Chocolate Zucchini Bread

I continue with my quest for healthy kid friendly desserts and snacks. A friend makes my banana bread which her daughter loves- she asked if I could possibly come up with a similar recipe but with a vegetable- like a carrot cake. I remembered a zucchini bread I used to eat many moons ago from Starbucks. From work I would usually venture out to get a mid-afternoon snack which would be a tall Caffe Mocha usually with a slice of zucchini bread. The bread was absolutely delicious- I still remember the color and taste really well- this was about 10 years ago when I ate whatever I felt like and weight and nutrition were furthest from my mind. So when my friend reminded me of the zucchini bread, I immediately started looking for a recipe to adapt to my taste. I decided to include chocolate in the bread as anything with chocolate is good and I thought kids would be more likely to eat it and ignore the green stuff running through the cake! I tested a few recipes and finally liked this one- the texture was firm but moist and most of all, it was delicious! I baked it through the day, so neither my daughter nor my husband witnessed it. I gave a slice to my husband the next morning before he went to work- asked him how it was and once he told me it was really good, I informed him it was made out of zucchini. He was shocked! My daughter really enjoyed it as well, I decided not to enlighten her with all the ingredients. My husband, however, went ahead and divulged within minutes of eating it- Sia had a disgusted look on her face. I explained to her that if she likes the taste how does it matter what is inside the bread.. she thought about it for a few seconds and decided to have another slice. So my advice to parents out there would be that maybe you shouldn’t tell your kids what is in the bread- it may not go so well!!

• 3 eggs
• 2 cups turbinado sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¾ cup dark chocolate- chopped
• 2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened natural cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease two 9X5 inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Whisk well. Add oil, grated zucchini, vanilla – beat well. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cocoa powder. Add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture in 3 batches, mixing well each time. Fold in the chopped chocolate. Pour into prepared pans.

Bake for an hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean.