Zucchini Bars

This summer, the plot in our community garden has been producing more zucchini than I know what to do with. So far I've made my version of Zucchini Bread and Happy Herbivore's Chocolate Zucchini Muffins (which are my kids favorite zucchini recipe). But I wanted to make something with zucchini that was even healthier, free of flour and sweetened with only fruit and dates. This recipe is adapted from Dr. Furhman's website, a great place to find fruit or date sweetened only desserts, plus many other wonderful recipes. These certainly have a much healthier taste than your average zucchini bread that is filled with white flour, sugar and oil, but that's what I like about them. My kids liked these a lot, I think they would be a great lunchbox addition once school starts.

Zucchini Bars

Ingredients:

12 pitted medjool dates
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 very ripe medium bananas or 3 small bananas
4 tablespoons raw sunflower seeds
4 tablespoons ground flax seed
4 cups oatmeal, divided
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup chocolate chips, or raisins, or carob chips
5 cups shredded zucchini
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 9 by 13 dish with oil and set aside.

Using a high powered blender, process 2 cups of the oats into oat flour. Place in a large mixing bowl.

Next, add the dates, soy milk, bananas, sunflower seeds and flaxseed to the blender. Blend until very smooth. Add this mixture to the bowl with the oat flour. Add the remaining 2 cups of oats, cinnamon, walnuts, chocolate chips (or raisins), zucchini and vanilla. Mix well (mixture should be moist but very thick, if it seems too runny or wet, add a little extra oats). Spread mixture into the 9 by 13 dish.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, until golden brown and the center is firm. Mine took 45 minutes. These also firm up a lot as they cool, so don't worry if they seem a little mushy right out of the oven.

Store in the refrigerator for several days. Happy Summer!