Hunter gatherer banana zucchini bread.

I realized in the fall, that when presented with a difficult situation, my natural inclination is to bake. I never realized this before since most of my baking was limited to box mixes, but there is something really therapeutic about measuring and stirring and then waiting. Baking is much more mindful for me than cooking. As soon as you start stressing about something else, you’ve added a cup extra of flour and dumped some egg shells in your batter.

When I was at Jubilee, it was no problem to bake eight loaves of bread or four batches of cookies because there were so many people to eat them. Now, I don’t bake as much because cookies, cakes and bread aren’t really on the menu most days, and because there are usually only a few people around to eat them. And if I gain 50lbs from stress baking and eating, then I’m going to need real therapy, so lately I’ve been looking for ways to bake that are lower in fat and use less animal products.

Yesterday, I noticed there were some bananas getting mushy and a zucchini on its last leg. I’m often inspired by whatever ingredients absolutely have to be used, and so I decided to make a zucchini banana bread. There are lots of recipes online, and I based my recipe off this one, “Healthy Low-Fat  Banana Zucchini Bread” from RecipeeZaar, but I didn’t use any white flour, less eggs, less sugar, etc.

Zucchini Banana Bread

Whole Wheat Zucchini Banana Bread with Nuts & Blueberries

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups whole grain flour
• 1.5 cups rolled oats
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon
• .5 tsp ground cloves
• .5 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg*
• 3 egg whites*
• 1 tsp chia seeds soaked in 1 tbs water*
• .25 cup honey**
• .25 cup Splenda/Stevia/Raw sugar**
• .25 cup oil
• .5 cup blueberries
• 2 medium overripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• .25 cup shredded coconut
• .5 cup chopped almonds

*I cut down the recipe from 4 eggs. If you want to omit eggs, you can use 4 tsp chia seeds and 4 tbs water until they become gel-y. Or, if you`re OK with eggs, you can just use egg whites or the whole eggs, or less, whatever. You get the picture.

**The original recipe calls for 1.25 cups of sugar. With the berries and the bananas, the bread is sweet with only .5 cups of sweetener. I used half honey and half Splenda, because I’m baking for my family, but feel free to use whichever combination you feel best about.

Directions

Mix dry ingredients together in one bowl and wet ingredients, except berries, together in another.

Add wet ingredients into dry mixture and stir just until the batter is consistent throughout.

Fold in blueberries with spatula, and pour into two oiled loaf pans.

Cook on 350* for 45-50 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick can be cleanly removed from center of loaf.

Click for complete nutritional info.