Healthy Pumpkin Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread + big news!

I recently quit my job at General Mills to focus on my blog full-time. This was a huge decision for me to make, but after realizing how unhappy I was working on my corporate full time job, blogging at night and having virtually no social life, I knew it was time to make the change. Actually I needed a change in my life. I have always been a passionate person and I realized that I wasn’t practicing what I preached. I was resisting change and moving forward because I was scared of the unknown. Bottom line, I wasn’t doing what I loved and I knew that I needed my heart to be in my work

They say that doing what your afraid of will set you free. This has been so true for me. My creativity is alive again and I’m beaming from ear to ear. My entire attitude has changed.

To give you a little more perspective: A few months into Ambitious Kitchen, it become my passion. I wanted to share my love for food, encourage healthy living and share my experiences with all of you! Initially, I always thought that climbing a corporate ladder would make me happy and determine my success, but that wasn’t true at all. I decided that my success was going to be determined by me, living wholeheartedly, having freedom, being creative, and uninhibited. I didn’t want to be a slave to something that I didn’t care about. Each and everyday I walked into the office and felt as though I was a robot. Not only that, but the job was incredibly stressful and at the age of 25, I didn’t NEED that. I wanted to be able to explore my passions and to gradually work through my fear of the unknown.

So one day I walked into the office and walked away from stability, a great salary, a title, and everything I knew. And it felt amazing. There are no regrets! If blogging full-time doesn’t work, that’s okay with me, but at least I tried and took the risk. That in itself is worth it.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour or white whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 cup shredded zucchini, squeezed of excess moisture
• 1/3 cup honey (or pure maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon olive or coconut oil
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.
3. In a separate large bowl combine pumpkin, zucchini, honey, oil, egg, and vanilla until well combined and smooth. Whisk in almond milk. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips, reserving a few for sprinkling on top. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 10-15 minutes, then remove bread from pan and transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.
4. ....................................

for full recipes please see : www.ambitiouskitchen.com

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