Yellow Squash Brownies

I absolutely love brownies. On more occasions than I would like to admit I have eaten an entire batch all by myself. There is something so perfect about chocolatey brownies right out of the oven. Since my oldest son is home from school for the summer I have been baking up a storm. Both of my boys are in major growth spurts and have been eating everything in sight. So I was very grateful when friend gave my 15 pounds of yellow squash a couple of weeks back. After canning, making cake and yellow squash chocolate chip cookies I was still left with pounds of yellow squash. So I thought long and hard about what to bake and came up with the notion of baking brownies. I browsed around the internet until I found a recipe for Squash Brownies, which looked easy and a perfect solution for my squash abundance.

This recipe has 16 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time and makes 20 servings. I made a few modifications to this recipe. Most importantly instead of using oil or butter I substituted unsweetened applesauce. I substitute exact amounts when using applesauce. This recipe would also work and have a richer flavor if you substituted 1/2 cup of applesauce and still used the 1/2 cup of butter. When using applesauce the baking time is always increased. On average my baking times increases 5-15 minutes. I normally check my baked goods frequently to make sure that they are baking correctly and pull them out as soon as they are done. I chose to leave out the nuts, my two boys are not fan of brownies with nuts and will normally turn up their noses. Most importantly with this recipe make sure to adequately get all the liquid out of the squash. I place the shredded squash in-between a layer of paper towels and squeeze it over my sink. There will be a very large amount of water, keep squeezing until no additional water comes out.

My two boys loved this recipe and had no idea that they were eating brownies made with squash. I loved how the brownies were still very cake like even though I substituted applesauce. Spreading the top with chocolate after they were baked made for a delicious and easy frosting. This recipe was a great way to use my overabundance of squash and would also work very well with zucchini or pattypan squash.

For the recipe go to Squash Brownies.

Yellow Squash Cake with Icing

This is the time of the year that I am always swimming in garden vegetables. I am fortunate that all my friends and family know that I cook and bake and throughout the summer I am always being dropped off pounds and pounds of vegetables. It is nice to know that I have such a great network of people that know that I will treat their garden fruits and vegetables with love and appreciation when I cook and bake. While I love savory dishes using vegetables, as I have stated numerous times in the past I am a big fan of sweets. So are my two boys who this morning ate an entire batch of brown sugar oatmeal waffles. Since I crave sweets so frequently I have learned to bake cakes, cookies and baked goods with modifications. A major modification that I make to almost all recipes using large amounts of vegetable oil is to substitute with unsweetened apple sauce. It keeps cakes and breads moist without overly effecting the taste or texture. A couple of weeks back I received 15 pounds of yellow squash, so I set about finding a recipe to utilize them in and came across a great recipe for Summer Squash Bread from Allrecipes.com.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time and makes 16 servings. I made some major changes to this recipe. First instead of using 1 cup of oil I substituted 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce. I also cut down the sugar to a cup and a half, two cups of sugar was too high for my kids. Make sure to squeeze all the water out of the squash before using. I place my shredded squash between layers of paper towels and squeeze over the sink. You will be able to squeeze a large amount of water out of the squash, keep squeezing until no additional water comes out. Finally, instead of using a loaf pan I baked my bread in a bundt pan. I also topped my finish bread with a powdered sugar/butter glaze. My total baking time was slightly longer since I used a bundt pan, I would approximate 15 additional minutes. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys really liked this recipe. It was easy enough that my oldest son was able to help me bake it and since I baked the cake in a bundt pan it made more than the 16 servings suggested by the recipe. The changes to the oil and sugar made this recipe much healthier without sacrificing on taste. Overall a great way to use garden vegetables.

For the recipe go to Summer Squash Bread.

Roasted Vegetable Pasta and Squash Bread

This must have been a good year for squash and vegetables in my area, because a number of my friends gave me a large amount of extras from their gardens. I didn't want anything to go to waste so I tried to come up with a menu plan which incorporated a large amount of the fresh vegetables I had available. I make zuchinni bread relatively often, so instead of relying on my old standby, I decided to make bread with yellow squash. For the remainder of the fresh veggies I made a roasted vegetable pasta.

For the pasta I used white eggplant, zuchinni, yellow squash, red onion, garlic, cherry tomatoes, and olive oil. I roasted all of the vegetables in the oven at 400 degrees for about 35-40 minutes. After the vegetables were roasted I placed them in a saucepan and added al dente whole wheat pasta, Parmesan, salt and pepper.

For the bread I peeled and shredded 2 cups of yellow squash. I then added

• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups of sugar
• 2 teaspons vanilla 
• 3 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons nutmeg

After combining the ingredients I poured the batter into a 9 by 13 inch pan and baked it at 325 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Wait until the bread cools before slicing.

These two recipes worked well to use the abundance of fresh vegetables from my fridge and my two boys loved both of the dishes. The sugar in the bread can be reduced if you are watching your intake and the nutmeg and cinnamon can be modified depending on your tastes.