Chocolate Chocolate Zucchini Bread

It was time again for some trading with my friends.  This time they had tomatoes and zucchini.  My friend Dan wanted some more of the jalapeno chedder bread and some sort of sweet bread.  So since he gave me a big zucchini I made him this Chocolate, chocolate zucchini bread and some lemon poppy seed zucchini bread.  That recipe will be posted soon.  He said it was the best sweet bread so far and has just called and wanted more.  :)  if you look at the picture you can see the lemon poppy seed muffins in the back.  this is a very quick and easy recipe to put together, so it has become my go to recipe.  I've made this with different ingredients.  I've been using this recipe for such a long time I don't remember where I originally got it.

Chocolate Zucchini bread
1/3 cup veg. oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup grated zucchini
1/3 cup milk or water (I use heavy cream and water 1/2 to make 1/3 cup)
 1 tsp vanilla
1 2/3 cup AP flour (could use some whole wheat also (1 cp AP 2/3 whole wheat)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cloves
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/3 -1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, almond)
Directions:
Preheat oven 325°, spray a loaf pan set aside
In a large bowl whisk the oil, sugar, eggs, zucchini, milk and vanilla.  Combine the dry ingredients then stir in dry ingredients to wet mix.  Bake at 325° for 55-60 minutes until tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
Let cool in pan for about 5 minutes, then remove and cool rest of the way.  Enjoy.

 hope you give this recipe a try.
Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful week and Remember to find the time to Do ALL the things YOU love.
Donna

Bread and Butter Pickles

It's been about 38 years since I've made these.  Wow, where have all those years gone?  This year we have had a bumper crop of cucumbers which I might add I'm so happy about because I love cucumbers.  Love to eat them as a snack with just salt.  So I decided that I should try my hand at canning once again.  When my children where small I canned a lot,  always made bread and also sewed most of everyone clothes.  Don't think I'll try that anymore but love doing things in the kitchen.  I made these Bread and Butter Pickles Low Carb, because that is the way I'm eating now.  I did find some low carb pickles at WM but with so many cuc's this is a good way to be sure they don't go to waste.   I would can some tomatoes but they don't last long enough to get any good amount for that.  :)
Recently my daughter and I bought a dehydrator so will be drying many of the herbs that are in the garden.   With today's grocery prices you have to do what you have to do and this way I also know everything is really fresh.  That's why I started making bread.  When store bough bread can sit on the counter for 3-4 weeks and not get moldy there are way to many preservatives in it.
I found this recipe here  and just adapted it and used Trivia instead of sugar.
This made 5 pint jars
3 large english cucumbers
1  1/4 tsp mustard seed
1 1/4 tsp celery seed
3/4 tsp tumeric
2 cups boiling water
3/4 cup trivia
2 cups distilled white vinegar
1 very large onion
1/4 cup pickling salt

Wash cuc's and slice on mandolin about 1/4 inch.  Also slice onion the cut slices in half or quarters.    In a large bowl put cuc's and onions and cover with salt, mix and let sit for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes drain and rinse WELL to remove salt.  Drain

In a sauce pan combine all other ingredients. Bring to boil and cook for about 5 minutes.  Prepare pot with water and get jars ready.  Fill jars with cuc's and onion and put in brine to 1/4 from top of jar. Process in a water bath for 10 minutes.
Will report back in 3 months to let you know how these taste.
Thanks for stopping by,  have a wonderful day and Remember to Find the Time to DO ALL the Things you love.
Donna

Low carb bread sticks

I was pleasantly surprised at how good these were.  The family liked them too.  I didn't have my marinara sauce ready at the time so used Ranch to dip them in.  (Update I did make them again and we all agreed they are better with the marinara sauce, makes them like Mozzarella  sticks)
I found this here, she has some awesome recipes....want to try almost all of them soon.
Easiest Bread sticks Ever
1 packed cup cooked, minced chicken breast  (I used rotisserie chicken)
1 cup packed mozzarella, shredded
1 Tbsp parsley, dried
1 tsp basil  (I used fresh)
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Process chicken and cheese together. Mixture will resemble a meal/thick, dense crumb consistency.
3. Firmly press chicken/cheese mixture to 1/2″ thick  into non-stick, miniature bread pans, about 4X8″ (if you have a regular pan, you can spray and line with parchment for easy removal and use that instead).
4. Top with parsley, basil, onion and garlic powder.
5. Bake for 20 minutes.
6. Let cool for five minutes in pan.
7. Invert onto a cooling rack until fully cooled.
8. Slice and serve.
Makes a hell of a lot of breadsticks.
These are such a great addition to food that can be eaten when you are doing LC life style.  Hope you give them a try because they are well worth making and will be a hit with all that try them.  It's also so shocking to know they are made of chicken.
Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day and Remember to Find the Time to Do ALL the Things You Love.
Donna

Happy Birthday

Today is my granddaughter Lyndsey's 13th Birthday.  Happy Birthday to a beautiful young lady.  It's so hard to believe she is 13 already.  The years sure do fly by and them seem to go faster and faster.  This is a picture of her and I last year on her Birthday, I won't be there this year in body but for sure will be there in spirit.

Have a wonderful day.  Love you with all my heart
Mammy

Faux Chicken Fried Rice

I have been making a lot of low carb dishes lately and this was one I made the other night to have as my veggie.  It's so simple to make and very low carb.  Hope you'll give it a try you'll be pleasantly surprised at how good it is.  It's also very quick to make, so yet another big plus.
printable:

1/2 head cauliflower - grated on the large hole of box grater
1 egg
1-2 TBL oil
1/4 of an onion diced
2-3 oz of cooked chicken cut up
Soy Sauce to taste
Sesame oil

In a large skillet heat some oil, (I use coconut oil) then saute the onions, til clear, add the egg and cook til it looks like scrambled egg, add your cauliflower and stir.  Continue to cook til done..it takes about 5 minutes.  Add some soy sauce and sesame oil to taste, cook a bit longer and the very end I added some cooked chicken.
You can add things to this recipe if you like, such as peas, green onion, carrots, etc.

I made this side to go with a Tilapia Parmesan piece of fish.  Dinner was really good.  Will share the fish recipe in an upcoming post, along with some of the other low carb items I've made.
Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day and Remember to Find the Time to Do All the things You Love.
Donna
carb count for 1 cup faux rice 10.8 Fiber 8.2  Net Carb 2.6

From our Garden

I just had to share this huge cucumber that came from our garden.  It made for the perfect food vessel.  This year we planted our garden with just a few things.
We have 5 tomato plants, 6 cucumber plants, 3 pepper plants, radishes, and 6 different types of herbs.  Four of the herbs we planted are perennial.  We also had some plants pop up from last years garden.  The cucumber we planted this year were the English Type.  The one in front of the huge one is the green English and the huge one is the While English.  This cucumber was 26 1/2 inches long, 12 1/2 inches around and weighed 7 1/2 lbs.  Can you imagine??  So when we cut it open it had a large hole in the center (I think that was because it was way over ready)  So I thought that would make a perfect place to put some food.  :)
Here is it stuffed.

I just made some chicken salad and put it in the center then when I cut it i had a piece of cuc with every bite.  I could also have cut it length wise and filled it that way, but this way it fit on the plate just right.
Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day and Remember to Find the Time to Do All the things You Love.
Donna

Basil Lemon Roast Chicken

This is a very quick and easy dish to make.  You could stuff the chicken if you wanted but I made this one empty.

Ingredients:
1 large chicken ...think this one was about 3 1/2 lbs.
1 whole lemon
2-3 stems  fresh basil
2 fresh thyme springs
salt and pepper

Preheat oven 375°
Rinse the chicken and pat dry.  Place in a roasting pan, put a little salt inside the
cavity, the loosen the breast skin and place a thin slice of lemon and some basil between the skin and the meat.  Squeeze some juice on top then put the rest of the lemon and basil inside the cavity.  Put in oven uncovered and bake for about 1 hour and 30 minutes.  Test with thermometer for internal temp to be 160° - 175° and juices run clear.
With the drippings from the chicken you can make a nice gravy.  Just add some cornstarch or coconut flour *(low carb) to some water then to your drippings.  Add some thyme and salt and pepper to taste.
You can serve this with so many things for a quick meal.
Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day and Remember to Find The Time to Do all the things YOU love.
Donna