Loaded Zucchini Muffins

Let's talk about ZUCCHINI!

This was my first year growing zucchini.  I planted one yellow squash and one zucchini plant.  My yellow squash didn't produce a lot, but the zucchini did.  This next series of posts is going to be about the various things I made with the zucchini from the garden.  (Well, aside from shredding them up to put in pasta sauce and grilling them up and topping them with Parmesan cheese...mmmm!)

I made these zucchini muffins from Simply Recipes three times I liked them so much!  The muffins froze really well too so I didn't have to worry about them going bad before we got around to eating them.  I made a batch for the girls at Blockette's birthday party sleep over to eat for breakfast.  One girl liked them so much she ate THREE...and half a peach and a bowl of cereal.  I'm pretty sure she had a hallow leg.

So why do I call these loaded zucchini muffins?  Cause I added everything but the kitchen sink!  They've got raisins, craisins, walnuts, pecans, white  and semi sweet chocolate chips.  What's not to like?  I'm not normally a fan of raisins in baked goods, but even I enjoyed them in these muffins!

The last time I made these muffins I had a very moist zucchini.  When I assembled the batter, I felt it was too viscous.  To fix that I added about a cup of oats to thicken up the batter.  The resulting muffins were a bit drier than the original, but not to the point of being crumbly.

Loaded Zucchini Muffins adapted from Simply Recipes
3 c grated zucchini (do not squeeze out excess water)
2/3 c melted butter
1 1/3 c sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 t vanilla
2 t baking soda
3 c flour
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 c raisins1/2 c craisins
1/2 c walnuts
1/2 c pecans
1/2 c white chips
1/2 c semi sweet
About 1 c rolled oats, if needed

 Preheat oven to 350°F. In lg bowl mix sugar, eggs, and vanilla by hand. Add zucchini, then melted butter. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to  zucchini mixture. Add, nuts, dried fruit and chocolate.  Once combined, add oats if needed.  Spray pan or use paper muffin cups.  I like to use a 3T cookie scoop to portion the batter into the muffin tin.  I got 24 regular sized muffins and 5-6 mini muffins.

 Bake 25-30 min, on middle rack til muffins are light brown, and tops spring back when pressed. Cool for 5 min in pan. Remove muffins and cool completely on rack.