Zucchini Bread

First, allow me to say that I love cooking and I tolerate baking. With cooking, I've found that I can eyeball things pretty well and guestimate on a lot of things. With baking, you have to be precise. All the measuring and evening things out can just about drive me crazy. So, I don't often bake, and when I do, I really have to be in the mood to do so. With that said, here's an easy batter bread that doesn't have to be quite as precise as most baked items. 

I love zucchini bread. In fact, I just love zucchini period! This is one of the easier batter breads, and it is so tasty! Since the Manfriend gave me 2 huge bags of zucchini and yellow squash, I had to think of things to make. I did cut all of it down, shred some up, and vacuum pack it all. Thank goodness Lucinda wanted a food-vac for Christmas one year, even though she has never even used it herself! Well, let me tell you, the little food-vac got a work out!!! Luckily we like squash. This will be quite welcome this winter when good squash is next to impossible to find.

These are stacked on top of each other.

I've come to find out that many people don't like zucchini bread, they think it can be dry. Well, I have a little secret ingredient that will make this nice and moist. 

Zucchini Bread:

      Dry Ingredients

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 box instant vanilla pudding mix <----------- The secret ingredient! Shhhhhh!

        Wet Ingredients

3 eggs at room temperature

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

         After the Wet

3 cups shredded zucchini

1 cup walnuts coarsely chopped (optional)

1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 2 8x4x2 loaf pans, or line muffin tins 

In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients together.

In another bowl, slightly beat the eggs and add in the rest of the wet ingredients. 

Once combined, add in the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened.

Gently fold in the the zucchini, walnunts, and raisins.

Divide the batter between the loaf pans or fill lined muffin tins 2/3 of the way full.

Bake the loafs 55-60 minutes, or until golden brown and toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.

Bake muffins around 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown and the clean toothpick.

See how simple! You can even fancy it up by adding some orange zest if you like a more citrusy taste.

Even some chocolate chips (dark, milk, or white) are a nice surprise. The beauty of this recipe is so many things can be done differently and you'll still have a fantastic bread!

Garlic Lemon Parsley Pesto

So, I'm not a huge fan of pesto, but once in a while, it's ok. A few days ago, the Manfriend gave me 2 huge bags of zucchini and yellow squash (recipes to come, I'm sure!) and a huge bag of parsley. I mean, like a walmart bag full. I spent a while searching online, comparing recipes for parsley because what am I going to do with it all? Well, Garlic Lemon Parsley Pesto sounded like a plan! One thing you'll learn about me is I LOVE garlic. If a recipe calls for garlic, I am adding more! Back when everyone joked about Paula Deen and her love of butter, I would often say garlic to me is what butter is to Paula. It's wonderful! 

The nice thing with pesto is you can freeze it. My foodvac was working overtime yesterday. Pesto calls for pine nuts. Many people just toss them in, but to get the creamy texture, you have to grind the pine nuts in the food processor. 

 Parsley Pesto
3 tablespoons pine nuts
3-4 large cups packed flat leaf parsley
3 large cloves garlic
1/2 cup fresh basil
2 tsp hot red pepper flakes (more or less depending on how hot you want it)
1 lemon juiced
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 olive oil (I like garlic olive oil, habanero olive oil is good, too)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound hot noodles, whichever you prefer
 
In the food processor, grind the pine nuts until smooth
Add in the parsley, basil, garlic, pepper flakes, lemon juice and zest, and a small bit of olive oil and pulse processor
Slowly add in the rest of the olive oil until mixture in smooth. 
Toss with hot noodles and serve. Leftovers are good in the fridge for 3 days, or freeze and thaw when needed. 

The giant bag of parsley

Fresh out of the processor

Sooo green!!!

MMMMMM!!!!!!!!

Chicken Stuffing Casserole Bake

In my house, Lucinda (my mom), is the chicken lover. Dad is the steak eater, and does not eat chicken. My brother and I normally tend to just eat whatever is made, with some exceptions. At least once a day the question "whats for dinner?" is asked. As I've said before, I like to take shortcuts and make things easy on myself.

One of our favorite things, that even dad will eat, is rotisserie chicken. I love to cook with rotisserie chicken. The work is already done, it moist, tender, and falls off of the bone. When the local grocery markets have sales on the chicken, I buy a bunch, shred the white meat (I'm not a fan of dark meat), portion it out and vacuum pack the bags. Then, whenever I need something fast to make, I already have a bunch of cooked, flavorful chicken that just needs thawed. How much easier could it be? The dark meat does get eaten, normally the legs are grabbed by whoever gets to them first.

A couple days ago, I was trying to figure out something to make so everyone could eat when they got home from work. I came across many posts on Pinterest (LOVE IT!!!!!) about Chicken Stuffing Casserole. I had all the stuff, except for a rotisserie chicken, so I figured why not? Naturally, I had to tweak the recipes a little bit.  

Chicken Stuffing Casserole Bake:
1 Rotisserie Chicken shredded (I just used the white meat, but if you want the dark as well, feel free to add)
2 cups shredded swiss cheese or 12 slices swiss cheese
1 box bowtie pasta or ziti, depending on your preference, boiled and drained
1.5 cups frozen sweet corn, or 1 can corn
2 cans cream of chicken soup
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp garlic powder
1 can chicken broth (I prefer Swansons)
1 box Stuffing mix
1.5 cups sour cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

You don't always need name brand

Start by mixing together the corn, shredded chicken, 2 cans cream of chicken, 3/4 can of chicken broth, salt pepper and garlic powder.

After mixing well, add the drained noodles and 1/2 cup of shredded swiss. if using slices, just tear 2 slices in small pieces. Mix together.

 Put mixture into a sprayed 13x9 pan or larger casserole dish.

 Mix together the sour cream and remaining chicken broth. Then add in the boxed stuffing and spread over the chicken and noodles. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, or lay slices down

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes

Dish out and enjoy! 

Baked Steak

I worked in a restaurant called Spanky's Pancake House for almost 10 years to help pay for my varied schooling. I loved the people I worked with and most of my customers. I could write a book on all the life lessons I learned while employed at Spanky's, but that is a whole other blog! One of the more popular dishes was their Baked Steak. I'm lucky enough to live close to a local meat market that provides freshly processed meat. For the Baked Steak, they always bought cubed steak from the market, and it's wonderful. This is my own version of the recipe. I have my own little shortcuts for things, and if you want to make anything homemade, go for it! 

Baked Steak
6-8 Cubed Steaks
3 packets Brown Gravy Mix
3.5 cups water
2 tablespoons Corn Starch
Salt and Pepper to taste
Garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350°
Season the steaks with salt, pepper, and garlic powder
Mix together the brown gravy mix, water and corn starch.
Lay the steaks in a 13x9 inch pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray, it's ok if the steaks overlap. 
Pour the gravy mix over the top of the steaks and cover pan with foil. 
It will seem like there is a lot of liquid, but it cooks down and can be used over mashed potatoes if that is what's preferred. 
Bake 1.5-2 hours.

The Baked Steak is so amazingly tender, you won't even need a knife. Serve it with some mashed taters, veggies of your choice, and some crusty bread.

Enjoy!!

Welcome!

Hi! I'm Jenna. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog! I'm pretty new to this, so bear with me. I've tossed around the idea of a food blog for quite some time, after all, how hard could it be?? Well.... I guess we'll find out! To give you some background info, I'm a country girl who likes to cook. I've recently graduated nursing school and am waiting to take my boards so I can start my new job! I live with my family, they drive me nuts, but I love them. I have dogs, you'll probably see a lot about my St. Bernard, Sophie. I also have Belgian horses. I am a HUGE reader, I love nothing more than to sit with a good book. I love to laugh and have fun, and of course eat!

I've always loved to cook. From the ages of about 8-18, I had the dream of being a chef. If I was watching tv, chances are, I had a cooking show on. I love to take a recipe and tweak it to make it my own. Then I realized, I like to cook when I want to cook, not when I have to. So fast forward 10 years to now. I don't regret not going to culinary school, I'm happy where I am and when I want to cook, I cook, and if I don't, I get take out. It always amazes me when people say they can't cook. Granted, some dishes can be daunting, but you just have to have fun with it. The great thing about most recipes is you can adjust them to make something of your very own! Hopefully you enjoy the recipes I'll share and let me know how things go for you!!