Vegetables are a must on a diet, I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.

I find it kind of funny that I made an eggless brownie recipe when we have eight chickens that lay eggs nearly every day (six eggs so far today). Earlier this week, Olivia came home from school with a cookbook that she had checked out from the library. She marked a couple of recipes she thought looked good and asked if we could make this one, Zucchini Brownies. This confirmed that she is definitely my child. I totally do this. I regularly check out cookbooks at the library. Reading cookbooks is actually one of my favorite leisure activities. I have five recipe apps on my phone. I love to browse recipes in my spare time. I'm glad one of my children is learning something from me, anyway. On a totally unrelated note, said children discovered a stash of baby teeth in my bedroom closet in baggies labled "Anna" and "Olivia"... you know what that means...

So Olivia and I made these brownies this morning with shredded frozen zucchini leftover from one of my CSA boxes from Red Goose Gardens. (I just shred it like cheese and put it in 2 cup portions in baggies.) I was a little confused about the no egg part in the recipe so checked out a few similar recipes online. All the comments were good, so I decided to give it a shot. They are more cakey than brownieey but still pretty delicious. I don't believe in sneaking vegetables into my children's diet (they should know what they're eating and like it!), but if I did, this would be a good way to do it. If you have zucchini still sitting in the fridge or in the freezer, this is a good way to use it up. I modified the recipe a little, substituting yogurt for half of the oil (I always do this with baked goods. Unsweetened applesauce works too) and doubling the amout of cocoa powder. I also added chocolate chips instead of walnuts, though either one would be delicious.

Zucchini Brownies:

2 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 c. shredded zucchini
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. nonfat plain or greek yogurt
1/2 c. chocolate chips

Mix together dry ingredients then stir in wet ingredients. It will be drier than you think. When it is all moist, stir in the chocolate chips. Bake in a greased 9 x 13 pan for 30 minutes at 350. Chocolate frosting would be a great finishing touch.

Oh, and credit to Jim Davis, creator of Garfield for the inspiration for today's title.