Ready For Fall!

I don't know about you, but I have had about as much summer as I need! Just the fact that those words are coming out of my mouth is going to haunt me this winter when it seems like the sun will never come out! Living in North Idaho, the winters last from November to around April sometimes. So I'm sure I am going to look back on this and kick myself! However, one thing that is good about summer is that our garden is doing really well, the bad thing is is that we have more veggies than we know what to do with and I can't keep up! Plus with it being so warm out, I haven't been able to bake them into all the lovely, wonderful goodies that all remind me of fall. So today I shredded up a bunch of zucchini to freeze and also made some Zucchini Bread. It freezes really well and I made them into muffins too so I can freeze those and take them out when my daughter wants something other than cereal or oatmeal for breakfast. Here is the recipe that I used and it turned out AWESOME! My house smells like a bakery and I love it!

Ingredients:

3 Cups Flour

1 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

3 teaspoons Cinnamon

3 Eggs

1 Cup Vegetable Oil

2 1/4 Cups White Sugar

3 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

2 Cups Grated Zucchini

Directions:

1. Grease and flour two 8X4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon together in a bowl.

3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to cream mixture, and mix well. Add in zucchini until well combined. Pour into prepared pans.

4. Bake for 40-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean in the center. Let bread cool in the pan for 20 minutes on a cooling rack. Then remove bread from pan to cool completely (which I never do and usually have it gone before this last step.)

And there you have it! Your house will smell so fabulous and it will remind you of a cool day after a tromp through the pumpkin patch! At least it does for me.

UPDATE: This can be converted to muffins as well. This recipe will make one loaf of bread and one pan of 12 muffins. Just adjust your cooking time for the muffins to about 20-30 minutes. Just keep an eye on them and pull them out to cool while the bread continues to cook. Had an email on that one! Enjoy!