So the other night it was sinking in that I have one more week till I need to perform a complete lifestyle overhaul for the whole household. Also known as Back to School. Maybe it causes that amount of upheaval in your home too? I went into planning mode and pulled out all the stops…chips, wine, Pinterest. I figured I would use this week to ease into some healthier routines, add a few more go-to foods, while continuing the organizing/nesting mode I was in.
Several smoothie, packed lunch and organizing pins later and my sweet tooth was starting to kick in. I remembered this recipe that I used to make back when I was in a Looneyspoons and Crazy Plates cookbook phase. Have any of you been there? Those girls were a bit revolutionary at the time with their low-fat recipes and fun cookbooks. And they are still going strong. Several of their recipes are part of my regular rotation, but I remembered this Chocolate Zucchini Loaf that I haven’t made in a very long time. They always have clever names for their recipes, and this one is called Isn’t She Loafly. I figured it fell into the healthy routines for Back to School category, so I picked up a few zucchinis in the next day’s grocery shop.
The most time-consuming part is grating the zucchini. For two cups I grated one and half medium zucchini. Drag…what will I do with the one and half that are left? Well, how about I grate all of it up and put two cups worth in a Ziploc bag for the freezer. Now the next round of baking these will be a breeze.
All the other ingredients are standard pantry shelf stuff. As a tip, it calls for a half cup of applesauce which is just a bit more than one of the individual snack sized applesauces. Then either add a smidgen more oil, or open a second applesauce and pawn the rest on a snack-seeking child.
The rest of the recipe goes together in a heartbeat and makes two small loaves. One for now and again…one for the freezer. Love it.
Of course Teenaged Son growled Why is there green stuff in it…I hope it’s not zucchini. (Did he notice my unwashed dishes on the counter??) But I think he was won over by the overwhelming aroma of chocolate in the kitchen and tried it anyways… Hey, it’s pretty good… High praise indeed.
I put a dab of cream cheese on my piece. Oh yes I did.
If you are looking for information about calories, fibre, nutrition etc. you can find it here. But you can hardly go wrong in that category with a recipe that uses egg whites and applesauce instead of egg yolks and butter, and has vegetables as the main ingredient.
So one afternoon snack a success, another finished loaf in the freezer, and the main ingredient ready to go for next time. I’ll keep you posted on the healthy routines situation, but in the meantime, I think this will do nicely as a breakfast, don’t you?
Chocolate Zucchini Loaf
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup fat-free egg substitute or egg whites
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups packed grated zucchini
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350. Spray two 8 X 4 loaf pans with non-stick spray. In a large bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt. In a medium bowl whisk together sugar, egg substitute, applesauce, oil, vanilla, zucchini. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir until just moistened. Stir in chocolate chips. Divide batter between two pans. Bake for 50 minutes or until centre of loaf tests done. Cool five minutes in pans. Remove and cool on a wire rack. Optional: serve with a dusting of icing sugar or spread with cream cheese. Enjoy.