Loaded Zucchini Muffins

These muffins would be a great idea for an after school snack or even a nice breakfast before the kids hop onto the bus. My four year old will be starting preschool on the 31st and he'll be taking the bus to school (I can't begin to tell you how scared and excited I am about this whole thing!) so I'm sure some mornings we'll be rushing to get him out the door. These muffins would be a great thing to hand him on his way out the door. And you don't have to feel bad about giving them to your kids because they are loaded with fruits and veggies! I'll be making more of these muffins to stash in my freezer!!

Loaded Zucchini Muffins

1 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1 cup shredded carrots
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup coconut flakes
1 cup raisins
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350° F.
In an electric mixer, combine the oil, sugar and eggs until mixed well. Add the carrots, zucchini, coconut and raisins and mix well. Finally add the flour, baking soda and cinnamon and mix until everything is combined thoroughly. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins (I spray mine with baker's joy) to almost the top of the tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 13 to 15 minutes for mini muffins and 18 to 22 minutes for regular sized muffins. I got 24 mini muffins and 18 regular muffins out of this batter. Enjoy!

Zucchini, again?

I know, your probably all sick of zucchini, right? I swear, our plants are growing like crazy this year. We are getting so much zucchini I can barely keep up with it! Here is another way that I've made it this year. I usually just saute it in some butter with salt and pepper, but I decided to get a little more creative with it. This turned out really yummy! The bacon and mushrooms give it a nice flavor and this was a nice way to use up part of a purple onion that I had. You could use any color onion though. Enjoy!

Zucchini, again?

4 slices bacon, cut into strips
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
4 cups sliced zucchini
½ onion, sliced (any color)
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon dried parsley

In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Add in the remaining ingredients and cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are soft. Enjoy!

Double Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

If I wasn't the one that just baked this, I would tell you that this bread absolutely does not have zucchini in it. But, I did just bake this and guess what? There are 3 cups of zucchini in this recipe!! So, if your still looking for recipes to use up all of your zucchini, this is the bread for you! Trust me, don't tell your family that it has zucchini in it, they will gobble it up and not even notice!! My husband told me that I could make this bread every day and he wouldn't be sick of it. It's that good! I got this recipe from Tasty Kitchen, but I didn't add in the spices like the original baker did. I wanted a pure chocolate flavor in mine. Please do try this, it's so good!!




Double Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups zucchini, shredded
2 cups flour
1 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350° F.
In an electric mixer, mix together the oil, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Once combined add in zucchini and mix well. Add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix well. Mix in the chocolate chips and then pour into two greased bread pans (I use baker's joy). The batter will be very thin, this is how you want it to look. Bake in the preheated oven for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

Savory Zucchini Pie

This is another yummy way to use up some of your zucchini, after all we all know that zucchini grows better than weeds! This savory zucchini pie is a sort of quiche, made with a tube of crescent rolls. I found the idea on recipezaar.com and modified it to my likings. You could use the reduced fat crescent rolls and reduced fat cheese in this recipe to make it a bit more healthy. It sure is yummy though and my kids gobbled it up! Enjoy!

Savory Zucchini Pie

4 tablespoons butter
4 cups zucchini, sliced and halved if large
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded & divided
2 eggs, beaten
1 (8 ounce) tube crescent rolls
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 375° F.
Melt butter in a large skillet. Add the zucchini, onion and garlic and cook on medium high heat for 10 minutes, or until onions are translucent and zucchini is soft. Mix in the parsley flakes, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning so that the vegetables are coated well with the seasonings. Turn off the heat and let sit while you prepare the pie plate. To prepare the pie plate, take a large 9 or 10 inch pie pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray and line it with the crescent rolls so that there are no holes, you may have to stretch out the crescent rolls and cut them up to make it fit. Once the crescent rolls are covering the bottom of the pie plate, spread the Dijon mustard evenly across the crust. Now stir in one cup of the cheese and then pour the beaten eggs into the zucchini mixture and pour everything into the prepared crust. Sprinkle with remaining one cup of cheese and place in the oven to bake for 20-25 minutes or until no longer runny. Let cool a few minutes before slicing into it and enjoy!

Zucchini Lasagna

Here is another way that I use up some of my bounty of zucchini. It's basically a lasagna without the noodles, using zucchini slices in place of the noodles. So, if your doing the low-carb thing, this would be great for you! I used a pretty big zucchini when I made this, so that the pieces were bigger, but you can use whatever size you have. If your still looking for ways to use up your zucchini, be sure to make this for your family!

Zucchini Lasagna

1 pound bulk Italian Sausage, browned into bite-sized pieces
2 pounds zucchini, sliced
1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 (26 ounce) jar favorite pasta sauce
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350° F.
In a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan layer a thin coating of pasta sauce, on top of the pasta layer zucchini, Italian sausage, sauce and mozzarella cheese. Continue layering until all of the ingredients are used up, ending with mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on the very top, cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. After the 45 minutes are up, take off the foil and bake another 10 - 15 minutes, to brown the cheese. When done baking, take out of oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving. This dish does have a lot of juices in it because of the zucchini, so it needs some time to set. Enjoy!

Printable Recipe

Sneaky Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bars

I made these sneaky chocolate chip zucchini bars yesterday to use up some of my surplus of garden fresh zucchini. I got the recipe over at 2 Kids and Tired Cooks. I'm happy to report that my kids ate these without even thinking twice about the fact that there was a vegetable in it! They couldn't even tell! I think they kind of got distracted by all of the gooey chocolate in them! My husband got home after work and ate some dinner and then asked what was for dessert, I pulled these out and he ate 3 huge squares of them. So, they are tasty! He even asked if I put any in his lunch this morning. I did make a bit of a change to the original recipe, I added a bit more sugar than the recipe called for, simply because I thought that 1/2 cup for the entire recipe wouldn't be sweet enough. I think that they turned out great the way I made them! Be sure to peel your zucchini before you grate it, this way your end product won't be green and it will be easier to get picky eaters to eat them!

Sneaky Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bars

¾ cup butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups zucchini, peeled and grated
1 ¾ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350° F.
In an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar and eggs together. Add the vanilla and zucchini and mix well. Add the flour, salt and baking powder mixing well. Finally add in the chocolate chips and mix until just combined. Pour into a 9x13 inch cake pan that has been greased. Bake in preheated 350° F for 35 - 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and cut into bars. Enjoy!

Special Zucchini Bread

If your like us then you probably have tons of zucchini growing in your garden. Thank goodness for zucchini bread! This zucchini bread is probably the best recipe that I've ever come across. It comes from my mother-in-law, who adds raisins to her zucchini bread. If you took the raisins out it would be a typical zucchini bread recipe, but the raisins add so much more to this bread! They help to keep the bread moist and they add an extra sweetness. This recipe will not disappoint!

If you have too much zucchini and you can't seem to keep up with it, shred it and put it into freezer bags and then pop it in the freezer, this way you'll have zucchini ready to be made into bread that you can use in the winter!

Special Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 ½ cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 ½ cups raisins

Preheat oven to 325° F.
Combine all wet ingredients in an electric mixer and then add all dry ingredients. Mix well and add raisins last. Pour into greased and floured bread pans and bake for 60-70 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let bread sit for 15-20 minutes in pans before removing and cooling on a wire rack. Makes two loaves.