When your mom plants 6 zucchini plants in one season, what do you have?

You have to make a lot of zucchini bread!

Sorry for the bad joke, I couldn’t resist. But luckily, zucchini bread is so fun and easy to create new recipes. This citrus bread is refreshing and very moist thanks to the olive oil (a little bit “healthier” than using the traditional butter). Although I heavily coat each piece in a smathering of butter – this makes me feel less bad about it! 😉

You can also add nuts to this recipe, too! My favorite are chopped walnuts. My husband doesn’t like nuts in bread (texture issue) so feel free to add them to yours and try it!

Ingredients:

• butter or oil for greasing
• 3-4 cups freshly grated zucchini (*after you grate remove excess water with a sieve and paper towel)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1-1/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• zest of 2 lemons and juice from 1

Pre-heat oven to 350º. Grease 2 bread pans using butter or oil.

Grate zucchini and rid of excess moisture, set aside.

Sift together flour, spices and baking soda into a medium bowl.

Whisk in a large bowl eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt. Stir in lemon juice, olive oil and zucchini.

Add dry mixture to wet mixture in 3 parts to ensure it mixes properly.

Divide batter equally among the bread pans and bake for 50 minutes. Enjoy!