{homemade zucchini bread}

If you planted a garden this spring, I bet you planted zucchini!  (If not, you’re missing out).  I planted my first garden this year, and zucchini was the most successful veggie, by far!  I’ve had a ton of them all summer long, and most of them were HUGE.  I’m talking longer than my forearm, as thick as my calf HUGE!!  Just look…

Yes, I know…the two in the middle are cucumbers.  Don’t worry, I used those to make pickles, not zucchini bread.

Just look at the size of that zucchini on the left my friends!  Crazy big, right?!

It was getting to the point that we were enjoying zucchini with every dinner (my favorite way to cook them is to put them in a pan with some olive oil, salt, and about a 1/4 of a Lipton Onion Soup Packet.  YUM!

I had more zucchini than we needed, but didn’t want it to go to waste, so I decided to make some {Homemade Zucchini Bread}, similar to Mrs. Paula Deen’s recipe found here.  I used mini loaf pans and gave a couple out to neighbors and family too 🙂

To make {Homemade Zucchini Bread}, you’ll need:

2 cups grated zucchini

3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil (you could substitute applesauce if you prefer)

4 eggs

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Start out by grating your zucchini.  I only used about a third of the zuke you see in the picture and got plenty from it (I told you, it’s abnormally large).

Do not peel the zucchini before grating!

Put all wet ingredients in a large bowl and blend together.  If you’ve got a Kitchen Aid…it would come in handy now!  Once the zucchini, eggs, lemon juice, and oil are mixed, begin to add the dry ingredients.   You can add the chopped nuts at this time as well, or leave them out.  In all honesty the bread tastes great either way.

Pour into two loaf pans or five mini loaf pans.  Make sure to spray them with nonstick cooking spray first!

Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

My favorite way to eat the bread is served warm with a little bit of butter.

Wrap up a loaf or two and share the yummy goodness with your neighbors or co-workers.  Trust me, they’ll thank you!

Enjoy!

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I’ll be linking up at these fun parties!