Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Zucchini Muffins

Now that I have a bigger kid (11) and a littler kid (20 months), I realize that some recipes that little Adam loves might work great for him, but not for older kids or us adults.  Adam is such a good eater that he will eat most anything I serve him (how many toddlers do you know who eat radish salad and Brussel sprouts?)  But I know that the older kids have more complex taste buds, so to label something as "kid friendly" might be a bit misleading if Adam's the taster.

So, I came up with a new category: Toddler-Approved.  These recipes will be something that you can serve to older kids and even adults, but will be more geared toward our littlest ones.  Don't hesitate giving it a taste yourself to see if maybe you found a new favorite!

I wanted to find something to quickly serve Adam in the morning and had a zucchini to use up.  So, of course, zucchini muffins came to mind.  But the real recipe is usually filled with sugar and not that healthy.  So I went on a new favorite food blog, Weelicious.com, and found a healthy version.  Adam loves them so much, he ate 2 full sized ones this morning alone (as I type this, he came running over for another bite!).

The recipe calls for agave nectar, but can also use honey or maple syrup.  I'm assuming you can also use sugar, but regular sugar might not be sweet enough for the limited amount used.   I used maple syrup.

I was out of eggs when I made it, so I used flax seed and water as a substitute.  They came out nicely, but I'll be using eggs or bananas next time.

Hope you and your little ones enjoy!

Zucchini Muffins
Makes 12 muffins (or 24 mini muffins)

1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
2 Eggs, whisked
1 Tsp Vanilla
1/3 Cup Vegetable or Canola Oil
2/3 Cup Agave Nectar (or honey or maple syrup)
1 1/2 Cups Zucchini, shredded (about 2 small zucchini)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the first 6 ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to combine.
3. Place the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk to combine.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and stir just until the ingredients are combined.
5. Pour the zucchini mixture into large or small muffins cups.
6. Bake 15 minutes for small muffins and 20 minutes for large ones.
7. Cool and serve.

5 comments:

  1. how do you substitute banana for eggs? I am not sure I have heard about that one. SOunds great and I think I will be trying this for my little man. Thanks!

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  2. You can replace 1 banana for 1 egg. I'd make sure they were well ripe, if possible.

    You can also replace the oil with applesauce if you'd like. That's an equal swap too (1/3 cup applesauce for 1/3 oil).

    Imagine how much fruit you can sneak into a kid that way!

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  3. How did you shred the zucchini? I can't decide if I should just use the box grater or if the food processor is over kill.
    Thanks!

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  4. I just used a box shredder. If you worry about the kids seeing the zucchini and not being interested, the food processor might get the pieces smaller.

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  5. So I took your awesome recipe here and tweaked it a bit so I was sure my kids would eat it. Substituted banana for eggs and had to use regular sugar but used less than 2/3 cup due to sweetness of bananas. The crowning glory and my guarantee of it being eaten were the dark chocolate chips I added to the batter. They turned out fantastic! Thank you and cannot wait to try some other recipes- Love your blog-Jen

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