Chocolate Zucchini Bread

August 6, 2014 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

I'm kicking myself for not making more time to plant a garden this spring. Josh planted two tomato plants and a few herbs while I napped one Sunday afternoon. That was it. Our tomatoes are gorgeous and our herbs are beautiful, but I'm wishing we had more planted more tomatoes. That there is nothing else planted may be for the best, though. We've taken a few trips this year, and have had several hot days while we were gone on both trips. In fact, our second trip out of state ruined my hanging flower baskets and now it is too late in the season to plant more flowers...unless I want to pay a fortune for new baskets. Which I don't.

Thankfully, there are many people who did plant more of a garden and are sharing the vegetables of their labor. Last Sunday, one of our sweet elderly ladies in the church dropped off a boat load of zucchini. I snatched three zuchs and I knew exactly what I was going to make with one of them - chocolate zucchini bread.

Believe it or not, this is a recipe I posted way back when I first started blogging - but the post is atrocious. A lot of bad photos, bad writing, and the worst part was, I didn't even take the time to write out the recipe. I just gave you a link.

WHAT WAS I THINKING??

Every year that goes by, I always try and remind myself to remake this recipe because I remember really liking it. Why, oh why, did I take so long to remake it? The smell alone of the bread baking in the oven is worth it. But the taste...is something else all together. Something wonderful. Something indulgent. Something sweet, fudgy, and rich. Like a brownie. Wash it down with a glass of milk and I tell ya, you're set for life!

You would never know that zucchini was hiding in there. But there is, and it adds flavor and keeps the bread moist. This bread is also the perfect way to add more veggies to your diet. Craving some chocolate? No problem. Bake this bread up and add some grated zucchini and you'll be right as rain.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Name: Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 1
Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter, softened; 1 cup sugar; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour; 3 tablespoon baking cocoa; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1 cup grated zucchini, unpeeled; 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Yield: 1 loaf

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Looking for a way to use up zucchini from your garden? Look no further, this chocolatey, rich, loaf has got tons of flavor and looks gorgeous too, with all the pops of green from the zucchini. Your family will gobble this down!

Ingredients

½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoon baking cocoa
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup grated zucchini, unpeeled
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon into a medium sized bowl and gradually mix into the creamed mixture. Stir in the grated zucchini and chocolate chips
Pour into greased loaf pan and bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the loaf. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan and transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Wrap leftover slices of the loaf in plastic wrap to keep fresh.

Notes

colagal for Allrecipes.com

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1 slice
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 294Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 62mgSodium: 269mgCarbohydrates: 42gFiber: 2gSugar: 25gProtein: 4g

Nutrition information isn't always accurate.

Tuesday's Tidings for August 5, 2014

August 5, 2014 By Chelsia Rief 2 Comments

1. One of the only ways we can keep Christian away from playing over by our grill is swinging in the hammock together. It never lasts for long because he gets bored. But for a few minutes at least, he does enjoy it.

2. I think my kids have been going on sleepovers for the last 3 weeks. I never see them anymore. Always sleeping over at family and friends house, lol! My babies are growing up!

3. I'm going back through all of my recipe boards on Pinterest and getting rid of duplicate pins and other things I have no idea why I pinned them. I can be an OCD weirdo at times and this is just me, weirding out on Pinterest. Please tell me I'm not the only one???

4. Have you guys seen the video from the Budapest Zoo about the bear saving the crow?? If you haven't watched it, it's pretty unreal!

5. I wish I had seen this when we were in Disneyland. I totally would of tried to do some of these things.

6. How cute are Grace, Eden, and their bff-Teah? The only other thing I can say about this picture is that Christian, also has a matching shirt. But it's a little big.

7. So who will be the next Food Network Star?? I couldn't decide between Luca and Lenny, so I just voted evenly down the middle. I like Nicole, but I don't see myself actually watching her show.

8. I am drooling over this skillet dish. I think it looks amazing!

9. Last night, both Josh and I dreamed about food. Though neither of us can remember our dream, lol!

10. These balsamic and honey chicken skewers...I die.

Weekly Menu 8/4-8/8

August 4, 2014 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

Aaaannd...it's August! Can I just say how craaaazzzzy this is? Even though school for you public schooling folks is right around the corner, we've still got two solid months of summer break left. I've still got to take advantage of the back to school sales and get the kids covered though, not to mention order our homeschooling material. *sigh*

You may notice that my menu won't include anything for Saturday and Sunday. That's because Josh and I are going to Portland for a night! Yes, you heard me- it will of been officially 7 years since we last went anywhere alone together. The year was 2007 and we went to Mexico on a cruise. As you can imagine-I'm quite excited, but nervous since this will be our first night away for the little man, and I love him way to much and I hate being away from him. But sometimes, we parents need to take a break for ourselves. YAY!!!

Monday

(Meatless)

Summer Pasta Salad

Tuesday

(Taco)

Tacos and rice

Wednesday

Strawberry Almond Chicken Salad

Thursday

BBQ Chicken, Baked Potatoes, and Corn on the Cob

Friday

(Pizza)

Tomato Salad Grilled Pizza

Slow-Cooker BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

August 1, 2014 By Chelsia Rief 8 Comments

Busy nights don't have to equal pizza or fast food - with 15 min, and just a little planning, you can have these yummy slow-cooker BBQ chicken sandwiches!

This Slow-Cooker BBQ Chicken Sandwiches post originally appeared on Catz early on - maybe 2010 or so - and then we updated the recipe in 2014. Since then, we've continued to make the recipe on a very regular basis, so it only seemed right to get it some updated pictures and feature it again, for the first time in almost three years! It truly is one of our main go-to stand-by save-you-when-you're-too-busy-to-cook recipes!

I have to say, easy and simple meals are some of my favorites to make. This sandwich, happily, is also one of our family's favorites to eat! It has quickly become one of my in-love's favorite recipes to throw together, too. While BBQ chicken is a common enough flavor, the addition of the coleslaw adds that *crunch* that a "soft on soft" meal like BBQ chicken on a bun really needs in the texture department.

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Tuesday's Tidings for July 29, 2014

July 29, 2014 By Chelsia Rief 2 Comments

1. We went to our friend's annual summer barbecue on Sunday and had a blast! Grace and Eden played in the pool all day and had a blast. Josh and I even won the 3 legged race ( I have the bruise to prove it). I love seeing my daughters play with their best friends. Grace and Eden lucked out because they got to have a sleepover-this is what summer should look like. :)

2. Josh and I tried watching American Hustle over the weekend. We had been wanting to see it because we like a few of the actors and it won awards, etc. We turned it off 5 minutes into it. The cursing straight off the back was way to much. I can take a word here and there, but when it's back to back-I don't care how many awards it won and how many people say it was good. It's a turn off and I just can't sit through a movie and enjoy it and as a Christian...it just plain out isn't language I want to listen to or should listen to. It certainly doesn't help improve my quality of life, but more importantly, The Bible commands us to live pure and holy lives. Call me a Bible if you like, but I try very hard to obey the word of God.

3. Josh finally bought a lightening speaker dock for our phones in the bedroom! I can finally listen to music on my phone without draining my battery. I love it!

4. The new Hobbit trailer looks super insanely good! I can't wait to see it in theaters!

5. This dress for Eden. I die! I saw it through the store's window the other day and swooned. Luckily, the kid shares my taste because she was drooling over it too. It was made for her.

6. When did he grow up? Look at his little boy legs and his boyish tousled bed head! I can't help but melt every time I look into his face. He is such a blessing and I'm in love with my little boy so much. Being his mommy is the best thing ever!

7. I'm drooling over these bars. I could probably eat a whole pan of them.

8. Last week, I talked about bedtime story books and one of my friends (Hi, Cassie) mentioned "Where the Red Fern Grows" which I've never read before. I've started a Bedtime Story shelf and a Homeschooling shelf. The bedtime story shelf is for books for me to read to the kids at bedtime. The other shelf is for potential books report books for Grace to read for school. If you have any suggestions of bedtime story or "history type" appropriate 5th grade books for Grace she might find interesting-I would love to hear your suggestions.

9. So Sharky!!! I love this so much!!!

10. Check your pockets before you throw clothes into the washing machine. Yet again, I've stained something white with something not white-this time...a neon green Orange Julius coupon that I forgot about. I have a nice neon green stained back pocket on my favorite white capris now. I'm going to try bleaching them tomorrow. If not-then onto my secret weapon. RIT-color remover. I know it will work if the bleach doesn't. Thank Goodness I know my pants are not ruined.

Weekly Menu 7/28-8/3

July 28, 2014 By Chelsia Rief 2 Comments

The first day of August is this week. Can you believe it? Take a moment and think about that. August. Back to School. Summer is coming to an end. I've got one thing to say. BRING ON THE PUMPKIN FLAVORED EVERYTHING!!!

Ssshhh. Don't tell my husband I said that. He might disown me. He had the gall to tell me that he isn't ready for pumpkin anything until late October! Whaaat???? That's just crazy talk. How is this man even my husband??

This week is ALL OVER THE PLACE! We've got two retirement dinners to go to on Thursday and Friday for some lovely co-workers Josh used to work with. Saturday-we decided to wing it and see what inspires us at the farmer's market. I've got a pizza recipe I want to try out, so I'm leaning toward that. So if the menu looks a little wonky, well, now you know why.

Monday

BBQ Chicken Skewers with Rice and Salad

Tuesday

(Taco)

Baked Tacos with refried beans

Wednesday

BBQ Chicken Sandwiches with coleslaw

Thursday

Friday

Dinner out

Saturday

Farmer's Market inspiration

Sunday

Fried Egg Sandwiches and Smoothies

Marionberry Cobbler

July 25, 2014 By Chelsia Rief 5 Comments

Berry picking. I hated it as a kid. I adored the book "Blueberries for Sal" but obviously it wasn't enough to change my bad attitude when my mom would drag me out of the cool, air conditioned house and onto our neighborhood street where blackberries grew amuck! All I wanted to do was play with my barbies in my room. Those who know me in real-life know that Barbies WERE my life. I could play make believe all day.

Fast forward 20+ years later and I don't have a make believe bone in my body, but I do love to go berry picking. My, how things change as we grow older. I wish I could go back and happily skip down the street with my bucket in one hand and my mom's hand in my other hand.

I can't go back in time, but I can make these memories with my kids. And unlike me, they love berry-picking. All three of them. Grace is a picker who occasionally samples the goods. Eden is more of a sampler than a picker, but she gets a few into the bucket. And Christian? He's just a sampler-and boy does he love sampling berries! Out of our three kids, Grace is the most like me. I'm a fast picker and I don't really sample. I'll try one berry-but I'm all about how many can I pick in the amount of time I have. Sampling berries only slows me down-I hate being slowed down.

Last weekend we went berry picking for all of 15 minutes, maybe? We got there right before the farm was closing. I got busy and down to work and by the time we were done, I had enough to make dessert. Cobbler. My favorite of all the berry desserts in the land. This recipe is the recipe that is always used by Josh's family. It's a basic fruit cobbler recipe, so any fruit or berry would work. Marionberries are what I had recently picked, so that is what I used and it was perfect! Warm, fruity, and bubbly on the inside with a beautiful buttery crunch crust. (The crust is always my favorite part.) Serve this cobbler with some old-fashioned vanilla ice cream and you've got a true taste of summer.

Marionberry Cobbler

Yield: 6

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Fresh, sweet berries and a beautiful golden butter crust-this marionberry cobbler is the perfect dessert for summer!

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp.salt
1 scant tsp.baking powder
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ cup (1 stick) butter, chilled and cubed
1egg, beaten
6 cups marionberries
½ cup sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ cup instant tapioca pearls

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine 1 cup sugar, flour, salt, baking powder and 2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Cut in the cold butter with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles wet sand. Mix the beaten egg into the flour mixture until the egg is evenly distributed.
Pour the berries into an 11×13 baking dish and stir in the remaining sugar and tapioca pearls. Sprinkle the cinnamon and nutmeg over the top of the berries. crumble the cobbler dough over the berries until the dough covers almost all of the berries.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 40 minutes or until the berries start to bubble and the crust gets golden brown. If you find that the crust isn’t browning-turn the broiler on and broil the cobbler for a few minutes only-careful to watch it and make sure it doesn’t burn.
Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream

Notes

Recipe adapted from my mom Connie Anderson and my Mother-in-love, Lisa Rief.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 299Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 1mgCarbohydrates: 73gFiber: 2gSugar: 50gProtein: 2g

Nutrition information isn't always accurate.

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Oriental Chicken Salad

July 24, 2014 By Chelsia Rief 6 Comments

Oriental Chicken Salad is light, yummy, and full of crunch - a perfect summer salad! It's an easy way to feed a crowd - or make sure there will be seconds!

This post originally appeared on Catz in the summer of 2012 (Chels was pregnant with our son Christian - he's three now!). We've made this oriental chicken salad recipe many times since then, and while we often still bake the chicken, sometimes we grill it! We've also started using purple cabbage to brighten things up a bit! At any rate, we've updated the photos and thought we would share this amazing standby recipe with you again!

I remember many wonderful things from my wedding day eight and a half years ago. Saying, "I do," to my best friend and love of my life, celebrating with my friends and family...and oriental chicken salad! (That's not everything - there's more!) I can't say I remember too much about the rest of the food, though. Only this salad, I remember. Maybe I remember eating it because it's my husband's favorite...? It's something of a traditional recipe in Josh's family, and he grew up with his mom making it when guests were over, for church potlucks, and almost any celebration that involved lots of people. (When she wasn't making this oriental chicken salad, she usually made trainwreck crock pot taco salad - another family favorite!)

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Tuesday's Tidings for July 22, 2014

July 22, 2014 By Chelsia Rief 2 Comments

1. If you make one thing this summer, make this! I am not even joking. These steak and potato kabobs are probably the best thing Josh and I have made all summer so far. And we've made some pretty tasty things. We just made this. No sides or anything else. Josh was worried that it wouldn't be filling enough, but we found it plenty filling and plenty tasty! Josh and I already decided though that we are not going to take pics and make our own post about it. Deborah, pretty recently just made these on her site and her photos are gorgeous and she did a great job with everything. So if you want to make these, follow the link to her site. You won't be sorry.

2. So, 24 is over. How did you all feel about the finale? I liked it. Josh was a bit more meh about it. I really hope they bring it back though.

3. Josh and I have been collecting wine corks for years. We've always wanted to display them, but we've never found a vessel we like enough to agree on. So all of our corks have been in ziplock bags in the garage. Until now! We found this awesome cork holder at Kohls on clearance and it is awesome. It holds a ton and adds a conversation to piece to our dining room.

4. It's been almost a week since I've put sugar (other than creamer) into my coffee. Kind of loving it.

5. This pasta is calling my name!!!

6. Grace and I are officially registered for THE COLOR RUN! We went running Sunday morning and it was fun-but we are super excited for the run in September.

7. One of my cousins just pinned this and it showed up in my newsfeed. I am so doing this with all of my clear vases!

8. Anyone else watching "The Next Food Network Star?" Do you have a favorite? I really like Nicole's POV, and Loreal's personality, and Lenny is just hilarious!

9. We got our 2nd ripe tomato from our plant today! So excited! I wish we had planted more this season. We just never had the time to do more than some herbs and the tomato plants, we chose.

10. I'm reading the Tale of Despereaux right now to the kids. We just finished Charlotte's Web and watched the movie with Dakota Fanning the other day. (Love that version!) Since the chapters are so short in our current book, I read about 2 chapters a night. What are some of your favorite books to read to your kids? I'm trying to choose books that will appeal to both kids. I think when I'm done with this one, I'm going to have to revisit Fantastic Mr. Fox. It's a childhood favorite of mine and we've yet to see the movie.

Weekly Menu 7/21-7/27

July 21, 2014 By Chelsia Rief 2 Comments

I feel like this last week was so long and drug on, but here we are and it is Monday morning and it is a new week. I'm still having sneezing allergy attacks. Usually they don't linger on this long, but there must be something in the air that is still causing the fits of sneezes. Anyone else dealing with allergies still?

Yesterday we woke up to rain! I was so surprised! I was already to go running with Gracie when I came down the stairs and saw that it was lightly raining out. We decided to go running anyways. We just put on sweaters and we were fine. A little damp, but honestly, now I see why people enjoy running in the cooler, damp weather. There is something about it. The air smells so clean, and the water falling on your face feels so refreshing. Of course it helps that I'm not wearing makeup on our Sunday morning runs. I jut get up and go. Running outside is kind of a new thing for me. I've always just ran on the treadmill and let it propel me. Let me just say that for the record, I am much slower outside. Haha!

Monday

(Meatless)

Fish Sandwiches with French Fries

Tuesday

(Taco)

Pulled Pork Nachos

Wednesday

(Salads)

Oriental Chicken Salad with Homemade Rolls

Thursday

Hotdogs, Baked Beans, and Fruit Salad

Friday

(Pizza)

Sausage, Mozzarella, Basil Pizza with a Side Salad

Saturday

BBQ Chicken Kabobs with Rice and Salad

Sunday

Fried Egg Sandwiches and Smoothies