Healthy Zucchini Brownies (Paleo)

  The "usual" brownie recipe contains butter, cups of sugar, oil, eggs, cocoa powder, and flour. This brownie recipe doesn't contain any of the above except 1 egg.  Some might argue that this dessert isn't a "brownie"  because the batter doesn't contain cocoa powder or melted chocolate, just chocolate chips that melt when baking. Some might categorize this as a healthy blondie, chocolate chip zucchini bread,  or a snack cake which is okay.

   I found this recipe about a week ago when searching from a healthy chocolate recipe. The more I searched for chocolate recipes that contained zucchini, the more I discovered that a lot of people have made this recipe and blogged about it. I noticed that in some pictures, the brownies were more of a golden brown color instead of the rich, chocolate brown in the original picture. For a second I thought about adding some cocoa into the batter thinking it may not be chocolaty enough, but decided against it to try how I liked the original recipe as is first and I'm glad I did. I did add 2 tablespoons of mini chocolate chip on the top of the brownies since it was all that was leftover from another recipe. 

Versatile Blog Award & Cheesy Zucchini Rice

Today's Tonight's post isn't really orderly. I basically spent all of this morning building a new rabbit cage, baking another batch of these brownies since 1/2 of the last batch was flipped onto the floor thanks to the dogs, find blogs for to give the versatile award to, getting ready for work tomorrow, attempting another batch of popsicles since we reached 105F the other day and my last batch of popsicles was a total fail..the sticks came out with a little popsicle, but the rest stayed jammed into the mold. I left them in the freezer for 2 days, but it didn't work so I hope the batch I made today is a success and if so I'll post it soon.Anyway, I was nominated for a Versatile Blog Award thanks to Learn 2 [use the] Kitchen.

When nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award, one must do the following steps:

• Thank the person who gave you the award and provide a link to their page on your blog
• Nominate 15 blogs for the award and let them know by leaving them a comment
• Copy/Paste the award on your blog post
• Share 7 things about yourself

7 things about me:

1. I once had a hamster living in my closet. How it all started was, the hamster died, or so I thought. I swear it died because it didn't move when i poked it and wasn't breathing for at least 5 minutes- I stared at it like a hawk. The stupid mistake on my part was putting in a bag and throwing it out in my bedroom trash can since my dad would dump it out anyway instead of taking down stairs. Well, a little later I took my trashcan down stairs to dump it out. Some time later I noticed a little patch of carpet missing from my closet, but didn't think anything of it. What happened next broke my closet door off of the hinges and nearly gave my dad a heart attack. He was trying to fix or look for something in my closet when a little mouse creature popped out, scaring my dad which made him fall back, hitting the closet door with his foot, and breaking it. He finally cornered it and discovered that it wasn't a mouse, but my hamster who I thought had died. I wish that I could find a picture of him after we got him since he was fat, I mean obese because apparently he was eating my carpet and some padding. It turned out that he had turned a little wild and wasn't very fun to handle. He stayed in his cage until he passed away- for real this time.  I don't remember it's name, maybe Honey (I had a several hamsters through the years), but he looked exactly like this little guy. This is one of those stories that you hear that you know has to be true because who could make something up like that.

Zucchini Tots: Updated

Zucchini Tots, a photo by raylynntexas on Flickr.

  The original name for these was Zucchini Bites, which was okay. But when these were baking, they smelled just like tater tots. I changed up the recipe a little (by using seasoned bread crumbs,parm. cheese, & I drained the zucchini) so I decided to change the name too and called them "Zucchini Tots instead.And "tots" does mean small and these are small (baked in a mini muffin pan) so the name fits.

Zucchini Bites

Recipe adapted: The Naptime Chef

yields: 12 mini muffins

1 cups zucchini, grated
1 egg (1 large egg equals 3-4 tbsp when whisked together)
1/4 yellow onion, diced
1/4 cup cheese (cheddar or Parmesan work the best)
1/4 cup bread crumbs - I used Italian style
Salt and Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a mini-muffin tin with non-stick spray, set aside.
2. Grate the zucchini and then place in a dish towel to squeeze out the excess water- like when using frozen spinach; if you skip this part, the middle of the zucchini tots will be really soggy while the outside gets crispy and no one wants that.
3. In a bowl combine, the egg, onion, cheese, bread crumbs, zucchini, salt and pepper.
4. Using a spoon or a cookie scoop, fill the muffin cups to the top. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the top is browned and set.

Some Tips  from others:
>Egg Allergy? Try an egg-replacement product or a mixture of 3 tbsp water to 1 tbsp ground chia or flax seed (it will look gelatinous) and let it sit for 10 minutes before adding into the recipe.   
> Gluten Free? Try almond flour, coconut flour, cooked cauliflower, potato flakes, Corn Chex cereals (g.f), or cooked Quinoa. 
>Flavors: Like I do with any recipe I make, I adjust the ingredients to what I have on hand and what I prefer. You can add fresh herbs, use a different (or even dairy free) cheese, keep the skins on or peel the zucchini, add a bit of heat with red pepper flakes ,or even mix in bacon which on reader did. 
>No mini muffin tin? Some have just placed the mixture onto a baking sheet which has worked okay, but you can use a regular muffin tin. If using a regular muffin tin, fill the mixture to 1/2 full or a little less and press down using your fingers or a tbsp measure. Bake for 18-22 minutes and broil to get the tops crispy.
>Salt: Salt helps draw out the moisture in foods which can help in this recipe. After grating your zucchini and placing it in a towel, sprinkle with salt, and let it sit for 10 minutes or so to draw the excess moisture out. Squeeze the towel really good to get as much of the moisture as you can out of the zucchini. 
>Freezing: I have not tried freezing these so I can't say how they will exactly turn out, but here it goes. Sometimes with zucchini that has been cooked, frozen, and reheated it can tend to be squishy so you have have to turn the broiler on for a few minutes.  
**RaeAnne said: "Made these and then froze them and it worked great. I think it is important to let them cool and then flash freeze them on a cookie sheet before putting them in freezer bag. We even reheated them in the microwave for about a minute on high or in the oven to make them crispier. It is important not to let them thaw before you cook them or it is a big gooey mess. "