Mid summer brings unyielding heat, fireflies, and more zucchini that most people can handle. Yes these plants are a fantastic morale booster to any gardener, they give and they give and they give.
At the beginning, you hoard all you can harvest, but after a week of eating it in ratatouille, omelets and stir fry you cannot even bear the sight of another group of yellow flowers sprouting in the garden.
At that point you suddenly become generous and start sharing your bounty with your neighbors… your offering is welcomed at the beginning, but soon enough they stop opening the door when they see you coming up their driveway…
I am quite certain this is the same scenario that prompted the first person to add zucchini to bread mix, and that is how zucchini bread came about. I do love the stuff myself, but the great majority of recipes out there pack so much sugar, carbs and calories, that you are better off eating a slice while running hard on a treadmill.
Today I adapted a very good and very healthy bread recipe to handle some of my zucchini production. The result is quite good, it has a ton of protein and very little carbs, so you can eat it with less worries. I also find that by baking it into muffins instead of bread, it is much easier to stop at one portion as opposed to polishing the whole loaf in one sitting… so without further ado, here is my “Nutty Zucchini Muffin” recipe.
Ingredients:
- 4 medium eggs or 3 large eggs
- 1 cup shredded and drained zucchini
- 2 1/4 cups almond meal
- 1 cup dried unsweetened cranberries (craisins)
- 1/2 cup slivered or chopped almonds or pecans
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1 TBS vanilla extract
- 1 TBS fresh orange zest
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
Directions:
Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl. Distribute the mix among 8-12 cupcake baking cups in a muffin tin (no need to grease anything). Bake in a preheated oven at 350ºF until the muffins are fully baked (poke a muffin in the center with a knife and it comes out clean) and golden on the top. Once done, remove the muffins from the tin, allow them to cool on a rack, and they are ready to eat… Super easy, right? Let me know if you try it and like it.
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