Napoleon, give me some of your tots.

I have two confessions (and no photo today, sorry!!).

1. I absolutely LOVE tater tots. I love them more than my kids love them. I love them even more with melted fake cheese on them. I could eat tater tots for dinner and nothing else - every. single. day. 
2. Napoleon Dynamite is one of my favorite movies. He also loves tots. Don't judge.

Sadly, there will be no tots for me as a clean eater. :( No frozen potato fake cheese tots, anyway. Last night, we had bun-less mushroom burgers and needed something to go with them. I felt around in the fridge and found three perfect little zucchinis that I'd forgotten about. I went through my mental list of all things Pinteresting and remembered seeing a recipe for zucchini tots. Because I was too lazy hurried to shuffle through the million bazillion things I have pinned, I just Googled it and found an amazing zucchini tot recipe (that I had to convert to cleanliness).

The finished product tasted so much like the potato-y tots I know and love, I almost had to look to make sure of what I was eating. They are so stinking good, you guys.

The original recipe is here SkinnyTaste.com and the recipe below is how I cleaned it up:

Here's what you need: 

• 1 cup zucchini, grated (I ran mine through the Ninja blender)
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 medium onion, diced
• 1/4 cup cheese (I used a handful...I don't measure)
• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats, uncooked 
• Lawry's Seasoned salt, eyeball it
• Cayenne pepper, just a dash now.
• Garlic powder, eyeball it
• Cooking spray

Here's what you do: 

• Preheat oven to 400°
• Spray a mini muffin tin with cooking spray.
• Grate the zucchini into a clean dish towel (or run it through a food processor like I did).  
• Wring all of the water out of the zucchini (make sure you do this!). 
• In a medium bowl, combine all of the ingredients and season to taste.
• Fill each muffin section to the top - pack 'em in there. 
• Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until the tops are golden.
• Remove with knife or spatula.

Enjoy, immensely. These are probably better still if you eat them WHILE watching Napoleon Dynamite. Just saying.