Do You Know the Muffin Man?

I have a friend. She's 68, just a little bit older than me and she lives in Brentwood. She's married, volunteers at church, and is very involved in the community. I'll call her Lucy for confidentiality sake.

A few months ago, Lucy found out she had colon cancer. Just awful I know, especially since Lucy is such a lovely and giving woman. She loves to travel and do all the fun things that every other active person likes to do.

While gardening a few weeks ago with Lucy's brother, he pointed something out to me. Aside from the fact that Lucy wasn't the first in the family to be diagnosed with colon cancer, Lucy never really liked any vegetables. Lucy's brother obviously didn't acquire the distaste for vegetables since he and I share the same love of growing healthy foods. I mean, you're not going to deeply involve yourself in something you have no interest in right? That would be like me taking up Nascar. 

I don't need to bore you with how we all know vegetables are good for you, etc. but there is something I discovered a few years ago, thanks to my son Henry and his little buddy Jonah. 

Henry was about 11 months old, an early climber and was having a "play date" with his friend. I had just picked some fresh zucchini from my garden and decided to make some zucchini bread. Long story short, the next thing I knew, my 11-month-old had climbed to the top of the kitchen table only to begin shoving, at rapid speeds, as much of the zucchini bread as he could into his mouth. When I ran over to get him down, he had a death clench on this bread that was indescribable.  

Ten minutes later he and Jonah were wrestling each other for the last bit of zucchini bread. It was the pee-wee version of WWF right in my own living room. That's when I looked at my best friend Kristine and uttered the words, "zucchini bread muffins are like a form of baby catnip."

Over the next few weeks I found myself making batch after batch of zucchini bread, only to watch my son devour every last morsel. Then I thought, "What if I put forms of organic protein in here and other fruits and vegetables to sort of create the 'perfect' organic baby food." And so I did.

Henry kept eating the 'bread' no matter what the combination was. At one point I think I even substituted broccoli for the zucchini. I started to wonder what the magic ingredient in these muffins could possibly be, only to realize that this was the only food he had ever eaten in mass quantities. This was also the only food, or recipe for that matter, I had ever used the spice ingredient, cardamom. So I decided to look it up.

It turns out that cardamom is an appetite stimulant, and is used to treat an entire host of digestive issues, common to people receiving chemotherapy.

Remember my friend Lucy? She gobbles them right up!

Then I discovered in the October-December 2007, Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, that cardamom and cinnamon were able to increase the level of the antioxidant glutathione s-transferase. Apparently, cardamom and cinnamon inhibit the growth of colon cancer cells through their anti-inflammatory activity, inhibition of cancer cell reproduction and promotion of cancer cell death. Hmmmm, who knew?

Aimee's Zucchini Bread

I typically only use fresh organic ingredients. I also have found, that as time consuming as it is, I only use fresh cardamom from the pods. I purchased a "pepper mill" to grind the seeds easily. You may also use a mortar and pestle. You can buy ground cardamom but rumor has it, that the essential oils somehow dissipate over time, so it's best to use fresh ground.

• 3 C. flour (I typically use whole wheat)
• 2 C. sugar
• 2 C. shredded Zucchini (I use the shredder attachment on my food processor)
• 3 eggs
• 1 C. canola oil
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp. cardamom

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the above ingredients very well and pour into two greased and floured bread pans. Bake for 1 hour.
I have also made these in cupcake form–I baked them for 20 minutes.

Mini-muffins too, for 15 minutes.  

Turns out the Lucy is also suffering from anemia. Next batch, I'll be sneaking in some fresh spinach, which is high in iron, for my non-veggie loving friend!

Bon Appetit....Until next time, Aimee...