Zucchini Pancakes

I'm all about feeding my kids vegetables.  But, I'm not really into hiding them in their food to trick them into eating them.  While that will help them to get some much needed nutrition, hiding the healthy food fails to teach children good eating habits. So, when I "hide" something in the food in an effort to increase nutrition or use something up, I tell my kids.  I might peel something to make it more visually appealing, but I don't lie to them about what is in the food.

This is important part about the magic muffins ( see my muffin post) at our house.  I can put just about ANYTHING in these muffins, and my kids will eat them.  They LIKE finding out what is in them.  AND THEY EAT THEM!

That's because they taste good.

Vegetables taste good.  They really taste good when you mix them with sugar, eggs, flour, etc. . .

So, after such amazing success at getting my kids to eat all kinds of fruits and vegetables in muffin form, I decided to go really brave with pancakes.  I have put zucchini in pancakes before, but this time, I went wild.

I replaced all of the milk with pureed zucchini.

Yes, I really did.  I took photos to prove it.

My kids loved them!

That's because they were delicious.  I don't mean to brag or anything, but I just know that somebody reading this needs a little push over to the dark green and leafy side.  Make something with "hidden" veggies in it, but tell your kids.  It's fun and it teaches them two important lessons.

1. They can trust Mom cause she tells them what's in the food and doesn't try to trick them into eating things.
2. Vegetables taste good in sweets.

Okay, well that's the blog for this week.  Have a fantastic day and make sure to load yourself up on veggies today!

Baking With Becky and Heather- Cream Cheese Ring



Heather putting on the glaze



fresh out of the oven, before the glaze is added



This was mine.  Ignore the well used, much loved pan and focus on the deliciousness oozing out of the cream cheese ring.

 About once a week I get together with my friend Heather and we bake something delicious! Here's what we made this week:

Almond Cream Cheese Ring or Braid

*Enough dough for 12 rolls, or one loaf of bread.  You can use Rhodes dough or you can use homemade dough.  We use an awesome 1 hour bread recipe.

                                                Filling

8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened

1/2 tsp. pure almond extract

1 Tbsp. melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. lemon juice

1/4-1/2 cup slivered almonds

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbsp. melted butter

1/2 tsp. almond extract

1/2 tsp vanilla

4 tsp. milk

Prepare dough.  Roll the dough out on a greased counter top into a rectangle about 12 X 15 inches.  Blend the filling ingredients, except for the almonds.  Spread the filling on the dough. Sprinkle most of the almonds on, reserving some for the top after baking.  Starting with the shorter side, roll the dough up tightly.  Pinch the edges to seal them. Join the edges together and pinch to form a ring.  Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet. 

Use scissors to make cuts almost to the center of the ring about 1 1/2 inches apart, or closer if you would like more slices.  Turn each piece on its side, resting on the adjoining slice. 

Let rise until almost double.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, less if your oven cooks fast like mine does. 

Combine the icing ingredient and ice while still warm.  Sprinkle with slivered almonds if desired.

Enjoy this delicious treat! This recipe was inspired by the Cream Cheese Ring in the Rhodes "Fresh Ideas with Frozen Dough" cookbook. We changed a few ingredients. 

When we made this, Heather put almonds inside, but none on top and she made a braided bread.  This is made by forming the rectangle of dough, but only spreading the filling down the center.  You then make cuts on either side, about one inch apart up to the point where the filling starts.  Then you braid the dough over the top.  You'll get the idea if you look at her picture. 



Mix and Match Banana Zuchinni Bread

I posted on facebook today about mixing two recipes together and altering them some, so I thought it would make a pefect blog post.  This all started with two mushy bananas that someone threw away.  I rescued them from the trash can, washed them carefully before peeling them and threw them in the Bosch ( best mixer EVER!).  This made me remember the shredded zuchinni in the freezer that I had taken so much care to grow and preserve, so I thought to myself, "Why not add that too?  And maybe I should consult a recipe to get the other ingredients right."  So, I looked at the two different recipes, cut out the lemon peel, cinammon, oil, and nuts, and added plain yogurt, butter, chocolate chips, and white chocolate chunks.  It was what I had on hand.  I put most of the batter in 6 mini loaf pans and the rest in a regular loaf pan and popped them into my nifty gas oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.  Yumalisciousness! The kids snarfed it down.  Nobody even noticed the zuchinni, which hadn't even been peeled.  So, here is the specifics on what I did:

Add to mixer and mix until it looks all nice and smooth:
3 mushy bananas ( I defrosted one from my freezer to add to the fresh ones I had)
1 cup of grated zuchinni
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups of sugar. I used half brown sugar and half unrefined cane sugar because I wanted to.  I'm sure regular would work fine, or all brown.
2 tsp. of vanilla.  Real vanilla or Mexican vanilla is the best.  That nasty imitation stuff should be banned. You can buy Mexican vanilla at Walmart for about $2.00 for 8 ounces in the Latino foods section.  Or you can get it at a Mexican food store.
1/2 cup of melted butter.  You could use oil as well, but I was out.
1/2 cup of plain yugurt. Vanilla would be fine too.

After you mix up all that wet stuff add:
3 cups of flour
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda

Mix it up, but not too much and then add 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1 cup of white chocolate chunks. 

Bake in whatever pans make you happy at 350 degrees until it's done, you know the whole knife coming out clean business, right? Enjoy! Emmeline certainly did.