BubblezBumz

Landon was a huge drooler and dribbler when he was a baby. I wanted to try harder this time around with Jeremy to find some pretty absorbent bibs so I wouldn't be changing his outfits constantly throughout the day. I first heard about BubblezBumz from a friend of mine. I always love looking at her pictures on Facebook and noticed that her son was often wearing adorable bandanna bibs. I asked her where she purchased them because I couldn't seem to find them anywhere. She told me that BubblezBumz is a small business started by Geri-Lynn - a wonderful stay at home mom in Niagara Falls, and directed me to her Facebook Page. She makes cloth diapers, diaper covers, wet bags, bibs, weighted blankets, mitts, and also infinity nursing scarves.

I wrote her about purchasing some bibs and it was so nice writing back and forth with her. She is such a sweet person and always answered any questions I had right away. I couldn't believe how fast she had these bibs made, into the mail, and at my door in just a few days!

I was anxiously waiting for the package to come in the mail and was shocked to hear that it arrived so quickly! I was visiting my parents when I got a message from Ben that my package arrived! I was SO excited to open it and check it out. Anyone that knows me well enough knows how excited I am when I get mail! It's like Christmas or something. I'm weird. So you'll know how disappointed I was when I came home to this...

Yup. That's right. My husband opened my mail. The package I had be anxiously awaiting to retrieve out of the mailbox was sitting on my kitchen counter like this. Oh Ben! Of course I gave him my signature pouty lip to make him feel horrible about what he had done.

Just for fun I looked up the definition of pout.
I can be really good at it when need be.

Well he felt pretty awful and apologized a million times. I forgave him after the first apology though of course. He was a sweetheart and tried to tape it back up for me so I could kind of re-open it again. What a darling husband he is.

I couldn't wait to open it up and check out these bibs! Geri-Lynn was such a sweetheart and threw in this teething ring with my order as well - just because! :) 

When I first planned on ordering some she sent me some pictures of the fabric choices she had at the time. These were the 3 I picked out. When I took them out of the bag the first thing I noticed was the nice bright colors and how soft the fabric is! 

The quality of these bibs is amazing! They are $8 a piece with free shipping. Totally worth every penny. The stitching is so perfect! She also makes them rounded or reversible as well. 

She makes them with snaps on the back which I love! Landon would always be pulling the velcro ones off every 10 seconds. So I'm loving that these ones have the snaps. She makes them with 2 size options which is brilliant! 

I chose the terry cloth backing for mine but you can also choose between flannel, or the colorful dot minky fabric for the backing of the bibs. 

The terry cloth is so soft and super absorbant. Geri-Lynn assured me that all of the fabrics she's using are great for absorbency! 

I'm so thrilled with these bandanna bibs! I think they look so adorable and Jeremy gets compliments on them everywhere. You should definitely check out BubblezBumz - like her Facebook Page and show her some love! 

At the moment she does all of her orders through email or Facebook. If you'd like to contact her here is her information:

Geri-Lynn Gorzalczynski

email: gorzalmansfarm@hotmail.com

Check her out! 

Zucchini Lasagna

Look's good doesn't it? 

I'm happy to say that this lasagna went way beyond my expectations. I was actually worried that the moisture from the zucchini would turn this dish into a soupy sloppy mess, but it held up quite well - so that's a plus! You really can make so many variations of this recipe. You could always add some ground beef or ground turkey to this, or switch up the veggies to your liking. Change it up by adding cottage cheese instead of ricotta, or adding eggplant instead of the zucchini. The choice is yours. We'll definitely be making this again! 

So that's it...the ginormous zucchini is history. I'm really happy we discovered and tested out these 3 recipes and each one was a hit! Well I'll be completely honest...Landon wasn't the biggest fan of this lasagna. He did more picking and poking than actually eating...but we tried. 

Thanks for following us on this little Zucchini adventure. Ok, that sounds weird. You get what we mean...

Thanks for reading!

Zucchini Lasagna
Sauce:

28 ounces crushed tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Lasagna:

8 ounces cream cheese, light or regular, softened to room temperature

3 cups ricotta or cottage cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

4 small to medium zucchini

12 lasagna noodles

8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking dish and set aside. In a medium saucepan, combine all the sauce ingredients. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes.

2. While the sauce is cooking, proceed with prepping the rest of the ingredients. In a medium bowl, stir together the cream cheese, ricotta or cottage cheese, salt and pepper.

3. Trim the ends from each zucchini and cut in half lengthwise and then slice each half very thinly. The pieces should look like thin, zucchini pasta sheets or noodles. 

4. To assemble the lasagna, spread 1/2 cup sauce on the bottom of the pan. Layer lasagna noodles, slightly overlapping.

5. Spread 3/4 cup of the sauce over the top. Dollop 1/3 of the ricotta mixture over the noodles. You'll repeat this two more times (4 noodles, 1/3 of the ricotta mixture, 3/4 cup sauce, zucchini layer and mozzarella). On the final layer if you have more than 3/4 cup of sauce, that's fine, just use it all.

6. Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil and bake for 30-35 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 10-15 minutes until golden and bubbly. Remove from the oven and let stand for 10-15 minutes before serving.

And Enjoy!

Double Chocolate Zucchini Loaf

Here's another zucchini recipe for you guys! My little helper and I made this Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread the other morning and it was amazing! It's always so fun to spend time together in the kitchen.

This was our finished product. You'd never know there's 2 cups of any vegetable in this! It tastes just like a brownie. Although there is actually no nutritional value to this, it still makes eating veggies that much more satisfying!

The intense chocolate flavor was totally worth every bit of this mess...

When Landon woke up from his nap he had this waiting for him on the table. I've never seen him climb into his chair so fast in my life. Let's just say he's a huge fan!

Hmm... this looks good...

Mmm...not bad at all...

Hey! This stuff is pretty fantastic!

We were able to get 3 recipes in total out of that big zucchini! Check out this recipe below. Next one should be up soon!

Have a great week everyone!

S

Double Chocolate Zucchini Loaf

Ingredients

2 large eggs

1/3 cup honey

1/2 cup vegetable oil, plus 2 tablespoons

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup cocoa powder 

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups shredded, peeled zucchini

1 1/4 cups chocolate chips (bittersweet or semisweet), save the 1/4 cup for sprinkling on top of bread

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan.

2. In a large mixing bowl beat the eggs, honey, oil, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Add the salt, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, and flour mixing well. Stir in the zucchini and 1 cup of the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Scattered the the remainder of the chocolate chips on top of the batter.

3. Bake the bread for 60 minutes, use a toothpick test to test for doneness.

4. Remove bread from oven and let it rest 15 minutes before removing it from the pan. Run a knife around the outside edge to loosen the bread from the pan. Completely cool on a wire rack and slice to eat. Store well-wrapped at room temperature.

Enjoy!

Cheesy Garlic Zucchini Bread

What would you do if someone gave you a huge zucchini like this one?

I'll tell you what I did. Google searched "recipes with zucchini". Both Ben and I have never been huge fans of zucchini on it's own - so when his Aunt gave us this ginormous zucchini out of her garden, I think we were both wondering what on earth to do with it. So this will be the first of a few postings about this ridiculously large vegetable. Who knows how many yummy things I'll be able to make with this. The first from the list is this Cheesy Garlic Zucchini Bread. Who doesn't love carbs right?  

This recipe was a winner for us in 2 ways...

1. It's delicious!

& 2. We can trick our 2 year old into eating a vegetable. Woo!

Cheesy Garlic Zucchini Bread

 3 cups all purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

 1 tsp salt

 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 cup shredded zucchini

 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup of finely chopped green onion

 1 Tbsp fresh dill (or 2 tsp dry dill)

2 large eggs

 1 cup buttermilk

 4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) of melted butter (salted)

 1. Preheat oven to 350 & prep a loaf pan. I like to line mine with parchment paper to ensure nothing will stick.

2. Whisk together all of the dry ingredients. 

3. Then add zucchini, shredded cheese, green onions, and dill to the flour mixture. Toss to coat.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, and melted butter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and gently stir until just moistened. The batter will be lumpy.

5. Pour it into your loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes - or until it passes the toothpick test. 

Wish I had some soup or chili to dunk this in right about now!