Loaded Chocolate Zucchini Bars

In the spirit of summer and for the love of zucchini, I fell prey to a recipe I found on Pinterest for a low-fat brownie that uses zucchini, banana and applesauce.  No egg, no oil.  Original recipe can be found here.

Well, I had all the ingredients laying around, so I thought "what the heck" and gave them a try.  They are delicious, but not a substitute for a real brownie (unless you are seeking dietary substitutes of sorts).  The texture is very fudgy - which is awesome.  My recommendations:  

• Let cool completely and/or let sit a day before eating.   The first one I ate, I thought was just okay.  The second one I ate (after they had sat a day) was border line phenomenal.  
• Alter them however you would like.  I added unsweetened coconut and grated milk chocolate to mine.

I think the reason I loved this recipe though, is mostly because I was able to sneak in some veggies and use some of my favorite kitchen tools (I cannot lie:  I love my KitchenAid shredder attachment;  I used it to shred the zucchini as well as shred the frozen banana that I used).   Furthermore, these would be really great for a breakfast on the go.

Loaded Chocolate Zucchini Bars 

Ingredients:

1/4 Cup Applesauce

1 Small or Medium Banana, mashed

3/4 Cup Sugar

1 tsp. Vanilla

3/4 tsp. Baking Soda

1/4 Cup Cocoa 

1/4 tsp. Salt

1 Cup Zucchini, shredded

1 Cup Flour

2 oz Mini Chocolate Chips

1/3 Cup Coconut, shredded and unsweetened

Step 1:  Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease a 9x9 baking dish.  

Step 2:  In medium sized bowl, mix together the applesauce, banana, sugar, vanilla and zucchini.  Next, stir in the baking soda, salt, cocoa and flour.  Once all is incorporate well, stir in the coconut and chocolate chips.

Step 3:  Pour the batter into the greased pan.  Bake at for 25-35 minutes.  When it begins to pull away from the edges and the middle is set, it is done baking.  As well, you can do the toothpick test (insert clean toothpick into the middle and if it comes out clean, they are done).

Cool completely before eating.  Serves 9.