
I am very particular about my bananas. I don’t fancy myself a picky person in general but when it comes to bananas, definitely. I like them to be uniformly yellow, perhaps the slightest tinge of green on the ridge or one or two spots but that’s it. Anything more and they go into the freezer for smoothies or mashed up and baked into muffins or bread.
While browsing the late summer vegetables at my local farm stand I noticed a sign stating zucchini were 4 for $1. These weren’t your average zucchini, they were as big as my forearm. Never one to pass up a deal I loaded up my basket and headed home. I grilled them and sauteed them but after a few days I still hadn’t made much of a dent. I looked over at the sad brown speckled bananas and the sugar receptors in my brain sparked! Everyone knows if you add a vegetable to a sweet it becomes “healthy”, right?
In an effort to keep this on the breakfast side of things rather than dessert I decreased the sugar and substituted coconut oil for the usual canola. The addition of pumpkin pie spice adds delicious fall flavor – I just love the blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and clove. This is the best slightly toasted and slathered with butter.
Ingredients
Makes two loaves
3 eggs
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2/3 cup coconut oil, melted
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups shredded zucchini, pressed and strained
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp salt
1 cup walnuts, chopped.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toast walnuts until just fragrant. Grease two loaf pans and set aside.
Combine the eggs, brown sugar and white sugar until thoroughly mixed. Add coconut oil and vanilla and blend. Mix in the mashed bananas and zucchini.
In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet in stages, mixing as you go until just combined. Mix in the toasted walnuts and distribute the batter between the two pans. Bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Share a loaf with a lucky friend or freeze for to enjoy later.