Eating

Z is for Zucchini

Rockford made himself some Raisin Bran muffins last week, and Poppy devoured them, raisins and all. She’s still steadfastly anti-vegetable, so in an effort to sneak something green into her diet, I picked up some zucchini last weekend at the farmers market. And today, they became muffins.

I used this recipe as my starting point. Most of the reviews said the bread was good, but on the oily side, so I substituted apple sauce for some of the oil. I also used honey and brown sugar in place of some of the white sugar and whole-wheat flour in addition to the all-purpose to try and avoid what one person said was a “generic sweetness” to the bread. I also added some chocolate, because that’s how I roll.

Zucchini Muffins
3 eggs
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 medium zucchini, grated
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda (I didn’t actually add this because someone had already packed it. My muffins were on the dense side little zucchini pucks.)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup chocolate chips*

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare a muffin pan. (I use a silicon muffin pan, so there’s no prep involved.)
  • In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil, apple sauce, honey and sugars. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt, chocolate and nuts; stir into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans.
  • Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until done.

    • *I used Baker’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Shavings, but I’m not sure they still make them. If you can find them, they work really well in breads.

    blessings

    Wow, I ate a lot of pie.

    June 14

  • Marsha dashing through the kitchen with a soft-sided laundry basket perched turtle-style on her back.
  • Poppy’s smiles, hugs and kisses. It’s such a blessing to know her!
  • Getting the July issue of “Real Simple” in the mail.
  • Going on a family walk before Poppy’s bedtime.
  • Accomplishing everything on my “three things” list.
  • Having a tea party with Pi, Pooh and Bear.
  • Poppy hugging the vacuum and saying, “I love vacuum.” (This is not the case when the vacuum in actually in use. Then, she runs around the room yelling, “No no no!”)
  • Rockford cleaning the kitchen after dinner.

    June 15

  • Poppy being so goofy-happy at dinner.
  • Pi laying her shampoos bottles down on the side of the bathtub and telling them “Night night.”

    June 16

  • the farmers market.
  • My mother-in-law’s apple-raisin pie.

    June 17

  • strawberry-rhubarb pie.

    June 18

  • lemon meringue pie.

    June 20

  • Sophie referring to the Wilco concert as “a musical.”
  • Wilson referring to the Wilco concert as “Rock ‘n’ roll!” (while playing the air guitar, naturally.)
  • The Wilco show!

    June 21

  • Family hugs.
  • Playing soccer with Poppy.
    • Music

    Wilco No. 9

    While we weren’t visited by the Ticket Fairy, Rockford and I had a wonderful time at last night’s Wilco show.

    The venue wasn’t what we’re used to in a Wilco outing; there were seats. The crowd was also a little different. There was a group a few rows in front of us who, judging by their “dancing,” thought they were at a Snoop Dogg show. We’re attributing the differences to the fact that this was the first Wilco show we’ve seen outside of Missouri or Texas.