In this post I’m sharing my recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bread. It’s gluten free and dairy free. But you can also make it using traditional baking flour. If you’d like to read about my adventures in elimination dieting read on. If not, just scroll to the bottom.
When Gideon was born I expected to be tired. I expected night wakings and night feedings and night cryings. I expected to need to try to nap during the day and ride out the months until his fresh little body got days and nights and eating figured out. I even expected nursing hardships until he and I got that figured out.
What I didn’t anticipate was a baby who would be awake thrashing around, grunting and obviously uncomfortable. I didn’t anticipate a baby who would cry while trying to nurse, need to be fed every 2ish hours for months and months. I didn’t anticipate the pained look on my perfect baby angel’s face after eating…or the lakes of spit up that came up every day. Sometimes multiple times in a day.
It was all very yucky. I went to the doctor. I called the nurses line. I switched him from military health care to the private sector (a choice I’ll maybe tell you about some other time.) I knew in my heart of hearts something was amiss. And maybe the saddest part of the whole thing was how happy Giddy was when he wasn’t dealing with an angry belly. He wanted to be happy. He was just chronically uncomfortable during certain times of day.
After trying lots of things and a million Google searches, I decided to start elimination dieting. The chance of foods eaten by a mom upsetting a baby’s tummy simply by being passed through breastmilk is pretty rare–at least according to the experts. I could attempt to tell you the science behind it all…but I’m not Bill Nye. So I’ll skip that. I’ll just say that most doctors believe a baby being upset by what mom ate is more wive’s tale than fact. However–certain foods’ proteins are passed through in breastmilk. And if a baby has a hard time processing those proteins he may have belly troubles.
Long story short I was at my wits end, so I started to eliminate and keep a very, very detailed log of everything going in my mouth.
Caffeine, gluten, grains, egg, and all animal dairy were taken out.
Eventually the culprits were nailed down to gluten and cow dairy. I spent about 4 months without those products (which was a real challenge if you know me well.) And we are finally at a point where my diet is again unlimited. (Yahoo!!)
The doctor kept reassuring me this was likely just an immature digestive system and he would outgrow it. He suggested trying those foods about once a month until the reaction was gone. I didn’t think the day would ever come. But the same way they tell you the morning sickness will eventually go away during pregnancy….one day I had ice cream and everything was just fine! Like a switch flipping. Ahhh-mazing.
So now I’ve got loads of great gluten free, dairy free recipes. And I shouldn’t be selfish with them…since I authored many myself. Today I’m going to share a recipe some of you requested after I posted a pretty photo of it on Instagram. Chocolate Zucchini Bread.
The beauty of this recipe is that it can easily be made with traditional flour if you aren’t watching your gluten – AND- it makes two loaves. So you can keep one and share one. Or you can eat both (that’s what I like to do.) It’s super easy, so let’s get cracking.
It came from my grandma’s cookbook, so you better bet it wasn’t originally a gluten free recipe. But–it adapted just fine.
Here’s the flours I used.
Note**the batter is super thick…so if you garnish the top with almonds you’ll need to press them down a bit.
