Do you want a zucchini?

This time of year it's hard to find someone NOT trying to give you a zucchini or three! It's getting to be harvest time in the gardens and zucchini's are one of those veggies that just seem to produce a ton. Unless they live in my garden. This was year two of our garden not producing well (part to blame was me with growing bacon bit, I couldn't get out and work in it as much as I would have liked to, the other parts to blame is the soil and the the darn potato beetle we had in our garden). We'll have to try some new tricks in it next year. But I'm thankful I have friends who had a great harvest and are willing to give me those wonderful zucchini, among a lot of other great veggies!

I had several zucchini just starting at me on my counter and I knew i had to do something with them. Some will get shredded and go right into the freezer for another time. Some went into the homemade spaghetti sauce I canned (Shhhh... don't tell the bacon kids, there's also shredded carrots and mushrooms in there too!!) And then I decided to make some of these little muffins with the zucchini too.

Zucchini Chip Muffins:
1.5 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg slightly beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup milk
1 TBSP lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 cup shredded apple
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4c walnuts (optional)

Mix egg, oil, applesauce, milk, lemon juice & vanilla in bowl. Add in sugars, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and flour. Mix well. Add in zucchini, apple, chips and nuts. Once all mixed together spoon into greased mini muffin cups. Bake 350* for about 18 min until tops are golden brown. (if using regular sized muffing cups, increase baking time to 22-25 min) The mini muffins made 4 dozen for me.

The kids LOVED these. Of course anything with chocolate in it they will eat. And thankfully they don't realize it's good for them. This is doubly good for little miss bacon since she doesn't like her veggies. I did make a second batch of these and left out the chips and nuts. Mr. Bacon said the chocolate chips were good, but he preferred the muffins without the chips (omitting the chips/nuts we got only 3 dozen muffins). They are still super yummy!

A few tips. I did peel and scoop out the seeds on the zucchini. You don't have to do this, you can just grate it. However for my kids, if they find something green in a muffin, you can bet they won't eat it because it means there's something healthy in it! If you don't have applesauce, no problem, increase to 1/2 c. oil. You can even go healthier and just use 1/2 cup applesauce and no oil! You can replace up to 1/2 the flour with whole wheat flour as well. These muffins can also be place on a cookie sheet (don't stack them, they are a bit sticky and they will stick to each other if you do) and froze for a few hours until firm and then put in a bag or container in the freezer for a great breakfast or snack another day.

So next time someone offers you some zucchini, don't pass them by. There are a lot of things you can make with them.