Poor Man's Crab-cakes

Since I have an abundance of zucchini I was very excited to get this recipe from my neighbors a few weeks ago.  I love crab-cakes and I love zucchini.  So, this is a recipe for zucchini crab-cakes, minus the crab.  I have made them twice already, and the second time I made them, I quadrupled the recipe (I have tons of zucchini).  They are sooo delicious. Two big thumbs up!  They are very easy and freeze beautifully, so now I have about 6-8 meals in my freezer.  Its a great addition to my freezer meals collection.  I am loving my food processor.  It makes shredding all this zucchini a cinch. 

I ended up shredding 10 cups of zucchini when I quadrupled the recipe!

After all the zucchini is shredded, you mix it with breadcrumbs, a beaten egg, melted butter or margarine, Old Bay (this is what makes them soo good), and some minced onion. 

Next, I formed the patties/cakes and placed them on a tray and put them in the freezer for about 20 minutes to set.  If freezing for another meal, just keep them in there a bit longer, before placing them in a Ziploc bag or wrapping them in plastic wrap.  They do not need to be cooked ahead of time if using as a freezer meal.  Otherwise, take out of freezer after 20 minutes and put in frying pan with a little oil to cook.

Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes or until browned on both sides.  

DELICIOUS!  

Here's the recipe details:

Poor Man's Crab-cakes

1 beaten egg

2 1/2 cups grated/shredded zucchini (leave skins on)

1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs

2 Tbsp. melted butter/margarine

+/- 1 Tbsp. Old Bay

1 Tbsp. minced onion

a little oil for frying

Mix together and form patties. Chill for 20 minutes in the freezer. Pan fry in frying pan for about 20 minutes, until browned well.

Acme Trip: $15.56 OOP, 90% savings

Yes, I got all of that for only a $15.56.  I think it should have been about $115.00!  I only paid 10%!  Wow!  This trip to the Acme included 19 packages a yogurt multi-packs, 6 boxes of cereal, and, well,  you can see the rest.  There were some incredible Catalina deals going on at Acme this past week (ended yesterday) and the two different offers could be combined.  That's never happened to me before, at least not the kind of sweet deals like these were.  If you spent $20 worth of General Mills products you got $5.00  taken off instantly.  And they also had a "dairy deal" going on.  If you bought 5 of the eligible products (which almost all were GM products too), you got a $5 Catalina certificate to use toward your next purchase.  I did my own version of the dairy deal twice in two different transactions, which was also a GM deal yielding me $15 each time.  I carefully planned all my three "deal" transactions with all my necessary coupon match-ups (there was a coupon for every single item).  Then my 4th transactions was a few miscellaneous things, i.e. grapes, bananas, salt, and the bagged cereal.  They ended up over charging me for the grapes and when I went back to the store, they refunded me, so they were free.  I rolled each Catalina into the next transaction as well.  My boys were very helpful.  It was so cute.  My oldest son carefully picked out all the GoGurts and would ask, "Mom, is this on one sale?"  He then helped me count them all out to make sure we had the right amount for each of my transactions and we made sure all the coupons were there.  All three boys did very well for me, and the 4 transactions went through perfectly.  Yeah!  Very satisfying!  I am looking forward to sharing some of this yogurt with two families we know.


Thanks goes to Mindi at Moms Need to Know for posting about these great deals and including the coupon match-ups.  Its so easy, if you know where to look.  There are sooo many people out there who do the hard-work for you.  When I want to do an Acme trip, after I have taken a look at the circular myself and reviewed what coupons I have, I always check Mindi's site, put Acme in her search box, and find the weekly deals and coupon match-ups that she has put together.  Then I print any other coupons I may need, organize my specific transactions, and off I go.  Its great!

How does your garden grow?

I just had to do a quick post and show you all what I picked in my garden today. I had not checked on it since Friday afternoon and I went out today and found all this:

Isn't that quite amazing! 10 zucchini and 6 squash! Zucchini bread, Poor Man's Crab Cakes (new recipe that I will be trying tomorrow), oven fried zucchini, and grilled veggies here we come!! I love it! My $30 investment has definitely been worth it! Oh, and we have a few red raspberries already!

FREE books for children in the MOT area!

That got your attention right? Well, today I was driving through town with my boys and passed the Millbranch park where there was a large crowd of adults and children hanging out. Of course, my oldest son's interest was peaked and he begged me to stop to see what was going on and why all the kids had popsicles. I really didn't want to stop, but I was feeling bad that they had been in the car for awhile and I wanted them to get their "60 minutes of physical activity a day." To my surprise (it always seems like the Lord wants to bless me when I least expect it), there was a "Book Mobile" going on sponsored by Silver Lake Elementary School. The women leading it said "2 books for everyone!" They gave me 2 colorful library book bags and we (even the baby) got to pick some books...for FREE! I found 8 wonderful children's books, including a new copy (large version) of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear", one of our favorites. I also found about 4-5 that will be great home schooling story/educational books, like one about penguins, sea turtles, science on the earth and sun (it had the wrong cover on the outside), trucks, and one about the Wright Brothers. I thought these ones would be great additions to our library for when we start home schooling more seriously in the fall.

So here's the scoop for you my dear readers in my area...apparently this has been going on for several years. Some local school teachers (I think) go around to 4 different parks in the area a few days each summer and give away books. The books are donated by other people in the community. I believe most of the books are used, however some of the ones I got today look almost new. I told the ladies that I know lots of moms with small children, so she said she would pack up a lot of board books for next week's "Book Mobile."

The four parks are:

One on Lake Street

Millbranch Park

Middletown Village (the park near the daycare)

Silver Lake Park

Dates/Times:

Tuesday, June 22

Tuesday, July 13

Tuesday, July 20

I know they are at Millbranch at 1:30 on the dates above and then they head to Middletown Village around 2:00, and end at Silver Lake Park.

They also have free popsicles for the kids to enjoy! It was awesome! I plan on going again if anyone wants to join me and make it a play date at the park.

How does your garden grow?

I have been meaning for several weeks now to post an update about our garden. You can see the beginnings of our garden here from late April. It is now doing fantastic! Way better than I ever imagined! I really think a lot of our success has to do with the heat we have had and all the tips from my neighbors, like using the organic manure. Just last week we got home from vacation to see all this:

The yellow squash and zucchini are exploding...literally! And my pumpkins and butternut squash, that I started from seeds, are doing so well too. The peppers are holding on and look like they may bloom in the next week or so. The tomatoes are blooming and our first ones have started. I added some mulch around the raspberries and I think it gives an overall cleaner, nicer look to my garden. Watering is key. Hopefully our well won't dry up this summer with how hot it is already. My boys loves checking out the plants each day and seeing how much everything has grown. I am looking forward to being able to bless our friends and neighbors with some of these veggies as well this summer.

Our peppers:

Pumpkins or Butternut Squash--I'm not sure? I mixed them up!

One of my proud gardeners admiring the tomatoes!

I was so excited to pick these today and I look forward to making some oven fried zucchini tonight with our pulled pork!

I love gardening! Anybody want to have a veggie swap this summer with me?