What does V-E-G-E-T-A-B-L-E-S spell? Cake, dear. It spells cake.

From my experience, many adults and kids have a lot in common.  They're up early (whether it's for cartoons or to go to work depends on the age of the person, and of course the quality of the cartoon), most would prefer chocolate for breakfast if mom (or in the case of the adults - the guilt of other people watching them) would let them, and vegetables are something that they eat because they have to, not because they want to (show me a kid who "loves" vegetables and I'll show you a well fed dog).

So how do you get your kids (or co-workers) to eat their veggies?  Well make it into something sweet, of course!  (In other words, I'm telling you to lie...)  No, I'm not going to make candied cauliflower (*gag*), parsnip puree, or some other horrific Iron Chef display of secret ingredient use... I'm talking about zucchini bread.

Think of zucchini bread as banana bread's more socially awkward sibling.  It has the same main ingredients as banana bread (flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, eggs, etc.), but uses uses grated zucchini (aka the weird green vegetable) instead of mashed banana for moisture.  I know, I know, your inner 5 year old is probably thinking, "Gross... I'm not touching a bread that probably tastes like squash." Ah, but this is where you would be wrong, little grasshopper.  Zucchini bread tastes NOTHING like zucchini.  Nope.  It's a delightfully moist bread that is full of cinnamony goodness that makes your taste buds dance like little leprechauns doing a jig (ok... maybe I took that one too far, but admit it - you saw leprechauns dancing on your tongue).

Here's my favorite recipe:

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (I leave these out because I have a very strong personal stance that nuts have no place in my quick bread.... or in my brownies for that matter!)

Directions

1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool. 

When it comes out of the oven it should look something like this:

And when you cut into it, it should look something like this (don't worry if a little heavenly music escapes when you cut into it; that's normal):

And when your kids (or co-workers who are at the moment double fisting pieces of the bread) ask you what the little green specs are (because they will... they're kids and heaven forbid they eat something other than chicken nuggets or french fries - which ARE NOT a vegetable I might add), tell them it's dehydrated leprechauns waiting to dance on their tongue (c'mon, you didn't think I'd let that one go so easily, did you?).

Enjoy!