Keeping on track with my zero food waste challenge motivates me to ensure everything gets eaten before going bad. This becomes a challenge during zucchini season. Dealing with an overabundance of zucchini has taught me to be resourceful in adding it to recipes and finding new ways to conserve it longer.

Our zucchini plants have been shooting up faster than all our other garden vegetables, so I knew it was time to find ways to use up the remaining leftover frozen shredded zucchini from last year. Zucchini is an extremely productive vegetable. I usually end up trying to give away the surplus, and freezing bags of shredded zucchini to use later in breads and homemade veggie fritters. Somehow we always sow too many zucchini plants in our eagerness to grow food that produces a profusion of calories for the summer. While we may end up coaxing some of our other garden vegetables to be more fruitful, the zucchini has never required persuasion to generate produce.

While living in Colorado one summer, I discovered that I could make fritters or homemade veggie patties (for sandwiches) with shredded zucchini. I also found out that zucchini slices are delicious as a pizza topping.

One method of using and freezing zucchini came from my mother. For as long as I can remember, our family would have an all-day zucchini bread-baking party during the summer to use up a surplus of the squash. We could then wrap up the loaves and freeze them to enjoy throughout the year. The smell of zucchini bread baking in the oven always reminds me of those days. Food truly connects us to our past. This week I thawed some packages of shredded zucchini to continue that tradition.
 

Zucchini Bread Recipe

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3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar (or honey)
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease two 8x4 loaf pans (I often use 2 pie pans). In a bowl combine all the ingredients. Divide batter into the pans and bake for 60 to 70 minutes (less time if you used the pie pans).