RECIPE: Zucchini Bread

I've never tried to grow zucchini, but it must be pretty easy because people are always complaining that they have more zucchini than they know what to do with. And I'm always like, "Send it my way! I know exactly what to do with zucchini!"

(I like to cook with it. You knew that's what I meant, right?)

But as much as I love to throw zucchini into pasta, stir-fry, wraps, and soups...I've never made zucchini bread. And I love zucchini bread! But I'm always intimidated by the idea of making bread in general.

After some hunting around, I found a recipe that doesn't call for yeast (which terrifies me) and doesn't require a cup of vegetable oil (which terrifies my bathroom scale) and uses ingredients I already had in my cabinets (woohoo!). The sad thing is, it was from a site called Simply Recipes, but I simplified it even more. Here's my extra-super-duper simple adapted version:

You'll need:

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 c. sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 c. shredded zucchini
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 3 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2/3 c. melted butter*

Mix it all together. I added the ingredients in the order listed above. Grease a 5x9-ish bread pan, pour in half the mixture, and bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. (Stick a toothpick in it after 40 minutes to see if it need to stay in a little longer.) That's it. Hubby and I basically polished off the first loaf within about 20 minutes, then gave the second loaf to our awesome neighbor 1) to thank him for loaning us his truck and 2) to avoiding eating two loaves of zucchini bread in an hour.

Enjoy!

* Cover the butter with a paper towel or you'll have a butter volcano in the microwave. Trust me.