Zucchini chocolate muffins

Sunday, January 2, 2011

We've all heard it 1,000+ times: Eating breakfast is proven to _______ (insert some sort of life-improving phrase here). I like to believe I'm a breakfast person, but I still seem to force myself to eat it every morning. Sometimes I get unexplained headaches throughout the day, and lately I've noticed if I eat a "good" breakfast they headaches don't come. Good meaning filling and somewhat healthy. So I've decided I will eat breakfast everyday, even if it's at 11:30 and involves french fries. I will still call it breakfast even if it's really lunch. It tricks my head into thinking it ate breakfast. I don't drink milk, so that rules out cereal. I hate yogurt, so that rules out any sort of smoothie. I would rather eat the cardboard box that oatmeal comes in rather than oatmeal itself. And since jelly is my arch nemesis that leaves my very little toaster or baked pastries to enjoy. Maybe this is why I had a hard time eating breakfast??? My mom would make me breakfast tacos before school that would keep me full until I could eat the chips from my lunch because lunch meat grossed me out. Man, I was a picky kid (and an adult still, I guess).

These days my husband eats a yogurt, piece of fruit, and a cereal bar or what ever pastry we have in the house for breakfast. I am a little pickier, of course, so I will sometimes make a breakfast taco (carrying on my mother's traditional breakfast), peanut butter and honey sandwich or toast, grapefruit or some other fruit, or a piece of a jelly-free pastry lying around the house. This week we visited BJ's parents in Camp Wood, TX (if you're wondering, on the other side of San Antonio where Verizon does NOT work) and Sue made the most delicious zucchini bread! I never make "breads" but muffins, so having that was great! She made some for her neighbor and we ate some for breakfast. It was moist, cinnamony, chocolaty, hearty, and filling! So I decided to make that for breakfast this week, but in muffin form. That way I can have pre-portioned breakfasts and individually wrap them. Yes, with plastic wrap. I feel bad for wasting so much plastic but I will forget it if I don't.

I just let BJ try a bite of one. He kept the whole thing, so it must be good.




Zucchini chocolate muffins

3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups grated zucchini (2 small zucchinis washed thoroughly)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (smaller chunks recommended)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (although I would probably double that next time because chocolate is awesome!!!)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease you muffin pan or place the muffin cups in the pan. I bake jumbo muffins, but sometimes the cups are hard to find. Shred the zucchini. I used a cheese grater. The grated zucchini was very moist, but don't drain. This will help moisten the mixture later. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, honey, brown sugar, oil and vanilla. Combine the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir into the wet ingredients until moistened. Gently stir in the zucchini and walnuts until evenly distributed. Divide half of the batter for the first batch of muffins. Fill cups 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 23 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the pan immediately and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Repeat for one more batch. Wrap in plastic wrap or store in a plastic bag when cool.

This recipe makes 12 jumbo muffins.

Since it's made with some wheat flour, honey, and zucchini I'm going to say this is a healthy recipe! :)