Grain Free Zucchini Loaf

Some days, you just need to bake (well...I do anyway...!!!) Those who know me well are aware that when my stress level gets high, nothing calms me like some kitchen time, with the music cranked (and sometimes a glass of wine...it helps with the whine :) )  

We have alot going on right now, with buying and selling a house, packing, 

and renovations on the newly bought house starting very soon.  

So, after a crazy day of work...and meetings...and lawyers... and house stuff... 

I came home with a SERIOUS need to de-stress. 

With my zucchinis going crazy in the garden (no one in their right mind should ever plant 4 zucchini plants!!!) 

I decided to play with my 

Carrot Cake Muffin 

recipe and turn it into a zucchini loaf. It worked well enough to share, 

so here it is! 

I made up a batch of this Maple Cashew Cream Frosting (I had envisioned a lemony cream cheese topped loaf, but...that would have entailed a trip back out to the grocery store...and that was NOT happening lol!!)  A bit of searching for a recipe,  and with all of these ingredients on hand, I bravely unpacked my food processor and gave it a go. It matched the flavour of the loaf perfectly, and was not too rich or sweet. I will definitely use it again! 

Thanks CotterCrunch for a great topping for my loaf! 

Pictured here with this amazing Maple Cashew Frosting

Grain Free Zucchini Loaf

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup of kefir or yogurt

4 eggs, preferably pastured

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1/3 cup coconut sugar

1/3 cup organic coconut oil, softened

1 tsp organic cinnamon

¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Pinch of cloves

Whiz all of these ingredients together with a stick blender (or whisk if you are feeling particularly ambitious!) until very well incorporated. 

Add:

1 cup grated zucchini, (with liquid squeezed out as much as possible!!)

½ cup chopped walnuts

1/3 cup organic  raisins

Mix well, ensuring ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Let batter stand for 5 minutes to thicken up.

Scoop into parchment lined or well greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
(my pan was quite large, 9X5 I think?  If yours is smaller, you will need to adjust your baking time until it is cooked thru!)

Let cool 5 minutes in pan before removing to a rack to cool.

Keep at room temp for the first day, refrigerate after that for a few days, if you have any left!!

Grain Free Cherry Coconut Zucchini Loaf

Anyone who follows me on my Facebook recipe page will know that I am in the midst of being inundated by zucchini. It is the season that all gardeners love to hate, and I am no different. Two zucchini plants keep us in zucchini for a good chunk of the summer and into the fall. But they grow like crazy!!! One minute you have beautiful tiny little zucchinis, and the next minute you have these gargantuan beasts that resemble watermelons more than the summer squash they are. I have no idea how they actually accomplish these spectacular feats of growth overnight, but it really is kind of amazing.

They really are delicious, too, and I have been going crazy pinning zucchini recipes on my Pinterest page. From sweet to savory, (and even a soup recipe!) I cannot wait to try out some new recipes.

I made this zucchini loaf today, and it turned out quite tasty. The sour cherries add a lovely zing of flavour to this moist grain free loaf. It was a great use for one of the smaller of the 6 (!!!) zucchinis that I pulled from the garden yesterday.

 A slice of this loaf would be lovely to have with a nice cup of tea on the patio…now I just need to find the time to sit and relax!

Grain Free Cherry Coconut Zucchini Loaf

4 eggs

1 T Apple cider vinegar (I like this one!)

1 cup milk kefir (or yogurt or non-dairy substitute of choice)

1/3 cup coconut oil, softened

½ cup coconut flour

¼ cup arrowroot flour

This sized zucchini grated into
 a generous 1 1/2 cups

2 Tbsp chickpea flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ cup coconut sugar

1 tsp vanilla powder (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)

¾ tsp sea salt

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

ADD INS:

1 ½ cups grated zucchini (mine was a very generous cup and a half!!)

½ cup dried sour cherries (sub raisins or dried cranberries if you wish)

½ cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a loaf pan (mine measures 9.25x5.25x2.75) with parchment or grease well.

 Set aside.

Measure all ingredients EXCEPT the add-ins into a large mixing bowl. Blend together well with an immersion blender or a whisk and lots of elbow grease. Let stand 5 minutes to thicken up.

Grate zucchini with a regular sized grater

Place grated zucchini on a clean kitchen towel, and gather the top together

 and squeeze out as much moisture as you can.

 

Add squeezed zucchini, coconut and dried cherries to the batter and mix in until well distributed.

Scrape batter into prepared pan. 

Bake in preheated oven for 65-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove loaf from pan using parchment, and set on a wire rack to cool before slicing.

Store leftovers in refrigerator or freezer. 

Grain Free Nut Free Chocolate Zucchini Snack Cake

If you garden, and you grow zucchini, you know as well as I do that one plant can supply you with more zucchini than you can possibly use in one season. In my garden this year I planted 3 zucchini seeds. I am still not sure why I did that...at the time it seemed like a great idea. Mother nature vetoed my crazy plan though, and only one plant actually grew. In hind-site, mother nature was smarter than I, one plant was the perfect amount of zucchini for us, three would have been overwhelming. The illustrious "zucchini fairy" would have been gracing everyone on my street with a plethora of zucchini had all three actually grown!

I am always trying new recipes for zucchini, to use up the bounty from our garden. We have made lots of zucchini noodles with our spiral slicer this summer, multiple simple salads from the zucchinis thinly sliced on my mandolin, lightly marinated in Herbamare,  and grilled zucchini from the gargantuan ones that grow seemingly overnight have become a favourite this year as well. 

This cake is a favourite too. It is a  nice moist chocolaty treat, perfect for an after school snack, lunch box treat, or even a dessert if you dressed it up with a little cream cheese icing. 

Grain Free Nut Free Chocolate Zucchini Snack Cake

2 cups grated zucchini

1 tsp salt 

3 eggs

1 banana, very ripe

1/3 cup kefir or yogurt

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup hemp flour

1/3 cup chickpea flour

¼ cup coconut sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup cocoa powder

¼ cup coconut oil, melted

Preheat oven to 350F

Sprinkle the grated zucchini with 1 tsp salt, stir and set aside to drain in a colander. (this helps to release the moisture from the zucchini, helping to keep the snack cake from being too moist)

Mix the rest of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl with an immersion blender until well mixed, scraping down the sides as needed.

Squeeze and drain the excess moisture from the zucchini. Mix into the batter well.

Scrape into a greased or parchment lined 8x8 glass baking pan

Bake for 50-55 min or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool in pan completely before cutting. 

Garden Vegetable and Quinoa Salad

I love summer. More to the point, I love my garden in the summer. Picking fresh veggies and using them right away for lunch, or dinner, or a salad, is definitely a highlight of the season for me. There is always the makings of a meal or a side dish just outside my back door, as fresh as fresh can be. I highly recommend gardening of some kind to everyone, even if it is just growing some herbs in pots on a sunny windowsill.

 The green and yellow beans, the spinach, the zucchini, and  the herbs in this salad all came from my garden. I created this salad  

for my last GBG gathering, (my grade school girlfriends group), the same one that I took the chocolate cake with this raspberry sauce to. I somehow neglected to take a picture of the salad though, and had to make another batch, just for the pictures, of course! (I missed taking pictures of the cake too…that one will have to be repeated soon too, just for pictures again, really!

Garden Vegetable and Quinoa Salad

3 cups chopped green and or yellow wax beans( 2 inch pieces ish)

1 ¾ cup cooked quinoa

1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced into thin half moons

¼ cup fresh chopped basil

Zucchini in the garden

¼ cup fresh chopped parsley

1/3 cup chives, regular or garlic (garlic are my favourite!)

3 cups packed baby spinach

1 cup thinly sliced red onion (to remove the bite, after slicing, soak the onion in ice cold water for 10-15 minutes, drain well before using)

Dressing:

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 lemon

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp grainy mustard

1 tbsp maple syrup

Salt and pepper to taste

Green Beans :)

Bring 6 cups of water to a rolling boil. Reduce heat to medium, and drop in the chopped beans and cook for 4 minutes. Plunge into a bowl of ice cold water to stop the cooking process and chill the beans. Change the water if necessary to get them cold.

Toss into a large bowl with the quinoa and the rest of the chopped veggies, and herbs . Set aside.

Measure the dressing ingredients in a 2 cup mason jar. Put lid on and shake well. Combine with salad ingredients and mix well to combine. Serve immediately or refrigerate till needed. Keeps well in refrigerator for 2-3 days.

Zucchini And Snow Pea Salad With Fresh Apricots, (and a small garden tour!)

I love picking meals directly from our garden. We have been having salads from our lettuces for quite a while now, but other vegetables are just now becoming big enough to harvest. Maybe not cause for a big celebration to most, but in my world, it is kinda exciting. I guess I am a garden geek, but nothing tastes better than freshly picked produce, from seeds that you planted yourself. Pulling a pea off the vine and munching while I am weeding is one of life’s simple pleasures, and I am still sometimes surprised at how simple and rewarding gardening can be.

Tonight’s dinner contained a lot of first harvests. I thinned a few rows of beets (I always wait to thin my beets until they are of a usable size, see the picture below) and roasted the beets I pulled in a bit of coconut oil on the BBQ. We sautéed the beet tops in some butter and served them with a squeeze of lemon. The salad recipe included in this post  has our first zucchini, and our first big enough harvest of peas to do something with other than just snacking on. The salmon steaks were marinated in butter, lemon and fresh herbs picked from the herb garden.

Zucchini And Snow Pea Salad With Fresh Apricots

1 medium zucchini

¾ tsp Herbamare

1 pint snow peas (1 ½ cups ish), trimmed

4 fresh apricots

2 Tbsp black sesame seeds (I like the Organic Traditions ones)

1 cup pea sprouts

Dressing:

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sesame oil

2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

2 tsp honey

Fresh ground pepper to taste

Slice the zucchini into very thin round slices, a mandolin is very helpful for this! Toss it in a bowl with the Herbamare, and set aside for 20 minutes or so to “sweat”.

While the zucchini is sweating, blanch the snow peas. Drop them into a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds, and immediately remove them into a bowl of very cold water to stop the cooking process. When they are cold to the touch, drain well. Set aside.

Mix together the dressing ingredients and set aside.

Toast your sesame seeds in a cast iron pan over medium heat until they just start to pop. Remove from hot pan to a plate to cool. Set aside.

Remove the pit from your apricots and cut up into pieces. Set aside.

Gently squeeze the zucchini to release any excess moisture and drain any liquid away.

To assemble the salad:

In a medium salad bowl, mix the zucchini, snow peas, and apricots together gently until well mixed. Add the dressing to the bowl and stir to distribute.

I always over-plant my beets, and start thinning
when they get about this big, they are amazing
when they are roasted!

Just before serving, toss in the pea sprouts and the black sesame seeds.  Gently toss and serve.

Main Vegetable Bed

Herb Garden
and Sunflowers

Tomatoes, Garlic
 and Rhubarb
(and Ryley the Poodle!)

Zucchini Spinach Salad

I made this salad for my brothers birthday dinner on the weekend. There was an awesome picture of a similar salad on Pinterest, but when searching for the actual recipe, there were only links to the picture. So, me being me, I invented my own. I think it turned out pretty well. I had the leftovers for lunch the following day and it holds up well. I almost liked it better after it sat, so don’t be afraid to make it in advance!  Feel free to use any feta you like, but I highly recommend using the Raw Sheep's Milk Feta from Best Baa, it is my favourite feta EVER!!

Zucchini Spinach Salad

Salad:

6 cups organic baby spinach, lightly packed

1 medium organic zucchini, sliced thin

1/3 cup chopped fresh organic basil

½ cup toasted organic pumpkin seeds

½ cup dried organic, juice sweetened cranberries

2/3 cup Best Baa Raw Sheep Milk Feta, crumbled (or feta of choice)

Dressing:

1/3 cup organic olive oil

Juice of ½ an organic lemon

3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar (or white balsamic)

½ tsp Herbamare or sea salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

I used my spirulizer to get
the zucchini nice and thin, you
could also use a mandolin or
a vegetable peeler to get
nice thin slices!

Toss the salad ingredients together in a large bowl.

In a small bowl, combine dressing ingredients, and toss well with combined salad ingredients.

Serve right away, or refrigerate till needed, up to 8 hrs.

Cream Cheese Chicken Roll-Ups

Days off in my world almost always involve time spent in my kitchen and today was no different. I had some skinless boneless thighs that were screaming for a special recipe. Add spinach and cream cheese, and these beauties were born. This is pretty enough to serve to company, and pretty darn easy to throw together for dinner on a weeknight. I pounded my chicken (well, Jim did the actual pounding…) on a baking sheet under parchment paper. You will want it fairly thin, but evenly pounded to make rolling easy. 

Cream Cheese Chicken Roll-Ups

8 skinless boneless chicken thighs, pounded thin

1 tbsp butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ cups finely chopped mushroom

4 cups chopped spinach

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup organic cream cheese

2 cups of chunky tomato sauce

¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Sauté onion mushroom and garlic in pan with the butter until they start to soften and brown a bit. Add spinach, stir in, and turn off the heat. Season with salt and pepper. Add cream cheese and stir to combine.  Let cool slightly.

Divide mixture evenly between the 8 pounded chicken thighs and spread along the whole length , and roll up like you would a cinnamon roll. Place rolls carefully in a 9x13 baking dish. Cover with tomato sauce, and bake, uncovered at 400F for 45 minutes or until cooked thru.  Serve along with sautéed zucchini noodles.

For Zucchini Noodles:

2 small to medium sized zucchinis

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp butter or coconut oil, mixed with one clove of minced garlic

Prepare your zucchini noodles while the chicken is in the oven.  I use my very cool spiral slicer to slice the zucchini. (a mandolin, or julienne peeler will make the “noodles” as well) 

Place the spiraled zucchini on a few layers of paper towel. Sprinkle with salt, and let sit for about 1/2 hour, to “sweat” (the salt helps it release excess moisture). Place a few more layers of paper towel over top and then roll up (again, like a cinnamon roll) and squeeze gently to absorb the released moisture.  Sauté the noodles in  a nice hot pan with some coconut oil or garlic butter until hot and sizzling, about 5 minutes.  Top with pan juices from the chicken, and a sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan.

Grain Free Zucchini Coconut Muffins

 Another muffin variation, fitting to the season. If you grow zucchinis, you are well aware of this phenomenon: gargantuan zucchinis that appear in your garden virtually overnight. The tiny little zucchinis that you spy one day take on epic proportions while you sleep. You become the zucchini fairy of your neighborhood  gracing your neighbours front porches with your excess zucchini, and run before they can tell you “NO MORE!”
Experience has FINALLY taught me to only grow 2 plants, and to keep an eagle eye on them daily. When they are nice and tiny,(like the yellow one) they make an awesome salad when sliced paper thin with a mandolin  and marinated with a bit of sea salt. They also make tasty zucchini chips in the dehydrator, with lime and chili powder…yum! The ones that escape notice, and become Godzilla sized, are better used in a recipe like this. 



Grain Free Zucchini Coconut Muffins

1 c. almond flour/meal
6 Tbsp. coconut flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. sea salt
½ c of milk
¼  c coconut oil, melted
1/3 cup coconut sugar
5 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp allspice
½ tsp ginger
1 cup shredded zucchini, squeezed to get rid of some moisture
½ cup coconut flakes plus 1 tbsp

Put all ingredients except zucchini and coconut in a large mixing bowl, combine thoroughly with immersion blender. (I am sure you could put everything into a blender and whiz till well combined)
Add zucchini and first amount of coconut,  and stir to combine
Scoop into muffin tin lined with papers (or greased) about 2/3 full. (Should fill 12)
Sprinkle second amount of coconut flakes on to muffin tops.
Bake at 350 degrees for  25-27 minutes.
Let cool in pan for 5 min before removing to cooling rack.

Grain Free Zucchini Pancakes

This recipe was invented today for a quick lunch to take to Jim at work. He has a toaster oven that is awesome for reheating things like this, which eliminates the need for a microwave (yay!) I came across a similar recipe on Pinterest a few nights ago, and, still  having an excess of zucchini in the garden, I THOUGHT I had pinned it to come back to. But, alas, when I went back for it, it was lost in cyberspace :(   So, being short on time, I threw together my own version, and they worked out very well.

I served these with butter and maple syrup, but after eating them, I can see them being delicious with some Parmesan cheese sprinkled on the raw side before flipping,  and a chutney/salsa type of topping.  Or skip the cheese, and top with a chunky homemade apple sauce, or some apple butter….Oh the possibilities!!


Grain Free Zucchini Pancakes

6 eggs, preferably pastured

¾ cup almond flour

1/3 cup coconut flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2/3 cup kefir or yogurt

2  8-inch (ish) zucchinis, grated or shredded (I used one yellow and one green)

Butter or coconut oil for greasing pan


Measure all ingredients  EXCEPT for grated Zucchini and butter  into a mixing bowl. Whiz with a stick blender (or in your blender jar) until very well combined. Add zucchini and mix well. Set aside to thicken up and heat up your pan/griddle to medium. (I use my large cast iron griddle across 2 burners of my gas stove…works great!)
When griddle is hot, add enough butter to grease well, and scoop batter onto hot pan using about ¼-1/3 cup at a time, depending on the size you want your pancakes.
Let cook till they just start to dry out around the edges, and flip to cook the other side. I find these a bit more finicky to flip than wheat based pancakes, you may need to cook them for a bit longer than you think necessary. Just keep an eye on your pan temperature so they don't start to burn.
Serve warm with toppings of choice!