Alphabet Activities: Letter Z

After skipping around the alphabet a bit, Munch and I decided to work on the letter Z today. She had a tougher time writing this letter than most of her other letters, and many of her z's ended up looking more like 2's. Oh well, at least she's got THAT number down! After doing her z collage (we glued on rick-rack for "zig-zags"), Munch cut out stripes of black paper and glued them onto a white zebra body-I helped her cut around its legs and ears, then she attached it to some paper and drew some grass at the bottom. It turned out pretty cute-For our cooking project, we made zucchini muffins.I usually use a Better Homes and Gardens recipe, but have always found it WAY too sweet. Instead, today we tried a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil and the results were really wonderful- light and delicately fragrant. I put Munch to work on grating the zucchini. She found it to be hard work-We mixed in about 3/4-1 cup of chopped walnuts and about 1/2 cup of chopped chocolate chips (the 60% cacao bittersweet Ghirardelli chips are my favorite of the grocery store brands- I roughly chopped them because I didn't want TOO big a chunk of chocolate in the muffins). They were very well received-

Zucchini Muffins, makes 2 dozen muffins
3 c. flour
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 c. olive oil
1 3/4 c. sugar
2 c. grated zucchini
2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. chopped walnuts
1/2 c. chopped chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 12-cup tins with muffin papers (I also give the pan a spritz of non-stick spray around the edges of the muffin cups). In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, beat the eggs at medium-low speed for a few seconds. Add the olive oil, sugar, grated zucchini, and vanilla. Mix to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the zucchini mixture and mix just until combined. Stir in the chopped walnuts and chocolate. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake about 25 minutes or until the tops are dry and lightly golden.