I recently joined a produce co-op called Bountiful Baskets.  It's one of those "pool your money and everyone gets some stuff" places.  This past Saturday was the first time I participated and picked up my bounty.   It was pretty awesome.  For $10, I got a laundry basket full of stuff.  
A bag of potatoes, a bag plus 2 loose onions, lettuce, kale, melon, bananas, beets, apples, kiwi, mushrooms, tomatoes, and strawberries.  Pretty good haul.

But then the question arose.  What do I do with it now?

Enter the Olive Garden.  They are one of my most favorite places to eat.  One of mine and my boyfriend's favorite things to order are the soup, salad and bread sticks.  And, one of the soups I often order is the Zuppa Toscana.

Lo' and behold-  I have most of those ingredients right there!   So, a homemade version was in order.  To be honest, I think it turned out better than the restaurant's!!  I served it with some Pillsbury crescent rolls.  Yum!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground turkey sausage (I used ground turkey and threw a bunch of garlic powder, basil, oregano and parsley in it), cooked and drained
• 2 potatoes, cut into very thin slices
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 6 slices bacon (I used turkey bacon)
• 1&1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 cups kale- washed, dried and shredded
• 1 15-ounce can of low-sodium chicken broth
• 2&1/4 cups water
• 1/3 cup fat-free half & half

Directions:

1. Cook bacon until crisp.  Crumble and set aside.
2. Place onion in a large saucepan and cook over medium high heat until almost clear.  Add garlic and cook for about a minute longer.
3. Add chicken broth, water and potatoes.  Simmer for about 15 minutes.
4. Add bacon crumbles, sausage, kale and half & half.   Simmer for about 4 more minutes. 
5. Serve hot with bread!

I am a fan of broccoli. I am in heart with broccoli. Pour some cheese on it, and it's mouth ecstasy. Imagine how excited I was to find this recipe!

I added cooked, diced chicken breast to it.  It was delish!  Even my boyfriend liked, it, and he hates cottage cheese.  Easy and tasty = a definite keeper!
Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• dash of pepper
• 2 packages (10-ounces each) frozen broccoli
• (I added 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts- grilled and diced)

Directions:

1. Beat eggs, then add cottage cheese, cheddar, flour, salt and pepper. Beat well together.
2. Cook broccoli as directed and drain well. Add to egg mixture.  Add chicken if using.
3. Pour into greased baking pan at 350*F for 30-35 minutes.

Serves 6-8

   Hmm..  This sounded good, in theory.  However, I am not sure I am pleased with the final product.  It may be that one hour is a bit too long for my oven.  It may just be the consistency of the bread.  Either way, it is a bit tough... not soft and chewy like I would expect a bread like this to be.   Also, the pineapple is a bit overwhelming to the other ingredients.  I could not taste the blueberrry at all.  For having so much pineapple and blueberries in it, I expected it to be much sweeter than it turned out to be.  Might have to try cutting down the pineapple and adding a bit of sugar to it next time, if there is a next time. 


Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 3/4 cup pineapple juice
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup drained crushed pineapple
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup nuts (any kind)

Directions:

1. Combine sugr and egg; cream with butter.  Add pineapple juice.
2. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder and add to sugar mixture.
3. Stir in pineapple, blueberries and nuts. 
4. Pour into a greased 8"x4" loaf pan.  Bake at 350*F for 1 hour.

  I found an absolutely easy and fabulous sounding recipe online a few weeks back.   Two simple ingredients that many households already have on hand:

•   a box of yellow cake mix, and
•   a 15-ounce can of pumpkin.   

I had both.  :)
I only had one of the huge cans of pumpkin, so I guesstimated on half.

Combine.  

Bake at 350*F for about 20-25 minutes. 

The batter is super yummy.  I'm hoping the muffins are as well.  I'll let you know in about 30 minutes!

*Very cakey.  Yummy and squishy.  They are more of a dessert muffin than, say, a breakfast muffin.  Super tasty though!  I'll definitely make them again.   Great one for the kids to try their hand at baking!

    I had a lot left over after filling my muffin pan, so I used the rest to make a mini loaf.  We'll see how that turns out.  I'm betting pretty scrumptious.  I plan on taking it to work.

   A friend of mine's daughter had her birthday yesterday.  She requested a luau themed party.  Unfortunately, the 85 degree weather did not stick around, and the day was met with a 30 degree drop, along with wind and rain.  Regardless, we had a grand time, with fabulous food, good friends, and a nice warm fire to congregate around.

  The party was potluck style, and since the meat was all being provided, I was hard pressed to find something to bring that would fit in with a luau style.  Then I saw this recipe for Hawaiian sweet rolls.  These are my favorite type of roll.  I mean, who doesn't love these things?  Sweet, light and flaky...  what says luau better than these?

  Now, I had never attempted any kind of bread that required yeast.  Something about working with the yeast, the constant waiting and punching, is daunting to me.  However, I had been determined to try, and this seemed like a good reason and time!  This recipe does not require kneading or punching, but does require lots of time to let the dough rise. 

  I had to have my boyfriend do the rolling for me, because the dough is quite sticky, and I have some huge gross-out factor to that kind of stickiness.  His little trick of spraying his hands with cooking spray was a good idea, though, and that might help me for next time. 

  The smell of them baking was divine.  Many comments were made about "What smells so good?" as they were baking.  They came out delicious.  Everyone raved about them, and I was asked to pass the recipe along, so here it is!  They are a bit more subtle in the sweet department than the store bought kind, but I think that can be easily adapted to fit your specific tastes..  I forgot to brush the butter on before baking, and believe that if I had remembered to do that, they would have been even more fantastic.  Maybe mix a little honey into that butter for an even bigger sweet pop?


Hawaiian Sweet Rolls:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice
• 1/4 cup melted butter, plus more for brushing
• 1 tablespoonful dry yeast
• Salt (the recipe I found did not specify.  I just did a couple of shakes into the bowl)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoonful vanilla
• 6 tablespoonsful sugar
• 3 cups flour

Directions:

1.  Combine water, juice and butter in a large bowl.  Sprinkle in yeast.   Add salt, egg, vanilla and sugar.   Stir to mix.  Add flour one cup at a time, stirring between each addition.  Mix with your hands if the dough becomes too stiff.  Luckily for me, I was able to completely mix with just a wooden spoon.  Cover and let rise until doubled, about 2 hours.

2.  If baking later, place covered dough in the refrigerator.

3.   Spray baking pan(s) with cooking spray (I used a cake pan).  Roll dough into balls and place in pan.   Cover and let rise  until doubled, about another 2 hours.

4.  Preheat oven to 350*F.   Brush rolls with melted butter and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden.

  While perusing stuff to bake on Taste of Home's website (I use the crap out of that site!), I came across this recipe for a basic bread mix.   It is a base for making different types of non-yeast breads.   This particular recipe mentions blueberry, zucchini, and cinnamon breads.  It has a great base batter, and shows you how to divide it so as to make a mini-loaf of each type.  In my household, I've found that muffins go over better than breads, so I used a standard 12-cup muffin pan instead of the mini loaf pans.  I also used all of the batter to make one type of muffin.  The base mix made a full 12 muffins of perfect size.

  Let me start off by telling you that the base batter is delicious!  I think it would make a nice muffin or bread all on it's own!  I think I ate 2 muffins worth of just batter on my first try...

   Since I had a bunch of blueberries that had been sitting in my fridge for awhile, and were starting to get saggy (but still edible), I decided to start with the blueberry recipe.   It whips up very easy, and the resulting muffins were superb!  They were gone within 24 hours, and that's really saying something in this house.  They were sweet, and had a hint of a cornbread texture.   I would change absolutely nothing about this recipe.

  Next off I tried the zucchini recipe.  I had a big zucchini out of my garden that was begging to be turned into something scrumptious, so I figured to try this base with the zucchini.   Again, a delicious muffin.  Even my kids went back for more.  Same light cornbread texture, with a sweet nutty taste.




Basic Mix:

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoonful baking powder
1/2 teaspoonful salt
1/4 teaspoonful baking soda
1 egg
2/3 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons butter, melted


Directions:

Combine all dry ingredients in one bowl.  In another, whisk together the egg, juice and butter. Pour into the flour mixture.   Mix well.


For blueberry muffins:

Mix one cup fresh or frozen blueberries into entire mix.  If dividing batter for multiple loaves or types, divide accordingly.  Bake at 325*F for about 30 minutes.  While baking, whip together 6 teaspoons honey with 6 teaspoons of orange juice.  Pour over muffins upon removing from oven (I did not do this part, because I forgot.  However, they still came out perfectly tasty.. I can only imagine that this step would transform them to heavenly.)

For zucchini muffins:

Mix 1 cup shredded zucchini,  3 teaspoons grated orange peel and 3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon into the batter. Again, if dividing, divide accordingly.    Bake for 325*F for about 30 minutes.




I am not a fan of cinnamon, so have not made that kind.  However, I just may with fall coming upon us.  I think it sounds like it might be yummy to add some chopped apple to it.  If I do, I will let you know how that turns out.  If you make them, let me know!   (The recipe is in the link.. remember to multiply the amounts by 3 for the full pan if you are using the entire base for one recipe.)

   It's that time of year when zucchini is aplenty in our gardens.  That happened to be the case with a friend of mine, who handed over two huge zucchinis to me.  I knew right away I'd be making zucchini bread.  Since I suddenly had so much of it, though, I decided to experiment a little.  I found a few different recipes, and will be making a few different types, so I have a bit of variety! 

  This recipe for Apple Zucchini Loaf comes from Taste of Home's website.  I made a few changes which I will show below. 

Ingredients:

Bread:

• 1&1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoonful cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoonful baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoonful baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoonful salt
• 1 jar (4&1/2 ounces) diced apple baby food (I used a 4-oz applesauce cup that we use for lunches)
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoonful canola oil
• 1 cup shredded zucchini

Topping:

• 1/4 cup quick-cooking oatmeal (I used a packet of instant cinnamon-apple)
• 1/4 cup coconut flakes
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoonsful butter, melted
• dash of ground cinnamon

Directions:

1.  In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  If using baby food, drain apples and reserve juice. 

2.  In another bowl whisk together egg, oil and applesauce or reserved juice.  Stir into dry ingredients until just blended.  Fold in zucchini and reserved apples.

3.  Pour into an 8x4in loaf pan coated with cooking spray. I used 4 small loaf pans, not sure of their size, but I filled them each about 2/3 full. 

4.  Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle overtop.

5.  Bake at 350*F for 50-55 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to cooling rack.

These actually came out pretty darn good.   I still had to bake them for the same amount of time as called for with the regular sized loaf pan.  They are a little chewy, but that's alright with me.  They smell divine!  My house smells all yummy now.   =)