It was a beautiful weekend, wasn’t it?
On Saturday I met up with Tony’s family and attended his Grandmother’s 95th birthday party. You guys, she’s amazing! She still lives on her own, cooks for herself and is in great health. Over the past year, I’ve gotten fairly close with her; probably because I bring her all the treats I make and she just so happens to love cookies as much as I do. This makes me happy, of course. I actually baked the nutella-stuffed chocolate chip beauties for her party; it always blows my mind how much people truly love those cookies.
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Hmmm what else? Yesterday I flew to Minneapolis for my friend’s bridal shower. I feel like everyone I know is either getting engaged or married; it’s funny how that happens in your mid-twenties but I also think it’s dependent on where you live. People in the Midwest tend to get married at a much younger age then those on the East Coast; it’s just a different pace of life.
Anyway I’ll be staying in MN until mid-week to work on a few projects and hopefully bake a few batches of muffins for my mom. I’m currently attempting to master a healthy and gluten free toaster waffle.
In the meantime, these muffins will have to do for your morning breakfast routine.
I was actually extremely excited about these muffins because the strawberries from my farmer’s market have been supremely delicious and juicy. Like, they actually taste like strawberries. I’ve been buying two pound containers and eating them like candy before bed. It’s amazing how satisfying and nutritious they are for a bedtime snack.
Of course, two pounds of strawberries can go bad pretty quickly plus I had the urge to bake a batch of muffins (when don’t I?) so I began digging around in the fridge. My brain landed on zucchini muffins with strawberries, a touch of lemon and a little crunch from chia seeds. Quite the perfect spring combination for your mouth.
Truth be told, I was also tempted to add coconut flakes in there but figured you could add those in yourself if coconut rules your world like it does mine.
Besides wonderful flavor, these muffins pack some pretty great nutrition and are also dairy free. I used whole wheat pastry flour, a touch of maple syrup, applesauce, zucchini, a little bit of coconut oil, chia seeds, almond milk and of course, strawberries! And at only around 100 calories per muffin, you can easily enough these as an afternoon snack with a big spoonful of nut butter on top.
I know I’m going to get questions on if you can make these muffins gluten free and the answer is… yes, but you have to find an all-purpose gluten free flour that works well for you and can be substituted cup for cup. I’ve always had great success with quinoa flour but I know that it can sometimes leave a bitter aftertaste which some people tend to really dislike. So please be mindful. If you try out something, let me know in the comments; many members of the AK community love hearing about your alterations.
Hope you all have an amazing start to your week! Don’t forget that you can now follow me along on snapchat, my username is ambitiouskitch and I made some pretty weird ass videos that might make you laugh.
More healthy zucchini recipes to try
- Healthy Zucchini Bread
- Fluffy Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread Pancakes
- Paleo Zucchini Banana Bread Bars
- Orange Carrot Zucchini Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
- Baked Blueberry Zucchini Donut with White Chocolate Drizzle
Get all of my zucchini recipes here!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Chia, Lemon & Strawberry Zucchini Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup shredded zucchini (about 1 medium zucchini)
- 1/3 cup pure Grade B maple syrup or honey
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest (not juice!)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted and cooled
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 3/4 cup ripe diced strawberries
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray or line with muffin liners. Either way I recommend using nonstick cooking spray. This guarantees that they muffins will not stick to the liners or the pan.
- In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
- Squeeze the shredded zucchini of excess moisture with a paper towel then add to another large bowl with the other following wet ingredients: maple syrup, lemon zest, coconut oil, applesauce, egg and milk.
- Add to dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Gently fold in strawberries and chia seeds.
- Even distribute batter among muffin tins, filling about 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle of the muffin comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes then remove muffins and transfer to wire rack to finish cooling. Makes 12 muffins.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
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42 comments
OK I’m loving the videos. I take back everything I said about Snapchat. You and mom are TOO CUTE.
Hmmm I was just going to text you and say… uhhh I did the Snapchat thing. 🙂
Yep, you had me at lemon and zucchini! I would try this with gluten free oat flour and I’m sure it will be delicious!
These muffins are fabulous. Safe travels!
How beautiful are these muffins?! My husband’s grandparents are in their 90’s and still live alone. It is crazy! But I hope I can do what they are doing at that age 🙂
They sound spectacular! Love the addition of chia, but it’s the strawberry and zucchini combo that’s really got me excited. Yay for summer produce!
Very excited to see this recipe this morning, I make your blueberry zucchini muffins and banana muffins ALL the time, can’t wait to try these!!!
These muffins look so delicious!
I made these last night and they were delicious then and for breakfast this morning. I made a few substitutions; lime zest instead of lemon because I didn’t have lemons, I added one banana instead of an egg and subbed 4 tsp of coconut flour, oh and I used quinoa flour instead of whole wheat. They were a bit wet in the centre…I think I could have squeezed the zucchini a bit more and maybe half a banana instead of a whole one. But the flavour was great – will make these again! Thanks! Next up: Almond Butter, Strawberry & Banana Overnight Oats with Chia!
Made these this morning after leaving the grated zucchini in a mesh strainer overnight to drain. I used 1/2 cup all purpose flour & 1 cup whole wheat, I don’t have almond milk so I used regular milk with a dash of vanilla instead. My place smelled divine while baking them. Lemon zest makes them delightfully zingy. My breakfast for the week is sorted, yay! Thanks for the recipe.
Love love LOVE these muffins! I made them with 1% milk instead of almond, and I also added in extra strawberries and zucchini. This is my second time making this recipe and I doubled the batch this time so I could freeze some for later! Soooo good, Monique.
Made these muffins and substituted some almond meal and GF flour and they were delicious! Could you make this in a bread tin instead of muffins? I’m sure you would have to adjust cooking time, but not sure how much time to add. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Done! New favourite 🙂
I love these muffins! They are such a nice treat for myself and my young children. Taste very good.
These look fabulous. Quick question, if I don’t have the applesauce, what is the non-healthy thing it’s supposed to be substituting? I always have and butter on the other hand…
Hi Anne! You could just use 1/4 cup of coconut oil.
Monique,
I made these for my hubby when I had a surplus of strawberries…well now not so much! Can I use frozen instead? Would I need to cut back on the milk/liquid then?
He loves them so very much!! They are delicious.
Thank you!
Terri
Hi Terri! I’m so glad you both love them! You can use frozen strawberries as long as they are diced (and the liquid will remain the same). Enjoy!
delicious!!
Loved this recipe. I had 2 for breakfast each day for a week and they kept me really full for over 5 hours. Very simple to make.
Perfect! So glad you loved them.
So many delicious ingredients in these! Used strawberry applesauce for a little extra strawberry flavor. A new favorite breakfast muffin!
Perfect! Glad you loved them!
The good: the muffins baked up really nicely, and they looked perfect.
the bad: the taste was really flat. Admittedly I didn’t have a lemon to zest, so I subbed 1/2 tsp lemon extract, (which should have tasted stronger) but not only did that not come through, but nothing did. Could definitely use more sweetener. Sorry to say it, I usually have better luck with the recipes here, I love the site, just wonder if this one could be improved?
We’ll definitely look into it! Lemon zest actually does really enhance the lemon flavor. Next time if you want these sweeter, I recommend using honey (and maybe a bit more!)
I had some strawberries and zucchini and wasn’t sure what to make, so I looked through your strawberry recipes and found this oldie but goodie! Very light and delicious! I think next time I may add some walnuts or pecans for a crunch and some extra healthy fats 😋
Perfect! So glad you enjoyed! These would be delicious with nuts, too 🙂
I made the muffins and they turned out great. I did change a few ingredients, I used a lemon yogurt instead of the milk and used blueberries instead of strawberry’s. I also used poppy seeds in place of chia seeds because that was what I had on hand. Different than the original recipe but tasty none the less. The lemon flavor didn’t really come thru like I was hoping for, used the lemon zest and the lemon yogurt.
I’m glad that worked out well! Hmm with both lemon zest and yogurt I’d think these would be pretty lemon-y. You could try adding a splash of lemon juice with the yogurt!
I even didn’t have the lemon and these are still delicious! So fluffy!
So happy to hear that!
Delicious! I converted to gluten-free with almond & GF baking flour – great texture & flavor!
So happy that that worked out and that you loved these!
I’m very excited to make these! Would it be okay to sub some of the whole wheat flour with vanilla whey protein powder?
I haven’t tested it so I can’t be sure, but I’m sure adding a scoop to the batter wouldn’t affect it much!
These muffins were delicious! I love the lemon and strawberry combo and the texture was great! I used plain oat milk and butter instead of coconut oil. Will definitely make again!
Great recipe. I accidentally left out the zuchinni and they still turned out great. I shredded the zuchinni and wrapped in a dishtowel to squeeze it. Oops.
Haha oops!! So glad to hear they still turned out delicious, though!
They were ok…. the flavor profile was a little off to me. There was just a lot going on for one muffin, what with the texture of the strawberries combined with the taste of the lemon and the grit of the chia as well as the feel of the zucchini. I personally wouldn’t make them again but going off other comments it seems I’m in the minority 😉. Cheers!
Thanks for your feedback – I appreciate it!
Thank you so much for this recipe! Do you think I could easily sub the flour for oat flour? They don’t have pastry or any kind of whole wheat flour where I live but I’d like to avoid ap flour if I can 🙂
Hi Raven – You can buy pastry flour on Amazon or you could sub a 1:1 gf flour. I haven’t tried it with all purpose flour and I don’t recommend oat flour for this recipe. Let me know if you give it a try!