New Recipes Make Me :)

I stumbled upon a blog recently that I'm absolutely in love with.  I can't remember how I found Weelicious, but I now read it daily and find all of her recipes to be easy, awesome and kid friendly.  One of my favorite things about Catherine's site is that the recipes take you from baby food to big kid and they are packed with nutrition and fresh ingredients. The boys and I tried several of her recipes this week and they didn't disappoint!

Watermelon juice.  So easy, so yummy!  We loved this project and had a great time watching the watermelon change from chunks to juice.  All you have to do is throw the chunked watermelon in a blender and then drink and enjoy!  You'll have to hurry on this recipe though, fresh watermelons will soon be disappearing!  And  if your kids don't drink up all the juice in one sitting like mine did, freeze what's left and make Watermelon Cinnamon Granita.

My kids are wild about fruit leather, but I never thought of making my own.  We usually buy Stretch Island Fruit Leather, and I'm happy with their all natural ingredients, but they can get expensive!  Catherine's Strawberry Fruit Leather recipe worked great and made a pretty good knock off of what the kids are used to.

I used the recommended strawberries but added a few pears as well, then the boys and I blended to perfection... okay, I'll be honest, it wasn't quite perfection.  There was this one weird strawberry that wouldn't mash up for anything.  We wound up just having to pick it out.  Everything else was perfection!

We smoothed everything out on parchment and baked  it for two hours on a particularly chilly morning.  We had yummy food and a warm kitchen!

Lately, breakfasts have been hard for me.  I feel like we're eating the same things over and over.  So, when I saw Catherine's Breakfast Quesadilla I knew we needed to give it a try.  I added some onions to mine and would have thrown in some spinach as well, but I did't have any on-hand.

The kids gobbled these up and I wound up having to make an extra.  These would be great for lunch too!

If you like Weelicious on Facebook you'll get to see a daily picture of the lunches she packs for her son.  She mentioned Chocolate Zucchini Bread recently, but hasn't posted the recipe yet.  It sounded SO good that I had to give it a try to make my own.  I also got a big bunch of zucchini in my CSA basket, so it really needed to be done!

The result was totally yummy... here's what I came up with:

Ingredients:
1 cup rice flour
1 cup tapioca flour
1 tsp xanthum gum
(if you aren't gluten free you can sub the first three ingredients for 2 cups of all purpose flour, lucky duck!)
8 oz semi sweet baking chocolate (I use this kind because it's soy free)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp allspice
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup honey
 1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup coconut oil (you could use vegetable, but it's packed with soy)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk (I used raw milk, so it's extra creamy.  You might try 1/2 and 1/2 or whole)
2 medium zucchini, trimmed


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and grease two muffin tin pans (makes two dozen)


Process the zucchini and 4 oz of the baking chocolate in the food processor (I used the grating blade)


Mix together the dry ingredients then, using a stand mixer, mix in the honey, butter oil, eggs, vanilla and milk.


With mixer still going, add in the processed zucchini and baking chocolate


Cut the remaining 4 oz of baking chocolate into chunks and add to the mixture, stirring by hand too incorporate.


Divide batter equal among the 24 prepared baking cups and bake at 350 until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Usually 20-25 minutes.  Allow muffins to cool for five minutes before eating.


Yields 24 standard muffins


If you still have zucchini left, consider making Catherine's Zucchini Coins for supper, yum!

Now, I know I'm going to get this question, so I'll go ahead and address it... why no soy?  My basic answer is that soy (and corn for that matter) scare me to death.  They are heavily genetically modified, especially when sourced into oils.  Do your research then do what works for your family, this is just something I've chosen to take a stance on for mine.


What yumminess have you been eating lately?

Oh, and don't forget my current give-away!

The kind folks over at Weelicious have no idea I'm writing this, nor have I been compensated in any way.  I just love the site and find it really helpful and thought you might too!