Zucchini Bread

(My boys of summer enjoying a slice of zucchini bread.)

I missed the boat on my garden this year. I managed to get a few things planted before prego sickness hit but nothing like usual.

Lucky for me, I have generous gardening friends. When Sheila brought me a beautiful zucchini earlier this week, I knew I wanted to turn it into some yummy zucchini bread.

I found an AMAZING recipe on allrecipes.com that turned out so moist and yummy. The recipe makes two regular-sized loaves but I'm sure it would make great muffins or mini loaves too.

This bread also freezes well if you're wealthy in the zucchini department (which many people tend to be this time of year) and need to use it all up.

You can find the recipe HERE. Enjoy!

Strawberry Freezer Jam

I've tried several different recipes for strawberry freezer jam. I've loved them all. In fact they are all so yummy, I can't really tell a difference between them. Thus, I go for easiest.

This is a NO COOK freezer jam pectin made by Ball. Just add sugar (or Splenda) to the pectin and stir in with crushed fruit.

Don't judge me. If this isn't real jam making, don't tell me. I've done the whole cooking thing. I like this method.

• Crush 4 pounds of strawberries. (I wash, hull, and cut them in half to make mushing easier. I just use a potato masher to crush them up.)


• Stir 1-1/2 cups of sugar and pectin packet together in a bowl.


• Stir fruit and pectin/sugar together for 3 minutes.


• Ladle into containers and thicken for 30 minutes.
  
  The end.
  
  If this isn't hard enough for you, I have tried the recipe on the regular pectin package and it's yummy. This recipe HERE is good, too.

Pork Tenderloin Recipes

The last time the pork tri tip went on sale at Scolari's I found these recipes to use that my family enjoyed.

Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin - Link to recipe HERE
I found this recipe online and LOVE the rub and bacon!

Pork Tenderloin
3 to 4 lb. pork tenderloin
3-4 cloves of garlic
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. sugar
1/4-1/2 tsp. ginger
Chopped green onions for garnish
Sesame seeds for garnish

Place tenderloin in glass baking dish (or gallon-size Ziploc bag). Combine garlic, soy sauce, sugar, ginger and pour over meat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or overnight, turning a couple of times. Preheat oven to 325*. Cover meat with marinade and with lid or foil and bake about 2 hours. Remove foil last 15 minutes or so. Slice at angle. Place on serving platter and pour marinade on top. Garnish with chopped green onions and sesame seeds. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Cooking with MEAT

I used to cringe at the thought of cooking with meat! Boneless, skinless chicken breasts were my style and even then I'd be queasy.

I recently found a post on using inexpensive cuts of meat and now I'm a changed girl. Not only does it save a lot of money but it's not too hard either! I've even come up with a solution for my uneasiness towards meat.Just kidding...kind of. I seriously do wear the gloves. Go ahead, laugh if you must-I'm used to it; my husband laughs at me every time.I bought this pork shoulder for $0.99/pound last week at Safeway and it is yummy and easy to cook when used in this recipe, complete with a how-to demo, found HERE.

I bought 15 pounds and had two crock pots going in about 30 minutes. They cooked all day long while I sat around and twiddled my thumbs. I ended up with dinner for that night, a small roast (I had to cut some off to get it in the crock pot) and nine bags of shredded pork (four seasoned and five plain).

This week (11/11-11/17) the pork butt is $0.97/pound at Save Mart. I wasn't sure if this was a similar cut to pork shoulder, but luckily I know how to Google and I read HERE that pork shoulder is indeed the same thing. Try it for yourselves!

Are you brave when it comes to meat? Do you have any tips or recipes to share? Do tell!

(Thanks Being Frugal is Fabulous!)