Eat What You Love by Danielle Walker
Let’s just deconstruct that a bit. Chocolate…one of my FAVORITE things and unfortunately not considered a major food group. Zucchini…healthy, tasty, and my go-to vegetable to “sneak” into multiple dishes. Muffins…Umm…who doesn’t like muffins?
I have always enjoyed baking but the more I learn about approaching food as fuel the more hesitant I am to buying the boxed mixes or using unhealthy ingredients. My first couple of attempts at baking with healthier ingredients didn’t fair so well. Some tasted like cardboard and others had an odd texture and consistency. That is until I found Danielle Walker’s cookbooks. I have most of her cookbooks and there are so many post-it notes flagging the recipes that I love that they all look like paint wheel samples. She will definitely be mentioned multiple times in The Reluctant Food Critic. I have yet to make a recipe that didn’t become a household favorite.
As you know I’m a chocolate lover, but I was keen on finding recipes that didn’t uproot all the work I’ve done to clean up my eating. The Chocolate-Zucchini Muffins from Eat What You Love by Danielle Walker are the ticket. They are so moist and delicious. I love that they add a little vegetable to your daily plate. After making them I froze about 1/3 of them and saved them for a later date. When I later defrosted them to eat, they were just as tasty as the freshly baked muffins.
I have been baking up a storm since quarantine started. Baking is calming and comforting and the smells that fill your home make the isolation a little more tolerable. There is also something very satisfying about seeing the immediate results of your work. But, most importantly reaping the reward of getting to EAT your work. So, if you’re looking for delicious recipes that use healthier ingredients, I recommend checking out any of the books by Danielle Walker. Check out her website Against All Grain for recipes and links to purchase the cookbooks. You won’t be disappointed.
Your review has made me excited to try this recipe. My sister gave me one of her cookbooks about a year ago and it didn’t really make a huge impact with me at first. I don’t know. I just wasn’t modifying my cooking much then and her ingredients still seemed too marginal for me at the time.
But I have been baking and cooking A LOT since quarantine began. And even before that really because my youngest son is on an allergen free diet now going on four months. And he self limits ALL fruits and vegetables!! Really? I’ve tried sneaking banana or applesauce in baked goods. He somehow knows and refuses these. So it sounds crazy to try zucchini then, right? But maybe the chocolate will be enough of a forward flavor that he won’t even notice he’s had a vegetable. (Glass half full mama!).
Thanks for the inspiration!!
Anne, I love it!! I had the same when I started adapting our eating for food sensitivites that myself and my middle man have. I sneak zucchini in my lasagna, oatmeal (finely shredded), and now some muffin recipes. I don’t ever taste it. The heavenly chocolate is all you taste. I hope he likes them. Also, she has a carrot cupcake recipe that I make for the boys that they eat without the icing when I want to keep the sugar intake low. They’re little healthy carrot cake muffins. They love them!