Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread w/Pecans

There are a million recipes out there on the interwebs, and I spent my fair share of time trawling through them!

In the end I pretty much did my own thing! I had plenty of zucchini to use and wasn't afraid of it tasting (lots of recipes seemed to be all about 'hiding' the veggie in them). Plus I wanted as little sugar as possible and substitute with applesauce. Plus I only had whole wheat all purpose flour on hand. Plus I love pecans, and, c'mon people EVERYTHING tastes better with choc chips in it, no?! So I tweaked and played and made it be what I wanted it to be...

This was a huge hit. Even Chris loved it - and he's not got that much of a sweet -tooth (though his preference for eating it was sliced, and then slathered in butter and marmite - I admit it was pretty darn good like this, but I was also determined to eat it au natural so I could savour it's flavour and pat myself on the back a little more for pulling off such a damn good bread!)

Zucchini Bread (makes 2 loaves)

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup soft brown sugar
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2½ cups (packed) grated zucchini
• 1¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ¾ cup choc chip
• ¾ cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Prepare the zucchini (this is the tedious part - I used my food processor with the grating attachment which is easy enough - but cleaning the damn machine is the bane of my life!) Once grated you need to squeeze the f**k out of the zucchini to get all the liquid out - this will be way more usable for cooking. I scoop a large pile of the zucchini into a clean tea towel then twist it like a candy wrapper - it really is amazing how much liquid comes out! OK, actually I let Chris do that because I'm not strong enough. Or maybe it might cause me to work a sweat if I tried. Either way...SQUEEZE!
2. Put the first 6 ingredients into a large bowl (basically the dry stuff) and mix together
3. Then chuck everything else in to the bowl (except the nuts and chocolate)
4. Mix - I use my hands - but then I don't have a food mixer - that would be so much easier (but then you have to wash it up, whereas I can just lick clean ;-)
5. Fold in the choc chips and nuts
6. Drop into lightly greased loaf pans and cook at 350 degrees for 45-55 mins.
7. Use a cocktail stick to check when done. If you poke it in and it comes out clean you're good to go
8. Eat as soon as possible (hey, most recipes say to let sit and cool, but we all know we like to sneak a bite when its still warm from the oven. Sure it probably won't cut nicely but it's not about looks, it's all about taste!)