Behold! The Great Zucchini (Bread)!

Oh, sweet September. As the days grow shorter and humidity takes a nosedive, we look forward to your month-long bacchanalia of pre-playoff baseball, meteorological schizophrenia, and heaping gobs of use-or-it-goes-bad-tomorrow zucchini.

So – yeah. What to do with all these green things? Beyond pretending they’re lightsabers and dueling it out Kenobi-style, ratatouille comes to mind, as do mounds of squashed-up pasta. But mostly, I’m thinking zucchini bread, which, like its banana and pumpkin kin, tends to be heavy on sugar and nuts.

Enter Cooking Light. Of their five different recipes, this one looked the most promising. And for the most part, it came out pretty darn good, especially when toasted. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel that something was missing. Maybe a dash of ginger, a kick of cloves, or a half cup of dried cranberries would have given the bread some chutzpah, some moxy, some joie de vivre. It wouldn’t have affected the price or calorie content too terribly, either. Barring that missing ingredient, though, I’d make it again.

Working off of user reviews, I did add ¼ teaspoon nutmeg. Also, since I only had a 9x5 bread pan, I made one loaf and poured the rest of the batter into a cupcake tin. Six mini-muffins took 30 minutes, while the big mama went for 50 or so.

Cooking Light was kind enough to provide nutritional information (150 calories, 4.3 g fat per slice), so only the price calculations are shown below.

Lighter Zucchini Bread
2 loaves, 12 servings per loaf (serving size: 1 slice)
Adapted from Cooking Light.

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup egg substitute
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups shredded zucchini (12 ounces)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
Cooking spray

1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat 2 (8x4-inch) loaf pans with cooking spray.

2) Mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl.

3) In a separate bowl, mix egg substitute, canola oil, lemon rind, vanilla extract, and egg. Stir in sugar. Stir in zucchini. Everything should be well combined. Dump in flour mixture and stir until barely combined. Add walnuts and stir lightly.

4) Dump batter into 2 (8x4-inch) loaf pans, taking care to split it evenly. Bake at 350° for 60 minutes or until the loaves pass the toothpick test. Remove from oven and let cool in pans for about 10 minutes. Remove loaves from pans and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Approximate Calorie, Fat, and Price Per Serving
150 calories, 4.3 g fat, $0.18

Calculations
3 cups all-purpose flour: $0.16
1 teaspoon baking powder: $0.03
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon: $0.03
¼ teaspoon nutmeg: $0.03
1/2 teaspoon salt: $0.01
1/4 teaspoon baking soda: $0.01
1/2 cup egg substitute: $1.09
1/3 cup canola oil: $0.25
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind: $0.34
2 teaspoons vanilla extract: $0.25
1 large egg, lightly beaten: $0.17
1 1/2 cups sugar: $0.44
3 cups shredded zucchini (12 ounces): $0.98
1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted: $0.40
Cooking spray: $0.09
TOTAL: $4.28
PER SERVING (TOTAL/24): $0.18

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Posted in: Breads,Vegetarian

Cost and Your Health: Women Listen Up!

On occasion I listen to progressive talk show host Randi Rhodes, heard on my local Clear Channel station that carries Air America.

This is an odd mix, Clear Channel carrying Air America. I'm just glad in this market they do.

One thing I like about Randi is her sometimes outrageous take on things and that great burlesque-like song she plays. It's the Bounce Your Boobies song, now available as a ringtone.

In the same vein I wish Randi would be more open to health concepts other than from mainstream medical myopia.

It's in this genre I'd like to put forth some facts about the real cost of breast health screening. I've been waving this flag for over a decade, as well as asking why the 'cure' didn't come about in 1972 as promised.

My hope too is that women wake-up and smell the burnt flesh before "Race for the Cure" gets you again this year. This ad campaign and mammogram deter the effort from the need for action on prevention and cure.

It is the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and several European national health plans that recommend screening mammography no more than every two years AND only after menopause.

MAMMOGRAM IS NOT SAFE AND IT IS A CAUSE OF BREAST CANCER

Here are some facts:

• Yearly screening mammograms aren't safe, they expose you to radiation and breast cancer.
• Yearly screening mammograms aren't cost effective to society. The mammography industry could gross $1 billion per year if every woman aged 40-49 was screened yearly.
• Yearly screening mammograms aren't safe environmentally.
• Less than 10 percent of all breast cancers occur in women age 40-49.
• A major medical journal reports that the cost effectiveness (defined as the number of dollars spent so one person can live one year longer) of mammograms for women under 55 is $82,000.19.
• The current cost to detect one breast cancer is $195,000, using screening mammograms.
• Dr. Charles Wright of Vancouver (Canada) General Hospital estimates that the cost of saving one life by mass screening is $1.25 million.
• Several studies show no advantage to yearly mammograms. Mass screening once every two or three years offers the same reduction in deaths ( the famous five-year mortality scale). There is also less radiation hazard to individuals and society, and at far less cost.
• Many of the cancers found by mammographic screening are in situ cancers. Women with in situ cancers rarely die from them.
  
• With or without early detection and treatment, 93 percent survive more than five years.
• When in situ breast cancers are found by mammogram, treated, and added to the statistical base, breast cancer cure rates and longevity statistics improve.

Consider why mammography is praised: It has done what research into cures for breast cancer have failed to do.

The mammography campaign leads you believe there is progress in battling this dis-ease. Finding and treating the increasing numbers of breast cancer cases is NOT progress!

My thanks to John Gofman, PhD, MD and Susun Weed for their efforts to improve breast health based on fact.

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