How does your zucchini grow?

That's a good question, actually. It's only been 105 here most of the summer and yet we've grown mounds of the stuff, so we've gotten more creative beyond bread and shreds for the freezer.

Speaking of bread, the kids and I been perfecting our recipe since the garden started yielding boatloads of zucchini. Katie is always eager to help and everyone in the house (Konny included) is more than happy to eat it. We finally have it perfected and entered it in the Namaste Kids Recipe Contest.




Banana Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread Recipe

2 cups Namaste Perfect Flour Blend
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 eggs
1/2 cup light olive oil
1 cup sucanat
1 tsp vanilla
2 mashed ripe bananas
2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips

Peel and mash bananas. Shred zucchini making sure to squeeze out excess liquid. Set aside

Mix together flour, baking powder, soda and spices. Set aside.

Mix together eggs, oil, and sucanat. Add dry ingredients a little at a time until well blended.

Stir in vanilla, bananas, zucchini and chocolate chips until just combined.

Pour into 1 large or 2 small greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 50-65 min or until toothpick comes out clean.




Zucchini is so easy to hide in baked goods. It's makes them super moist so it's easy to leave out some or all the oil.....chocolate chocolate chip zucchini muffins, anyone? :-)


One of the first new zucchini dishes of the summer was Stuffed Zucchini. They're like little zucchini boats stuffed with all kinds of goodness. I've linked some of Janna's recipes before and all have been amazing. I'm pretty confident she and I would be buds if they still lived in the area.


The other main dish I've made is Sausage Zucchini Bake. Super easy and fabulously delicious! Everyone loved it, although it was obviously not Konny friendly.


Probably Kelton's favorite (and mine too) is Cornmeal Crusted Zucchini. These can be fried or broiled. The first time we tried both methods, but frying is just so stinky and messy (although tasty), that we just stick to the broiling method. These are SO GOOD and so allergy friendly. We seriously cannot get enough of them and I'm thrilled to report even Konny ate some!


Next up is preserving zucchini. The first thing I made was Zucchini Jelly. Sounds odd doesn't it? Just a warning....prepare yourself for the amount of sugar this takes. I was seriously shocked. Completely. I wanted to use turbinado, but was out, so I went with regular old organic sugar. I have it admit, it's super delicious.


I like a good sweet relish, so when one of my friends posted on facebook about making Zucchini Relish, I was intrigued. With her guidance, I gave it a go. These still need to sit for about a month before I'll know if it's any good, but hopefully it will become another summer staple at our house!


And finally, if you can't think of anything else to do with your zucchini, they apparently make great toy telephones!

Namaste Foods Winner

The winner is Berendina!
Thank you everyone for participating!
I have another giveaway that I hope to get up by the end of the week. I'm excited because it's perfect for this time of year!

Konny is 1/2 way to another bday!!

Mr Konny Bear was 18 mo last weekend. We were scheduled to get his pictures done, but he came down with some sort of virus. So not only did we miss pictures, but I was crazy nervous about his check up on Weds because I figured he'd lost weight being ill.

Katie did a happy dance with me though when we saw his weight was 20lbs 15oz and length was 29in! That's some great growing!

At 18mo, Kelton was 22lbs 8oz and 30.75in.
Katie was 20lbs 13oz and 29.5in.

We have an appt scheduled with Rainbows United to evaluate his gross motor and texture issues. We're a little late getting started on this as our ped wanted the eval around 16mo, but I wanted to get through his hypospadia sx first.

Speaking of his sx, I finally got around to sending out thank you notes from all the goodies he was given. I used a card that Carrie designed for me and then stamped his little hand on it.


We did make it in on Friday for pictures and Konny wasn't exactly cooperative. I wish we could have gotten some better smiles, but he's too cute anyway!





He is quite the busy little man these days! A couple of his new favorite things are climbing....




Flushing the toilet...



And eating with a spoon...


Or not...


Konny just recently had his first taste of a lollipop. Kelton was more than eager to share the experience with him and since we just got a new bag of (allergy friendly) YummyEarth Lollipops, there are plenty to go around!





Almost exactly 2yrs ago, Katie had her first experience with a lollipop. As has come to be custom for her, she did it a bit messier!




As much as we still talk about Katie being a horrible sleeper, at least by this age, she was sleeping through the night. Konnor, not so much! Hopefully that will come soon as I'm sure it'd help him (and Mommy and Daddy) not be nearly so crabby!

The 2nd Grader

I'm still trying to figure out how Kelton is already old enough to be in 2nd grade!? Crazy! This will be his last year at the primary school so although I managed to avoid crying on Monday, I'm sure I'll be in puddles next year when he moves up to
the grade school (3rd-5th).

I guess by the time you hit 2nd grade, school is pretty much old hat because while he was excited, he was still pretty chill.

I snapped a few pictures, begged for a hug and that was that!




Unbeknowst to Moosey, Daddy and I discussed a special 1st day of school treat to surprise him after the other kids were in bed. I had him load up in the truck, but didn't say where we were going.
I let him play Angry Birds on the way.

I loved the grin on his face when we pulled up to CherryBerry Yogurt Bar. It's so much fun getting your yogurt and favorite toppings! We loaded up our bowls and pigged out!




It's always fun spending special time with my Moosey!

**Notice a difference in the quality of pictures from before he went to school to our trip to CherryBerrys? We'd been talking for awhile about needing a new camera and it was upsetting when I was trying to get a picture of Kelton before school and they weren't turning out at all. So we're now the proud owners of an SLR and we're really enjoying it!

Review & Giveaway : Namaste Foods{CLOSED}

Awhile back, I sent Namaste Foods a little email about how much I love their products. Because I honestly do, LOVE THEM and I feel very grateful to companies dedicated to producing products safe for people with multiple food allergies/sensitivities. (Compliments also often lead to coupons in the mailbox!)

I cannot tell you how thrilled I was a few days later when I received an email asking if I'd like to host a review/giveaway on my blog. For my favorite allergy friendly company? Uh, YES!

Namaste Foods is a small, yet growing company founded in 1999. Their products are manufactured in a dedicated allergy friendly facility. Every product they produce is free of wheat, gluten, corn, soy, potato, dairy, casein, tree nuts, and peanuts. They are also free of GMOs and are kosher certified.

I first stumbled across Namaste when we were navigating the waters of "what in the world is wrong with Katie?" At the time, I knew very little about this world we were entering in and was just trying all the different things available.

I was immediately in love with the Perfect Flour Blend. More than anything, I wanted a flour that I could use universally when a recipe calls for all purpose flour and Namaste met that need! I have tried other brands and they truly do not measure up. I always return to Namaste. My other favorite is the Spice Cake Mix. It is fabulous and even if the day comes when we're no longer needing allergy friendly products, I can't say I'll be able to give this one up! We really like to add shredded zucchini and chopped apple for muffins! I used the Chocolate Cake Mix to make cake balls for Kelton's 6th Bday.

For our review we picked two products that we hadn't tried yet, the Brownies and the Taco Pasta. I couldn't wait and anxiously checked the mail everyday until our box arrived.


Of course, the kids helped me with the brownies. We cut back the oil a tad and added a cup of shredded zucchini (Daddy didn't even notice!) They smelled fabulous and tasted even better! The real test is always E and after one bite, I heard the infamous statement..."I can't even tell they're gluten free." AWESOME! It made a whole 9x13 pan, which is one of the things I love about Namaste mixes. There's enough for a whole pan or a layered caked, whereas other gf mixes are 1/2 the size.






For dinner we made the pasta. It was super easy! I added some deer burger, black beans, tomatoes and corn. It was so good, we had to be careful not to eat too much so we'd have room to have the brownies! Konny even put some in his mouth (only to spit it out) BUT that is huge for him. Baby steps are still progress!






Whenever friends approach me for advice on going gluten free, Namaste is always one of the first companies that I recommend. It's a brand that our home is definitely never without!

{WIN IT}

Namaste Foods is going to send one of my readers an awesome prize pack containing:

3 Namaste Foods Products
Namaste grocery tote
Namaste Foods Simply Pleasures Cookbook
An issue of Living Without magazine
Assorted recipe cards

Mandatory entry:
Visit Namaste Foods and tell me which product you would most like to try or which product is already your favorite.

Additional entries (leave a separate comment for each):
1.) LIKE Namaste Foods on facebook.
2.) Link this giveaway on your blog or fb page and let me know where to find it.
3.) Follow Namaste Foods on twitter.

BE SURE THERE IS A WAY FOR ME TO CONTACT YOU
US and Canada residents only, please.
This giveaway will end Thur, Aug 25th at 10:59 PM CST. A winner will be chosen with random.org and will have 48 hrs to respond or a new winner will be selected.

Disclaimer: I received free samples from Namaste Foods for this review. No other type of compensation was received. The opinions expressed here are my own and may differ from other's experiences.