Veggies down the hatch!

My kids ate cukes.  It's true!  We made this  Cucumber chicken recipe for dinner last night and OH MY, was it delish.  

 We substituted our favorite curry powder for the cumin/mustard and instead of sour cream, I used plain yogurt.  Oh, and doubled the garlic.  Cooked cukes are fabulous!  Who knew.   Here's the proof that is was a Kid Friendly recipe.

That's not all.  Just after the onslaught of cucumbers, the zucchini's made their timely assault.

But have no fear - 

Zucchini Chocolate Cake is here and it is another great way to sneak in a pile of veggies into the unsuspecting and suspicious mouths of my kids.  MWOO HA HA HAAAAAA.  I told them about the zucchini after they helped themselves to seconds. 

The recipe was from Of Faith and Fiber but she's out of town and I'm not sure where she got the original.  So hopefully, I won't get into trouble if I share it with you here:

Chocolate Sneaky-Zucchini Cake

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted

1/2 cup cocoa

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup soft butter

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 teaspoons grated orange peel (we left this out and it was still fab)

2 cups grated/shredded zucchini - no need to peel or seed.

1/2 cup milk

1 cup chopped walnut or pecans (we skipped this too - kids, ya know.)

Glaze: (see below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon; set aside.

2. with a mixer, beat together the butter and the sugar until they are smoothly blended (Beat for a longer time and you'll have a fluffier cake).  Add the eggs to the butter one at a time - mix well between.  Gently mix in vanilla, orange peel, and zucchini.

3. Alternately stir the dry ingredients and the milk into the zucchini mixture, including the nuts with the last addition.

4. Pour the batter into a greased and flour-dusted 10-inch tube pan or bundt pan.  Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes (test at 45!).  or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool in pan 15 minutes: turn out on wire rack to cool thoroughly.

5. Drizzle glaze over cake.

Glaze:  Mix 2 cups powdered sugar, 3 Tablespoons milk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla (we used almost extract).  Beat until smooth.

Cut into thin slices.  Serves 10-12 (generously).