Recipe Swap Thursday: Zucchini-Honey-Carrot Bread

Today is the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux, and I can hardly believe it's October already! Now that summer is over and zucchini is pretty much out of season by now, I'd better hurry up and post this recipe that I promised way back in May.

This is another recipe I've adapted from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook. Reading my blog you would think that was the only source I get recipes from, but it really isn't, I promise! In the book the recipe makes two loaves; I usually halve it to make one. That's usually enough for us, because it's very sweet, almost like a dessert. Here's the halved version, and then I'll explain how I adapt it to make it safe for Moe the Allergy Boy.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (sometimes I use half white and half whole wheat)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans*
1 cup shredded zucchini (about 1 small or 1/2 large zucchini)
1 large egg, beaten**
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup + 2 T honey
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well. Combine zucchini and remaining 5 ingredients, stirring well. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon batter into a greased and floured loaf pan Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pan and cool on a wire rack. (It's very important to wait until the loaf is somewhat cool before taking it out of the pan; that's the reason I was unable to take a photo of a whole loaf. I found a few intact slices after the loaf fell apart!!)

*instead of nuts, I use 1/2 cup grated carrot (hence the "carrot" part of the title). I combine the first FIVE ingredients together first, and add the carrot later with the zucchini and the other wet stuff.

**1 1/2 heaping teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer beaten with 2 T. water equal one egg. The bread will have a more flattened top (as opposed to a nice rounded one) but it is still delicious.







Go out to your local farmers' market and grab some zucchini while you still can (of course you can always get it at the grocery store year-round, although I can't guarantee that it will taste nearly as good!) and have fun with this delicious snack cake ...er, bread.

Recipe Swap Thursday (er, Friday): Oatmeal-Bran Muffins

Therese at The Musings of a Mom hosts a recipe swap on her blog every week. I have a backlog of recipes that I want to share, so I've decided to join in!

My favorite cookbook is this one:
My copy is so well-used that the pages are falling out. Because of my youngest son's food allergies, I am always taking recipes that I find in here and in other places, and adapting them to accommodate him and to suit my family's tastes.

Here's a recipe from p. 67 of the above-pictured book that I can't live without. I've been having trouble today with Blogger's bold type and italics functions, (and it keeps deleting the pictures I've added--good thing y'all can't hear me cursing) so bear with me. I will post the recipe as it appears in the book, and add my own adaptations as well.

Oatmeal-Bran Muffins

3/4 cup shreds of wheat bran cereal (the recipe suggests Bran Buds; I use All-Bran)
3/4 cup regular oats, uncooked (I use the Quick-cooking kind)
1 1/4 cup milk (I usually use powdered soy milk mix and water; I have also used rice milk in a pinch)
1 large egg (I use 1 1/2 heaping teaspoons powdered Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed with 2 T water)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup raisins (We skip the raisins and add chocolate chips instead. YUMMM!)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar

Combine first 3 ingredients in a bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Combine egg, oil, and raisins; stir into bran mixture.* Combine flour and remaining 3 ingredients in a large bowl, and make a well in center of mixture. Add bran mixture to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Spoon batter into greased muffin pans, filling three-fourths full. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden. Remove from pans immediately. Yield: 1 1/2 dozen.

*If using chocolate chips, I suggest adding the egg and oil to the bran mixture and stirring in the chocolate chips last, after everything else is mixed together.

I made these earlier this week, and they were half gone within 30 minutes of taking them out of the oven.
I can pack them in the kids' lunchboxes for dessert, and I don't mind if they eat them for breakfast!