Super duper zucchini bread with a twist

Grandma and Grandpa V.'s garden has been very generous with zucchini this year. I believe I've already been gifted nearly a dozen so far, and I know they've been handing them out just as rapidly to other people. My kids aren't huge fans of zucchini by itself, so I have to get a little tricky. Last night I grated a heap of it and simmered it into the spaghetti sauce. They didn't even notice. Hee hee, score one for mom! Of course, everything tastes better with a heap o' sugar and chocolate added to it, so I also went on the hunt for a really great zucchini bread recipe. I found this one on Taste of Home online, and it was seriously the best zucchini bread I've ever had. The orange zest is a wonderful addition that makes it totally unique from other recipes I've tried. Happy cooking~

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 t. each salt, baking soda, nutmeg
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. baking powder
3 eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup oil
1 T. orange zest*
2 t. vanilla
2 c. shredded zucchini
1 c. chopped walnuts*
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips*

Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, then pour into two greased 8x4 loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove from pans and cool the rest of the way.

*I used the zest of one orange for a doubled batch, which was plenty of orange flavor in my opinion. Two whole tablespoons for that amount of batter would have been a bit much.
*I used pecans. Not a fan of walnuts.
*I used mini morsels. They distributed nicely through the batter.