Double Chocolate Chip Zucchini Banana Bread

Serves:
10-12 (depending on size of portions)
Total Time:
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 60+ minutes
Notes:
*You can use ½ cup of applesauce instead of the banana if you aren’t a fan of banana bread.  

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Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups shredded zucchini (appx. two medium or one large zucchini)
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (appx. three bananas) (you can substitute 1/2 cup of applesauce.)
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons of butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups (180 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• ¼ cup chocolate chips (topping)

 
Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Grease and flour a loaf pan. 
3. Grate the zucchini in a large bowl.
4. Try to squeeze out as much water from zucchini as possible. Discard water.
5. Mash the bananas and add to the zucchini.
6. In another bowl, soften the butter and mix in the brown sugar.
7. Then add egg and vanilla extract to the butter/sugar mixture.
8. Add the egg, vanilla, butter, sugar mixture to the zucchini and banana bowl. Mix thoroughly.
9. Combine the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar and cinnamon in another bowl. Mix thoroughly.
10. Slowly pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix together.
11. Add the chocolate chips and combine evenly throughout.
12. Place the remaining ¼ cup of chocolate chips evenly over the bread.
13. Bake for 60-75 minutes. (Use toothpick trick!)*
14. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.
15. Enjoy!

Nutritional Information:
Per Serving:  Calories: 245, Carbs: 36, Fat: 12, Protein: 2, Sodium: 148, Sugar: 27.

Notes:
*Stick a toothpick in the center of the bread.  Pull it out.  If it is dry then the bread is finished.  If there is residue on the toothpick, then the bread is not cooked and needs a few more minutes to finish cooking.  
*You can use ½ cup of applesauce instead of the banana 
*I adapted this recipe from Mom on Time Out -I wanted more chocolate :) 

​As a parent, I try to get as many vegetables and fruits into my little love’s diet.  For the most part, we have been blessed with a good eater.  Of course, there are times what I intend on him eating and what he actually eats does not equal up.  There are days in which he gobbles up all the food that is served and there are other days I wonder how his growing body can possibly survive on apple, milk, yogurt and puffs alone. 

This summer, my husband and I decided to grow some vegetables and herbs in a garden.  While it was a small garden, it yielded quite a bit of harvest for our family!  A staple in any Italian garden is zucchini, so we planted two rows of zucchini and hoped it would grow.  Did our prayers get answered!  Let’s just say that we’ve eaten quite a bit of zucchini this summer!  I began to run out of ideas on what to make with it and while I had never made zucchini bread before, I remember hearing that it can be quite tasty.

In the past, my hesitation to make zucchini bread was that I thought it would be both a pain and time consuming to shred the zucchini.  Thankfully, I was wrong.  It took less than three minutes to grate the entire zucchini.  I used the larger holes on a cheese grater and grated it directly in the large bowl I used for the recipe.  Just be careful that you don’t grate your fingers by accident-- ouch!

This is a recipe that my entire family loved and looked forward to eating.  I adapted this recipe from Mom on Time Out since I wanted it to have more chocolate. You can find that recipe here.   You can also use ½ cup of applesauce instead of the banana if you aren’t a fan of banana bread. 

​The consistency of the zucchini banana bread was more like cake.  For two days after, we enjoyed the left-overs for dessert after dinner.  My little love devoured his and I admit that it was his lunch the next day!  I felt less guilty allowing him to have it for lunch since 1. I am almost certain that he is getting his two-year molars early (joy!) and 2. There is both a vegetable and a fruit in the cake-like bread.
 
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​Buon appetito! ​