chocolate zucchini bread

For the past few days, I've been confined to my house with a really, really bad cold. I sound like a squeak toy and that's when I can get sound out, I haven't washed my hair in days and am living on the couch in my pajamas.

Sounds relaxing right? No. I'm going stir crazy.

I've watched all of the Jersey Shore I can handle until Thursday. I'm so over Ron and Sam and I think Snooks and Vinny should just get on it. I'm just sayin'.  Also, have you seen this show "I didn't know I was pregnant". I'm still baffled how THAT MANY women can not know they are pregnant. I don't know if I gained 30 lbs in a month or so, I would probably start asking questions.  I'm just sayin'.



I'm also talking to the cats far more frequently than normal. I need to get out of the house. I need to wash my hair and start to sound like a 26 year old woman, not a 12 year old boy going through "the change".

But I can't. I'm still sick and I need to rest.

Which really translates into baking with neocitran and sleepy breaks.

my diet for the past few days

To break my feverish boredom, I made zucchini bread.  I bought this zucchini last week hoping to make something delicious out of it, maybe pan fried with onions or zucchini boats with ground turkey and feta. Well even though I had the best intentions, that really didn't happen. So I was faced with a zucchini that might go sour. We can't have that.

I found a recipe for chocolate zucchini bread and thankfully I didn't have to waste any food. This bread is super moist and rich with chocolate.  It is perfectly sweet and I think it would be great for breakfast.  It's also a great way to hide vegetables to get fussy children or husbands to eat it. They won't be the wiser. Unless they watched you make it.

Busted.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread
[ adapted from Joy of Baking ]


If you don't have coconut oil, feel free to use any vegetable oil or melted butter.


11/2 cups raw shredded zucchini
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan, set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cocoa. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a handheld mixer, beat together the oil, eggs, sugars and vanilla until completely blended, about 2 minutes. Add zucchini and mix well on low speed. Add flour mixture and mix until no dry spots are left and fold in chopped chocolate.

Spoon batter into loaf pan and bake for 55 - 65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let rest on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing bread from loaf pan. Let cool completely on rack.