Woo! Another week meat free and I am feeeeling good! Since it has been crazyyy hot lately, I have been mostly eating green beans, cauliflower, and zucchini steamed, roasted, sauteed, you name it! Those aren't very exciting things to talk about so I unfortunately haven't had much to post. There has been some tasty aspects to my week that I'd like to share though!

Ya that hot..

First is that it's officially corn season, which is awesome. Corn is a staple in my family during the summer months, and if you ever come over for dinner you'll find the way we all eat it quite unusual. After a combination of one of those full arm L-shaped casts (pink, of course) and 3 kids with braces, my family has a particular knife that we use to almost shave the kernels off the cob before eating it. It makes it a lot less fun, i'll admit, and sometimes when you put the butter on before it becomes a slippery mess, but it's all worth it! We get our corn around the corner at Kern Farms which is such a great, convenient way to get fresh vegs without going to the grocery store. Plus, they have a pretty loose concept of a dozen :) But yes, my mom brought some corn to my apartment this week and it was the first time I ever made some by myself. I have an abundance of zucchini and cucumbers from the farmer's market and my share last week, so I combined the fresh corn with them, added some chopped jalapeno for a kick, and sprinkled my fav feta on top! A perfect post-run dinner and easy leftover to take to the park the next day. YUM!

Aside from that lil treat, I also made chocolate zucchini bread this week, which was AMAZING! Sometimes I get so boggled down sauteing the zucchini every night that I forget that I can use my excess as an excuse for baking. Fortunately this realization occurred the same night as the bachelorette finale! Somehow they stretched 10 minutes into 3 hours, so I had ample time to get my bake on during the show. By the end of the night I found myself alone, sobbing on my couch, with literal handfuls of chocolate cake. I'd say it was a pretty epic ending to my day and obviously an appropriate celebration of Emily and Jef's love (Ary was just too sensitive, I think I would offend him within seconds of meeting him). Anyways! I adapted the recipe from these two blogs (sliceoffiest, oneordinaryday) and even put my version of the recipe below, because it was really that amazing. I baked mine in 3 little loaf pans, shared with friends, and got more enjoyment from my "secret ingredient" than I did making the cakes themselves. Really though, make these now. I just might myself!

1 3/4 c shredded zucchini
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c white flour
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
heaping 1/2 tsp of apple pie spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc., more cinnamon than nutmeg if you're making your own!)
1/2 c veg oil
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
As many choco chips as you can part with!
Preheat oven to 350 and grease whatever pan pleases you. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, apple pie spice (or your own combination).
In a separate bowl, beat the oil, sugars, eggs, and vanilla extract until well blended. Lightly blend in the zucchini. Add the flour mixture and carefully beat until combined. Then dump in your chocolate chips! Since I used such little pans it really only took 40ish minutes to cook, but I would definitely set your alarm for 35 minutes and use your judgement at 5 minute increments after that! 

Crazy color beets!

So those were my top 2 creations this week! I picked up my share again yesterday and was totally excited over more beets, green tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and yellow beans (so much better than the green, really!). Buying into this CSA was probably one of the best decisions I made all year and has really made it easy to call it quits with the meat. Wednesday mornings I get an email from the organization listing all the things that may be in my bag and ways of preparing the new vegetables, and my excitement just builds until I pick it up! It might not be christmas morning, but to me it's pretty damn close. I'm heading home to the suburbs this weekend with my vegetables in hand, so hopefully I will have more exciting recipes to post from my trip home. I got my mom to read Eating Animals and am SO proud that she went veg for over a week, so I definitely want to show her some tricks when I am there ! :)

My stash for the week!

Oh and one last thing, get these crackers. A box for you, a box for me. THANKS