I am absolutely amazed how much my garden has grown (out of control) in just the past few weeks.  I recently posted these, and now look!

These could be called Fruit and Veggie Muffins – but that doesn’t sound nearly as tempting.  And yes, this is another attempt to get more veggies into my kids (and myself!).  However, unlike the avocado chocolate pudding….these were…well, amazing! Hence my ever creative title.

Amazing Zucchini Muffins
Makin’ it Mo’Betta original

2 small to medium bananas
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups grated zucchini (squeeze out extra water)
3 t. vanilla extract
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup applesauce
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup crushed pineapple
*chocolate chips (optional)
*walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.  Coat muffin pans with cooking spray. (Yeilds 18 muffins)

Combine bananas, oil, applesauce, sugars, zucchini, vanilla and pineapple in a medium bowl, mix thoroughly.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking powder and baking soda. 

Add your wet ingredients to your dry. 

At this point you can fold in chocolate chips, nuts, whatever your preference. 

I filled my 12 cup muffin pan, sprinkled chocolate chips on top and then mixed in some chopped pecans to the rest of the batter.  I got six muffins with this, which I also sprinkled 4 with chocolate chips!  Then I added crystalized ginger to a couple.  I wanted a variety 🙂  These were the best in my opinion!  I love ginger.

Bake muffins for abt 25-30 mins.  It depends on your oven and your pans.  I have 2 muffin pans that cook completely different.  Weird. 

Dark chocolate is….um….well, dark.  So when you make a dark chocolate cobbler, it looks like you have a burnt pile of poo.  Hence, the crappy photo.  (I’m so punny..) So now that I’ve compared this to something that doesn’t even begin to make you want to eat, I’m sure you are dying for the recipe right?

Sorry, I have a warped sense of humor.  This is actually really tasty, especially warm with a scoop of ice cream.  (ewwww, now we’re all thinking of warm poo).  I need to start this post over, but I can’t seem to stop myself.

I first made Chocolate Cobbler for my birthday last year, check out that post for an entertaining photo.  I decided to make it again after seeing a Cinnamon Chocolate Cobbler on another blog (which I didn’t bookmark so I’m sorry if it’s your blog and I totally ripped off your idea.  The recipe is not exactly the same however.)  This time I decided to use dark chocolate, because I heart it, and a dash of cinnamon, b/c, well, because cinnamon is good.  I took it to my parents’ house for Father’s Day and came home with an empty dish.  It’s kind of like a chocolate lava cake – gooey parts and cakey parts and full of chocolate deliciousness.

Cinnamon Dark Chocolate Cobbler – adapted from  & someone else (oops)

1 cup flour

1/2 t. salt

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

2 T. plus 1/4 cup dark cocoa powder

1/2 cup buttermilk milk *skim milk with a 1-1/2 tsps. of vinegar added – let sit for 5 mins.

3 T. vegetable canola oil

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 t. cinnamon (optional)

1 3/4 cups hot water

Preheat oven to 350.  In a bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, sugar and 2 T. cocoa.  Stir in milk and oil.  Pour into baking dish.  I used an 8 inch oval (I think?).
 
Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and remaining cocoa and sprinkle over batter. Pour hot water over top (DO NOT STIR). Bake for 40-45 minutes.

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This is also excellent with regular cocao powder as well.  (and it photographs much better)  It also contains NO EGGS!!  So, it’s safe for my little allergy boy, which is great, b/c he does love some “choc-wit”.  I just can’t imagine who he gets that from.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  I enjoyed more time with family and picked more cucumbers and zucchini than I know what to do with!  I have 2 zucchini recipes coming up soon.  Going to tackle making pickles too!

Whole Wheat Orange Cake may not sound as tempting as, let’s say, Cookie Dough Brownies, but keep reading! It’s good, I promise!!  Don’t let the whole wheat flour fool you into thinking this is going to be dry…far from it.  It’s nice and moist with orange juice, orange zest, and an orange glaze on top for good measure!  Oh, and it’s EGG FREE! (Which only excites those of us dealing with allergies or who are vegan I guess, but…yay!)  I made this to take to my parents’ house for Father’s Day, so it was nice to have a dessert that everyone, including Mr. Three, could enjoy.

Whole Wheat Orange Bundt Cake (Adapted from )

■3 cups whole wheat pastry flour  *I used 1-1/2 cups whole wheat and 1-1/2 cups all-purpose since I can’t find whole wheat pastry flour anywhere!

■2 teaspoons baking soda

■1/2 teaspoon baking powder

■1 teaspoon salt

■1 cup sugar

■2/3 cup canola oil

■2 cups orange juice *I used orange juice with pulp so I would have little bits of orange, same for the glaze.

■2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

■2 teaspoons vanilla extract

■1 teaspoon orange extract *I didn’t have any orange extract so I used a tablespoon of orange zest

Preheat oven to 350F.  Oil and flour a 12-cup bundt pan very thoroughly. {go HERE to find out why this is important! I, of course, learned the hard way.} Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir together the wet ingredients in a separate bowl, and pour the wet mixture into the dry. Whisk just to combine, being careful not to overmix.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and tap it on the counter a couple times to get rid of the air bubbles.

Bake on the middle oven rack for about 45 minutes, or until the cake is light golden brown and a tester comes out mostly clean.

Cool completely in the pan before flipping onto a wire rack. Hopefully, it will come out looking like this…

I’m linking this recipe up with , @ 33 Shades of Green, @ For The Love Of Blogs,, , ,  , ,,  for Fat Camp Fridays, , , , , , , for Ingredient Spotlight: powdered sugar,  for Ingredient Spotlight: citrus,

Last year, my brother, sister, mom and I gathered in my Dad’s hospital room in the bone marrow transplant unit to celebrate Father’s Day.  We had a lot to celebrate…my dad had just received a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor – his best chance of surviving the type of Leukemia he had.  However, my Dad was very, very sick and weak and on lots of meds.  The next several weeks were going to determine if he would make it or not.  He was emotional, we were emotional, and it was a hard, hard, day.

This year, we all gathered at my parents’ house, with my children and it was FREAKIN’ FANTABULOUS!!!!!  My Dad feels good, looks good, and is able to enjoy life again!  Thanks be to God!

It is awesome, awesome and more awesome.

{Yay, my pics finally loaded!}

So I have photos for Wordless Wednesday all loaded and sitting in Picasa…and they won’t freakin’ load into my blog post.  I have no idea what the deal is.  I am so.sick.of.computer.problems.

My thighs are so sore that I can barely walk.  And not from anything good.  Boot camp and power sculpting Monday and Tuesday.  Needless to say, spin class is O-U-T today.

Pinterest is addictive.  FYI.

We had a HUGE turtle in our front yard yesterday. I’m talkin’ over a foot long.  I think he is searching for my garden.  The birds probably told him about it.

I have zucchini as long as my arm.  I’m talkin’ freakishly long…not overly fat, just looonnggg.  Weird.  I’d show you a pic….but picasa or blogger one is being an A-hole.

Today’s preferred scent is Ben-Gay.  (actually it’s Equate Muscle Rub-I’m cheap frugal.)

My little man has made a little (teeny tiny) bit of progress in the potty department.  I’m sure that makes your day.  It makes me pretty excited.

Welp, that’s all I got right now.  I have all these pictures and recipes and stuff….and now they are just sitting in Picasa.  *sigh*  I want a new computer.  Even though I’m pretty sure it’s not the computer’s fault.  I also want a new hairstyle.  Which has nothing to do with anything, just thought I’d throw that in there.  Pictures later maybe?!

So….yeah, I haven’t posted anything since Thursday! What’s up with that?  I’ve been slack/I’ve been busy/I’ve been lazy/and my favorite…I’ve been crazy.  Yep, been gettin’ my crazy on with all these kids running around 24/7.  Then a busy weekend with my pops 🙂  I made some goodies over the weekend, but first, I thought I’d put this almond butter out there.  Not everyone is a fan, but I like it.  And put some chocolate in it, and I am so there.  You may remember my first attempt at almond butter, the Salted Cinnamon Maple Roasted Almond Butter.  It had a great flavor, but the consistency wasn’t quite right…it was very thick.  I thought the answer was oil (ewwww), but I’ve discovered the answer is simple….process your almonds longer.  The longer they process, the thinner your almond butter will get.  I use a food processor, so I don’t know how this works with a blender or Vitamix, but I know I almost over-heated my processor!  There was smoke coming from that baby.  Time for an upgrade I think. 

Of course, I made 2 batches of almond butter, so that may have had something to do with it.  I made Salted Cinnamon Almond Butter for my Dad.  I left out the maple since he is not a fan.  All you need is 2 cups almonds (I used pre-salted roasted almonds), a teaspoon of cinnamon, and I used a few drops of vanilla stevia.  Process for 10 minutes and done!  It’s super easy and delicious.

Dark chocolate almond butter –

2 cups roasted and salted almonds
1 T. Dark Chocolate Cocoa (I used Hershey’s Dark)
1 T. brown sugar (or sweetener of choice)
few drops of Vanilla Stevia (or vanilla extract)
1/2 t. cinnamon (optional)

Process for 8-10 minutes.  Taste.  Add sugar/cocoa/cinnamon if needed (that’s the great thing about this, it can easily be adjusted for YOUR taste buds!) and check for desired consistency.  Process for a couple minutes longer if needed.  Store in refrigerator.

YUM!  This is great for the homemade bagels I made.  I know right?!  Homemade bagels.  Told ya Mo’s gettin’ crazy up in here.  I’ll be posting those asap.  And making them again very soon since they did not last  24 hours!  I’ll try to get myself sane organized so that I can post daily again.  I have several ideas for the blog…but it takes time.  Child free time.

So, if you don’t hear from me for a while, I’ve either been committed or I am buried beneath a mountain of zucchini and search and rescue dogs need to be sent out.  Expect zucchini recipes in the near future, and if you have any good ones, feel free to share!  Post them on my Facebook page or leave in the comments or email.  Does that sound desperate?  I’m feelin’ a little desperate.

Wow. I just realized that (1.) I’ve been blogging for an entire year! and (2.) I totally missed the “anniversary”.  I originally started a blog as an online journal of sorts…a way to vent about my Dad’s cancer.  It was very negative and random.  Then I posted a few recipes….and Mo’Betta was born 🙂  I deleted all the previous rants posts, except for a recipe or two, and decided my blog would be my happy place! It took on a purpose and I made bloggy friends and I got sucked into the wonderful world of blogging! 

After reading my first post with it’s renewed purpose, I see I have deviated somewhat from my inital goals (Can we say Cookie Dough Brownies?!), but I have grown in others…I cook from scratch a lot more.  My kids are eating vegetables…uhm, well, a little, and my pictures are a lot better!

However, I have enjoyed meeting new people, learning new things, and sharing my craziness with everyone who stops by.  I appreciate it.  And hey, I’ve made like three cents with AdSense this year.  Awesome.  (Click on those random ads people! lol)

P.S.  I really hate “LOL”, but sometimes it’s just useful.  I guess you could write ‘haha, I’m laughing out loud’ – but then everyone would just wonder why you didn’t just put L-O-freakin’ L.  See random side notes like this that mean absolutely nothing are what keeps you coming back right?! LOL, hehe, haha

So you know how you come across a recipe, oh….let’s say, a chocolate pudding recipe, but it’s made with avocado…you know, a “healthy” dessert, and think “wow, that sounds really good, I’ll have to try that”.  No? This hasn’t happened to you?  hmmmm, well, your kids are lucky.  I saw a recipe the other day that was called “Easy Chocolate Pudding” and it was made with avocado and cocoa.  Somehow I thought these ingredients could magically morph themselves into chocolate pudding my kids would like.  I delude myself often. (Like, when I convince myself I can do Zumba without looking like an idiot.)

My thoughts were, avocado is mild, creamy and the cocoa/sugar will make it nice and chocolate-y.  That’s logical right?  Right. wrong.

You start with this….