Are You Ready?

Yes, I'm ready. . .(Can you hear the song in your head? Those are the only lines I know.) Anyway, here we go with a marathon of posts to catch up with everything I cooked/baked over the weekend and Bob's birthday--in no particular order. As I post these recipes you will see that food blogs are a favorite of mine. Why reinvent the wheel, right? If the recipes are there why try to screw up new ones?

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Cornbread
from Sparky
Print Recipe

1 cup cornmeal (freshly ground highly recommended)
3 cups flour
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup oil
6 Tbsp butter, melted
4 eggs, beaten
2 1/2 cups milk

Add dry ingredients, make a well and add oil, butter, eggs, and milk into the center. Stir until just mixed (batter will be runny). Bake in an 9 x 13 pan at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

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Zucchini Muffins with Dried Cranberries
from Real Mom Kitchen
Print Recipe

nonstick cooking spray*
1 3/4 cups shredded zucchini**
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup applesauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
fresh ground nutmeg - just a bit
1/8 tsp ground cloves
3/4 tsp salt
1/2-3/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat muffin pans (24 muffins) with cooking spray or use muffin papers, and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together sugars, oil, applesauce, vanilla, and eggs. Into a small bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and salt. Add flour mixture to egg mixture, and stir to combine well. Stir in grated zucchini and dried cranberries. Scoop batter into prepared muffin pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20-22 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove from muffin pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

*In an effort to be frugal NEVER purchase non-stick spray from the dollar store. Not only does it smell funny and contain 4 times the ingredients of a regular Canola oil but one of those ingredients is propane. Propane?!? Are you kidding me? The can is now in the trash. I don't even want to use it for emergencies.

**Grate zucchini using the small holes of a box grater. Squeeze juice from zucchini. (I use my hands but you can use paper towels or cheese cloth.) You can save the zucchini juice to water plants or freeze and use as part of vegetable broth--use your imagination and try it out in other things too.

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Oatmeal Cinnamon Zucchini Muffins
from Kara's Kitchen Creations
Print Recipe

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini*
1 cup cinnamon chips

Stir together dry ingredients. Whisk eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla, and zucchini together in a large bowl. Add dry ingredients and chips and mix well. Fill well greased or paper lined muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes. Cool in pans for about 5 minutes, then remove and cool on cooling racks.

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Morning Glory Zucchini Bread
from Morning Glory Farm, and the Family that Feeds and Island
Print Recipe

2 to 2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups sugar
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
chocolate chips (if desired)
chopped nuts (if desired)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray two 9 x 5 bread pans with nonstick spray. In a large mixing bowl, combine zucchini, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. Beat sugar into mix until it is thoroughly creamed. Once liquids and sugar are well mixed, add flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until batter is well blended and even in texture. The batter should be smooth, outside the zucchini shreds. If it’s not, add a little juice from the zucchini.Pour batter evenly into pans. (If you only want nuts and or chocolate chips in one loaf you can stir them in once the batter is in the pan.) Bake for approximately 1 hour, or until bread is brown and springs back when gently pressed in the middle.

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Muffins can be made from a bread recipe by scooping dough into muffin tins and decreasing the bake time (almost half the time). Bread can be made from a muffin recipe by using a bread pan and increasing the bake time (almost double the time).

Once you have baked the muffins and/or bread you can freeze them for later. So you can enjoy the benefits of a big baking day for weeks.

I don't want the post to be too long so I will post more with the other recipes.