Summer Squash Bundt Cake

It is that time of year when an abundance of yellow crooked neck squash and zucchini overwhelms even the most creative of cooks.  Our family prefers the many versatile uses of zucchini, so I am often left with a question mark when it comes to yellow summer squash. We love zucchini bread, so it stands to reason that a quick bread could rise from a pile of yellow squash. I've adapted several different recipes to come up with a bundt cake/quick bread that received rave reviews from my 8 and 10 year old children.

3 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 container vanilla Greek yogurt (ours was a Chobani 5.3 oz)
1/3 cup coconut oil, warmed just enough to liquefy
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground  cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves (to your taste)
2 cups finely shredded yellow summer squash
1 cup whole cranberries

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour a bundt pan or angel food cake pan. I used Pam cake release spray instead. Beat eggs in large bowl until fluffy, then add sugars, yogurt, oil, and extract. Beat or stir remaining dry ingredients gradually into egg/sugar mixture.  Stir in squash and cranberries. Pour into prepared pan and bake about 1 hour. Ovens vary, so I began checking my cake after 45 minutes.

A word on the yogurt and extract: It occurred to me that a container of lemon Greek yogurt and/or lemon extract would have been another tasty option.

I stirred together a powdered sugar glaze using lemon juice as the liquid simply because we were out of milk and the vanilla extract was used up in the cake. You could use a few tablespoons of milk and vanilla or lemon extract with the powdered sugar. I just combined until it was a good drizzling consistency.

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

It is March 1 today, but there are no signs of spring here. It has snowed several inches today, adding to our already impressive snow pack.  So for dinner we needed something colorful, spicy, and comforting! This recipe was posted on another social network site, so I googled and found the recipe came from a blog called SimplyLoveFood. Here is my take on it:

olive oil
3-4 large bell peppers
1/2 lb ground beef
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 cups cooked brown Basmati rice
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup corn
1 16 oz jar salsa
1 heaping TBL taco seasoning (packaged or homemade)
shredded cheese
cilantro, chopped (to taste)
guacamole or avocado
sour cream
shredded lettuce
additional salsa

Heat oven to 400.  Cut bell peppers in half, removing seeds. Rub the peppers with olive oil and roast in a baking dish for 20-25 minutes.  While they are roasting, brown the ground beef with the onions, and cook the rice...if you are using brown rice you will want to start this before anything else since it takes about 45 minutes to cook.  Remove peppers from oven.

In a large bowl, mix cooked ground beef, cooked rice, black beans, corn, taco seasoning, chopped cilantro and salsa. Spoon the mixture into the roasted pepper halves, and top with shredded cheese.  We happened to have taco seasoned shredded cheese and it was perfect. Bake another 15-20 minutes or until the peppers are cooked through.  Serve with shredded lettuce, sour cream, guacamole and additional salsa.  

We used six medium pepper halves, and had a lot of the stuffing mixture left over.  I added another can of black beans to the leftover mixture, a little more taco seasoning, and put it in the freezer to use for burritos on another day.  

For vegetarians, visit SimplyLoveFood.  She has some great tips to adjust the recipe for vegans and vegetarians.

Rosemary Flax Crackers

All the blogs promised it was easy to make homemade crackers....and those bloggers were not telling tales! Made my first batch of homemade Rosemary Flax Crackers on this first day of the new year 2014 using this recipe.  I used 1 cup white whole wheat flour, about 1.75 cups of white flour and the rest flax meal to make up my three cups.  The other ingredients I followed exactly, with the exception of adding dried rosemary to the dough.  It is a good idea to let the dough rest a bit, and if you think you've rolled the dough thin enough, go ahead and do it a little thinner.  My first batch was slightly thick, and gave me more of pita chip texture.  Or hardtack.

I also skipped the step of brushing with water and putting seeds or sea salt on top because I didn't have anything on hand.  The crackers were seasoned nicely, but I wouldn't have minded a few sea salt crystals on top. Now that I know how easy it is, I'm going to have to try one of the recipes for cheese crackers.