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It’s back-to-school time, which means early alarms and packing lunches and sprinting to the bus stop and reminding the kids to eat-your-breakfast-brush-your-teeth-pack-your-bag-tie-your-shoes and, well, we miss August. To solve at least one piece of the morning puzzle, we enlisted Sara Forte of Sprouted Kitchen…
“The only thing saving me right now is having breakfasts already made,” says Sara. “The kind the kids can grab while I am getting ready: hard-boiled eggs, bananas, healthy muffins. I leave everything on the bottom shelf of the fridge so they can help themselves and we’re all out the door on time.”
We love the idea of grab-and-go breakfasts and asked her to share one of her kids’ favorites: these zucchini muffins, packed with vegetables plus healthy fats and fiber. Best of all, you can make them ahead of time and they freeze beautifully.
Zucchini Muffins
Recipe by Sara Forte for Sprouted Kitchen
These are on the low end of the sweet scale, so if you want them to be more like a treat, add a few more tablespoons of sugar. If you’d like to turn it into a loaf, you can bake the batter in a greased loaf pan for closer to 45 minutes, sticking a toothpick in the center to make sure it isn’t too wet.
1 cup grated zucchini (about 1 medium/large)
2 eggs
1/3 cup olive oil (or avocado oil or coconut oil)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
3/4 cup almond flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (or superfine rice flour)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup cane sugar
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chunks
turbinado sugar, to finish, optional
Start by grating the zucchini. Put them in a fine mesh sieve and press out excess water. Preheat the oven to 360°F and grease a muffin tin.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, vanilla, vinegar and buttermilk or yogurt, until well combined. Add the flours, baking soda and powder, salt, cinnamon and sugar; and stir until combined. Add the zucchini and chocolate and fold it all in.
Fill the muffin tins about 2/3 full (they don’t rise much) and sprinkle turbinado sugar on top, if using. Bake on the middle rack for 20 minutes, or until golden around the edge and a little tap on the center bounces back at you.
Remove to cool completely. Keep covered at room temperature for 2 days, or in the fridge or freezer any longer than that.
A split and toasted muffin is the best muffin, but straight out of the hand is delicious, too.
Thank you Sara. We feel calmer already! (We also love your muffin cup frittatas, berry overnight oats and Cooking Club.)
P.S. Back-to-school rituals and quick family dinners.
(Photos by Hugh Forte for Sprouted Kitchen.)
