Zucchini Muffins

Yesterday I made my kids some zucchini muffins.

This recipe was my muse but I changed it up a bit to make the muffins healthier. I tried a bite and thought they were good but because I cut way down on the sugar they weren't quite sweet enough for me. My kids loved them though (they haven't had twenty eight years to develop a sweet tooth).

Zucchini Muffins

3 large eggs

1 cup applesauce

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups pureed zucchini

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

3 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the pureed zucchini, applesauce (instead of whole cup of applesauce I used two containers of applesauce and filled the rest of the measuring cup with enough olive oil to make one cup), sugar and vanilla.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.

Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Grease muffin tins (or line with muffin liners) and fill 3/4 of the way with muffin mix. To make it easier and less messy, I use an ice cream scoop to fill the muffin tins.

Bake for about 20 minutes (I used the convection feature on my oven so cooking times may vary) or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. You can also make mini muffins (for some reason my kids will not eat mini muffins) but the cook time will be a lot shorter.

Transfer muffins to cooling rack. The recipe makes about 18 muffins but only 16 are pictured because my kids wanted to eat some right away. If I had any ground flax seed I would have added that but I ran out awhile ago and could not believe how much it cost at Shaws.

Here is a picture of my daughter enjoying a zucchini muffin and some yogurt.

Whatever isn't eaten in the next couple of days will be frozen. To freeze, I put the muffins on a baking sheet in the freezer for a couple of hours. Then I transfer them into a Ziploc freezer bag. To defrost you can either leave a frozen muffin out on the counter overnight or if planning that far ahead is not your thing (putting a muffin out the night before is a little too organized for me) you can just pop a frozen muffin into the microwave for about 20 seconds on high.

Having pre-made healthy food like muffins, pancakes and waffles in the freezer is a lifesaver for days when I am feeling lazy and don;t want to put effort into making my kids food. They still get something healthy to eat and I get to indulge in my laziness.