Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins

Jayden loves Zucchini Chocolate Chip muffins!  I had posted the recipe on here about 3 years ago.  We love it!  

I had bought some zucchini at the farmers market the other day so Jayden helped me make some muffins.  We froze some so I can throw them in his lunch.   He's becoming quite a helper in the kitchen!
Sorry I don't have a picture of the muffins after they are made.  I used to, but I had deleted the pictures from 3 years ago, so I'll have to take some new pictures when we make some more.  We love these muffins!!!


Zucchini Muffins Recipe

For those of you who prefer to use oil over butter, be my guest (use 1 cup vegetable oil instead of the butter) but I have to tell you, I've made these both ways, and the butter version just tastes better.

Ingredients

• 3 cups grated fresh zucchini
• 2/3 cup melted unsalted butter
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• Pinch salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup walnuts (optional)
• 1 cup raisins or dried cranberries (optional)

Method

You don't need a mixer for this recipe.
1 Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. Sprinkle baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add these dry ingredients to the zucchini mixture. Fold in the walnuts and dried raisins or cranberries if using.
2 Coat each muffin cup in your muffin pan with a little butter or vegetable oil spray. Use a spoon to distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups, filling the cups up completely. Bake on the middle rack until muffins are golden brown, and the top of the muffins bounce back when you press on them, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick or a thin bamboo skewer to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin let cool another 20 minutes.
Note, if you are including walnuts and dried fruit, you will likely have more batter than is needed for 12 muffins. I got about 14 muffins from this batch, and that included filling the muffin cups up as far as they could possibly go (above the surface of the muffin tin).

I didn't put nuts or raisins in it, instead I put chocolate chips. I doubled the recipe and put it in cupcake wrappers. I used a whole bag of chocolate chips since I doubled it. I got 45 cupcakes out of it. I thought they were very yummy.

Sign Language

I taught all my babies sign language, starting when they are about 6 months old.  I would say and do the sign, then take their hands and show them how.  Eventually they would start doing it.  I did more, please, food/eat, drink/cup, play, ball, all done and thank you.  And with Mackenzie we did milk and bird.  There may have been one or two more.  But those are the ones that Mackenzie will still do, and she says the word when she signs it.

It is so wonderful to teach a baby to sign because then I know what they want long before they can verbally say it.  It makes life easier.

A friend of mine is writing a paper on teaching babies to sign and had asked me to take some pictures of Mackenzie signing.  These were the only ones I was able to get out of her on this day.  She is become quite stubborn lately, kind of like her momma.  :)

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