Happy Birthday

Providence turned 7. It's been a weekend full of celebration.

Thursday: Haircut
Friday (actual birthday): movie date with mama
Saturday: dinner and presents with Isaiah's family
Sunday: cupcakes with my brother and family.

I made chocolate zucchini cupcakes with the girls and they are so delicious! If you have as much zucchini in your garden as we do you need to make them. Right. Now.

Makes 24 cupcakes:

Cake:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Frosting:
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup butter
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard muffin tin with paper cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, mix together the oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla until well blended.  (Looks kind of like moist sand).

Combine the flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Fold in the zucchini and chocolate chips. Scoop evenly into 24 cupcake liners.


Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until cupcakes spring back when gently touched.  Cool completely before frosting. (I made them the day before).

To make the frosting, melt together the 6 tablespoons of cocoa and butter; set aside to cool.

In another bowl, blend together the confectioners' sugar, milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in the cocoa mixture.

Spread (or if the frosting is still a little warm you can dip them) over cooled cupcakes. Top with mini chocolate chips or coconut (or whatever else your little heart desires).

 

I have made this recipe sans frosting and it is still wonderful.

Yummy in my tummy

While working through my yeast issues my diet is extremely restricted. Nothing to feed the yeast: sugar, fruit, processed foods, refined foods, gluten, even some starchy veggies like carrots, potatoes, and corn, all no-nos for the time being.

This is forcing me to be a little more creative in the kitchen. I warned Isaiah that dinners around here may be getting strange for a bit, like mashed turnips instead of potatoes (delicious by the way). Perhaps it's not so strange for some (like me) but my pickiest eater by far is my husband and I wanted to warn him. I found some great recipes that fit my criteria. Though some of them I've been a little apprehensive about sharing with the man of the house, he is the type that just won't eat what he doesn't want.

One of them was planned Wednesday night, a recipe that sounded wonderful and simple:

Coconut Chicken with Spinach

For 2 servings:
1 large chicken breast (chopped)

3 cups baby spinach
1 onion (chopped)
1/2 cup coconut milk
3 tablespoons coconut oil
Handful of almonds
Salt and pepper to taste

Add almonds to the food processor to chop them up, then lightly brown in a pan with coconut oil. Set aside.

In a pot, add the coconut milk and spinach, then cover on a low heat to simmer.

Now add the onions to a second pan for 2 minutes with coconut oil, then add chicken until thoroughly cooked. Take the chicken and onions and add them to the pot with the coconut milk and spinach. Stir and cover for 2 minutes. Served garnished with toasted almonds, salt and pepper.

SOOOO good, changes I made were of course doubling the recipe, I used regular spinach and slivered almonds so I was able to skip the food processor step, also I only had one onion but it was pretty big.

As I was preparing this mushy mess of goodness I thought "Isaiah will probably have to scrounge for dinner tonight I don't think he will touch this." I got a welcomed surprise when not only did he eat it but he said "This one's a keeper to put in regular rotation." Wow, his horizons may be expanding - I'm thinking of trying some kind of quinoa salad on him next.

*since I didn't take a picture of the dinner he is a picture of the picky eater*