Weekend Doings

As soon as I had taken this chocolate chip zucchini bread out of the oven and it cooled off so that I could wrap it up, we headed to the lake for the weekend this past weekend. It was an unusually cool two days and a perfect time to be out on the water.

I didn't bother with many photos this trip. We just enjoyed some time together, mostly minus devices. Kindle doesn't count, does it? I read two books.

But I was happy I had my phone with me on the boat Sunday afternoon and could snap a few photos. Daddy-O pointed out the huge osprey nest on the top as we passed under the train trestle. Two huge ospreys were on the nest, not disturbed in the least by the water traffic passing underneath them.

And I couldn't resist this evening photo. After dinner out, Daddy-O grabbed his rod and reel and headed down to the pier for some moonlight fishing.

Here is the zucchini bread we took to the lake for the weekend. I liked the chocolate/cinnamon combination, but if you don't, you might try using a teaspoon of vanilla instead of the cinnamon. I haven't tried it that way. Yet.

CHOCOLATE CHIP ZUCCHINI BREAD

 3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups grated zucchini (about 1-2 medium)
1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan, or use PAM

Place first 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Beat with mixer at low speed until well blended. Stir in applesauce.

Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and cocoa thoroughly with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture, stirring until just moistened. Stir in zucchini and chocolate chips. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out almost clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan, place on wire rack and cool completely.

Our garden isn't producing nearly as much zucchini this year (which is okay since I usually have trouble using it up) so while I had zucchini on the kitchen counter, I made a second batch on zucchini bread—this time with pineapple—as soon as the chocolate loaf came out of the oven. I posted this recipe here last year. I wrapped the two loaves with pineapple and tucked them into the freezer for later. I'm not sure which zucchini bread is my favorite. They are both good.

ZUCCHINI PINEAPPLE BREAD

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs, lightly beaten
¾ cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups shredded zucchini (1–2 medium)
1 (8-oz) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup golden raisins

Mix first 5 ingredients together in a large bowl. (I used a whisk to blend.)

Stir together eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla and zucchini in a medium bowl. Pour into dry ingredients. Mix all together. Dredge raisins by stirring them with 2 teaspoons flour, to keep them from sinking to bottom of batter. Stir raisins into batter.
 
Pour into two 4x8-inch well greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour. (I had to cover my pans loosely with foil midway through baking time because it was browning so quickly.)



The chocolate chip zucchini bread was ever bit as delicious as it looks! But I must tell you I plugged this recipe into the Weight Watchers recipe calculator and I hate to tell you, but using the applesauce in place of most of the oil, does not make this a low point recipe. If you cut your loaf into sixteen slices, it's 9 SmartPoints per slice. At twelve slices per loaf, it's 12 SP per slice. Yikes!  Enjoy it, but with the points knowledge to do it sensibly.