Lemon-Zucchini Muffins

Summer Saturday mornings are my favorite. It's the day I get up at the crack of dawn (for me, it means before 8 a.m. on a weekend) and buy farm-fresh fruits and veggies at a farmers market. Usually, I like to go the the North Market. If I get there around 9:30 a.m., it still hasn't gotten very busy. Last week I picked up sweet corn, blueberries, tomatoes, and garlic.

This week, though, I decided to try the Worthington market. We didn't get there as early as we would have liked—and the crowd was pretty thick. Nonetheless, I picked up some red potatoes, green beans, green onions, and zucchini, which made it into these muffins. They'll make a nice bedtime snack tonight and possibly part of my breakfast this week.

The recipe is from The Wooden Spoon Bread Book. The recipe was for zucchini bread, but in the interest of portion control, I made them into muffins. I got 14 muffins out of the batter at 5 pts. a piece. (Tip: to make them more point-friendly subsitute the oil for an equal amount of applesauce, which makes them 3 pts. a piece)

Lemon-Zucchini Muffins
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ginger
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 tbsp. lemon juice
zest of one lemon
2 cups of unpeeled, grated zucchini
1/2 cup coursely chopped pecans (you could also use walnuts)

Preheat oven to 375°. Line a muffin tin with paper muffin cups. I also give them a quick spray with cooking spray so the muffins won't stick to the wrappers.

Sift together the first 5 ingredients, through the ginger. Set aside.

In a medium bowl beat the eggs. Beat into the eggs the sugar, oil, and lemon juice. Stir into the egg mixture the zest, grated zucchini, reserved flour mixture, and the nuts.

Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full. For perfect muffins, try using an ice cream scoop for this. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.