Labor Snacks... and something to do with our massive amounts of zucchini!

I'm switching it up a bit and posting a food blog.  Yesterday was one of my first full days of maternity leave, so I decided to spend it baking rather than cleaning house like I intended... shh don't tell Justin :).  Our garden isn't doing the greatest this year because of the weather the way it's been, but our zucchini and squash plants are thriving and spewing out fruits the size of my leg overnight.

I decided to make bread and muffins, a) because I love it, and b) because I figured it would make great labor snacks for me and also for Justin and our midwives.  I read in a few different places that a woman in labor burns an amount of calories equivalent to a fifty-mile hike.  Yikes!  Yeah, I think I'm gonna need some nourishment during this event.  Why a lot of hospitals don't let laboring women eat or drink is beyond me...  But that's beside the point!

So I got creative with a recipe I found online and changed it up so much that I now feel comfortable calling it my own.  So I decided to share it with you, horray!

Jami's Zucchini Muffins

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp honey
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups grated zucchini
  ~optional:
1-2 cup(s) chocolate chips (I prefer Ghiradelli, mmmm)
     or
2 cup(s) chopped walnuts or pecans
     or
1-2 cup(s) mix of raisins, dried cranberries, dried cherries, granola, nuts of your choice  (I had a bag of "Energy Trail Mix" at home that had all these things in it and I decided to throw it into a batch of muffins.  Fortunately it ended up tasting great!)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. Beat eggs.  Add and mix well sugars, vanilla, honey, and oil.  Add zucchini to the wet ingredients.  4. Add the dry ingredients and mix well.  Stir in your choice of optional ingredients - my favorite are the chocolate chips and pecans!
5. Pour into non-stick muffin cups or mini loaf pans.  Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Mine actually are done in about 20-25 minutes, but that's because my oven runs hot.  The mini loaves usually take longer, but I haven't really gauged the time yet, I just keep my eye on them until I can stick a knife in and pull it out clean.
Enjoy!


... or Step 6, go into labor, and eat them all!  Well, I haven't followed that step yet, but hopefully it's just around the corner.  And I probably shouldn't eat them all, since I have over three dozen muffins and about 8 loaves already.  And about 10 more zucchinis/squashes to do something with.  By the way, smooth yellow squash is interchangeable with the green zucchini, so if you have more of one or the other either one works in the bread.

That's all for now, happy baking!