Every spring when the gardener in me gets the “spring planting bug,” I always overestimate how much squash I actually need to plant. I feel like I’ve toned it down a bit, but I want some early yellow squash and some Black Beauty zucchini. My absolute favorite squash to eat is Costata Romanesco! And spaghetti squash! And though I’m not especially a fan of butternut, I see so many healthy recipes that call for it, I want to grow that, too!
And without even trying to, I find my summer garden COVERED in squash plants!
As I start to pick, I enjoy the yellow squash, which always comes first, cooked with onions from the garden. No extra water is needed, I just add some butter, salt & pepper and let it cook. Mmmm…
As the harvest begins to speed up, I realize I can only eat so much squash the way I like it (since my family doesn’t care for it that way), and my husband tells me that he likes it roasted.
Now we’re getting Costata and some Black Beauty along with the yellow, so I chop one of each into little cubes, toss with olive oil and cajun seasoning, and throw it into the air fryer! Yummo!!
I’m now picking twice a day to keep up with my garden, but the leaves are continuing to get larger as well! Some leaves almost two feet wide! What do gigantic leaves do? They hide squashes until they are roughly the size of a baseball bat.
Heaven help me, there’s no way I can keep up with these squashes!
So after a day of chopping and shredding squashes in between running Mom’s Taxi Service, I have enough baggies of squash in the freezer to make around 20 loaves of zucchini bread… which is really the best way to eat this stuff! I posted these pictures on facebook and the resounding comment was, “Yes! Please tell us your kids’ favorite way to eat squash!”
How to Get Kids to Eat Their Zucchini 101
Dip in in chocolate, y’all! OK, not really…. but kinda! I have an amazing spice zucchini bread that I’ll need to share here, too, but when my kids hear “zucchini bread” they always ask, “CHOCOLATE???” So without further ado:
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- 1 1/2 c shredded, raw zucchini
- 1 c whole wheat or unbleached flour
- 1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 t baking soda
- 1/4 t baking powder
- 1/4 t pink Himalayan salt
- 1/2 t ground cinnamon
- 1/4 t ground allspice
- 1/2 c coconut oil or applesauce (both are delish)
- 1/2 c sugar
- 1/2 c dark brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 t vanilla
- 3/4 c chocolate chips (I mix milk chocolate & semi-sweet chips)
Preheat oven to 350* and grease or spray loaf pan. Grate zucchini and set aside. Does not need to be squeezed dry.
In mixer bowl, beat together the oil or applesauce, sugars, eggs, vanilla until well blended. With mixer running, add in the dry ingredients, starting with the spices first, then cocoa, then flour. Slow mixer, or fold in grated zucchini. Fold in chocolate chips.
Scrape into the prepared pan and bake until tester comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Of course, if you hit a chocolate chip, your tester will not be clean, so it may take several tests. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to cool on a rack.
On this day, the heat index was 117* so I used a 9×9 pan instead of a loaf and cooked it in my Ninja Foodie (toaster oven) instead of turning on the oven. It was perfection! You can tell that the kids enjoyed it, because I only had the piece pictured above and Dad was at work this morning. This is all that’s left!
And there’s still a few giant squashes left to process, but we can now have zucchini bread throughout the year!
One thing that surprises people is that I use all these squashes the same way. Yes, my zucchini bread has a mix of yellow squash, Costata, and Black Beauty. On the years that I grew patty pan I also baked with that one. They’re so versatile! What’s your favorite way to use squash from the garden?
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The Growing Hale 
My favorite squash recipe is fried squash or squash casserole made with cracker crumbs, onions, cheese. My mother always thought you had to have 52+ of everything we canned or froze. For 52 weeks of the year and then extra for company or other events – reunions, parties, funerals.
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I always forget about fried squash! I should try that with the smaller ones I have left! There’s much wisdom in having food set aside for the rest of the year, especially nowadays when you never know what will be available or how much it will cost! Thanks, Beverly!
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