Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Searching for a sweet treat to take along to a Memorial Day celebration? Try these moist cupcakes and you'll be sure to please your guests. If your family doesn't eat them all first.  You'll be hard-pressed to convince others that a recipe so fabulous could actually contain zucchini. Maybe you don't need to bother sharing that secret.

This is one of my favorite recipes which I most recently made for a baby shower, and happily pleased the girlfriends who showed up.

Here's what you need:

This will make 12 regular cupcakes and 24 mini-cupcakes

• 2 cups zucchini, shredded
• 3 eggs
• 1 ½ cups honey
• ½ cup canola oil
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• ⅔ cup cocoa, dark, unsweetened
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¾ cup dark chocolate pieces, chopped

***Frosting***

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 2 tablespoon rice milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 to 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

On to the mixing and baking:

• Preheat oven to 325 standard or 300 convection.

• In a large bowl stir together zucchini, eggs, honey, oil and vanilla. Blend well.

• In a separate bowl, stir flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, baking powder and chocolate pieces.

• Add flour mixture to wet mixture.

• Fill lined cupcake molds no more than half full.

• Bake in convection oven for 20 minutes for regular size cupcakes or 11 minutes for mini cupcakes.

• Cool completely, then frost.

Whip up the Frosting:

• Beat peanut butter, butter, rice milk and vanilla until smooth.
• Stir in powdered sugar and mix until combined.

Glazed Grilled Salmon

Here's another delicious, easy grilled Salmon recipe for you to add to your menu next week. Like the one Heather posted last week, this recipe is simple and includes just 5 ingredients. Plus, it only needs to marinade for 5 minutes; about the same amount of time it takes to prep your grill and get it super hot. 

Toss together a salad, and a side of rice, and you've got dinner together faster than Rachel Ray.   Now go fire up the grill and get ready for supper.

Here's what you'll need from the pantry:

• 2 tablespoons splenda
• 1 ½ tsp rice vinegar
• 1 ½ tsp dry mustard
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• ½ tsp molasses dark
• 12 ounces salmon filet, cut in 2-3 pieces

This is so easy:

• Mix together all 5 ingredients. 
• Set aside 1 Tablespoon of marinade in a small dish.
• Place salmon on a plate and pour seasoning over it, covering both sides.
• Let salmon sit, skinless side down for 2 or 3 minutes.

• Grill 5 minutes over indirect heat.  Turn salmon and baste with marinade left on the plate. Grill 5 minutes more.

Drizzle with the reserved seasoning before serving.

Orange - Glazed Salmon

Orange - Glazed Salmon

For as minimal as the ingredients are in this recipe, it is flavor filled! It manages to pack sweet, spicy, and zesty all into one amazing dish! It only takes roughly 6 minutes cook up! Throw in a salad and you will have a meal to remember!

Ingredients:2 Tbsp Cajun Spice
1/2 Tsp brown sugar
Pinch of kosher salt
2 boneless, fresh salmon fillets (6 oz. each)
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp orange marmalade
1 1/2 Tsp lime juice
Lime wedges

Combine: Cajun spice, brown sugar, and salt in a small bowl. Rub mixture over all surfaces of fillets. Saute fillets in oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-heat for 3-4 minutes. Turn fish and saute an additional 2-3 minutes.

Blend: Marmalade and lime juice; swirl in pan until marmalade is melted. Carefully turn fish to glaze on all sides. Fish is done when it begins to flake when tested with a fork

Serve: Slice up lime wedges and serve with fillets

I really loved how the ingredients brought out the best in the salmon and didn't cover up the naturally wonderful flavor of the fish itself! Enjoy!

Everybody Cooks Rice

We checked out the best children's book from our local library called Everybody Cooks Rice.   Its a story about a mom who is making rice for dinner.   She tells her daughter to go look for her brother and tell him its time for dinner.   The daughter goes around the neighborhood into each of her neighbor's home looking for her brother.   Every neighbor is making rice for dinner, but every neighbor is from a different country so each rice dish is different.   The best part of the book is that in the back of the book is a recipe for each rice dish.

We took a couple of weeks making each recipe except for the one which we couldn't find any pigeon peas.   My kids were good sports and at least tried each recipe.    I had fun making all of the recipes.   I'm not sure what my favorite was, but when I asked the kids they said their favorite was Mrs. Tran's Fried Rice, so its the recipe I'm listing below.    They almost said Mrs. Hua's Tofu with Vegetables, not because they liked the dish (because they didn't) but because they got to eat it with chopsticks.   I enjoyed the Biryani and would like to make it again with a little tweaking.   If you aren't into experimenting with rice, they also have Everybody Bakes Bread, Serves Soup, and Brings Noodles.

Mrs. Tran's Fried Rice

2 eggs
1 T Butter
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 T oil
1/2 c green peas
1/2 c corn
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 t sugar
1 T fish sauce
2 T soy sauce
4 cups cold cooked rice

1)  Scramble the eggs in butter and set aside.

2)   In a wok or large frying pan over medium heat, saute onion in oil until it's transparent

3)  Add the vegetables and cook, stirring, for three minutes

4)  Add sugar, fish sauce, and soy sauce, and mix well.

5)  Add rice and cook for about five minutes, stirring frequently, until all the food it hot.

6)  Chop up the scrambled eggs, mix them in, and serve.

Avocado Salsa Dip

I got this recipe from my sister and have made it many times.    It didn't come with a name so we  named it ourselves and called it Tomatoless Salsa Dip.   My sister doesn't like tomatoes (how weird is that), but they are one of my favorites and I had a box of cherry tomatoes in my fridge I was looking to use up, so I added it to this recipe tonight.   But then that ruined the whole Tomatoless thing, so I've renamed again as Avocado Salsa Dip.   If you aren't a tomato lover either, please feel free to leave them out and join the weird Don't Like Tomatoes Club.


I made Taco Salad for dinner tonight and we dumped the Avocado Salsa Dip on top of the salad and it made for a really nice addition to the salad.   ~Denise

Avocado Salsa Dip

Combine these ingredients:
1 can sliced olives
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 cup cherry tomatoes cut in half
1/2 onion, chopped fine
1/2 red pepper, chopped fine
1/2 teaspoon garlic

Combine these ingredients for marinate:

4 Tb olive oil
2 Tb lemon juice
2 Tb balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

Add marinate to salsa dip.   Let set in fridge for at least 1 hour.

Add one chopped avocado before serving.   Don't forget this.   Avocado is what makes this dip and can't tell you the countless times I have forgotten! 

Recipe easily doubles.  Feel free to add more or less of each ingredient depending upon your own personal likes/dislikes.   Use as a dip with chips or top your favorite taco! 

Very Berry Cheesecake

VERY BERRY CHEESECAKE

This is a terrific recipe and it received rave reviews from my entire family, over Mother's Day weekend. I'm positive I will be making this one again and again!

I followed the recipe to the letter (something very much out of the norm for me) and I suggest you do the same to get the same fabulous results! Enjoy! - Heather

Ingredients:
For crust -
butter, 3/4 cup
graham crackers, 8 ounces

For topping -
lemons, 2 - rind and juice
gelatin, 1/2-ounce envelope
cottage cheese, 1 cup
cream cheese, 1 cup
canned condensed milk, 14 ounces
strawberries, 4 cups, hulled
raspberries, 1 cup

Note: You'll need a 8-inch round, loose-bottomed, nonstick, spring-clip pan & some parchment paper, a blender or food processor, and a strainer. This also requires overnight to set up, so plan ahead if you want to make this sweet treat!

Step 1: With a pencil, draw around the bottom of an 8-inch round, loose-bottomed, nonstick spring-clip cake pan onto parchment paper. Cut out the circle and use to line the bottom of the cake pan.
Step 2: To make the base of the cake, put the butter in a pan and melt over low heat. Break the graham crackers in pieces, put them in a blender or food processor, and blend until they are crumbs. Stir into the melted butter and mix well.
Step 3: Tip the buttery crumbs into the cake pan and use a spoon to spread the mixture in a thin, even layer over the bottom, pressing down well with the back of the spoon. Put the pan in the refrigerator while you make the topping.
Step 4: To make the topping, put the lemon rind (I simply used my lemon zester here) and juice in a small bowl and sprinkle over the gelatin. Stand the bowl in a pan of water and heat gently, until the gelatin has all melted. Stir, remove bowl from pan, and let cool.
Step 5: Drain cottage cheese in a strainer, then transfer to a blender or food processor and blend for 20 seconds. Add the cream cheese and condensed milk, cover with the lid again, and blend the mixture again until smooth.
Step 6: Pour in the dissolved gelatin mixture and blend once more.
Step 7: On a cutting board roughly chop half the strawberries with sharp knife and scatter ove the cakes cookie base with half the raspberries, reserving the rest for decoration.
Step 8: Pour the cheese mixture over the fruit. Level the top with the back of a spoon. Cover and chill in the refrigerator overnight, until set.
Step 9: Loosen the edges of the cheesecake with a palette knife (go around the entire edge of the pan...VERY IMPORTANT or cake will crack!). Open the side clips of the pan and slide off of cake. Put the cheesecake on a serving plate and decorate with reserved fruit!

This is a crowd pleaser for sure, so be sure to give it a try!

Davy Crockett bars revisited

I'm blogging in response to a post that Denise made in February with a recipe for these incredible Davy Crockett bars

If you haven't made them yet, now is a great time to try them. I improvised her recipe a bit by cleaning out my pantry of those almost-empty-not-quite-sure-why-I'm-saving-them items, and dumped them into an already great recipe.  Then I took the resulting ingredient list to my sons preschool class and spent a morning baking with them. I pre-measured the items so everyone had a chance to add and stir. So fun and so easy! Happy kids. Happy teachers. Happy me!

Unfortunately, I also took my pocket-sized Olympus camera with me and I'm NEVER happy with the photos it takes, but I also don't mind if the kids take photos with it (ie: it's cheap).

Now it's your turn...happy Monday!   ~Laurie