Zucchini Carrot Bread

I picked up a zucchini at the farmer's market but had no clue what I'd make with it. I don't remember ever making anything with zucchini before.  We were invited to a cookout at our neighbor's house on Saturday so I was on the hunt for a good starter recipe to make.  I didn't want anything that had an overpowering zucchini taste. I'd found a few zucchini casserole recipes that didn't look too bad. There was also some zucchini tots that looked worthwhile. I settled on zucchini bread since everyone loves my banana bread. It took a little searching to find a recipe that didn't use whole wheat flour (never used it and had no intention to buy it to use this one time).

I found this carrot zucchini bread recipe on SparkRecipes and used it with my own tweaks. The recipe calls for cloves and cardamom,  neither of which I'd used before let alone had in the house. So I looked up what I could use as a substitute. Cloves can be swapped with allspice, cinnamon, or nutmeg; I have all three so I was good. Cardamom can be swapped with the same spices or even ginger.  I guess it all depends upon your personal preference.

Ingredients

1 Zucchini

2-3 Carrots, depending on size

1 cup Vegetable Oil

2 cups Sugar

3 cups Flour

1 tsp Sea Salt

1 tsp Baking Soda

3/4 tsp Baking Powder

3 Eggs

3 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Allspice

3 tsp Cinnamon

1. Wash & shred the zucchini, squeezing out some of the moisture with a paper towel.
2. Peel, wash, & shred the carrots.
3. Preheat the oven to 350.
4. Prep two 8x8 pans.
5. With the blender going the whole time, add the wet ingredients.
6. Add in the dry ingredients one at a time,  pausing to mix after each one (after every cup with the sugar and flour).

7. Pour into prepared pans and bake 45-60 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and let cool at least 10 minutes.
9. Slice up into desired serving size. (I went down the middle of each pan and then cut across in approximately 1/2 inch slices. This resulted in 40 servings instead of the 12 as noted in the recipe.)
10. Serve alone or with fruit.

I honestly thought that since this recipe was on SparkRecipes it'd be healthier.  Zucchini carrot bread has a great taste either way and there are many things you can do to lighten it up such as using unsweetened applesauce instead of the oil.  How would you change the recipe?

Weight Watchers: 4 PP