Half the Fat Zucchini Bread

I took the highest rated zucchini bread recipe and reduced the fat by half and the sugar by a third! My zucchini bread keeps it healthy, but has the same great texture and taste!

You may be rolling your eyes at me, you're thinking "Ewwwww it's gonna taste like crap with half the fat, why did you do that?" Come on now... do I look like a chick that would eat crappy food?! I founded NY Foodgasm for the purpose of creating healthy recipes for those of us that reeeeallllly love food. Good food, not "diet food".

You may remember a week ago I posted a pic of the most ginourmous green squash on Instagram. It literally was as heavy as a baby! What's a girl to do with all the zuke? Zucchini bread!! Duh, isn't that like the first thing you think of. Well in my search for the world's best zucchini bread recipe, I found one on Allrecipes. Supposedly the best... but seriously 1 whole cup of oil and 2 1/4 cups sugar- eeeeek! I just cannot bring myself to make something with that much fat and sugar from something as lovely and healthy as zucchini.

Reduce the fat and calories like a boss! So I called upon my friend Greek yogurt to take the place of half the fat and used heart healthy olive oil in it's place!! The yogurt keeps this cake super moist while adding no additional fat--- 0% Fat Greek to the rescue! I also prefer pistachios to walnuts so I substituted those and also employed an ole trick from my friend Jenni of Pastry Chef Online and added some lemon zest to intensify the flavor!

This not only has half the fat- it's also been upgraded! WIN-WIN!

Just wait until you see the before and after of the nutritional stats!! UNBELIEVABLE, but one bite and you actually will not believe it... so good, so moist, so comforting!

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.

What you need

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon
3 eggs
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (or extract)
zest of 1 lemon
2 cups grated zucchini
1/2 cup pistachios

How to make it

1- Grease 2  8"x4" loaf pans
2- Preheat oven to 325º
3- Sift all dry ingredients in a bowl- or ignore this like I did and just spoon the flour into the measuring cup so it is more airy. The latter worked fine for me!
4- Combine in wet ingredients aside from zucchini and nuts... beat well.
5- Slowly add in the shredded zucchini followed by nuts. (Feel free to sub with any nuts you like)
6- Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Until inserted toothpick comes out from center clean.

 

Nutritional Information

Stats BEFORE I lightened up this recipe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stats AFTER I lightened it up

Less than half the fat AND almost 100 calories less per serving!!!