Zucchini Coming Out My Ears

I have a friend at work who has a garden. He often brings in excess produce. Well, not too long ago he asked me if I wanted some zucchini. I said, “Sure, I have an awesome zucchini bread recipe.” He told me that they were big so I thought I’d combine it with one I got from Ma. I was expecting him to bring me one. Well, he brought me THREE!

He wasn’t kidding… they’re HUGE!! I didn’t do a good job taking this pic. The back three were from my friend. They actually were bigger than the 12-inch ruler shown.
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My zucchini bread recipe calls grated zucchini. So the first thing I did was cut the ends off and then slice it in half.
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…. then slice off the peel. I could have used a vegetable peeler, but that would have taken forever.
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In these large zucchinis the seeds are too big to leave in. Take a spoon and scoop out the seeds. Leave as much meat as you can.
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You should have a nice little “trough” when you’re done.
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Where the seeds are smaller, leave them.
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After peeling and de-seeding all four huge zucchinis this was what I had… a mound of seeds and peel for the compost bin and an equally large mound zucchini to grate.
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One thing I couldn’t believe was my fingers… they were GROSS! I don’t know what it was but the tips looked like they were peeling! UGH! It was not my skin, it was dried zucchini slim… It felt sooooo weird!! As I said UGH!! I scrubbed my fingers with my soft vegetable brush and the dried zucchini slim sloughed off. THANK GOODNESS!!
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It was now time to shred the zucchini… I am SOOOO thankful for my food processor. Of course, I could have used my mixer’s attachment, but I probably would have been crying if I had to do it by hand… 😉
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When all done I had 18.5 cups of grated zucchini!
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As you can see, you can’t vacuum seal freshly grated zucchini… see… there is way too much liquid…
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Instead, what I do is scoop two cups of zucchini into sandwich bags squeeze out the air and then spread it out flat.
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When all done take the flattened zucchini into a large freezer bag and put in the freezer.
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After frozen, remove the zucchini from the plastic bags and then you can vacuum seal it.

How do you prepare your zucchini for zucchini bread?
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