I scored the veggie jackpot last week when my parents gave me a CSA share-worthy assortment of goodies from their garden:

Buried under that gorgeous pile of peppers, green onions, rainbow chard and celery are four giant zucchinis. As in nearly 2-feet long! My father assured me that despite their crazy huge size, they tasted completely normal.

I considered using them a variety of ways, but the one I settled on was zucchini bread. Nothing fancy, sans nuts, white flour based, zucchini bread. I would have definitely tried it with wheat flour, had I any in the pantry – either all wheat, or half-and-half.

This particular recipe was made with 4 cups of shredded zucchini, so it produces A LOT of zucchini bread. I ended up making 18 muffins, one small loaf and one tube pan’s worth with this batch. I’ll freeze at least half of the muffins, as well as the loaf, and then use the tube pan zucchini bread for breakfast and lunches (sliced with cream cheese – yum!).

Both kids approved of the less sweet version I made as compared to the recipe I adapted this from – over a cup less sugar. Love that!

Zucchini Bread

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Zucchini bread is a simple way to use up all those end of summer zucchinis from your garden or the farmers' market.

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Ingredients

• 4 cups shredded zucchini
• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 cups canola oil
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Use non-stick spray to coat 4 large loaf pans. (Sometimes I use a variety of pans instead: tube pan, muffin tins, cake pans, etc., instead of just loaf pans.)

Use a whisk to combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl, and leave a little bit of a well in the center.

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and oil until they turn a creamy color, then add the sugar and vanilla and use a hand mixer to beat the ingredients for a minute or two.

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, and then continue mixing with the hand mixer until it's just combined. The batter will be very thick!

Add the zucchini to the batter, and using the mixer on low, gently incorporate the two. The moisture from the zucchini should loosen up the batter and make it easier to mix.

Pour the batter into your prepared pans about half-way, and then bake them for about an hour (or until the top springs back when you press gently with your finger, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean).

Let the loaves (or muffins, tube pan, etc.) cool for about 15 minutes in the pan, and the remove them. Continue letting them sit on a rack until they've cooled completely.

If you plan on freezing these, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap once they've cooled, and then put them into freezer zip top bags.