Most people grocery shop for the things they need, right? They make a list, gather all their necessary items, and make their way back home with the bread, milk, et cetera they will use during the week. Sometimes an unexpected sale item or impulse treat might make its way into the cart, but for the most part, the list rules over the decision making. That's how I grocery shop most of the time.

But at the farmers' market I take a bit of a different approach. I'm open-minded and I try to give my culinary creativity full reign. And that's how I ended up with an extremely large zucchini (by extremely large, I mean I could've used this thing as a softball bat) and some bitter Concord grapes for which I had absolutely no use. What was I going to do with them? It didn't matter; I would find something.

The zucchini was washed and sent through the Salad Shooter to make 12 cups of grated zucchini (I told you it was huge) that I baked into the most delicious, lower-calorie Zucchini-Pineapple Bread.

The grapes were washed and boiled down into a sweet grape jam that I used to fill my Concord Grape Tart, which made its debut at a tailgate party before the Northwestern-Iowa game last weekend.

Thanks, farmer's market. You bring out the best in me.

I apologize for not posting the tart recipe. It is not low-calorie and has no business being in the little calorie recipe department.