Zucchini Muffins & Freezing Zucchini

Well hello there stranger. It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm a dick and have completely neglected you. To be honest, it crossed my mind over the last few months to say buh-bye to the blog since I don't seem to have the commitment to write very often and the guilt is sort of eating me up. My stats show that people are still visiting daily so that is giving me the kick in the butt that I need, so here I am. Can we be friends again? I will try harder not to be a prick to you. Promise.

My husband and his green thumb planted another vegetable garden this year, and while it went in a tad late we are now reaping the benefits. Zucchini's are ready! Is it me or does zucchini triple its' size over night? We always seem to miss the window of picking the perfectly ripe zucchini. I'm not a fan of zucchini once they have large seeds so I decided to bake with them and cut out the seeds and toss them. I only needed two cups for the recipe below (I doubled it) so I froze the rest. I've never froze zucchini before but from the reading I did on it, it sounds like it will work out just fine. All I did was use my food processor to shred the zucchini (skin included), squeezed excess liquid out and tossed into small freezer bags in 2 cup portions. Apparently when you thaw it out you just re-squeeze out the remaining liquid and you are good to bake with it. BAM! E-Z-P-Zee. Here is the delish recipe for the zucchini muffins I came up with. They are super fluffy and yummy. Not entirely healthy but the added flax and chai seed makes me justify the use of oil. Enjoy!

Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour (you can sub in whole wheat)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
2 tablespoons ground chia seeds
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice extract
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons milk *if too dry add more
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Method
Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, flax and chia seed in a bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl mix egg, oil, milk, vanilla, and lemon juice. Slowly mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips. Spoon into greased or lined muffin tin. Bake at
350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.