This Healthy Zucchini Muffins recipe is the best!! It’s quick and easy to make, totally comforting and delicious, and it’s made healthier with a few simple ingredients.
These last few weeks have felt like a whirlwind.
Between two trips back home to Wichita to be with family, deadlines and projects galore due for work, and a host of morning coffee dates, impromptu lunches, margarita happy hours, evening grill-outs and late-night front porch talks filling just about every little hour in between…I feel like I have barely blinked…and the summer is already half over.
Poof.
How does that even happen?
Well, I guess the old saying explains it all. Time seems to be flying while having lots of fun, with lots of dear people in my life, and lots of fun memories already being made. All the better, of course, with that heavenly warm summer sunshine covering it all. Definitely a full but good start to my favorite season of the year. So as Tim Riggins would say, “no regrets.”
That said, though, as much as I love the time spent with my people, my little introverted heart has been waving the red flag this weekend, ready for some r&r. So in small and long stretches this week, I’m scheduling some much-needed downtime into the agenda, starting this afternoon on a lazy Sunday. Feet are up, glass of iced tea is in hand, pup is curled up by my side, sunlight is streaming in through the windows, and a nice weekend nap is just 10 minutes away. And my goodness, I can already feel my little heart re-charging. It’s almost as though we were designed to need rest or something. :) So good.
Anyway, on this note of time zooming by, somehow it’s already zucchini season. And anyone with a garden knows what that means: so much zucchini. Like, SO MUCH. It happens to be one of my favorite seasonal vegetables, so I’m always happy to saute and add it to just about any dish that I’m having for dinner. But for anyone looking to mix things up and maybe even incorporate it into breakfast, I thought I’d share my recipe today for these healthy zucchini muffins.
I’ve made three batches of them in the past two weeks, and still don’t seem to get tired of them. They’re made with white whole wheat flour, naturally-sweetened, deliciously spiced with cinnamon, easy to freeze, and — even though you won’t taste it — they are chock full of fresh shredded zucchini. I think you’re going to love them.
Healthy Zucchini Muffins Recipe | 1-Minute Video
Healthy Zucchini Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cups white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup plain milk (dairy or non-dairy)
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) grated zucchini (no need to squeeze out excess liquid)
- 1/3 cups old-fashioned oats
- turbinado sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Prep oven and muffin pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by either greasing it with cooking spray or lining the cups with paper liners.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, ground ginger and salt until combined.
- Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together egg, maple syrup, milk, coconut oil and vanilla extract until combined. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredient mixture and stir with a spoon until just combined. (Do not overmix.) Stir in the zucchini and oats until just combined.
- Bake. Portion the batter evenly between the 12 baking cups. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with a pinch of turbinado sugar, if desired. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean. Transfer pan to a wire cooling rack for at least 5 minutes to cool.
- Serve. Serve warm and enjoy!
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
They tasted pretty bland in my opinon. Better if you drizzle them with honey before eating. My son ate one and kept asking for more honey.
Hi, I was wondering if you could do a higher ratio of oats than flour or would this compromise the recipe?
Hey Sammi! Hmmmm, that’s a good question. We haven’t tried that, so we honestly can’t say for sure, but we think it’s worth playing around with. Maybe you could start by trying 1 1/3 cups of flour and 2/3 cups of oats?
Can I substitute a different flour for this, almond or oat maybe?
Hey there! We haven’t experimented with different flours in this particular recipe, so we can’t say for sure. However, you could try 1/3 of a cup or 2/3 of a cup of oat flour, and do whole wheat for the rest. We’d experiment with a smaller amount first and see how that goes. Let us know what you end up trying and how everything turns out! :)
I made these tonite and they were excellent but needed to be a bit sweeter! so i think i will try them with honey next time…
Thanks Michelle, we’re glad you enjoyed them, and you can definitely up the sweetener if you’d like! :)
the bottoms of my muffins didn’t cook, top halfs were great though, a little bland, but put a little honey and cinnamon with them and they were yummy.
Thanks for sharing Jessica – we’re sorry these didn’t cook properly, that’s really strange – we’ve never had that happen!
LOVE LOVE LOVE these muffins!! This is my second time making them! I substitute honey for the syrup, do half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour, and throw in some ground flax seed. They turn out great everytime!
Thanks so much Lauren, we’re happy to hear that! :)
I have made these many times over the past month since zucchini is plentiful right now. I stuck with the recipe and found it perfect. The last few times, I have slowly decreased the amount of pure maple syrup and am currently at 1/4 of a cup and they are still delicious! (I will note we eat very little sugar so our taste buds are sensitive to it so others may not feel the same). I just wanted to put that out there for other low/no sugar families :)
Oooh awesome, that’s so great to know! I’ll have to try that next time. Thanks for the tip, Sarah!
Have you ever used agavi sweetner? Also, do you have a nutritional count?
Hey Jody, we think Agave would be great in these! Unfortunately though, we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!
Made them with honey instead of maple syrup, they neaded to be a little sweeter.
I just made these tonight and they are AMAZING! I was worried about the zucchini making the muffins soggy because of their high water content, so I wrung them out in a paper towel before I added them to the batter (though I’m not sure if it was absolutely necessary). Great recipe, and I will definitely be making again!
Awesome Ellen, we’re so glad you liked them! :)