Bear Lake & Zuchinni

Over the 24th we went back up to Bear Lake for the weekend. And as usual we had a blast! My parents were there, me and the gals, and my brother Brian and his wife Sher. Brooklyn attatched herself to Sher's hip and they became BFF's. Sher did her make-up, let Brooklyn use her lip gloss, and had patience with her (which is a biggie!) I got this cute picture of them together- (minus the huge elk head in the background.) I didn't get any other pictures- sad. I wish I would have gotten a picture of Gracie and Brian together- because every time that Gracie walked by Brian she would hit him. At first she would glare at him as she did it- but then it became a game and she would just smile at him. We had such a great weekend- thanks mom and dad and Brian and Sher for a good time!

Brooklyn and my cute sister-in-law Sher

We decided to plant our first garden this year. We when planted it- I was hoping that I would get 1 thing to grow- I have got to say we have had quite the success. Our tomatoes are out of control and we have gotten 10 Zuchinni's so far. I took these pictures to try and show how big the tomato plants are campared to the gals- but it doesn't do it justice. They are as tall as me- now.

Gracie was so excited with the zuchinni and of course Brooklyn is stiking a pose of some kind

My cuties

Those are the tomatoes behind Brooklyn

So since I am going to have a TON of zuchinni- if any of you have a good zuchinni recipe will you please share it with me. And I am going to share a couple of my favorite recipes using zuchinni. I made both of these this past week and they are so good. The first one is a zuchinni casserole.

Zuchinni Casserole

Mix togther

Brown 1 lb. Hamburger

1 can Tomato soup

1 cup Minute rice

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

1 Cup water

A couple handfuls of cheese

Line a 9x13 pan with zuchinni (I cut mine in fourths so they are more bite size) and pour 1/2 the mixture on it. Put some more zuchinni and then pour the rest of the mixture on it. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

My friend Karen gave me this recipe- it is a variation of the classic zuchinni bread.

Chocolate Zuchinni Bread

3 TBS Cocoa

2 cups zuchinni, grated

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup oil (I use applesauce here to make it less fattening)

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Grease 2 8x4-inch loaf pans. Mix the dry ingredients together. Beat eggs- add sugars, oil, and vanilla- beat until creamy. Add the zuchinni and stir together. Mix in the dry ingredients. Add the chocolate chips. Bake at 325 for 45-50 minutes.