Zucchini Orange Muffins with Chocolate Chips

My mom is the queen of muffins. She has her go-to recipes for muffins and loaves that she has been baking ever since I can remember. Muffins are her thing! Whenever I bake muffins I think fondly of Ma.

She also has a thing for zucchini loaf.

SO... one morning I was carrying through with my usually routine of watching Food Network whilst eating breakfast (yes I do get up earlier than necessary just so I can do this), I saw Anna Olson bake up a zucchini orange loaf. I see a lot of stuff that looks good on that show but when I saw this I KNEW I had to make it! My mother would be returning from a vacation soon and some zucchini baking would be the perfect welcome home treat.

Although, because muffins are such her thing, I often am reluctant to try a new banana bread, or zucchini loaf recipe... because around these parts her recipe is known as THE BEST. (At least in my opinion.)

But life is about taking risks or something like that so I gambled big time and made these! I like living on the edge. This recipe was different enough from her classic zucchini loaf however that I felt like I wasn't trying to fix something that was already perfect.

Also, I got to use zucchini that was fresh from our garden! Which just makes me giddy.

Zucchini Orange Muffins with Chocolate Chips

Original recipe from Anna Olson

Notes: The original recipe is for making a loaf... but I just love all things tiny and cute so I made individual muffins. You can easily turn muffin recipes into loaves and vice versa. Just be sure to change the cooking time accordingly! Muffins can take anywhere from 20-35 minutes to bake, while a large loaf can take up to an hour.

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp finely grated orange zest
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups loosely packed, coarsely grated zucchini
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (if you so desire, you can omit these, or replace with something else such as dried fruit or toasted nuts)

1. In a large bowl, whisk to combine the oil, eggs, sugar, zest and vanilla
2. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir the zucchini in with the flour mixture, using your hands to coat the zucchini strands with flour so that they don't clump together.
3. Combine the dry with the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Divide the batter into paper lined muffin tins, filling them about 2/3 full. Bake in a 350 (325 for hot ovens) oven, and check to see if they are done at 20 minutes. Mine took 20 minutes, but oven temperatures and times will vary. A toothpick inserted in the centre of a muffin that comes out clean will tell you your muffins are ready!
5. Let cool a bit... then stuff your face.

Ps in case you were concerned, my mother absolutely loved these. A lot. Risks are worth taking.

Happy Baking with Zucchini this fall!

<3 Lari

Zucchini/Tomato Rice Gratin

Nearly every time I read somebody's blog post about a recipe... I want to make it. This is a challenge because there are TOO MANY RECIPES AND NOT ENOUGH TIME! This is one of the rare dishes that I actually did end up making after reading it on one of my fave-food-blogs!

It was one of those awesome moments where I thought, this looks delish, and I have all of the ingredients!! And my family was impressed that I managed to do something delicious with that tub of cooked rice in the back of the fridge. (I'm trying to get better at using up the stuff we already have on hand, rather than buying new ingredients all the time.)

The only real reason I adapted this recipe is because I:

1. Had a small tub of pre-cooked rice chillin' in the fridge
2. Did not have enough garlic on hand!
3. Had some yellow zucchini AND green from the farmer's market... and I thought the red green and yellow looked so pretty together.

Zucchini & Tomato Rice Gratin

Recipe only slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

• About 1 to 2 cups (no need to be too precise) of already cooked rice (Or, the original recipe tells you to cook up 1/3 cup uncooked rice)
• olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds zucchini (use all yellow, all green, a mix, or whateva!) sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1/2 pound tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• salt and pepper
• 1 medium onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan

If you are using uncooked rice, cook it now! Then set it aside.

Spread a tbsp or so of olive oil into two oven proof dishes/pans. Lay out your zucchini and tomatoes in the pans, and season them with salt and pepper.

Roast the veggies at 450 (425 for my hot oven): put the zucchini in for 10 minutes, take it out and flip it, then put it back in along with the tomatoes for another 10 minutes. If this was most likely confusing: Roast zucchini for 20 minutes, roast tomatoes for 10 minutes. (no need to bother flipping the tomatoes halfway through their cooking time.)

MEANWHILE: Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and heat about 2 tbsp olive oil. Once hot, add your sliced onions, garlic and a sprinkle of salt. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook until onions get all limpy. Yum. Stir occasionally. This takes about 15-20 minutes... perfect to do whilst waiting for all those roasting veggies!

In a bowl, combine your cooked rice, eggs, thyme, half of the grated parmesan and about 1/2 tbsp olive oil. When your onion mixture is cooked, add this to the bowl along with some fresh ground pepper and stir to mix everything together.

Grease a 2-quart baking dish with a bit of olive oil, and spread half of the rice mixture into the dish. Next, layer half of the zucchini. Repeat! Now, layer the tomato slices on top, and sprinkle the remaining parmesan cheese over it all.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until the dish is set and tomato edges get all toasty.

Eat it and love it!

I totally want to try this using different kinds of rice, thinking maybe a brown rice would be awfully tasty.

<3 Larissa