After a great weekend in Portland, our house is disastrous. We basically got home late, got R in bed and unloaded the car, putting some things away before crashing. I had no energy after running a marathon Sunday morning and sitting in a car for 5 hours, to even begin to unpack. So as I type this I am sitting in a messy house, trying to forget about the mess. Totally unlike me, but sometimes I just need a break from it all.
Hopefully I will have my marathon recap up soon. It definitely wasn’t a great race, and I honestly don’t know why everyone raved about the course, but more on that later. R enjoyed Portland, but I think that is because she loves to people watch. Portland is a great place for that. We did the Saturday Market and walked through the vendors, shopped at some of the stores and got some of our Christmas shopping done, and met a good friend for dinner at a great Italian restaurant. Our hotel room was great. We had a gorgeous view of the water and Mt.Hood.
And once again we are back to reality with a full week of work ahead of us, and lots of organizing and cleaning to get done. Trying to purge our house of clutter and junk. From the bedroom closets to the living room. Even with all of the chores, I am still enjoying picking apples and pumpkins for preserving and baking. I made Vegan Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread for my sister’s family and ours, and fell in love with the new recipe. It took a few tries to master this.
My brother-in-love loved the bread, he left hardly any for my sister to enjoy. I always know that if my brother-in-love likes my cooking, it has to be a pretty good recipe because he can be hard to please. 😉 I didn’t tell him it was vegan, because anything with “health” words involved turns him off.
The bread is moist, which is how I like it. I love chocolate chips and zucchini together, but I love chocolate. Zucchini breads are always a season favorite, and I find breads to be fun to make and freeze for later. Kind of like muffins. Breads can be made into pancakes as well, and since this bread is more moist, it would make for great chocolate chip zucchini french toast. Really you should try it.
- 3 c whole wheat baking flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ¾ tsp salt
- ¾ cup organic raw sugar
- ¾ c applesauce
- ½ c grapeseed oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3½ c shredded zucchini
- ½ c chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 loaf pans with parchment paper or lightly grease.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients together.
- Add in the applesauce, grapeseed oil, and vanilla extract and stir together well.
- Stir in the shredded zucchini and chocolate chips.
- Pour batter into both prepared loaf pans, dividing equally.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until golden brown on top, and when inserted a toothpick comes out clean. Cool before removing from pan. Let cool completely before storing.
Our zucchini from the garden grew in abundance and was huge, so I was able to freeze some shredded zucchini for using in recipes later and able to enjoy making many new recipes. We still have it growing as the first frost hasn’t come yet. I have three frozen loaves of zucchini bread in the freezer too. Love zucchini bread a little much?! I’d say we do. I don’t like wasting produce though. Hope you enjoy.
Have a great Monday folks. I will be sure to have my post race recap up soon. There’s so much to say about that race, and honestly don’t look forward to reliving it.
Until Next Time Be Whole and Be Fit
Have you been to Portland? What’s you favorite way to use zucchini?