Semi-healthy zucchini/carrot muffins

Great Sunday Morning Greetings to you!

Fall is in the air.  I awoke to a cool breeze and 50 something degrees this morning.  The grass on my farm has grown green again and is trying to grow tall but we still need more rain.  It is much prettier to look at though and all of my animals are happy.  Will worked on his lawnmower this morning and is going to mow the lawn again....I think.  I think he was until he decided to charge the mower battery while he went riding on the four-wheeler.  I may have lost my buddy to the great outdoors this morning.  I am thankful that we have had enough rain to make mowing a necessity.  He is back from the exploring and is mowing the lawn.  The smell of the new mown grass coming in the house along with the cool breeze, the smell of the baking muffins.  Lovely, just lovely.

Will is officially working days again for three months.  Hip Hip Hooray.  He passed the third part of his CDL exam and now has a CDL permit.  Last night I was able to meet Will's nephews Tanner and Zack Smith.  They were adorable, respectful and funny.  I am glad that I was finally able to meet them. They live with their Mother far away and so they do not come here that often.  Cute little Christian boys.  

Will planted our garden late and has been keeping it watered during the blasted summer and now that it has cooled down, we are starting to see some production.  We picked, yellow squash, zucchini, okra and tomatoes last night.  There was so much zucchini and they were large so I decided to shred them and make zucchini muffins.

We don't know what these knobbly squash are but they taste wonderful.  I know that the tomatoes are ugly but they are miracle tomatoes this year.

My chickens are laying SO MUCH.  We have egg lalapalooza here.  The eggs are jumbo eggs and taste so yummy.  I have always hated hard boiled eggs but these I like.

Semi-healthy Zucchini/Carrot Muffins

I made a very large batch because I had so much zucchini. I made some in smaller muffin tins with paper inserts and then made some gigantic muffins and greased and floured the tins.  Both turned out perfectly.  The gigantic muffins took 30 minutes and all were done when I stuck a knife in and it came out clean.

I used my food processors' grating blade to shred the zucchini and carrots. It made it fast and easy but you could use a grater and get a bonus workout on your biceps and triceps.

Level of difficulty - easy
Time to prep - 15 minutes with food processor, probably 30 with a grater
Time to cook - 20 minutes for small muffins, 30 minutes for large muffins

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients
2 C vegetable oil
6 large eggs
1 1/3 C granulated sugar
1 C light brown sugar packed
2 tsp vanilla
Dry Ingredients
6 C All-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
6 tsp cinnamon
Ingredients to fold in
5 C shredded zucchini
1 C shredded carrot
1 C Cascadian Farms Oat and Honey Granola Cereal (or Equivalent)
1/2 C Golden Milled Flaxseed
1/2 C Oat Bran
1 C Chopped Pecans (optional)

Use muffin papers or grease and flour muffin tins.  Preheat oven to 375.

Combine wet ingredients and mix together
Combine dry ingredients and mix in separate bowl
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, mix or incorporate fully
Fold in Zucchini, carrots, cereal, flaxseed and oat bran

Your batter should look like this

I used an ice cream scoop to put the batter in the muffin tins.  Fill each muffin hole 3/4 of the way.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes (small muffins) or 30 minutes for jumbo muffins.  They are done when they are toasty brown on top and a knife inserted comes out clean.

Enjoy!