Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies

Over the past 15 weeks not much has tasted good to me… but this past weekend I made something that I just couldn’t stop eating. Chocolate chip zucchini cookies! I know, probably not what you were expecting.

Concurrent with the start of my morning sickness back in April, David and I began receiving fresh vegetables from a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that we signed up for with a friend. We paid an up front amount which averages about $10 a week in exchange for a small share of fresh vegetables from a local farm. One of my favorite parts of living in Lexington is all of the opportunities to eat organically and support local businesses and farmers. David and I decided in March that this spring/summer we wanted to be a part of a CSA and we were very excited. However, the timing turned out to be a bit difficult to say the least. While I was getting sick daily and David was scrambling to make his own dinners and get through finals we had no time or energy to learn how to cook kohlrabi and turnips. Fortunately, over the last few weeks we have been getting much more familiar veggies, like cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes and zucchini. And I have been feeling much better and gaining more energy to cook again!

Therefore this weekend I decided to look up some zucchini recipes. Tonight I made zucchini enchiladas and they were yummy. But the following cookie recipe definitely stole the show. It may have helped that they were a dessert since sweet things have been tasting really good lately.

I baked the cookies based on this recipe, however I changed a few things (which I usually don’t attempt). But I think it worked out really well! The cookies had a bit of a cakey texture, so I may try to cut down on the baking soda next time. Other than that they really were perfect and we are still enjoying them tonight.

Things I changed about the recipe:

Instead of using 2 cups of granulated sugar, I used 3/4 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of white sugar. I also added 1 tsp. of vanilla, and instead of cooking them 15-20 minutes I found that about 9 minutes worked well.

Here is what I did with the zucchini:

I shredded it using a normal cheese grater (aka a sponge ruin-er… haha Mitch Hedberg).

The recipe only calls for 2 cups and we had lots more, so I just bagged it up and put it in the fridge to use tonight for the enchiladas. You can also freeze it to use later.

I shredded the zucchini before doing anything else. Then I measured out 2 cups of it, and while it was in the measuring cup I mixed in 1 Tbsp. of sugar then let it rest a bit while I made the rest of the dough. Right before adding the zucchini in I drained the excess water from it so that the cookies wouldn’t be too gooey.

Yum!

This recipe makes about 5 dozen cookies, so be ready to share! Or just eat all of them because they have to be good for you since they have zucchini in them. I don’t actually think that, but I may have been trying to convince myself of it. I felt like a pregnant woman for the first time as far as my appetite goes when I tasted these cookies! I ate 3… and then our little girl wanted 1 more :)

I hope you enjoy. Now back to watching the season finale of the Bachelorette… it is a guilty pleasure… of which I am pretty ashamed. You should feel privileged that I shared that with you.

Happy Monday!