Zucchini.... Yum!

A week ago, I planned to make pumpkin muffins as a snack for my son's preschool class. I woke up early, started gathering my "supplies" and noticed that I didn't have any pumpkin!  Uh oh. I scrambled to come up with another idea... banana muffins? Nope. Only one banana.  I did have some zucchini that I had planned to use in another meal, but, I worried, how would a bunch of four year olds react to zucchini muffins?

After a quick internet search, I found this recipe for Zucchini Muffins on Simply Recipes.  I had all of the supplies (except the nuts and cranberries which I didn't plan to use anyways.) I did make one change to the recipe. I usually cook with whole wheat flour.  For my family, I would probably substitute all whole wheat flour, but they are used to the taste of whole wheat. Therefore, I used some white flour for this batch.  The recipe calls for 3 cups of flour.  I mixed 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat with 1/2 cup of white, but the muffins started to get really thick, so I didn't put in all of the flour.  The next time, I would probably use just 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour, or 1 1/4 of whole wheat and 1/2 cup of white.

My children hovered around the oven as they cooked and asked, "What kind of muffins are they?"  When I told them that they were zucchini muffins, I saw a shadow of doubt cross their faces. Uh oh... my kids like zucchini and will try just about anything, if they were hesitant, what about the likely vegiphobes in my son's class??

Never fear!  The first judges, my kids, loved them. So did two of our neighbors who walk to the bus stop with us every morning.  When I dropped my son off at school I told him that maybe he should just call them "muffins," because some kids may not eat them if they know they have zucchini.

All of the kids ate them and liked them!  The next week, I made them for the two year old class and again, they were a hit!  One of the teachers even told me that it was the first time that SHE had tried zucchini!

I LOVE zucchini, and if I have it around, I'll often chop it up and throw it into recipes.  One of my favorite zucchini dishes is "Sausage Soup." My friend Mary shared it with me and it has been a family favorite ever since.

1 roll of Bob Evans Italian Sausage
1 small yellow onion chopped
1 can of canellini beans
2 cans of beef broth
1 can diced tomatos (I can't eat tomatos so I make half of it without tomatos and find it just as good!)
1/2 cup cooked ditalini pasta (cook it first or it will soak up all of your broth)
1 zucchini cut into small cubes (the recipe calls for a small zucchini but I usually go for a big one!)

Cook the sausage (chopping it as it cooks) and the onion.  Once the sausage is cooked and the onion is translucent, add all other ingredients.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes.  Make sure that the zucchini is tender before serving.

Do your kids like zucchini? If not, try these recipes and let me know how it goes!