It was fun to share the kitchen again and delight at our joint success.  Next project...carrot cake!

Pictures to share:

the kitchen dream team. I love this camera, it makes one side of my face perfectly smooth LOL

we can't help but think of Veggie Tales

dry ingredients

folding them together

success!

Click here for the rest of The Baking Girl's kitchen adventures

These Last Days Of Summer

It has been a blissful Summer. Our decision to forgo baseball amongst other time-intensive commitments allowed us to just breathe and savor every moment of family life. We needed this. I need this.  Last year was the year of grieving and living in the fear of the unknown.  This year I am breathing and dancing and giving thanks and immersing myself in God's beauty.

Lest I give the impression it's been all idleness on top of cake and ice cream, I should also recount the numerous trips to the laundromat! That is my excuse for momentarily abandoning this blog.  The good news is I am finally caught up with laundry now that a new and shiny machine has been purchased.  I am a few hundred dollars poorer but my clothes are clean.  

I am also caught up on Downton Abbey and various other Masterpiece Theatre offerings. 

What I'm not caught up on is getting ready for the new school year.  The oldest is officially enrolled with Seton but I have yet to sit down and write a reasonable lesson plan for the rest. That will have to wait until glitter pens are bought.  Yes, I need sparkly ink to inspire the lesson planning :-)

My oldest two went to Catholic camp this year. The oldest was at Catholic Youth Summer Camp and the girl was at a youth ministry camp. What a blessing! They both came home fired up for the Faith.  I am brought to joyful tears that the Lord would be so kind to make His face known to my children.  I have always taught them that eventually they will have to discover who God is apart from what mom and dad says He is. We all, at some point, need that Magdalene moment when we can truly say "I have seen the Lord!" And it is an immense blessing when that happens in a young child's life before the cares of the world obscure the Divine view.

As the new school year approaches, don't forget to savor the rest of this season.

Here are some pictures to account for this blissful Summer, in random order-

at the creek with cousins

the girl serving the volleyball at the parish picnic, it helps to have a Sister on your team

getting ready for a sleepover birthday party with her friends, note the beauty supplies

my laundromat buddy

camp entrance

this was home for a week for the oldest

the youngest celebrated a birthday

preparing the girl's vegetable garden with the help of big brother

out on a hike

can you tell which one is the most ornery?

it's good to have a strong brother when you get tired

never too young to learn how to play golf

camp photo copied from CYSC

girl and her best friend - camp photo copied from St. Patrick Youth Ministry

The Baking Girl: Copycat Recipe And Oven-Baked Chicken

At least once a week The Baking Girl is in-charge of making dinner.  I cannot tell you exactly when she took interest in cooking but I can tell you that as much as she enjoys cooking she prefers baking.  That makes us exact opposites, I prefer cooking. One of her favorite dinners is the oven-roasted chicken legs. For her age it is very easy and doesn't require too many complicated steps. It's so easy that she doesn't even measure any of the ingredient.  She does taste it to make sure it is seasoned to everybody's liking.

The ingredients for the breading are some combination of the following - flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, seasoned salt (Lawry's), parmesan cheese.  Normally she doesn't use eggs to help the breading stick but since the egg-allergic brother is at Summer Camp all week she wanted to see if eggs will make it taste better.  Honestly, I don't think it made a difference but you're allowed to think I'm wrong ;-)

Proof that we are well fed- 

egg for the breading

look ma, no measuring

I don't think we can survive without Lawry's...

...and parmesan

...and foil (for easy clean up)

dinner was a success

She also did a copycat recipe of Pizza Hut's garlic bread stick using the recipe from this dizzying Pinterest post.  I actually do not know how she was able to read all of that but she did.  For the dipping sauce she just used leftover spaghetti sauce from a couple of nights ago. I honestly think this tasted better than Pizza Hut's as it isn't as greasy and I knew exactly what ingredients went in it.  

Enjoy - 

see what I mean by dizzying recipe? source here

but she did it, the dough looked and smelled lovely

brushing on the garlic butter - yum!

Get your kids cooking this Summer!

The Baking Girl: Red, White and Blue Treats

What a treat this long weekend was! There is something about a holiday falling on a Friday that makes it a little more special.  It might be all in my head but it is good to end the week with a (national) celebration.  It also helps that the Baking Girl celebrates a birthday on this Fourth of July weekend.

We are fortunate enough to live two blocks away from the neighborhood parade. This year the weather was beautiful, I actually had to turn down (or is that up?) the air-conditioner. We skipped the city's big fireworks show but the husband took the older kids to the neighborhood fireworks display.  After that the kids (with neighbor friends) lit up firecrackers in the backyard.  We slept late on the 4th/5th lol.

The Baking Girl was up early on Independence Day, she wanted to make a special treat inspired by a Pinterest post, a berry shortcake with the colors of the flag.  Since we have egg-allergies over here, she used an egg-less shortcake recipe which was very good.  The recipe is here - http://showmethecurry.com/desserts/strawberry-shortcake-eggless-dessert.html

The only thing she did differently is that she lessened the sugar because the berries were already sugared.  The original inspiration recipe (with eggs) can be found here - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/red-white-and-blue-strawberry-shortcake/. She also dipped strawberries in whipped cream and decorating sugar.  I wasn't lacking for sugar this weekend, that's for sure.

I hope you had a wonderful Independence Day weekend.  I ate too much so I have to go exercise...tomorrow ;-)

Pictures to share:

the baking girl and her recent creation

strawberries dipped in cream and colored sugar

her homemade outfit - she decorated (drew) her own flag shirt and made cut-off shorts from a pair of old jeans, she's very low maintenance

at the parade route

one of our favorites

Have a good week!