Zucchini & Chicken Salad

I have had the worst luck with timing recently.  Well, maybe not the worst luck as I really don't believe in luck -- more like the worst list of scheduled appointments that I could do nothing about.  Between school starting again (and being a teacher that means a HUGE amount of work and life-style changes for a bit) and shooting the wedding of one of my friends (my first wedding gig EVER!), to finishing up other tasks that carried over from the summer, my time has worn thin quickly each day.  Meaning the end of my day has found me defrosting a lot of Trader Joe's boxes for dinner.

Until this week.  When life finally seemed to be back on track.  Wedding pictures were delivered, final projects from the summer were wrapped up, and my days at school didn't take an incredible amount of prepping for each day because, well, they get it.  (Ahh, sigh of relief.  I love when the routines and procedures click into place!)

Which meant I could finally schedule in time to share great recipes with you...

I took the pictures above NOT for the recipe I am sharing today.  No.  I took it for a recipe I had hoped to share last week.  A delicious fresh, summery garden salsa over grilled fish.  Perfect summer dish.  And it was going to help wrap up my summer meals that I have been holding onto so tightly (Don't steal one of my favorite seasons from me!!!).

But then the battery died.

And I couldn't find the charger.

Anywhere.

So I have no summer garden salsa over grilled fish to share with you.  Bummer for you, but it was pretty fabulous.  (Maybe I will have to sneak in a summery-dish out of season, or we will have to wait until next summer. Something to look forward to, I guess...)

Thank you, Amazon, for having great prices and quick shipping so I could get a replacement.  I may not have the rest of that recipe, but I do have a summer zucchini and chicken salad to share with you!

I know the calendar says that Autumn is just around the corner -- only three days away -- and I promise that I will jump on that pumpkin-laden band wagon at that point.  But with the weather at a nice upper 80's and the farmers' market still packed with summery produce, I am all about enjoying the good stuff while I can. Which means there is this nice zucchini and chicken salad in my belly, and I am looking forward to some fish tacos for dinner.

Viva la summer!  And then bring on the fall!

(This recipe calls for store-cooked chicken, I am not going to lie.  You don't have to do that if you don't want to, but I did want to do that, and so I did.  Do whatever you want, no judgement here!)

ZUCCHINI & CHICKEN SALAD

Adapted from Everyday Food, July/August 2003

SERVES 4  •  PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES  •  TOTAL TIME: 15 MINUTES

ingredients

• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup fresh lime juice
• coarse salt and pepper
• 3 zucchini, ends cut off, thinly sliced (slicing tool on food processor helps)
• 1 lb. cooked fresh chicken breasts from deli section of supermarket**
• 1 cup arugula, loosely packed
• ½ read onion, thinly sliced
• ½ cup sliced almonds
• ¼ cup grated Gruyere cheese

directions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together ¼ cup oil and lime juice; season with salt and pepper.  Add zucchini; toss to coat, and marinade while you cut the chicken.
2. Slice the chicken breast into pieces with medium thickness.  Warm up in the microwave for 30 seconds so it is not cold from the refrigerator anymore.  Toss chicken with zucchini mixture.  Add arugula, onion, almonds, and Gruyere.  Serve.

**You can also cook the chicken breast yourself.  This will only add about 15 minutes to the process.

COST: $11.21        COST PER SERVING (4): $2.81

Gluten Free    //    30 Min or Less    //   Unprocessed 

Of all the things I've lost... (Zucchini-Squash Cream Cheese Cake)

It just sat there on the shelf, staring at me.

Where did it come from?  And why was it here?

I flipped the lid open.  Still closed, never been used.  Seriously, why was this almond extract sitting on the shelf inside my cupboard?

I had a slight recollection of purchasing it.  Lucky's.  I bought it at Lucky's.

But why?

Opening up this blog, I started scrolling through my posts.  Nothing that looked like it was supposed to have almond extract added to it, no mention of me forgetting to add an important ingredient.

Yet there was one notably missing post.  One of these weekly Sundays with Joy posts.  Where it should have been, one week after zucchini pancakes and one week before s'mores brownies, was nothing but a line separating two other, non-related posts.

Quickly I opened up the document to which recipe I missed, and lo and behold, blueberry pancakes with a citrus glaze stared back at me.  A recipe in which I had bought all the ingredients.  I picked them out, swiped my card at the check out stand, brought them home and put them away... and then forgot all about them.

So that's why we had so many blueberries about a week ago!

Sigh.  I am too young to have these 'senior' moments, aren't I?!  Well, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised... my mother did by me a key chain when I was in high school that said --

Of all the things I've lost, 

I miss my mind the most.  

I guess this moment was destined to happen.

Another moment that was destined to happen?  Zucchini-squash cream cheese cake.

My local grocery store was out of zucchini so I went for the next best thing, zucchini-squash.  I added some other ingredients, like nutmeg, and I had a sensory masterpiece.  You should have smelled this thing as it was cooking!  Oh my word, it was all I could think about.  I tried to clean but wound up just hanging out in the kitchen, just to be closer to the smell...

And I made cream cheese frosting from scratch!  This was a proud moment for me, friends.  There are those times when I realize that I can do what Betty Crocker does and I just cannot believe it.  This was one of those moments.

The end result?  Heaven on a plate.  The BEST baked something-or-other that I have ever made.  My husband agrees, so there, proof.

Zucchini-squash cake.  Oh yeah.

Recipe adapted from Joy the Baker Cookbook, which you should totally get.

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 extra large egg or 1 1/2 regular size
1 t vanilla extract
1 stick butter, melted and cooled
1 cup shredded zucchini or zucchini-squash, or even carrots ;)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Grease 9x13 cake pan/loaf pan and set aside
3. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in medium bowl.
4. With either hand mixer or standing mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until well mixed.  Add egg, mix.  Add vanilla, mix.  Add butter, mix until very smooth.
5. Add flour mixture to bowl and stir to incorporate.  Beat until mixed.  Add zucchini squash and stir. 
6. Batter is very thick at this point.  Spoon into pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes.  Top with cream cheese frosting (that either you make or you buy -- check the recipe HERE). 

COST (without frosting): $3.36
COST (with frosting): $5.87

Cost per serving (10): $0.34 or $0.59

Potato and Zucchini (and Squash and Carrot) Pancakes

Remember when I went to Vegas?  Of  course you do, because what I do is the highlight of your life, I know.  So off to Vegas we went and to the kitchen I did not go.  Not too shabby of a trade, but not so good for keeping up with my Sundays with Joy baking group. 

Here is the thing: I am committed to seeing these 100 recipes through with these girls!  Why?  Because I am having a lot of fun, I made a personal commitment and want to see it through, and I am learning tons.

I am about three months in and I took a moment to stop and think about what I have learned from this process so far.  Some of these things I learned explicitly (like, Joy told me in her book) and some of these things I learned from personal experience (remember those sour muffins that I had to throw away?  Not something Joy told me to do in the book).  But all of these things have come directly from my attempt at baking my way through the Joy the Baker Cookbook. 

And the best part?  It is continuing on...

like these potato and zucchini (and squash and carrot) pancakes.

Thank you, Joy.

Potato and Many-Veggies Pancakes

Recipe adapted from Joy the Baker's Potato and Zucchini Pancakes.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups shredded potatoes
1 cup shredded squash
1 cup of shredded zucchini
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
4 T of olive oil, divided
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon of salt, divided

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix shredded potatoes, squash, zucchini, and carrot and put into colander with 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, saute onion and garlic in 1 T of olive oil.  Set aside when translucent.
3. Beat eggs together with baking powder and flour in large bowl.  Add onion and garlic.
4. After veggie mixture has sat for 10 minutes, push down to squeeze excess water out.  Add to the large bowl with rest of salt (1/2 teaspoon). 
5. Heat half of the remaining olive oil over medium heat and turn oven on to 170 degrees with a plate in there to transfer pancakes when they are done. (This will keep them warm without extra cooking.)
6. Taking a 1/4 cup scooper, scoop out potato mixture and put in skillet and flatten out.  You can fit about 4-5 pancakes per batch.  Flip when bottom is golden brown, about 2-3 minutes.  Cook both sides and then transfer to plate in oven.
7. Continue until all are cooked up.  Top with sour cream and enjoy! :)

COST: $5.26      COST per serving (6 servings of 3 pancakes each): $0.88