World's Most Forgiving Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Seriously. I have wronged this zucchini bread from Simply Recipes in every way imaginable, and it has consistently shown resilience, fortitude and reliable deliciousness in the face of everything I have throw at it. I've made some version of it during pretty much every diet/nutrition/eating iteration I've tried in the last couple years. It can become lower-carb, lower-glycemic index, high protein, gluten-free, dairy-free or both of those plus being high-carb/low fat/low protein (which is the way I made it yesterday to eat as my 50g carb/<5g fat/low protein-post-workout snack.)

Substitutions I have made with generally high degrees of success (though there is naturally an inverse relationship between the number of health-oriented substitutions you can make in any recipe and the degree of OMG-delicious that said recipe results in, at least in my experience):

• Applesauce for butter (partially or completely)
• Whole wheat flour for all purpose flour (partially or completely)
• Protein powder for all-purpose flour (half-substitution)
• Coconut/almond/chickpea flour combo for all purpose flour (partially or completely)
• Stevia, honey or maple syrup for sugar (partially or completely)
• Egg whites for eggs (partially or completely)

Oh, and I never use almond extract, I always use vanilla, because I love vanilla and I never have almond on hand. I also often sprinkle a handful of chocolate chips (dark or milk, whatever is on hand) on the top of the batter before I put it in the oven because having those little hits of pure chocolate makes any variety of a healthy version extra delicious. At some point I should probably try making this recipe exactly as called for as I imagine it's pretty insanely good, but let's be real, that will never happen.

Baking + not ruining my nutrition plan = very happy me.

Now go forth, bastardize this recipe, and enjoy!