Day 7 - Grow Zucchini, End World Hunger

I seriously think that zucchini can end world hunger.  It is such a prolific vegetable and it can be used in so many ways.  It's one of those things you grow and are excited about at first, but then it keeps producing and producing and you don't know what the heck to do with it.  Even your friends and neighbors don't want any more and start avoiding you.

It's nice to get free vegetables from people, but it comes with an obligation.  You have to take it home and wash it, prepare it and eat it.  And if you don't, you feel guilty about wasting it.

Since my zucchini was stockpiling on me, I decided to take out my food dehydrator and make some zucchini chips.  I'm lucky to have one of these, but I haven't used it in awhile.  Truthfully, I'd rather dry vegetables outside using solar power instead of electricity, but I live on a busy street and it's too dusty outside.

All you have to do is slice veggies thin, around 1/8 inch and lay them on a drying tray.  I filled up the whole dehydrator with about 6 large zucchini.  It takes about 8 to 12 hours to dry depending on how thinly they were sliced.

For my husband, I made a tray of zucchini chips seasoned with garlic powder and pepper, and another tray seasoned with white cheese powder.

This is the finished product.  I have to admit, these things taste like paper when they are dry.  They need to have some kind of dip to go with them.  I'll have to think about that.  Meanwhile, I have a lot of zucchini chips.

I made a trip down to my brother's house to pick up some fruit.  He's got some young dwarf apple trees and some blueberries bushes. 

He has an interesting apple tree.  It was labeled as a "combination tree".  Each branch has a different variety of apple growing on it.

I didn't notice these blueberries the last time I was there, and I'm happy to have these for my oatmeal.

And then I noticed he has a lime tree.  These will be great for salsa when my tomatoes finally ripen. 

My shining moment today was the salad I had for dinner.  I decided to make a salad with the oranges, apples and avocados I had.  I added a hard boiled egg for protein and made a surprisingly refreshing dressing with lemon juice, a bit of olive oil, and a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper.  Really delicious combination so I named it "Egg Harvest Salad".  This salad cost 19 cents!

Day 7

Breakfast

Milton's Squaw Bread with Peanut Butter and Banana Slices

Lunch

Chicken Red Bean Soup

(This soup is a leftover portion from previous days.  I've already accounted for the cost of it, so today it's free!)

Loquats

Dinner

Egg Harvest Salad

Dessert

Baked apple

Calories:  1033

Cost:  59 cents (because soup cost was already accounted for in previous days)

Weight:  xxx - 3.5 pounds