SO MANY BURGERS! You guys may have noticed an unusual number of burger pictures on my instagram — they’re a result of it being burger week here in Portland! There are a bunch of restaurants participating this year (more than 30!), each of which makes a special $5 burger for burger week. MUST EAT ALL THE BURGERS! Except that’s impossible. I just can’t. I don’t want the meat sweats! (FO REALS THEY EXIST!)
Since I’ve been stuffing burgers down my hatch like nobody’s business, I’ve not actually been very hungry for anything else. I wake up, eat some berries, and pray I’ll be hungry before lunchtime. And then go into burger coma while I try to talk myself into being ready for burger dinner. #toughlife
I did, however, have a zucchini I really needed to use up. AND I’ve been wanting to make zucchini bread french toast (YAH I DID! WAIT FOR IT! COMING SOON!). As I was digging through my baking cabinet, which is kind of hard to see into, I noticed a bag of coconut… so obviously had to throw some of that in! Look at that toasty goodness up top! It’s like frosted tips, only in reverse and not 15 years out of fashion.
This zucchini bread is pretty straightforward. Nothing crazy. I basically took my whole wheat chocolate zucchini bread recipe and took out the chocolate, used normal flour, added coconut … and that’s it. Voila! Easy peasy. It puffs up perfectly! And slices so clean! And makes damn good French toast (YEAAAAH KEEP WAITING FOR IT!!).
I’m off to shower myself in vegetables and not eat meat for the next EVER. I feel like I need to run a marathon offset my week, but if we’re being honest: I’ll probably just take a nap and drink some coffee. #realtalk
HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND! Get outside! Make some food! Go barefoot! See you back here on Monday! xoxo
- 2 cups shredded, unpeeled zucchini
- 2 cups AP flour
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ⅔ cup sweetened shredded coconut*
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup milk
- ½ cup melted butter
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 350F and butter an 9x5 loaf pan.
- Wrap the shredded zucchini in cheesecloth and squeeze as much liquid out as you can. Set aside.
- Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and coconut (save a small amount to sprinkle on top of the loaf). Set aside.
- Whisk together the eggs, milk, melted butter, brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Add the zucchini and dry ingredients, mix until combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, top with extra coconut, and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. You'll likely need to tent the pan with foil after 30 minutes, so the coconut doesn't brown too much.
- Let the loaf cool for 15 minutes in the pan before removing it. Serve warm or cooled!
I really think you should run a marathon. I liked reading your race reports. Ha ha. Your zucchini bread looks marvelous! I’ll see if I can snatch some zucchini and make it.
Ha! Thanks, Angela! I’d love to run another… just gotta 1) fix a nagging injury, and 2) get back in shape. I’m working on it!! Good luck snagging a zucchini… it shouldn’t be that hard this time of year! xo
I made these using coconut oil in place of the melted butter and it was delicious. Next time I might use a bit less oil but i love the outside crunch of the coconut.
A keeper
Thanks for the note! xo