Eat your vegetables! Carrot-Zucchini Bread

I cannot be the only mother on the planet who has difficulty getting her kids to eat their vegetables!  I am not above hiding veggies in food.  I just had to share this recipe for zucchini/carrot bread that I found on pinterest because my kids gobbled it up - vegetables and all!!  Even Graham (my super-picky kiddo) loved it.  He kept asking for more "bikini bread"!!

Carrot-Zucchini Bread

•  1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp ground ginger
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher or sea salt
• 1/4 cup candied ginger, optional (I omitted this)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup canola oil (I used 1/4 cup canola oil and 1/4 cup applesauce)
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup coarsely grated carrots
• 1/2 cup coarsely grated zucchini

Preheat oven to 325F.  Grease your loaf pan.  In a large bowl, mix eggs, oil (& applesauce), sugar and vanilla.  Stir in carrots and zucchini.

Mix remaining dry ingredients together and slowly add to large bowl. Stir/fold until just blended. Pour mixture into loaf pan.

  Bake about 1 hour, until firm and toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool completely and enjoy!!  Next time I will double this because it disappeared WAY too fast!



Somewhere over the Rainbow

RAINBOW PARTY!!!

Ava Caroline turned 7 on Sunday!  Every time I looked at her this weekend I thought about that Friday morning when I woke at midnight and my water broke . . . almost 3 weeks early.  We were SO excited & we had anticipated the birth of our first baby for so long.  It was definitely the most amazing day of my life.  I remember holding her, in shock that I had a daughter and amazed that this tiny little beautiful creature was ours!  I memorized her sweet little head of blond hair and her big blue eyes. . . and, of course, the dimple.  Seven years has gone by in a flash.  We were so unaware during those first few moments just how much Ava would change our lives.  Never a dull moment at the McCluer house, that is for sure.  Ava has filled our lives with sunshine and dimply grins and girly silliness.  She is crafty, funny, curious, strong willed, smart and beautiful. 

 The traditional "birthday breakfast in bed"

One of her favorite gifts was her 1st "Gi" from mom & dad!  Such an amazing karate kid!

We had a fantastic celebration!  It was all about rainbows!!

 Fruit tray with "cloud dip" & the gold at the end of the rainbow!!

The fruit dip was delish and super easy.  One block of cream cheese, one 8 oz container of marshmallow fluff, 1 tsp of vanilla and 1 tbsp of lemon juice.  Yummy!! 

 The girls decorated flip-flops with balloons in rainbow colors.

 They went on a scavenger hunt & found a treasure . .  a rainbow pinata filled with gold!

 Sweet Friends.

 Ava got lots of great gifts from lots of great friends!!

Happy Happy 7th Birthday to my amazing girl!!

Scramble Bread

FYI - There's a new feature on my blog!  If you are interested in getting email notifications of new posts you can enter your email address
 - - - - - - - > over there!

Ava lost another tooth.  We've been calling her toothless.  :)  P.S. Doesn't she have the greatest dimple!?!

My poor Sophia has been sick with an ear infection & influenza.  I think today she rounded the corner and seems to feel much better.  Luckily, Sophia's daddy is a great nurse!  He spoiled her rotten and had her set up in our room with her favorite movies, brought meals up on a tray . . .  and even had flowers by the bed! 

Just had to share this great new recipe from an old friend!  Graham helped me make it last night & it was a huge success!  Easy, delicious & versatile.

Scramble Bread

Take a ball of pizza dough (I used a just-add-water packet) cover with olive oil and let sit in the bottom of a bowl for a few minutes.

Cut dough into 1-2 inch pieces and mix with your favorite pizza toppings, shredded cheese, fresh chopped garlic and fresh chopped tomatoes.  We used pepperoni, black olives, green peppers, garlic, tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.

Graham helped me dump in the ingredients and mix them up!

Transfer ingredients into casserole dish, stoneware dish or onto stone pizza pan.

I just kind of dumped it on there and spread it out a little bit.  Bake @ 350 for 20-30 minutes until dough is cooked and browning.

It was SO easy and SO yummy!  Next time I am going to try Hawaiian style (canadian bacon, pineapple, peppers) and I also think you could do half & half very easily!  I also heated up some pizza sauce for the kids and they enjoyed dipping the mouthfuls into the sauce!  Enjoy!