Zucchini Invasion!

This year is my first attempt at gardening, and I just have to say, "Holy zucchini". Here is a picture of my garden just one month ago:

 And here it is now:

 As you can see, things have grown just a bit. Especially the zucchini. I've already harvested 7 squash from the plant. And I'm at a point where I'm thinking, "What else can I do with it?!" I mean, I've done sauteed zucchini, breaded and baked zucchini, etc. But, now I really wanted to do something different. 

Enter Pinterest.

I knew pinterest would not let me down. So, I began searching my food board and the Food and Drink category. And, low and behold. zucchini recipes out the wazoo. 

I mean, I could make: 

1. Zucchini and black bean rice skillet 

2. Baked Zucchini chips  

3. Zucchini Bites 

4. or Zucchini Fries 

All of them sounded delicious, but I wanted something different. And to be quite honest, I wanted something that involved sugar. Zucchini bread just wasn't going to cut it. 

Enter heaven ...

5. Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Anything that has double chocolate in the title is a winner in my book ... even before I taste it. So, last weekend I tried them. I tweaked the recipe a bit because I prefer to use wheat flour and replace some of the sugar with Stevia sweetener. But, they came out VERY dense and a bit dry. So this morning I decided to try them again. 

Here are the original ingredients: 

Here are the changes I made the first time:

1. Instead of 1 cup sugar - I used 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup Stevia
2. Instead of 1 cup vegetable oil - I used olive oil
3. Instead of 3 cups all-purpose flour - I used 1 1/2 cups baking flour and 1 1/2 cups  wheat flour
4. Instead of unsweetened cocoa powder I used the same amount of dark chocolate cocoa powder. 

Not shown in the ingredients above is 2 cups chocolate chips. I used dark chocolate instead.

This morning I made a few additional tweaks:

1. I added another teaspoon of vanilla

2. I added 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce 

I was still worried it would be dense, so I researched online how to make muffins fluffier and moist.  First, I mixed the wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls. Shredded zucchini is considered a wet ingredient. 

Then, once all my wet and dry ingredients were mixed seperately, I made a well in the middle of my dry ingredients and poured in the wet mix. 

Next, I read that you should NOT over-mix you muffin batter. So, I folded in the dry ingredients, mixing ONLY until the dry ingredients were blended in. 

I also cooked them for less time than I had the first time, thinking perhaps I just cooked them too long. And the result? 

 

The heaven I was waiting for!! :) 

They were moist, flavorful, and I can pretend they are healthy because they are made with zucchini! 

Now who wants to help me clean up my mess?