Don't just spell it correctly - Use it well!

Back in middle school, I entered a UIL spelling competition.  I was an excellent speller. Still not too bad, either; chalk it up to an excellent education in phonics, along with a strong genetic predisposition for language, and combine that with unfettered acccess to libraries, et voilà, you come up with a ridiculously pointless human spellcheck.  But I digress. At this middle school spelling competition, we were all seated at these big tables; some poor teacher who got roped into helping out at UIL had the job of calling out the words and their definitions; and we students were to write down the words.

The entire room missed "zucchini." They told us this after the spelling papers were checked. Then we were told the correct spelling. Guess who's never forgotten it since?....yeah. That's a totally useful job skill, let me tell you. It comes in handy ALL the time, like when you work at a restaurant and write the daily special on the chalkboard out front...and, well, pretty much that's the only time. 

So of course I was intrigued when my erstwhile spelling nemesis made its appearance with the word "brownies." Of all things! I mean, zucchini, in a brownie? Have you ever even thought of such a thing before? No? Well neither had I. 

Here's the recipe. You can thank me later.  

 

Low Fat Zucchini Brownies - from Sparkpeople

 

1/2 cup applesauce
2 small or medium bananas mashed
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups finely shredded zucchini
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup walnut pieces

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour an 9x13 inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, mix together the applesauce, mashed bananas and sugar. Add vanilla and cocoa and mix together. Then add baking soda, salt, and zucchini and mix together. Add flour and walnuts and mix together. Spread evenly into a prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes until brownies spring back when gently touched.