A Busy Weekend & More Zucchini Recipes!

It was another busy weekend around my little house, no doubt about it. 

The garden was a mess of weeds and overgrown beds after all the rain we've had. 

And the veggie garden was spitting out cucumbers like there's no tomorrow. 

Seriously, I picked all of these on Sunday morning out of my tiny little veggie garden. Pure insanity!

Once I added them to the collection from the crisper drawer in the fridge, I actually got a little scared, I'm not gonna lie. 

Those are ALL cucumbers. Three different types. Seriously, what the heck was I going to do with all these? 

I had already put a bunch of jars of Sweet & Spicy Refrigerator Pickles in the downstairs fridge, that I made a few weeks ago.

I decided I'd make some Garlic Dill Refrigerator Pickles with some of these,  so I got to work peeling garlic and making brine. 

As I was winding down with that project, my daughter came home and begged me to make Bread & Butter pickles. 

Ummm, ok....I don't even know what those are, but sure why not? 

I did a little research and found a recipe, from the Whole Fed Farmstead blog - Easy Bread and Butter Refrigerator Pickles Recipe. 

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! 

Pickles? Done, done, and done.Whew. 

However, I still had a ginormous zucchini that needed to be dealt with. And two overripe bananas. 

What's a girl to do? 

Another google search turned up this recipe from Allrecipes for Banana Zucchini Bread Muffins - perfect!  Well.....almost perfect. They were perfect once I added chocolate chips!

I also whipped up a loaf of Zucchini Cheddar Chive Buttermilk Quick Bread, but even after that I still had about 2/3 of that massive zucchini to use up!

I decided that bread would be heavenly with a batch of Zucchini Chili for dinner that evening. I still had the food processor out, so prep was fairly easy. I ran out to the freezer and grabbed a pound of ground beef, and threw it into my favorite big red pot, and popped the lid on. 

I kept flipping it over and scraping off the meat as it defrosted/started to brown, and when it was all browned up I drained it in a fine mesh strainer and rinsed off as much of the fat as I could. 

Before I put it back into the pot, I sauteed some minced garlic (6 cloves) one yellow onion and one red onion (small dice) and a green pepper. When the veggies were fragrant and the onions translucent, the ground beef went back in along with the rest of the zucchini (grated in the food processor) and a half a bag of baby carrots, also grated. I wanted the veggies to be very fine, so you couldn't tell where one left off and one began. 

Next I threw a jar of hot peppers in tomato sauce into the food processor, ground it very fine, and tossed that in also for some heat. 

A can of diced tomatoes was next, along with a 6 oz can of tomato paste and a cup of water. 

Now it was time for the beans, all drained and rinsed. I used one can of red kidney beans, one of black beans, and one of pinto beans. 

Last but not least? My home made chili seasoning, which I keep in a small jar in the pantry. There were about 3 tbs left in the jar, so I dumped it all in. 

I gave everything a good stir, and brought it to a boil. Then I put it on the small simmer burner at the back of the stove, put the lid on, and put it on the lowest setting. 

My house smelled heavenly! 

While it was simmering, I cleaned up the kitchen, ran the dishwasher,  took the sheets off the line and re-made the bed, and vacuumed and mopped the floors. 

Every now and again I would pop into the kitchen and give the chili a good stir from the bottom, to make sure it didn't stick.

After two hours on low simmer, the chili was definitely ready. Like a good Bolognese, it needs that time cooking low and slow to really come together. 

All the veggies have melded into one amazing pot of chili. The fact that it has some heat to it is perfect, just the way I like it, because I like to serve my chili with grated cheese, sour cream, chopped scallions, and a good bread. 

Perfection!

A very, very productive weekend, and another easy peasy amazing way to use up some more of that zucchini. 

I have my eye on a few recipes out there that I'd like to try as well:

Zucchini Corn Fritters with Garlic Chive Aioli from Taste Love and Nourish

Zucchini Parmesan Crisps from The Food Network 

Mexican Street Corn Zucchini Pasta from House of Yumm

Sweet Potato Zucchini Tots from Life Made Sweeter

Double Chocolate Zucchini Brownies from The Recipe Critic

Zucchini Crumb Muffins with Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze from House of Yumm

Better Than Anything Zucchini Poke Cake from The Recipe Critic

Cheesy Zucchini Tots from Lil Luna

Pasta with Tomatoes, Zucchini, and Pesto from Country Living 

Smoked Sausage and Zucchini Skillet from Yellow Bliss Road 

Here are five more ways to use up all that zucchini, from a post I wrote in 2016. 

What's your favorite zucchini recipe? 

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