My Mom always planted zucchini in her garden when I was growing up. Well, in all fairness, I believe she still plants some. I’m just not around to enjoy in the bounty, which probably makes my Dad sad. My Mom sneaks zucchini into every dish possible, including desserts. My Dad is a big fan of desserts, but he can only tolerate so many desserts with green specks. 🙂
Me, I don’t mind zucchini cake or bread. I’m less confident that I would love it in brownies, where it once made a not so popular appearance. I’ve always had mixed feelings about healthifying (not a real word, but I like it, so it stays!) desserts.
On one hand, it means you can eat more. Point to adding veggies to desserts. On the other hand, sometimes it just tastes bad. A gazillion points to leaving desserts alone! Looking at my carefully calibrated point system, clearly not healthifying desserts wins. 🙂
Now I’ve always enjoy zucchini bread because … you know … it’s bread. Bread is yummy, even when it’s chock full of veggies and fruit. I like to slather butter on still warm bread (probably loses a point or 20 on the good for you scale) and eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Like I said, I love bread!
This recipe is overall pretty healthy. Beyond the zucchini and blueberries, it also includes whole wheat flour, yogurt and just a little bit of oil. So clearly, there is no need to feel guilty if you gorge yourself on this bread.
Ummmm … it’s possible my nose just grew 5 inches. Oops.
Healthy Blueberry Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups zucchini (grated, squeezed and drained)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
- 1 egg
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
- In a medium bowl, combine zucchini, sugar, oil, yogurt and egg.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the AP flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together.
- Mix together the wet and dry ingredients until just combined, then gently stir in the blueberries.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50-70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. I checked my bread at 50 minutes and baked to nearly 60 minutes.
- Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then loosen the edges of the pan with a knife and remove from loaf pan to a cooling rack.
Notes
I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I already posted a different blueberry zucchini bread recipe. What can I say? I love me some yummy bread. They are distinct differences. This version is clearly the winner when it comes to being made healthier. 🙂 And they are both delicious too!
Recipe from Closet Cooking
Enjoy!
Tanya
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