Zucchini Bread. Mmm. Tasty.

It's that time of year when coworkers, neighbors, and family start pawning off zucchini to anyone with an appetite. Any gardener who has ever grown her own zucchini knows that one plant could feed the entire town (or at least it seems that way). Our first few zucchini of the year ended up as zucchini fries, stir-fried zucchini, or parmesan zucchini medallions. As the novelty wore off, I knew my kids were ready to try a sweet recipe. Enter Zucchini Bread. (nut free because we have a nut allergy in my house). My husband says this recipe is so good that you could put cream cheese icing on top and call it a cake. We tried one loaf in a cake pan, and it baked just fine!



Zucchini Bread - nut free!
------------------------------
1 cup canola oil
2 cups sugar (or 1 cup splenda, 1 cup sugar)
3 eggs
3 cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
1 8oz can crushed pineapple
------------------------------
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 2 large loaf pans (or 6 mini loaf pans, or 2 8-in round cake pans, or a bundt pan).

You'll need two separate bowls. In large mixing bowl, add oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla. In another bowl, sift together flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt (we use a wire wisk because we don't have a sifter). Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones, stir just until moistened. Add zucchini and pineapple and finish mixing. Bake for about an hour, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean (mini loaf pans take about 35 minutes). Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and allow to cool on a cooling rack. They freeze well, too! Just wrap in foil or plastic wrap.