Baking Day

I have read about some of the moms who bake/prepare meals for the whole month in just one day. I'm not quite that adventurous yet, but hope to get more organized with meal planning and organizing. I was planning on having a baking day last Friday, but my littlest one was sick, so that didn't work out as planned. We had a whole bunch of apples from our trip to the orchard, and also a HUGE zuchini from my neighbor's garden, so yesterday I decided it was time to use up some of these ingredients.

First, I got some homemade applesauce started in the crockpot. This was a super simple recipe given to me by a friend: 3-4 lbs peeled, cored, and quartered apples, 4 strips of lemon peel, juice of 1 lemon, 3 inches of cinnamon stick, 1/4 c brown sugar, up to 1/4 c white sugar, 1 c water, 1/2 tsp salt, put all in the crockpot on high and let them cook down, stirring occasionally. I used a masher at the very end to break up some of the bigger chunks.

This left a bowl of apple skins that I really didn't want to throw away. The skin is the best part! I spread them out on a baking sheet, sprinkled with cinnamon, and put them in the oven on the lowest setting. My hope was that they would turn out something like dried apples.

I left them in for around three hours, and they ended up looking kind of like potpourri.

But they tasted good! Yes, I ate all of them...

My last project was to use up some of the huge zuchini we received. I made two loaves of zuchini bread, and only used about 1/3 of the zuchini! Here's the recipe for the bread: 3 eggs, 2 c sugar, 2 c peeled, grated zuchini, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 3 c flour, 1 c oil, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp salt. Cream eggs, sugar, vanilla, and oil together. Mix dry ingredients, then blend wet ingredients in together. Stir in zuchini. Pour into a greased loaf pan, and bake at 350 for 60-70 minutes.

By now, the applesauce was finished, so I of course had to taste that too. It was excellent! I think I need another trip to the orchard, because I plan to use the last of my apples for a pie. I definitely want to make another batch of this applesauce.

I don't have a freezer full of meals for the next month, but I really did enjoy tackling a few projects all at once. I hope to add more the next time! Do you cook your meals ahead of time? Baked anything you want to share about? Please leave a comment!