Chocolate-Zucchini Bread

This is one of my favorite recipes. It's one of those cakes breads that you can pretend is healthy and not feel guilty about eating- after all it does have zucchini in it.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp b. soda
1/2 tsp b. powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup cocoa
Beat the eggs, add sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir in zucchini. Mix the dry ingredients and add to the wet. Beat well. Bake at 350.

The times will vary depending on the size of your pan. I usually make mini-loaves. Easier to freeze and take out for eating later. They bake about 25 min. I think the original recipe was for 2 full size loaves.
Here is how I have changes the above recipe: NO salt. I reduce the sugar- I think last year I reduced it to 1 cup and it was still very good. Usually I just don't fill my 1/3 cup scoop all the way to the top so I have no idea how much sugar I am getting. I also use applesauce instead of oil and it is still good. Sometimes I do 3/4 cup applesauce and 1/4 cup oil.

Zucchini- Garlic Bread

It's that time of year.....every year we are blessed with an over abundance of zucchini and cucumbers. We are almost to that time....we are picking about 1 zucchini a day and our first cuke should be ready tomorrow. 2 years ago we picked 18-20 cukes a DAY for a week. So I am on my annual search for recipes. Something new, so we don't only eat plain raw veggies and quick breads. Last night I tried this recipe. It turned out really good.

Zucchini-Garlic Bread

½ cup non-fat evaporated milk

½ cup water (or just 1 cup skim milk instead of the evaporated milk and water)

½ cup butter

2-4 T honey

3 cups flour- divided

I pkt (2 ¼ tsp) quick rise yeast

1 tsp salt

1 cup grated zuccinni

2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

1 T chopped herbs (rosemary, basil, thyme, parsley, oregano, sage, dill…)

Mix milk, water, butter and honey in a glass bowl and microwave until melted. About 120 degrees.

Mix 1 cup flour, salt and yeast in a bowl and add to the warm liquid. Beat well

Thoroughly mix remaining 2 cups flour, garlic, zucchini and herbs. Add the yeast mixture and mix.

Turn out on to a floured surface (or use a dough hook) knead for 5-10 min, adding flour as needed.

Allow the dough to rest, covered, for 10-15 min.

Punch and knead a bit then spread on a pizza pan or large cookie sheet. Grease your hands with 1 tsp of olive oil and spread the dough evenly over the pan.

Cover and rest for another 10-15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 F, prick a dozen time or so with a toothpick

Bake 20-30 minutes, until golden brown.

I used fresh rosemary, sage and oregano from our garden....next time I will use more than I did. I think this would make a wonderful pizza crust too. So next time I may do that....use 1/2 for pizza and maybe make the other into a loaf instead of focaccia style.

Words! Lapbook

We finally finished this one!! It took a lot more work than I expected, and I am glad I went into the whole thing with a rough sketch of what I wanted to accomplish and where it would all go. I am also very glad I have kids who love to cut and glue! My goal was to have a sort of word book for the kids to use with their reading. As we were putting it together, my oldest was reading words to his 4 yr old brother while the 4 yr old read the words he could back, so I think it will accomplish my goal. I also plan to use it later if any particular group of words is causing trouble. Anyway, so here it is....

Here is what is inside (using 3 file folders)

• 
  The first small flap contains 5 pockets. 1 for each vowel. Each pocket has word cards for short CVC words.


• 
  the 2nd small flap has 6 minibooks made from word cards for the -ng and -nk words


• 
  The first large section is for the long A sounds: ea, ay, ei, ey, eigh, a_e and ai


• 
  The 3rd small flap has flaps for ar and or, along with a mini-poster for oy and oi


• 
  The 4th small flap has 3 pockets for the 3 pronunciations for -ed and words for "ea" with the short e sound


• 
  The 2nd large section has the long e sounds: e_e, e, ee, ei, ea, ie and ey/y. It also has the 3 "ch" sound and all of the "er" sounds


• 
  The 5th small flap has some of the silents: ph, wr, b, kn,gn and t


• 
  The 6th small flap has -ck and the voiced and unvoiced "th"


• 
  The 3rd large section has Long o sounds: oa, o, ow,oe, and o_e. And the "sh" sounds of sh, ti, si, ci


• 
  The 7th small flap has word card books fro au/aw and ow/ou


• 
  The 8th small flap has the 6 different pronunciations of -ough


• 
  The 4th large section has the long u sounds (and variations of it): u, ue, u_e, ui, ew, oo (and it's second pronunciation) aswell as contractions.


• 
  And the 5th large section, on the back, has the long I sounds: i, i_e, ie, y and igh. And -tch, -dge, wh and qu

Here are a few links to the online resources....the rest was all just me and Word.

oi/oy, au/aw ou/ow, long I, r-controlled and other vowel combinations were found here, and I used this site to print some of the word cards. The blank templates were from Homeschool Helper then cut and pasted into Word so I could edit them.

And here are some of the views of inside: