Tag: recipe

How to make Chocolate Zucchini Bread

How to easily make homemade chocolate zucchini bread. This is a fresh take on the classic zucchini bread.

Ingredients: 

3 cups all purpose flour

¼ unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups white sugar

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups shredded zucchini

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips Optional – up to 1 cup chopped walnuts to sprinkle on top of loaf

This recipe makes 2 loaves using 9 x 5 bread pans, or 24 cupcakes/muffins/ or a combination of 1 loaf and 12 cupcake/muffins.

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Shred your zucchini using either a hand shredder or food processor. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Mix well, then add in your cocoa.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine sugar and eggs and blend together. Add oil and vanilla and beat mixture together. Stir in Zucchini to wet mixture.
  5. Combine dry ingredients into wet mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.
  6. Spoon into loaf pans and/or cupcake pan.
  7. Bake in preheated oven. Bread loaf pans should bake for 50-55 minutes and cupcake pans should bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. After baking let bread set in pans for 10 minutes before removing.

How to make homemade Hummus – Quick and Easy

Hummus is quick and easy to make with this recipe. Make your own hummus that is better tasting than the one you buy at the grocery store.

Ingredients: 

1 can chickpeas

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup tahini

1 small clove garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon zaatar (optional)

1/2 teaspoon cumin

3 tablespoons water

paprika (garnishment for serving)

Directions:

First mix lemon juice and tahini in a blender or food processor until it is “whipped”.   

It is important to mix this first to get a smooth and creamy hummus. 

Combine the remaining ingredients and mix.

Add additional tablespoons of water until hummus reaches the desired consistency.

Pour into a bowl and serve. You can sprinkle paprika on top or garnish with more zaatar, or sesame seeds, and a small drizzle of olive oil.

How to make homemade banana bread

Banana bread is one of my favorite breads and its a great way to use up your bananas after they start to get brown spots on them.

Ingredients: 

3 ripe bananas

  2 eggs

  ½ cup shortening

  1 ¼ cup white sugar

  1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

  1 ¾ cup all purpose flour

  1 teaspoon baking soda

  ½ teaspoon salt

  ½ chopped walnuts 

Instructions: mix together the sugar and shortening and blended and forms little balls. Add in bananas and vanilla extract and continue to mix. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda and salt together. Combine the flour mixture with the banana mixture and mix until all ingredients are blended together. Pour mixture into a greased and floured bread pan and sprinkle the walnuts on top. Bake at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour and 15 minutes. After baking let cool and remove from pan. Enjoy.

How to make homemade vanilla extract

Making homemade vanilla extract is simple and a lot less expensive than purchasing pure vanilla at the store.  A common brand of the extract can cost nearly $16 for 4 ounces, that’s $4 per ounce.  A gourmet bottle can cost $27 for 4 ounces; that’s $6.75 per ounce.  I can show you how to make vanilla extract for $2.86 per ounce.  All you need is a mason jar, vanilla beans, and at least an 80 proof alcohol.  Many people tend to use vodka, rum, or even bourbon for their extract.  I prefer to use vodka.  You don’t need to use premium alcohol because you are not drinking this, and you will use this in small amounts in your recipes.  If you want to spend more money on any ingredient, make it your vanilla beans.  Everyone has a different taste for how rich they like their vanilla extract to taste, and the full-bodied ness and richness comes from how many vanilla beans you use to make your extract.  I prefer to use one vanilla bean for every 2 ounces of alcohol. 

Ingredients:    

6 Vanilla Beans

 12 oz vodka

  1. Slice open the 6 vanilla beans and turn them inside out to expose the beans.  Place them in a 2 cup mason jar.
  2. Fill the mason jar with 12 oz vodka.

Store in a cool, dark place, such as a cupboard for at least 30 days.  The longer you store the extract, the richer the vanilla taste.

My costs:  $15 for a 1.75-liter bottle of vodka, which equates to $0.25 per ounce.  $59 for 25 grade A vanilla beans, which equates to $2.36 per bean.  If I use 1 bean per 2 ounces of vodka, my costs are $2.86 per ounce. 

Happy Cinco de Mayo – margarita recipe

Today is Cinco de Mayo.  The 5th of May. It’s a holiday celebrated by the Hispanic community and those of us who like to partake in Mexican food and margaritas.  Although margaritas don’t fit into my current eating plan, I will still make some margaritas for my family who is coming by today.  My friends Rich and Karla from Fort Collins, Colorado, showed me this margarita recipe, which I consider to be the greatest margarita in the world!

Learn how to make the world’s greatest margarita.

 Ingredients:   2 ounces tequila (I prefer Patron Silver)

2 ounces Cointreau

1 ounce margarita mix

1 ounce lime juice

1 small pour Grand Marnier

Mix the tequila, Cointreau, margarita mix, and lime juice in a cocktail mixer over several ice cubes. Pour out into a salt rimmed glass and pour in the Grand Marnier until you see the color start to darken in the margarita. Enjoy!

Hello

Hello to all you blog readers out there, welcome to My Lowcountry Living!  My name is Tommy Ray, that’s my first name.  Yes, it is a double first name, just like Billy Ray Cyrus.  I am from Colorado, but live in Charleston now.  Despite being from Colorado my double first name fits in just fine in South Carolina.  I started mylowcountryliving.net to share my life living in the lowcountry of South Carolina.  I love to cook and garden and through this blog I intend to share my favorite recipes with you and try new recipes together.  I will share my experiences gardening and growing my own fruits and vegetables.  I have been a type 2 diabetic for about 4 years and I am on a journey to lose weight, lower my A1C and live a healthy lifestyle.  That journey to a healthy lifestyle will have its ups and downs and I will share that with my readers and together we can grow from it.