A Good Harvest

Lame picture for a good harvest, I know... 

Except that this is shredded zucchini I was "forced" to shred and freeze because I couldn't use the stuff fast enough!  We had zucchini aplenty this year.  We shared some, ate some, and shredded and froze a lot.  And it's nice, because anytime I want to make some zucchini bread (like today), I jut dig out one of the 20 or so bags of frozen zucchini we have stashed in our deep freezer and, voila!  I have the makings of a delicious couple of loaves of zucchini bread :).  (Well, plus a few other ingredients ;))...  I also use it to make zucchini brownies (which are really more like chocolate cake). 

In addition to our prolific zucchini, we also got quite the harvest of oblong tomatoes (bigger than grape tomatoes, but the same shape).  And several pumpkins...  Unfortunately, in all my genius, I managed to get ornamental ones...  So not a whole lot of use to me for pumpkin pie.  But still...  They did grow! 

Anyway, I am particularly thankful that we got so much out of our garden this year, because we were really horrible at tending it.  This is because we live in an apartment, so the garden was actually at my grandmother's house.  And I wasn't so great at getting over there with a newborn...  But what we got, we've either used or frozen.  So to me, it is saving us a little bit of money.  My tomatoes were scalded, peeled, chopped and frozen -- and now replace canned diced tomatoes in soups and such (thereby also cutting back on the sodium).  My zucchini that is shredded and frozen awaits being turned into yummy delicacies (possibly some of which will be part of Christmas presents...).  I really am grateful for having the opportunity to have a garden and reap the harvest.  Every year, it's a blessing to our little family.

What are you grateful for today?