Zucchini Brownies

I was recently given 3 fresh-from-the-garden zucchinis,

so I took to Pinterest to find something to do with them.

This pin looked delicious so I thought I'd give it a whirl!

 

  It was pretty simple too.

I just washed and cut up the zucchini and

tossed it into my little food processor -

I ground it up and repeated the process a few times
until I had 2 cups of shredded zucchini.

Here's a look at all of the brownie ingredients -

Note there is no butter or eggs in this recipe, 

so with the added vegetables in there I'm calling these babies downright healthy!

Next, I measured out all the dry ingredients -

before pouring in the oil and vanilla.

I stirred everything together to create a dry, crumbly mixture.

Then my best girl, Ruby, came along to help me.

She dumped in the zucchini -

and my sweet Walter added in the chocolate chips.

The batter became moist with the addition of the zucchini -

and was easy to smooth into the pan.

After about 30 minutes they were done baking.

The end result was a very soft and chocolatey brownie.
I only managed to snap this quick pic with my phone
because they went fast.

I've already made them twice and took them to a potluck.

No one even suspected there was zucchini in them!

Trust me, if you've got a little zucchini on your hands,

this recipe is a big hit.

Zucchini Brownies
1 1/2 c. sugar
2/3 c. canola oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 c. flour
1/4 c. cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 c. shredded zucchini
1 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. In a large bowl combine sugar, flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Slowly stir in oil and vanilla. Mixture will be dry and sandy. Add in the shredded zucchini and stir until well combined. Mix in chocolate chips and pour brownie batter into prepared pan. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the brownies are set. Cool before cutting and serving.

The Fourth in Duluth

Since we're on baby watch now, 

we don't have any trips lined up for the rest of the summer.

But we did get to spend the Fourth of July in Duluth

with Adam's brother and his family.

You may remember we hit up the Wisconsin Dells 

with them last year.

This year, we decided to take on Duluth. 

We stayed in this quirky little joint.

It's an older hotel that added on a nice, new water park.

As a result, the layout of the place is a bit odd 

and the rooms aren't the greatest,

but it was an adventure and our kids sure do love a water park!

 

The water park was nice and smaller than others we've visited,

so it was great for kids Walt & Ruby's age and easy

 to keep an eye on everyone.

There were only 2 tube water slides.

Here's Ruby and Adam -

and Walter and Uncle Chris coming down.

Our kids didn't mind the lack of a zillion water slides though.

They spent a ton of time on here -

 

By our last night, Ruby no longer need any help from Daddy

 to get all the way across.

 And Walter was such a maniac
that he gave up using the ropes altogether -

and took to jumping and balancing on each floating animal instead.

He didn't make it every time, but he loved the challenge
and tried over and over again.
By the end, he could successfully hop all the way to the end too.

On the Fourth, Walter and Ruby and their cousins, Ally and Emma,

got all decked out in red, white and blue!

They were so cute waiting in line together
for our train ride up the North Shore.

 They didn't sit this perfectly the whole time -

 but there were snacks and lots of seat changes, 

 

as well as some relaxing,

 and looking out the window to keep everyone busy.

 They liked their first ever train ride.

Later that night, we sat down by the festively-lit lift bridge -

to watch the fireworks over Lake Superior.

(Excuse my junky phone pics)

Duluth put on a great fireworks show
with one heck of a grand finale!

The next day we went hiking at Gooseberry Falls.

 I took a zillion pictures so you'll just have to bear with me.

We had lots of fun jumping, climbing,
throwing rocks and soaking our feet.

On our way back to town,
we had a picnic lunch along the shore.

 We also stopped by the infamous Betty's Pies for a treat!

 We had a great time in Duluth -

 and loved that the kids got to spend
some time with their cousins.

 Thanks for the memories, Duluth!