Friday Faves – Confections of a Foodie Bride makes Banana Zucchini Bread
This week I’m featuring Shawnda from Confections of a Foodie Bride for my Friday Favs. I’ve been following Shawnda’s blog for quite some time now. It was thanks to her blog, that I made the Chocolate Overdose Cake last year – wow that cake was awesome. I need to find an excuse to make it again. Shawnda posts recipes that are interesting and along the lines of how Hubby and I eat, so her blog is always a source of inspiration. And with her amazing photography skills, she provides a decent amount of eye candy to look at while being inspired!
Howdy, y’all! I’m Shawnda, one half of the carb-loving Texas team behind Confections of a Foodie Bride. The Foodie Groom and I make a great team. We cook together, bake, make wine, and chase our 13 month sous chef around with a camera. (But she’s a tad harder to photograph than, say, banana bread!) I stand alone, however, when it comes to cookbook obsession.
The Foodie Groom has a 5×8″-ish gadget that stores all of his books. Nearly every book he could ever want is at his fingertips. Me? I have 3 moving boxes and a bench that’s serving as a bookshelf to my more heavily-used cookbooks:
When I buy a new cookbook, I flip through it once quickly looking at pictures. And then I go back and flip through it again, more slowly, looking at head notes and skimming interesting recipes for ingredients (we gotta eat dinner tomorrow!). And then I go back and read it cover-to-cover, like a “real book,” and mark recipes with sticky notes. Some books will sit on my nightstand for weeks at a time just in case I have time for some late night reading before bed, which has been a total of 0 minutes since becoming a mom.
The first recipe I marked in my newest
score
cookbook, Deliciously Organic, was this Banana Zucchini Bread. Partly because The Foodie Baby had gone on an impromptu banana strike, leaving me with a bunch of black bananas. And partly because I don’t have a banana bread recipe and the picture of Banana Bread Bruschetta in her book made my mouth water.
I loved the idea of “sneaking” zucchini to my kiddo – I haven’t been able to prepare zucchini stand-alone in a way that she’ll actually eat it. But she’ll eat it in Banana Zucchini bread! We had toasted slices for breakfast every morning until the loaf was no more. Between the obliterated banana and shredded zucchini, there’s no lack of moisture. Moist and banana-y. Exactly the way banana bread should be!
Banana Zucchini Bread
Yield: 8-10
Ingredients:
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted (plus more for pan)
3 Tbsp coconut oil*
2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup whole cane sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup grated zucchini
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs, at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
*Coconut oil is suggested as a replacement for vegetable oil in cooking/baking. It's actually a solid, despite the name "oil." If you cannot locate it or do not wish to use it, consider using olive oil or vegetable oil.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 with rack in the middle position. Butter a 9x5 (mine is slightly smaller) loaf pan.
Add mashed bananas (I obliterated the bananas in the food processor until I had "banana paste"), zucchini, buttermilk, eggs, melted oils and vanilla to the mixer bowl and mix until well blended. Add flour, sugar, salt and baking soda and mix until just blended.
Pour batter into the loaf pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until golden brown and a knife inserted into the center comes out with a moist crumbs attached. Cool for 10 minutes in pan. Use a knife to loosen the edges of the bread from the pan, if necessary, and remove from pan. Let cool on a rack before cutting into slices.
Recipe slightly adapted from Deliciously Organic by Carrie Vitt
Be sure to check out all of my favorite bloggers as they are featured on Friday Favs!
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I’m not a huge mushroom fan, but the cranberry risotto sounds absolutely fantastic! Thanks for the idea, Katie :).
What a great recipe Katie!
I am in awe of your description of mushrooms. that recipe is awesome and so is the idea to cook them in butter and red wine! if non mushroom lovers are not converted after this post, there is no help for them!!
This comment has been removed by the author.
I am a huge mushroom lover. This recipe sounds wonderful!
I am a HUGE fan of mushrooms, I put them in everything! This will probably be dinner tonight!
I’m definitely with you in the first camp, though I will tell you – I’ve converted the boyfriend into a semi-mushroom lover, so maybe there is a person who lies a bit in between after all! This looks heavenly.
I am definitely not a mushroom lover but this recipe looks amazing!
Katie can make these for me anytime! Great recipe and great guest post!
OMG this combines so many of my favorite things into one dish! I’ve already added it to next week’s menu. Thanks so much for introducing me to a fun new blog!
I’m on the verge of being a mushroom lover – when raw the texture creeps me out but I’ve discovered I love the flavor and like them when cooked. I would love to eat this dish!
It is bad that I thought the sneak peak picture looked like mashed potatoes? That can only mean the risotto must be extra creamy!
It is bad that I thought the sneak peak picture looked like mashed potatoes? I think that just means this risotto must be extra creamy!
Thanks Jen for including me in your Friday Faves and for saying such nice things about my writing! This dish was fun to make and was really good on a cold winter night. Thanks all for the comments! Even those from the mushroom haters 🙂
Aren’t portobello mushrooms the best? So many different things you can do with them!
What more Can I say, a combination of my favorite ingredients… Mushroom and risotto! It’s nice to see a lot of mushroom recipe’s this past few days.
What a creative recipe, I love it! Definitely the perfect way to kick off your cool Friday Favs feature 🙂