Veggie Patties

My love of burgers is no joke. Grill them, fry them, fast food, gourmet, or homemade, I will cherish it and enjoy every bite. I'm still on my quest to use up everything in the fridge before we go to the beach and seriously trying to cut back on the fatty foods during this final week before heading south. Don't let the bacon fool you, I still enjoy my vegetables and I have nothing against veggie burgers except for the name, it's not a burger, it's a patty. Burger implies some form of ground meat, no? Back me up here, people. I digress, my main issue with most veggie patties you buy prepackaged is that they always really odd things mixed in (anyone care for some disodium guanylate or methyl cellulose?). I also really don't like it when they have rice, but that's a separate story. I decided to use up the last of the zucchini as the main component of my patties, the only rule I set for myself was that I wasn't allowed to open any new food items or packages, only use things taking up space, I think this proves that when it comes to foods like this, you can improvise any which way you please and anything goes.  

Veggie Patties

- 2 finely grated zucchinis 

- a handful of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

- a handful of frozen peas, thawed but not squeezed

- 5 mushroom sliced into thin sticks

- 3 eggs

- a handful (literally, hand in bag and grab) of shredded mozzarella cheese

- couple spoons of flour

I was really hoping to shred some carrots in there and throw in a handful of corn, but my dad pickled all the carrots and the only corn we had was an unopened frozen bag. I was also too lazy to cut any onions. I mixed all the ingredients together and seasoned with the following: salt, pepper, paprika, and cinnamon. I then fried them in a little bit of olive oil. Originally, I didn't put in any flour, but the first few wouldn't hold together so I mixed in a few spoons to thicken it up and they held together beautifully. I also cooked some bacon in the oven while I was doing this. I had to. Bacon makes me happy. I used a little bit of fat free sour cream instead of mayonnaise, added some sliced tomato and hot sauce, and made myself a fantastic sandwich. 

Zucchini Bread

Writing this post made me realize my cousins, brother, and I REALLY need to work on getting better at taking pictures together. 

This is over a year old! We're terrible!

When we were younger, my cousins (one boy and one girl) used to spend weekends a lot at our house. We don't have a lot of family here in the states so our parents wanted to make sure we had a close relationship with the few we did. I was the baby, the boys in the middle, and my cousin Nanna (in the pic with me), was the oldest. Not huge gap though, just four years between the oldest and the youngest. I honestly don't remember what the boys would usually do, but play Nintendo is a pretty good bet. Nanna would often come with cookbooks from the library and we set about making a mess of the kitchen. For some reason, I remember making Snickerdoodles a lot with her. Anyways, it's safe to say that all those weekends baking with Nanna got me hooked and I've loved baking ever since.

I'm still trying to clean out the refrigerator, especially since the family vacation is coming up and I really don't want to have to throw a million things away before we go or come back home to stinky stuff. There are still a bunch of random vegetables I'm working through and the most abundant of all is zucchini. I was looking for something I could make and then freeze to take with us on the trip and that is also somewhat healthy, because let's face it, my control is nil and I can hear my bikinis cussing me out. So, helllloooooo zucchini bread! 

Zucchini Bread

3 cups flour (I used 50/50 mix of whole wheat and all purpose, from what I've been reading, either/or of each is fine)

2 cups sugar (again, a 50/50 mix of brown sugar and white sugar)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda 

cinnamon 

ground cloves (next time I make this, I would definitely also add some nutmeg)

1 cup oil (my indecisiveness took the best of me, again, 50/50 of olive oil and canola oil)

3 cups finely grated zucchini

Mix mix mix. Bake at 350 for half an hour-ish until a toothpick comes out clean.