I love september and I love garden veggies! one of my guilty pleasures is home made bread. And since garden veggies are in season right now naturally my favorite combo is Zucchini Bread! I found this recipe and compared to most it is healthier, making it not so much a "guilty" pleasure. Utilizing some healthy alternatives such as Apple Sauce for oil or sweetener, Coconut oil rather than vegetable oil or butter, whole wheat flour and oat flour in place of white refined flour, ground flax seed to add some Omega-3's, and Honey instead of empty calorie white sugars.
I Say Healthy"er" rather than officially giving it the title of Healthy due to the fact that it does have Brown sugar in there, plus Honey which is still a sugar, and flour even though it uses better flour options. But definitely better options than the traditional baking alternatives. So enjoy! (try not to eat the whole loaf ;)
So here's the recipe (found on triedandtasty.com)
http://triedandtasty.com/2013/07/no-really-its-healthy-zucchini-bread-2/
Healthy"er" Zucchini Bread
makes 1 Large Loaf+ 2 mini loafs
Ingredients:
-3 C of shredded zucchini (1 large zucchini or 2 med/small zucchini)
-1 C of unsweetened applesauce
-1/2 C coconut oil, softened or melted
-3 eggs
-3 tsp of vanilla extract
-1/2 C coconut palm sugar, or brown sugar
-1/4 C pure maple syrup, or pure/raw honey
-1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
-1 1/2 C oat flour (ground up rolled oats in food processor)
-2 Tbs ground flax seed
-1 Tbs cinnamon
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/4 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp salt
-1 C chopped walnuts or if you want more of a treat 1/2 C semi sweet chocolate chips (both optional)
Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray your loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
-In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment blend zucchini, applesauce, oil, eggs, vanilla, brown sugar, and maple syrup/honey.
-In a seperate bowl whisk together remaining dry ingredients, except nuts or chocolate chips.
-Pour batter evenly between the loaf pans. Bake for 40-45 min or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on rack 5 minutes before removing from pan. I dare you to stop at one slice.... ;)
