Pineapple Zucchini Bread

Description: This is a great bread sliced right out of the pan. It is warm and gooey and so good! I usually make 2 loaves at a time because we eat the first one right out of the oven.

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 Tbsp. ground flaxseed dissolved in 2 Tbsp. hot water

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 tsp. white vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups grated zucchini, about 2 small

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup crushed pineapple in juice

Preparation: Preheat oven to 350. Put ground flaxseed in the hot water and set aside for a few minutes. Shred zucchini in food processor. Sift flours and baking powder together. Set aside. In mixing bowl, combine salt, cinnamon, sugar, oil, vinegar, vanilla and zucchini and flaxseed. Slowly add the sifted flour and baking powder to the wet mixture. Once well combined, add raisins. Stir again. Spray loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray (read labels) and fill loaf pan about 3/4 of the way full. Bake in oven for 50-60 minutes.

Alterations:You can make these with or without the pineapple. If you don't add the pineapple you will want to add about 1/4 cup water or whatever kind of milk you use. If your child is not allergic to walnuts I would highly suggest adding 1/2 cup to the batter with the raisins.

Rating: This gets 5 stars from my crew. They love muffins of any kind and don't even care that there is zucchini in them.

Avocado (Fake) Milkshake

Description: I know it sounds gross, but my kids love it! We eat a lot of avocados in our home due to the high fat diet my son must be on. This is one of those crazy concoctions I found on line and made it work for our family.

Ingredients:

1 ripe avocado

1 1/2 cups goat's milk or whatever kind of milk you use

3 Tbsp. sugar

2 scoops Rice Dream, vanilla flavored

Preparation: Slice avocado in half lengthwise and remove seed. Scoop out and dump into a blender. Add all of the ingredients into blender. Puree or crush, or whatever your setting says to do for a milkshake. If it is too runny just add a few cubes of ice and puree again until ice is crushed.

Alterations: You could use a vanilla flavored milk in this drink with great success. And, coconut milk ice cream is a very creamy alternative.

Rating: I have to give this 4 stars because I couldn't convince my husband to try it no matter how much I begged. The kids, however finished off their milkshake and asked for another, but I was out of avocados.

(Fake) Chocolate Chip Muffins (with pumpkin)

Description: When we have a play group at our house, these are always the first muffins to be devoured. The kids have no idea that this muffin is so good for them :)

Ingredients:

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup goat's milk (or water or whatever kind of milk you use, unflavored)

1/4 cup canola oil

2 Tbsp. ground flaxseed dissolved in 4 Tbsp. hot water

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 cup flour

2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. wheat germ

1/3 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips

Preparation: Preheat oven to 350. Combine pumpkin, milk (or water), oil, flaxseed dissolved in water, vanilla and sugar in mixing bowl and mix to combine. In sifter, put both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and sift onto wax paper. Then slowly pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix until well combined. Finally, add wheat germ and chocolate chips and stir until well mixed. I like to bake these in a 24 - mini muffin tin. It is so much easier for the kids to eat and they don't make as much mess with the little muffins. Fill tins about 3/4 full and bake immediately. The mini muffins will bake in 12-15 minutes, the larger muffins cook for about 20-25 minutes. To make sure they are done, simply tap the top of a muffin in the middle of the tin and if it bounces back, they are done.

Alterations: Using fresh roasted and pureed pumpkin is so much better than the canned pureed pumpkin. I won't say this often, but with pumpkin you won't believe the difference in taste! You can also make this into a loaf instead of into muffins. If your family is not used to whole wheat flour just start small by using 1 1/3 cup white flour and 1/3 cup whole wheat flour. They won't be able to tell it is in there.

Rating: These muffins get 5 stars from my crew as well as all the kids that come to my house. (Sometimes they even ask to take some home with them.)