The hubby and I tried our hand a vegetable gardening a little last summer at the house he was renting. We put in some squash, tomatoes, and pepper and enjoyed a modest (very modest in some areas…) yield. Mostly it was just a fun thing we did together. So, since we are all settled into our amazing house with an acre of land to play on we decided to make a proper little veggie garden this year.
Dad, my stepsister, and her boyfriend cam and helped us put the garden about two months ago. The hubs (and yes, I LOVE being able to call him that) and I finished prepping the soil and got our little veggie garden in before the wedding. We put in some squash, zucchini, cucumbers, herbs, and a couple varieties of tomatoes and peppers. Everything was looking good and growing slowly prior to the honeymoon. We came home from our amazing tropical week… the garden had taken off!
Apparently our green thumbs are improving because we have a TON of stuff coming in! There are about a million little green tomatoes developing, lots of peppers, plenty of cucumbers and enough zucchini and squash to feed a small army (so no complaining if you see a lot of squash/zucchini/tomato recipes on here this summer)! After some serious rain the other day, hubby went out to the garden and returned with the biggest zucchini I have ever seen! I swear it was as big as my upper arm! I immediately though “I have to make some zucchini bread with that!” Not entirely sure why that was my reaction, but I just went with it and I’m super glad I did. This is a healthy and very tasty bread. I think the only change I’ll make to this recipe is using brown sugar next time. And possibly adding some crasins…
Zucchini Bread
3 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
3 c shredded zucchini
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 c vanilla almond milk
2/3 c vegetable oil
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
½ c chopped walnuts
½ c shredded unsweetened coconut
Preheat oven to 350⁰ and grease the bottom of a 9x9x2 pan.
In a large bowl stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl stir together the zucchini, milk, oil, eggs, sugar and spices. Slowly stir the zucchini mixture into the flour. Once mixture is completely combined, fold in the walnuts and coconut.
Pour into prepared pan and back for 55 to 65 minutes, until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Turn bread out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting.
Now eat it! (I highly suggest eating warm, with coffee!)
A Garlic Goddess 