I’m in the middle of reading Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I’ve enjoyed many of Barbara’s books over the years and find myself engrossed in this one. If  you’re a foodie, care where your food comes from and have a hankering to grow your own veggies, this is the book for you. If you don’t, well you should  read it anyway. It’s really that good.

Now, Barbara’s daughter Camille loves to cook and she shares some really tasty recipes in the book using food they’ve either grown, raised or purchased locally. This particular recipe for Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies was one I had to try and try right now. See, my CSA is overflowing with zucchini. I love it, but everyone in my family is getting a bit tired of it. So, I’m working to come up with creative ways to use it. Zucchini bread is a fave – I bake and freeze for mid-winter goodness. But zucchini chocolate chip cookies? Really? 

I was curious enough (and craving chocolate enough) to deal with a hot kitchen (it was 103 outside) to find out what they tasted like. With only basic ingredients, this easy to make recipe is located on the website Animalvegetablemiracle.org where you’ll find all the recipes in the book. It’s in a pdf format so be sure you’ve downloaded Acrobat reader (it’s free). 

The results were fabulous. Granted, they’re not Toll House, however they are tasty. You don’t taste the zucchini at all making it perfect for veggie-aphobia kids. My 11 year old and his friend gave them a thumbs up and grabbed a handful on their way out to play. My husband mentioned they were light and cakey and smiled as he gobbled a few more. Excellent!  This is the sort of recipe that you can sneak in a bit of nutrition and everyone is happy.

Tip: if you have super persnickety kids who don’t like anything ‘green’, simply grate or chope your zucchini super fine. They’ll never know it’s in there.

Try it and let me know what you think. Oh, and if you have any creative ways to use zucchini, please post it here. My family thanks you.

PS. Like the recycled glass salad/dessert plate featured in the picture? It’s available at Greenfeet and is totally affordable!