Zucchini History and Recipe

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 Zucchini is staple at my house right now. We have Zucchini at least 5 days a week. The Zucchini we know and love is from Italy. And as little as 30 years ago was hardly known here in the States. Columbus was one of the first people to bring the summer squash to Africa and the Mediterrian areas to start the slow world domination of the delicious and versatile veggie. (Another little known fact, Columbus was an Italian. We sometimes assume he was Spanish)

Zucchini plants have a tendency to grow very large and the large leaves spread out where there is room. Many people tend to give it away because they get more produce than they know what to do with. I just shred or chop it all and freeze it. It freezes wonderfully. And here and there I give some to people that do not grow it because who does not love Zucchini Bread? If you do grow it, it is better to keep the fruit not too large, because it tends to get too firm to be enjoyable. 

So what do you do with this yummy green goodness?
Breads, desserts, soups, grill it, they roast great, through in the crock pot, bake, freeze for later and the list goes on! Something we are starting to see is people dipping the flowers of the plant (that later turn into the fruit) in batter and frying them. I want to try this just a lot...

Some of the nutrional elements of Zucchini:

The zucchini vegetable is low in calories (approximately 15 food calories per 100 g fresh zucchini) and contains useful amounts of folate (24 mcg/100 g), potassium (280 mg/100 g) and vitamin A (384 IU [115 mcg]/100 g. 1/2 cup of zucchini also contains 19% of the recommended amount of manganese. (Source)

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And, as promised I am attaching my beloved Zucchini Muffin Recipe! This is the Link! If you want them to be chocolate, just add 3/4 a cup of baking cocoa. I have added Pears before to the batter and they stay really moist and almost uncooked in a way but still tasted amazing. My next stop is to put in some apple and turn it into a cupcake... wish me luck and have fun with your Zucchini!

Camping in Island Park, Idaho

This last picture is bear tracks... about 50 feet behind my tent. Where I was sleeping. Where I changed my clothes. Where my children played. No biggie...

Vacations...

Whenever you go out of town, the packing at first like the worst part, then the planning of the trip and then the getting there.

For me the worst part is when you come home. The above was when I was single when Steve and I were newly weds. But now that we have children I hate the coming home.

The above pictures are only 1/3 of what I brought in from my car...

But I do still love a good few days away. But the laundry afterward is sicking to say the least!

Anyone Up for a Garage Sale?

Have you ever Garage Saled? The last time I attended a Garage Sale was last summer when I was helping my sister organize one. She hates putting them together and I LOVE decluttering. Nothing feels better than throwing away something you never use and making more room for other things. 

While at this garage sale I ventured down the street to another sale and was able to buy Lilly about 6 pieces of clothing for $3. Honestly, I have never actually bought from a Garage Sale before. I just managing them. But this was a killer deal. 

So with all the sale signs out, I went frolicking in the bountiful land of Garage Sales. Above is my "hoard" from Saturday. 22 items for $10. What is that?!?! Like $.21 an item?

I found: A 1961 edition of James and the Giant Peach

A new large purse/diaper bag

A workout shirt, Nike, which was $.25

2 pairs of pants for Lilly

2 shirts for Lilly

1 denim skirt for Lilly

14 pieces of clothing for Isaiah

I buy clothing for my kids on sale, clearence and Ebay when I find a great deal. Very seldom do I buy them things full price. 1. I get a good amount as hand me downs and keep what I like the best. (Lilly was given enough clothes for her first year of life and I only spent $20 on her in that year) 2. They grow out of things quickly. 3. They get stained and worked to the bone. Unless I need something special, I refuse to pay $30 for one piece of clothing. But I will at Christmas time. 

How many of you Garage Sale? What is the best item you have found? I love hearing about people's finds.

Bethany

Reunion Season

Saturday was our third Reunion for the third weekend in a row already this summer. I am tired! But they are always fun and with family and food, what would you rather be doing? Here are just a few pics of my Saturday.

Me about to leave, in my $4 Old Navy shirt! Find similar HERE

A hole with water and a stick make for a great play time

Oh Dutch Oven Cooking, you hurt my waistline... and I don't care

Nature

The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man. 

Author Unknown

This is where we went camping this last weekend!

Bethany

Memorial Weekend

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I was camping from Friday to Monday. It was a great weekend off to say the least. But in South East Idaho it is always very sunny the week of Memorial Weekend and then the week after. Never during. And this is a yearly camping trip with Steve's parents that we go on every year. These are just a few photos of our weekend!

This is what it looked like when we got there...

On a walk with my kids and my mother in law. Beautiful!

My in laws and Steve fishing on the dock

Lilly and I on the curb, we don't fish

Isaiah's first fishing lesson

And Isaiah's FIRST FISH! See his proud daddy?

Bethany

Sittin' Pool Side

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Just wanted to point out that my printables were featured on The Kinch Life Blog yesterday! Check out the totally cool project she made with them here! 

(find my printables here)

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Isaiah thinking Lilly needs to be thrown from his four-wheeler to learn to stay off

 Who has not been loving this totally great weather?!?!? (If you are not having sunny, no rain, no wind, mid-70's weather my mistake) It just feels so good to not worry about snow!

So much cooler to let the water out of the pool than let it stay in

Oh pool side... how I have missed you! With my chipped nail polish. 

That hole in the fence back there was officially repaired yesterday... such an eye soar

And someone won the four-wheeler battle, and she totally owns it!

Bethany

Happy Summer weather!

Bring it ON!

I have something big, scary, amazing and out of this world to tell all of you...

I REGISTERED FOR MY 5K THIS MORNING! 

For the first time in 10 years I will be running 3.1 miles. And I am so excited. 

This is the logo for The Heart and SOLE of Rigby 5k/10k in Rigby, Idaho. The proceeds are going to extended research to find an end to Polio, on its way back. 

The Facebook page (here) says to walk, skip, crawl, hop or run this race. My family keeps telling me I need to train for it, I am! I still believe I will be the last one over that finish line, but I will cross it without walking, I assure you. 

I encourage all of you to maybe think about doing a race. They always (from what I have seen) benefit something. How can you beat that?

Happy Monday -- and Running! BRING IT ON!

Bethany

My New Babies...

Steve and I have decided to do a vegetable garden this year since we have the space. Why? Several reasons:

We have not had a yard for 2 years, we must use it

We have 2 kids in diapers (even at Costco this is about $100 a month --with coupons--)

We know where our food will be coming from

And it will taste better, so fresh

For now though, the babies plants must live indoors because Idaho is known to have snow in May. Seriously. So they need to wait until there will not be another frost. 

My husband reminded me I was suppose to put them in Dixie cups, but I was so excited I forgot. This is what the corner of the office looks like:

Which brings me to another point, those of you without a yard, you can still have a veggie garden. You just do the above. It is called a Container Garden. Just put in a few seeds to each pot and grow. They will need to stay inside for a few more weeks, but then put them by your front door or back porch and even a window sill. I do not recommend inside, my office now smells of dirt!

Bethany

Nothing like a Snow Day

Who doesn't love just a little snow in the winter? Normally Southeast Idaho is covered in the winter time with a perfect white blanket (where we live). But this year we hardly have any...

I personally would love it for just a handful of days in general, but children see it differently!

So the other day when it put down just a little I bundled the kids up like the little brother on "A Christmas Story". Here are just a couple of pictures of our day out. More like 20 minutes...

We only have a couple of trees in our yard, but I thought this was sort of pretty.

He really could not see that well, but his ears were warm.

Oh bright eyes Lilly!

Failed Snowman attempt because it was not thick enough to stick together.

The wagon is their favorite toy. Steve got it for them for Christmas and I really think it is the only thing they can agree on! We walked around the house probably 15 times. 

Hope your winters are going well!

Bethany

Blackfoot Fair 2011

We went to the fair this year with our AMAZING friends, James and Megan Fisher. With their super cute kiddos, Lalayn and Tayden. Lalayn kind of thinks Isaiah is her boyfriend I think, and Tayden and Isaiah are best friends. Tayden also really likes to give Lilly kisses...

While we were there Steve purchased an $8 smoked turkey leg (salivating now), and we shared a elephant ear, or in Idaho you call it a tiger ear. (Idahoans are weird... elephant ear makes so much more sense). The funniest part of the evening was when we started walking to get in, I was having a hard time pushing the double stroller through this sanding part, so Steve decided to "help" me. He broke off entirely one of the front wheels! Good thing Megan had her double stroller. Lilly rode on my chest the whole time and we rotated the other three kids between the two seats. It was way fun and hopefully next year Isaiah will be old enough to ride the rides (technically he was this year but he cried on the carousel once and I was not paying what they were asking for him to cry!)

And Lilly was in a photo contest with our photographer, Paisley Studios! She did not win but when I saw her picture I FREAKED out and some people moved away out of fright. Megan witnessed it!

Barrow Family Reunion 2011, Twin Falls Hot Springs

So this year was Jon and Natalie's turns to do the family reunion. (August 2011) We went to a Hot Springs in Twin Falls, ID. It was a really nice pool! To add to that there was never more than 6 other people in the pool! Sue and Dayle got a campsite right next to it so we just hung out and ate and talked. What better kind of a day? Although I did not take many pictures, here are a few to look at of the kids!

And might I add that Chad rode with me and we got lost for a total of about 30 minutes. He refused to let me stop for directions!