Uses For Gigantic Zucchini...

Who hasn't missed a zucchini or two hiding in the garden and before long, you've tripped over a few? Well here is an idea for you, make pasta with it. Most have been trained to think, zucchini that has gotten so big just needed to be fed to the hens, or tossed into the compost pile. You may just want to give it a second though.  If you haven't made it to your garden quick enough to get those zucchini when they are perfect size, not to worry.

 A couple of weeks ago, we found a tool for making noodles from veggies at a local Asian supermarket. It cost about $2.99. We purchased one and brought it home to give it a try. We peeled a large zucchini and cut in half. Laying the flat side of the squash to the cutting board. We stripped the zucchini down and around until we started hitting the seeds and center. We just tossed seeds and centers into the compost bucket.  

We placed the zucchini noodles in a glass dish and microwaved for 2 minutes. It was the was perfect consistency for spaghetti. We could still twirl it onto our fork perfectly, just like traditional pasta. It is so delicious. Honestly, I think from now on we will be using zucchini as our pasta.  We loved it so much, when we popped back in the Asian market, we bought several of the tools to give to family when we shared squash with them. We are so sure that the family will be as hooked as we are on this.

Papaw, with all his muscles spent an hour or so this evening cutting zucchini and I bagged it for the freezer. We froze about 7 to 8 quart sized bags from about 4 oversized squash.

Here is what the noodles look like.

I know many people think zucchini should be picked when small but we are finding that letting a zucchini get larger, just yields more food and it isn't tough. We have taken some of the larger ones and cored them, scraped the seeds and centers out, and tossed into the compost bucket. Then cube it and put it in vacuum sealed bags and freeze. No blanching is required. I have pulled out bags almost a year later, opened and sautéed in a skillet and it is perfect. When blanching, I have found it makes the squash mushy. I do think the Food Saver/vacuum method is perfect for saving squash. We also love the larger cubes. They are perfect for tossing in soups and sauces. We are convinced that washing well and leaving the peelings on just adds nutritional value.

Another idea for oversized zucchini is, stuffed zucchini boats. They also freeze well. I'll post the recipe for those soon.

My reason for sharing this is, maybe when you think a veggie is past its perfect picking time frame, there still may be good uses for it. One thing that is for certain, if it isn't perfect for us, our hens will be grateful. Those gals will eat just about anything from the garden that we need to toss.

So, if you have some overgrown zucchini, give this a try. I have also learned, slicing it lengthwise about 1/8 inch thick, makes a perfect substitute for lasagna noodles. If you want a healthy alternative to lasagna and a twist on flavor, check out my post using sweet potato as the filling instead of lots of unhealthy ricotta and cheese.  http://tnmamaw.blogspot.com/2013/01/healthy-and-delicious-yes-it-is-possible.html

I did make this using zucchini for the noodles just this past week and it was awesome. It does take about 45 minutes to an hour to bake. I covered it with foil for the first 35 minutes then removed the foil to finish for about 15 to 20 more minutes. It is such a delicious and healthy alternative to traditional lasagna. 

Just wanted to share our tips and hope you all find good uses for veggies that may be just a bit larger than ideal size.

Many blessings!

Summertime Goodness...

Well, it has been a month since my last post. I really thought, I would be able to work on my blog a bit more, once summer came, bah, ha, ha!  Summer thus far, has been pretty busy. With working on the garden, putting up veggies in the freezer and doing a small amount of canning, I have not had a lot of free time.

We did manage to sqeeze in an 11 day vacation, with the help of our son. We would not have been able to leave for that long, if  he had not helped us out. Daily, he cared for our chickens. He also looked after our cat Lucy and Buddy our dog. He also watered our garden. He is such a good egg, that is what I always say to him. I am so grateful to him for helping to make our vacation possible so, thank you Joey! We love and appreciate you so very much.

We took Doodlebug camping. We had a really great time. We took Doodlebug to a nearby waterfall. She and Papaw hiked up it. She loved it. She is such an adventurous kid. She stayed with us for 7 days and then she went home. Papaw and I had some well needed time to just relax. We spent our days alone there just relaxing and reading a bit. We hiked around the lake, swam and just enjoyed a bit of down time.

Below is a shot of the backside of the lake from our little 4 mile hike. We headed out early to avoid the heat. The high that day, was 102 degrees. When we returned to camp, it was about 98 degrees. The water that early was like a mirror, it was so calm. I have so many wonderful photos that I would love to share, because they are so special to me. I do think you would grow tired of seeing them all, if I posted them. I did love this shot though.

We returned home from the campout, to see the garden was overflowing with veggies that needed to be picked and put away. Thank God, our son had been watering it. With the heat we have had lately, if he had not watered it, we wouldn't have had a garden to come home to.

The garden has grown pretty well. We do know now, next year we will be expanding it outward. Right now, we have to wade through the squash to pick it. We have also learned, the tomato plants are set too closely together.

We had no idea that Roma tomato plants grew more like a bush. Next year, we will have to find a better way to stake up the plants and space them out. We have noticed that we have a bit of bloom rot on our Roma tomato plants and we have treated for that. I do hope that we solve that problem because our tomato plants are loaded and we were looking forward to canning some of those.

We have picked okra, green beans, sugar snaps, peppers, spinach, kale, several types of squash and a few cucumbers already. I do wish we would have planted more cucumbers, green beans and sugar snap peas. This being our first real attempt to plant a garden, we had no idea how much to plant. We are taking notes for next year. There are many things I know we will be planting less of and things we will be planting much more of.

We have had an abundance of squash, of all types. I am really looking forward to our fall squash. I think we are going to have a good harvest of butternut and acorn squash. I am excited about that. We love acorn and butternut.

The spaghetti squash has been a very good crop too. I wished I knew a way of canning this type of squash. We have been making refrigerator salads and eating it with sauce in place of pasta. I would love to know how to preserve this and put it away, while being able to maintain its noodle like texture.

Papaw and I have been enjoying our evenings together, spent weeding and picking. It seems like the perfect way to relax after a long day, even if we are working. Up until this heat wave, we looked forward to our late afternoons working in the garden. We are now looking forward to a much needed break from such high temperatures soon. I do hope the weather man is right and next week will bring much needed rain and cooler evenings.

I am grateful to God for all of our blessings and summer goodness. I do hope you all had a wonderful fourth of July and are finding wonderful ways to say cool and beat the heat.

Until next time,

Many blessings to you all!

Tidbits...

It has been a while since my last blog post. It is my first post since eblogger has updated us all. I do not embrace change, when it comes to getting use to how certain things work on computers. I feel like we learn something just in time for the next change. I am going to give it my best try here and I hope, I figure out how to write, format and properly post a new entry.

Our garden is coming in quiet well. We were probably overly anxious this year about getting our garden going. We had many evenings that we were out tenting sheets over our plants to protect them from frost. Next year, we will pay attention to our neighbors around that have been growing gardens successfully for years and start when they do. Although I must say, it is nice to see our garden flourishing and we are getting things like kale, spinach and radishes already.   Papaw is thrilled with his garden so much so, he is already planning to enlarge it a bit next year. 

 

Our little hobo that came to us many weeks ago is doing so well. He has gained weight and appears to be healthy. We had a vet to stop by and see him to give him his shots and test for heart worms. He says he is is fine and is one lucky fellow. It seems it has taken him weeks to really get his body restored from the starvation that he went through. Where ever he came from, we just feel blessed he is our dog now. He is so lively. He loves playing with Doodlebug too. He is her shadow. He also follows Papaw to the hen house daily. He always wants to get in on a treat. Papaw has taken to keeping doggie treats in the barn. When he takes the treats out to the gal, he always takes a few doggie treats out for Buddy. Oh, Doodlebug decided to call him Buddy. Everyone would always call him by saying, "come here buddy." He is everyone's buddy here and we love him.

Hope you all are doing well. Until next time, blessings!

Back On The Smoothie Kick...

I am not sure why I ever stopped making my morning and lunch smoothies. I always loved them. I do think I backed off because of not wanting to wake up the house in the mornings, with my blender doing it's thing but I am back on the smoothie wagon.

Everyone I know practically, has been making their morning goodness and posting photos of their concoctions and recipes on Facebook. It has inspired me to get back in the game. I started making smoothies a few days ago and after my first smoothie, I wondered why I ever stopped. All I can say is, "Papaw get ready to have your alarm clock replaced with the whine of my Blendtec."

This morning's smoothie was made using,
1 Granny Smith apple
4 Kale leaves and stems
1/2 of a very large carrot
1 beet
1/2 of an English cucumber
1 Myer's lemon juiced and a
small amount of Cilantro


It is really yummy. I would love to hear your smoothie recipes. Please share them with me if you will.

Blessings!