Why change a recipe?
We all want to be healthy and to feed healthy foods to our families. But we also must face the facts that we also want to eat the treats! We want to have some yummy baked goodies sometimes.
Don't just toss in the towel on your healthy life style when you want a cheat day, (whatever a cheat day is,) and go to the corner store to buy the chemical filled, will take 15 years to decompose, completely empty calorie, dye filled treat you crave.
And don't just bake that cookie or loaf or cake, either. Although, baking anything at home is so much better for you than buying it from the store, you can make substitutions within your recipe. Switch up some of the ingredients to make the finished treat less troublesome.
Besides, recipes are more of a suggestion, anyway.
I have done just that with this Zucchini Bread (loaf?) recipe. Yes, it is not Bone Broth from a grass fed beef but it is healthier than before the substitutions and still a delicious treat for me and the kids. I doubled the recipe and still, it was gone in two days!
Zucchini Bread
3 cups (locally grown, pesticide and herbicide free) shredded zucchini
1 1/3 (1 cup) cups sugar
2/3 cup (melted lard) vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 large (farm fresh/free range) eggs
3 cups all purpose (sprouted) flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon (Himalayan) salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (locally and ethically produced)coarsely chopped nuts, optional
1/2 cup raisins, optional
Move oven rack to lowest position so that tops of pans will be in centre of oven. Heat oven to 350°. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans, 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches, or 1 loaf pan, 9 x 5 x 3 inches with shortening.
Mix zucchini, sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into pans.
Bake 8 inch loaves 50-60 minutes, 9 inch loaf 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes, until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on wire rack. Loosen sides of loaves from the pans; remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack. Cool completely before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.
* Locally grown Zucchini is where it is at! It is so very easy to grow and very prolific. AND so delicious!! Once zucchini season starts, you will have them until the first frost. Or you can buy from a farmers market or a local farmer. Make sure they don't use herbicides or pesticides. There are much better ways to deal with weeds and garden pests.
**Most recipes work out just fine if you reduce the sugar but up to half...not cookies, though. You can also use a sugar substitute but pay the extra and try to source local honey and please do NOT use agave nectar!
***Anywhere a recipe calls for vegetable oil, they don't mean Corn/soy oil. Just don't. Same if it says Canola oil. None of these oils should ever be consumed by a human or an animal. Instead, use a MUCH healthier choice. Lard!! Butter!! These are great choices when it comes to all of your cooking and baking needs. Chances are, you can find local lard but it's much more difficult to find local coconut oil, or olive oil, when you live where the ground freezes hard for 5 months of the year.
**** Farm fresh and free range eggs are THE best! Raise your own or find a farmer who raises chicken in the sun and on grass where they can find and eat bugs. You will thank me. Also, duck eggs are amazing for baking. Amazing. Raised the same as free range chickens.
*****You can substitute more nutritious flours instead of white, all-purpose flour. Some flour substitutes are not 1 to 1, so some calculations are needed to make it turn out right. Plus, use a local to you flour or substitute. Sprouted flour is a great option!
******Himalayan Salt is so delicious. Table salt has been so refined its lost all nutrients and flavour nuances. Plus, table salt has added ingredients to keep it from clumping.
None of these spices are local to me but its not about perfection. We just do the best that we can!
I did not use nuts or raisins in my Zucchini Loaf. My kids don't like these items in baking so I never add them. Makes it easier on the wallet, too! Plus, they do not grow locally.
I doubled this recipe and baked four 9 x 5 sized bread pans. They finish in 60 minutes.
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