a sneak peak of fall

About two weeks ago a teeny tiny little farm stand popped up about a mile away from my house. They own a farm on a less traveled road so they rented out a tiny piece of land to have a cart and sell some vegetables. 

One of my favorite things is actually talking to the farmer who grows my food and hearing about his crops this year. Apparently the crazy winter and summer weather we've had has been very fruitful for him. He grew an excess of some things, which is great for me because that makes them CHEAP!

He had the biggest yellow squash I have ever seen. It was the size of my arm. I was at his farm stand buying zucchini to make some zucchini bread and after about 15 minutes chatting with him and buying my fruits and veggies, I was ready to leave. The farmer's son had totaled up my purchases and I was off. Then, the farmer caught up to me on my way to my car to give me that giant squash. He told me to go ahead and make a zucchini bread with it and let him know how it goes.

That one squash gave me 8 cups of shredded goodness to use in breads. That lead to 4 loaves of bread and 4 dozen muffins. OYE! To say thank you to him for his generosity, I brought him a loaf of zucchini bread and 6 zucchini chocolate chip muffins. I hope they enjoyed eating them as much as I enjoyed baking them!

The post is called a sneak peak of fall because the zucchini bread is spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg and it tastes like a lead in to pumpkin bread. It is the perfect end of summer food!

  

Oh. Deliciousness.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins:

3 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups grated zucchini
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1/4 cup wheat bran (optional)

Preheat oven to 350
Mix together dry ingredients with a fork.

Beat brown sugar, eggs and vegetable oil until creamy and very fluffy. (I found this step to be important because the whole wheat flour is heavier than all purpose. It needed the extra air bubbles)

Add in the zucchini and beat with mixer to make sure they are separated and thoroughly coated in liquid ingredients.

Mix in the dry ingredients with the fork you used to fluff the dry ingredients. Add in chocolate chips and just mix until combined.

I fill a cupcake pan with about 1/4 cup of batter. Top each muffin with a sprinkle of wheat bran (just for a bit of texture - it is totally optional)

Bake for about 17 minutes depending on the size of your muffins