Another veggie that has been making a weekly appearance in my CSA box has been zucchini. As much as I love sauteing them up with summer squash, garlic and onions, I was craving something a bit sweeter and thought it was the perfect time to bake a loaf of zucchini bread. I’ve made this loaf a little heartier by tossing in more chopped nuts and zucchini than most recipes call for, and to brighten up the flavor a bit, zested a lemon into the batter. Result: deliciousness.

What’s your favorite zucchini bread recipe? Or how do you use up the copious amounts of zucchini growing this time of year?

Hope everyone had a lovely Fourth! We made a very last minute trip to Maryland to celebrate with the family, which has been lovely. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that our baby girl waits to come till we get home!:)

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I’m back! Hopefully you haven’t all lost faith in me by now.:) Between moving and getting the baby’s room ready…my poor little blog has been ignored. If you are still reading…thanks for your patience.:) We’ve been enjoying living in our new town and exploring local restaurants, shops and farmers markets. Which by the way… there are so many of! I think I’m in dream land. We are mostly all settled in now, with the exception of the yard and guest/baby room. But we still have a couple more months to tackle those things, thankfully.

I’m usually a pretty healthy eater, and being pregnant has motivated me to watch what I’m eating even more, but I think there is something about knowing I really shouldn’t eat 5 cookies that makes me crave them even more. I came across this recipe last week and I have to admit that I was pretty skeptical at first. Does a vegan, gluten-free*, healthy cookie sound like it equals not-yummy to anyone besides me? But in my desperation to satisfy my cookie craving I whipped some together, only making a half batch…just in case. Once I pulled them out of the oven and took a bite I was in awe. These cookies truly are magical. So magical that I ate 5 and felt no guilt. Who could with this ingredient list?

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Lots of big things have been happening around here. For one, we’re in the process of moving closer to Clif’s job in NC. We recently have found a place that we love that’s not only close to a downtown area, but also has a guest room! This is very exciting, considering we’ve always had only a couch to put guests on. Also, it has a yard. This is big… I’ve never had a yard of my very own. I have high aspirations for gardening, and I’ll keep you updated on how that actually turns out for me.:) But needless to say, between the pregnancy and the move, my time in the kitchen has dwindled somewhat.

When I saw Laurie from Simply Scratch post her granola recipe last week, I loved how yummy and simple it looked. Perrrrfect. I’ve tried a handful of granola recipes in the past, but I’ve never been completely pleased with the outcome. But I knew anything Laurie makes wouldn’t disappoint, so I went for it. I took her granola recipe base and just replaced some of the ingredients with what I had in my kitchen. So amazingly delicious. I highly recommend bagging this up and bringing it to friends or people that you want to be friends with. I’ve tried it and it works. Next on my granola-making agenda: I plan to try the original Honey Almond Granola. Doesn’t that combo sound amazing? Mmmm.

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Sarah Hope has been a dear friend of mine for the past 4 years, and in addition to being a lovely person, she’s one of the best cook/bakers I know.  She lives in Charleston now with her sweet husband (and their soon-to-be-arriving baby girl!) and we only get to see each other a few times a year, but whenever we do we always enjoy trying out different foods and recipes together. When I was visiting her last summer, I tried her black bean hummus…amaaazing. I was caught completely off guard when she told me that her secret ingredient was soymilk. Really? Soymilk? Sounds strange…but I was surprised in what a difference it made. She has a sweet food/life blog, where she recently posted her famous recipe…so now that the secret is officially out, I’m so excited to share it!

Also, for you lovers of all things home and beauty, my super-talented designer friend Eileen has recently posted a giveaway on her blog! She’s giving away a $30 gift card for the ruby+stella etsy shop, they have some amaazing pillows with really fun designs, so check it out and enter! You may just be the lucky winner.:)

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m so ready for spring. We had a very brief glimpse of warm, sunny weather, but it seems like winters come back all over again. Our little produce market around here has drastically shortened their hours (understandably so) due to the slim pickings we currently have, and even when they are open it’s a sad little selection to choose from. Does anyone else feel uninspired in the kitchen? Please give me some tips for surviving till spring if you know of any!:)

One thing I can always count on making year-round is some variation of banana bread. It’s one of my favorites because it’s simple, delicious and comforting. I threw in some chopped up dark chocolate in this loaf and in my opinion, it’s better than ever.

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