My infatuation with cinnamon rolls began in high school. I am a little ashamed to admit that instead of a wholesome, nourishing meal, at lunchtime I would instead shell out $1.50 to the high school cafeteria for one of their home-baked (or I guess it would be “school-baked”) cinnamon rolls. They were simple enough: warm and doughy, chewy and sweet, drizzled with a thick, white, sugary frosting, and — as one might expect — cinnamony.

Talk about a mouthful. This is a suped up version of my traditional (and somewhat famous) oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. In addition to the loveliest plump organic Thompson raisins, I’ve added  a handful of crushed cashews to boost the crunch factor, and malt-sweetened carob chips to amp up the melt-in-your-mouth quotient.

This time of year, zucchini are in full bounty – we’ve had nearly half a dozen in our weekly CSA food boxes over the past two weeks. And there’s only so much ratatouille one can eat. With the end of summer looming, I wanted to bake something that would make use of the copious amounts of zucchini we’ve got, and could also make a healthy snack to send in lunches.