Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins- Lightened Up

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This is another great zucchini treat. I'll give you the original recipe and I'll add in red how I lightened it up. The original recipe was found on For the Love of Cooking.

I thought that the end product turned out really well. I never tried the original recipe so I really don't know what I'm missing. :) The only change I would make is that I wouldn't use muffin liners next time. I think the lack of oil makes the muffin stick more to the liner. So, I'll just grease up the muffin tin next time.

I actually doubled this recipe so I could freeze the extras for a quick, hand-held breakfast. I just put the frozen muffin the the microwave for 30 seconds and I'm ready to go!

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins:

Recipe by For the Love of Cooking.net

• 1 cup of whole wheat flour
• 1 cup of flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup of cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 3/4 cup of milk
• 3/4 cup of canola oil (I used unsweetened applesauce)
  
• 2 eggs (I used one whole egg and one egg white)
  
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup of zucchini, shredded
• 1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a muffin tray with cooking spray.

In a large bowl combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and cocoa. Mix thoroughly.

In another bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Add the shredded zucchini and stir. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until just combined then add the chocolate chips. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin tray, filling each cup to the top.

Bake in the oven for 17-20 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the muffins cool before serving. Enjoy.

Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins

This is one of those recipes that you have to try for yourself to believe. There are only two ingredients and is a must if you need a chocolate fix. This is so easy:

Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins

1 box devil's food cake mix
1 15 oz. can solid pack pumpkin

Directions: Mix the two ingredients together in a bowl with beaters. Don't add any eggs, oil or water. The mixture will be very thick, but don't be tempted to add ANYTHING! Put batter into muffin tins (or mini muffin tins) lined with paper or non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Do not overcook. Start at 10 minutes and check. Add minutes as needed. Let cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

I put a small cookie scoop of batter into a sprayed Wilton's Bite-Sized Brownie Squares Pan and then used a knife to spread it to make a flat top. Using this pan, I got 58 brownie bites. I baked each batch at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

Note: These freeze very well. Just warm in the microwave for 10 or 15 seconds.

1 muffin or 3 minis=181 calories, 3.5 g fat, 37 carbs, 2 g fiber, 2 g protein, 4 WW points

3 of my brownie squares came to 117 calories, 2 g fat, 1.5 g fiber, 2 WW points. You can figure out your totals depending on how many muffins you get. Just figure out the total amount of calories, fat and fiber in both the cake mix and canned pumpkin. Add the calories of the cake and pumpkin together and then divide by the number of muffins you made. Repeat with fat and fiber.

If you haven't already, bookmark my page and come back soon for another pumpkin recipe in the works!

Mexican Casserole and Naughty Cornbread

I am posting this to tell you how I store my ground beef. Maybe you do this too. I usually buy the cheapest family pack of ground beef available. That is usually the 73% lean ground beef. (I only use this for browned ground beef recipes like spaghetti sauce, tacos, sloppy joes and casseroles like this one. For meatballs and meatloaf I get a leaner ground beef.) I get a couple of big dutch ovens and cook up the whole family pack at once. I also like to add dried onions to give it some good flavor. When the beef is nice and browned, I transfer it into a colander with a plastic container under it to catch the fat. After the fat has been drained, I remove the plastic container and run very hot water over the beef in the colander. This will help drain even more of the fat off. When the beef cools, I measure out about 2 cups and put it in a small freezer storage bag. I place all of the bags of beef in my freezer. Now I have a lean, meal size portion ready when I quickly need ground beef for a week night meal. Ready for some recipes?

Mexican Casserole (makes two 9x9 to eat one and freeze one for later)

1 box of pasta, cooked according to package and drained ( I used wagon wheels)
15 oz can of tomato sauce
1 can tomato soup
3/4 can of water (soup can)
1 cup frozen sweet corn
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups browned ground beef
2 packs of taco seasoning or to taste
1 cup colby jack or whatever cheese you have on hand

Basically......mix it all together (except cheese), put it in the casserole dish, top with cheese and bake at 350 degrees, uncovered for 30 minutes or until bubbly. You can top it with sliced olives. sour cream, shredded lettuce or just eat it as is. My kids really liked this. Especially JD.

To use frozen casserole: Put into fridge the night before to thaw. Bake at 350 degrees, covered with foil for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 minutes longer.

Naughty Corn Bread

1 box of yellow cake mix
2 boxes Jiffy cornbread mix
eggs, oil and milk according to box mixes

Preheat oven according to directions on the cake mix box.

In a bowl combine all three box mixes. Add eggs, milk and oil according to each box mix. (Replace the water called for on the cornbread box mix with milk). Mix all the ingredients according to the cake mix directions.

This makes A LOT of cornbread, so I just make 2 batches of muffins and freeze what I don't use. They are really easy to defrost in the microwave for a quick meal.

Just bake these according to the cake mix directions. (About 20 minutes for the muffins and 30 minutes for 9x13 pan). Know your oven and make sure not to over cook these. Cooked just right, these are so moist!