Staying ahead of the zucchini

Any backyard gardener knows the issues that zucchini can cause in one's vegetable inventory.  Let's just say there's a reason why there is a national "leave a zucchini on your neighbor's front porch day."  (Too late, it was August 8th.) 

Though my zucchini plants didn't produce as much as they have in past years, we've still gotten enough to fill our summer squash needs and more.  The last two that we picked were both monsters so some creativity was in order, which resulted in today's dinner: Stuffed Zucchini and Zucchini bread!

Stuffed Zucchini

Ingredients
1 large zucchini that got away
1 pound of your choice of meat (I used hockey pucks)
1/2 an onion, chopped
1 cup marinara sauce
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 clove of garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated cheese

Saute the onion and meat in some olive oil until browned.  Add the garlic, salt and pepper, and marinara sauce.  While that cools, slice your giant bandit zucchini in half lengthwise and use a spoon to carve out the seeds.  Some of the stuff that comes out can be chopped and added to the meat/marinara mixture so you don't have to throw it away.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place the zucchini halves in a baking dish with a little cooking spray on the bottom.  Mix in the bread crumbs into the meat/marinara mixture then fill the zucchinis with the mixture and top with the cheese.  Bake for 40 minutes or so until the cheese is browned.  Enjoy!

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients
3 Cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsps cinnamon
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 applesauce
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light agave
3 cups grated giant zucchini
optional: chopped nuts of your choice (I was out of walnuts so I used toasted almonds.)

The oven should be set around 335-350 degrees.  (It was 350 for me because I wanted to bake the two things at the same time.)  Sift the flour baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together.  In a separate bowl mix together the sugar, agave, eggs, vegetable oil, and applesauce.  Stir together the contents of the two bowls until combined and add the zucchini and nuts.  Pour the mixture into a bundt pan and bake for 50 minutes or until done.

A note on agave:  I've been using a lot of it in my cooking lately.  It's slowly gaining popularity as the sweetener of choice for many.  I don't really know much about it but apparently diabetics can eat it easier than sugar because it doesn't cause spikes in our blood sugar like regular sugar does.  I like it because it doesn't taste like crap like all other sugar substitutes do.  (Stevia?  Seriously?  Disgusting.)  I think it tastes kind of like a liquid brown sugar.  We got two giant bottles for free from Shawn's uncle who works for UPS and gets lots of stuff for free so I've been trying to think of ways to use it up.  So far so good.  I like it.

So there you go, two deeelicious zucchini recipes that will make you sad when zucchini season is over. Happy homesteading!