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Thursday, September 15, 2011

More Uses for Zucchini

Since our garden got a late start this year, we are still harvesting a ton of Zucchini.One of the many quests of my life is to find good uses for this mutant vegetable that proliferates like the bunny of the vegetable world. In the past we have posted articles on Zucchini Fritters, Microwaved Zucchini Bread, Zucchini Frittatas, and Zucchini Brownie's

This past weekend we found a really good  recipe on www.cooks.com. We tweaked it a little bit and my family really liked it. I don't like to be too surreptitious and sneak veggies into my kids food. I prefer to let them know that veggies help us feel good and live healthy. I find that if our children know the veggies are from our garden, they like to eat it. In this case however, our kids are burnt out on Zucchini so when Mason asked us what the green things were in the meatloaf, I said herbs. There are herbs in there so who am I to say whether he was referring to Zucchini or herbs. It was an honest mistake.

Here is the tweaked recipe taken from the original recipe here.

1 lb. ground beef
1 lb ground turkey
2 c. finely grated, unpeeled zucchini
1 c. whole wheat bread crumbs OR regular bread crumbs 
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves chopped garlic
2 tsp. instant beef bouillon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. milk
1 lg. egg, beaten
Combine all ingredients in large bowl; mix thoroughly. Pack into 9'x5"x3" loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1hour.

The meatloaf came out very moist and flavorful. My oldest said "I don't usually like meatloaf but this is really good." Hopefully this gives you all another use for the deluge of Zucchini that is overtaking your garden. If you don't have any Zucchini just ask your neighbor that has a garden for some. Chances are that they have extra.

~Michael~

10 comments:

Julie said...

I like to put zucchini in baked oatmeal:
http://realfoodlittlerock.blogspot.com/2011/06/batch-cooking-baking-day.html

teekaroo said...

How funny. I just served meatloaf tonight and claimed that the yellow was a sweet pepper. There was sweet pepper in there too, but mostly it was yellow squash. My picky eater ate more than anybody.

Mary Ann said...

Thank you for ANOTHER way to use zucchini, and a good one, too. We are cutting down on our red meat consumption, but I can squeeze in one for the LAST zucchini of the summer here!

MAYBELLINE said...

Grate up the squash and freeze it for baking projects later.

Dani said...

"There are herbs in there so who am I to say whether he was referring to Zucchini or herbs. It was an honest mistake."

LOL I make the same "honest" mistakes when asked what is in food. If it doesn't hurt them then why tell them - all the time...

Thanks for the recipe :)

Anonymous said...

So yummy!

Casey said...

I have a really yummy chocolate chip zucchini bread recipe I use the zucchini in.
we like meatloaf so I might have to try your recipe :)

Alice said...

Last year I found a recipe for zucchini cake with browned butter frosting. It tastes like werthers caramels.

http://www.utahdealdiva.com/2010/09/zucchini-spice-cake-with-browned-butter.html

Last time I made it I didn't have enough zucchini (crazy, I know), so I used some shredded carrots too.

expert contabil said...

Hmmm this recipe looks so delicious and nice and i think that fits perfect with my taste and in my opinion is a very easy recipe, so i think i will try it. Thanks for sharing.

BTO said...

oh you are so lucky. I want some fresh zucchini. Zucchini fries are also delicious!