3 Breads to Make with Zucchini

Last night I was supposed to go to an activity at my church. Unfortunately when I went to get into my car, well, there were no keys. Because they were sitting in my car staring at me. Kip had left for work and we hadn't gotten around to making a spare key. I am sure the activity at church was wonderful, but sometimes there's nothing better on earth than being stuck at home with nothing at all you can do about it. I had a big zucchini and some spotty bananas. I made muffins. And muffins. And muffins.

And I realized that I hadn't done something like that for a long time--where I just stayed home and made a lot of food for fun without the pressure of doing something else looming over me. It was delightful. It was more than that--it was soulful.

I've actually been meaning to make a stock-pile of snack food to stash in the freezer for a long time. I find that it's nice in summer. That way we can pack up and head to the park or pool or library or hiking trails spur of the moment and just grab something out of the freezer. Otherwise, I'm like, "Well, I guess we better eat lunch first." And then we do. And then there's a mess. And then, inevitably some other type of meltdown happens. And then we're just barely walking out the door when we should have been walking back in for afternoon naps and quiet time. And then I just end up grumpy and/or angry about whatever activity it was that we did. Freezer snacks solve this problem beautifully. But the great irony of this summer is that I haven't had time to make any freezer snacks. Well, last night without even meaning to, I did. Best locked-out-of-car experience ever.

1. Zucchini Coconut Bread. This is my very favorite zucchini bread ever. For me, it can do no wrong (unless you count causing me to gain dozens of pounds as wrong). I love it to a problematic point. I've eaten several pieces already today and probably won't be hungry by dinnertime.

2. Zucchini Chocolate Bread/Muffins. The recipe here has been healthified. The original used about twice the sugar and only oil--no applesauce. I like it with some whole wheat either way just because I don't love white flour muffins. Last night we threw caution to the wind and made it with all the sugar and all the oil and about 1 C of whole wheat and 1 cup regular wheat. Either way these are nice because the chocolate hides the zucchini better than other recipes do (although not perfectly unless you peel the zucchini).

3. Zucchini Blueberry Bread.  We didn't make this one last night, but we could have because we just went blueberry picking last week. This is a fairly wholesome breakfast bread that is still tasty. It's also pretty.