Today’s deliciousness happened by pure accident. Well I shouldn’t say accident really. More like two inconveniences that led to desperation that led to discovery. The first inconvenience: all-day downpour leading to crazy cooped up kids. Baking is always a good distraction on such days because these two little ones love to help. But the one on the left is a little ipod obsessed and Aaron had taken it away from him earlier and gone to work with it, along with all the recipes on my mental list of things to bake soon.
We still have gobs of zucchini, so I thought some of the Clean Eating Zucchini bread would be good…recipe on the ipod. I had a pile of dried figs that I bought on a whim and a craving the other day at Winco, but my clean fig newton recipe??? On the ipod. So I went to the kitchen feeling resigned to simply modify some less healthy recipe and for some reason reached for my least healthy, but most yummy baking cookbook.
I looked up figs in the index and came across Oatmeal Breakfast Bread. You know from my last post that I am a fan of oats…you can prob tell from my posts over time that I am a fan of breakfast breads! But you probably didn’t know that I am a fan of Figs. Figs are a great source of potassium, which helps lower high blood pressure, and dietary fiber, which aids in weight loss. And they taste delicious! I love the teeny tiny crunch in your mouth when you eat them.
I was a big fan of Fig Newtons too until I started to detest packaged baked goods, first for taste reasons, but now for health reasons obviously as well. This bread does not taste like a Fig Newton of course, but it does have a great Fall Figgy Flavor. Let me know if you are interested and I can post a great healthy Fig Newton recipe too. If for some reason you do not like figs, feel free to substitute apples, apricots, raisins, or dates. I decided to go ahead and throw in the shredded zucchini I had leftover in my fridge, but feel free to replace that with some canola oil if you don’t have the overabundance that I have been dealing with!
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup shredded zucchini
- ¼ cup buttermilk
- 1¼ cups flour
- 1/2 cup agave
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ½ cup dried fruit figs, apples, apricots or raisins
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare 9×5 loaf pan by buttering and dusting with flour. Put pan on baking sheet.
- Whisk together eggs, applesauce, zucchini, and buttermilk until well blended.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Remove ½ tsp of the mix and toss it with the fruit, just to coat; set aside. Stir the oats into the bowl of dry ingredients.
- Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry and, using a large rubber spatula, stir just until everything is evenly moistened. Scatter the dried fruit over the batter and stir to blend.
- Chop 1/2 cup walnuts and
- Scrape the batter into the pan and sprinkle over the topping, patting it down very lightly with your finger so it sticks.
- Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until bread is beautifully browned and a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the bread to a rack to cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the pan and un-mold. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.
Calories 187 / Carb 32 / Fat 5 / Protein 5 / Sugar 17
Serve it with some greek yogurt to add an extra protein punch.
Live to Last 