Tried and Liked: Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

These muffins actually come from a cake recipe, but I like muffins better!

Here's the original recipe:

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
(Adapted from Something Edible)
The usual suspects:

1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 cups grated zucchini, loosely packed
3/4 cup pecans roughly chopped
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons light brown sugar

The prep:
Preheat oven to 350º.
Cream butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy (stand mixer, hand mixer, elbow grease…) Add eggs and vanilla and continue beating/whisking until creamy. Add salt, baking soda, and cocoa; continue whisking until incorporated. Slowly add in flour in thirds, stirring after each addition until fully incorporated. Fold in the grated zucchini. Pour into a greased 9×13″ dish and top with brown sugar, pecans and chocolate chips. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake. Keeps nicely covered at room temp for a few days.
Eat up!

I did a few things differently, I obviously put them into a muffin pan instead, and because of that I had to make more topping. I didn't really measure the topping but I would probably do about half of the recipe of topping extra. (Wow I don't know how to say that right, I'm a little tired!) I also added walnuts to my topping and it was so good!

Taken from: Whisk Flip Stir

Almond Chicken Casserole

Ingredients:
1 can French-style green beans
1 pound cooked egg noodles
8 ounces of plain yogurt
½ Cup mayonnaise
1 Cup chicken broth
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon parsley
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
3 Cups shredded, cooked chicken
1 Cup slivered almonds
1/3 Cup Parmesan cheese

Directions:
In a bowl, combine yogurt, mayonnaise, broth, salt, parsley, and garlic powder.

In a 3 quart casserole layer half of the noodles, green beans, chicken, almonds, cheese and yogurt mixture; repeat.

Cover and bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Serves 6 - 8

Source unknown

Hershey's Best Brownies

These are my specialty! I get a lot of requests to make these brownies; I almost have the recipe memorized. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Ingredients:

1 C butter

2 C sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 eggs

¾ Cups cocoa

1 C flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 Cup chopped nuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 13” x 9” pan. Microwave butter for 2 minutes, or until its melted. Stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add cocoa, beat until well blended. Add flour, baking powder, and salt; beat well. Stir in nuts. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, until sides just pull away from pan.

Taken from: Hershey Homemade Cookbook

Chocolate Mousse Praline Pecan Pie

This is one of our traditional Thanksgiving pies, but sometimes I have to make it more often than that!

1/3 Cup butter or margarine
1/4 Cup packed brown sugar
2 Tablespoons water
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
2/3 Cup coarsely chopped pecans
8” graham cracker pie crust
Chocolate Mousse Filling (see below)

In a small microwave-safe bowl, place butter. Microwave at high for 1 minute or until melted. Add brown sugar, water and cornstarch; stir with wire whisk until smooth. Microwave at high for 1 minute of until mixture comes to full boil. Stir in chopped pecans; spread mixture on bottom of crust. Place crust in the freezer while preparing the filling. Prepare the Chocolate Mousse Filling and carefully spread over pecans. Cover and refrigerate for 3 - 4 hours. Refrigerate leftovers. Serves 6 - 8.

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE FILLING
1 1/2 Cups milk, divided
2 squares baking chocolate
1 4 ounce package instant chocolate pudding
1 1/2 Cups Cool Whip

Combine 1 cup of milk and baking chocolate in large microwavable bowl. Microwave on high 2 minutes. Stir till chocolate is completely melted. Stir in remaining milk. Add pudding mix; beat with wire whisk 2 minutes or till well blended. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Gently stir in cool whip.

Original recipe taken from: Hershey's Homemade, we've since modified the chocolate mousse recipe.

Blender Banana Bread

I wanted to use a couple of bananas before they went bad, but the usual Banana Bread recipe I use called for more bananas then I had so I tried the recipe that came with my Blend Tec Blender. It turned out really well, but I'm sure it would still turn out being mixed without the blender.

Time: About an Hour

Ingredients:
2 Eggs Whites (I just used the whole egg)
1/2 Cup Light Olive Oil (I used Vegetable Oil)
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
2 Bananas -Peeled and Broken in half
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/8 tsp. Nutmeg (I left this out)
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 1/2 Cups Flour
1/2 Cup Nuts (Optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place ingredients, minus the nuts, in the blender jar in the order as listed and secure the lid. Press Speed Up button until Speed 6. Let run for 30 seconds, or until well mixed. Mix nuts in and pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 60 minutes or until golden.

Taken From: Blendtec Lifestyles Recipe Book