Zucchini Bread

I love zucchini bread.... and since it's almost zucchini 'bomb' time I thought I'd better get you a recipe so that you are prepared for the coming apocalypse.

What?

You don't know what a zucchini bomb is?

It's when one of your gardening friends, neighbors, or friends neighbors leave a hugmongous zucchini on your doorstep and runs away.  That's because zucchini plants are easy to grow, but they also grow fast and get 'out of this world' huge before people know it.  Everyone knows that the little zucchini are best, but if someone drops a big green bomb on your doorstep, this is what you should do with it!

Funny thing is, I am going to have to zucchini bread 'bomb' some of my neighbors.  Now I have 2 big beautiful loaves of this bread, and I am married to  Mr. "I don't eat vegetables in baked goods", so I am going to need to share super quick.  I bet they don't mind though...

I tried to 'healthy' this recipe up a bit by making some changes to it

• I substited half of the original oil for applesauce, but crushed pineapple would work too! 
• Used nonfat yogurt instead of sour cream.
• Used a partial amount of whole wheat flour. 
• I know it still has 2 cups of sugar though.... but I bet you could reduce it to 1 3/4 cup without too much loss of flavor. 

Note, if you are trying to hide that this is zucchini bread from your kids, you might want to grate your zucchini very fine, and maybe even swap 1/4 cup of cocoa powder for some of the flour.  That way they will never see it ....

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

3 large eggs, beaten

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups grated zucchini

1 cup chopped nuts, optional

1/2 cup yogurt, plain (or sour cream)

Grease and flour two 9"x 5"x 3" loaf pans.

Mix the dry ingredients and mix well.In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, then add the rest of the wet ingredients; oil, applesauce, vanilla and yogurt.

Batter will be thick at this point. Stir in zucchini and nuts.

Pour into prepared pans.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 60 to 65 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes then remove from pan, cool thoroughly