Confidence is a funny thing. For me, its constantly waxing and waning. I like to pretend that I am sure of myself, but self doubt always finds its way into the equation.
As I sit here writing, I’m considering writing a list of the areas of my life I am the most confident in, and the areas I am the least confident in. The more I think about it, the more things I’m mentally moving from the CONFIDENT list to the NOT CONFIDENT list. See? Exactly my point. Self doubt is always creeping.
The constant mental flips flops drive me nuts. Some days I feel like my body looks great, other days I hate my thighs. Some days I feel like I’ve created an amazing blog post, but then I get no response from my readers or social media. Sometimes I’ll give my all to a big project knowing that I’m going to hit it out of the park, but then my client will want to change all my ideas making me think they maybe weren’t such good ideas to begin with.
I often find myself questioning my abilities in art, business, fashion, fitness, gardening, puppy rearing, being a wife, blogging, driving, photography, giving advice, cooking, my appearance, writing……….
Self doubt can be really exhausting.
Last week, my very sweet friend Gurpreet told me this was the best zucchini bread she had ever eaten. Confidence spike! Then I remembered I got the recipe from Melissa’s Great Pepper Cookbook. Confidence subsides. I’m certainly glad she enjoyed it, but I was kicking myself wishing it was an original recipe.
That’s when It hit me. I realized the one area where I am always confident in my abilities.
Making people happy.
I know for a fact that I am a good friend. That I’m a genuinely nice person. That I go out of my way to be sure that those around me are happy. The more I think about it, the more confident I become in this idea. I guess that’s how to know that its legit.
I suppose if there was any one area to be confident in, this is a good one. I’d like to believe that finding success in all those areas in which I feel uncertain begins with being a good person, and having the ability to make others happy. However, I’m not fully confident in that theory.
Oh yeah, I also make a mean zucchini bread.
For more awesome pepper recipes, be sure to check out The Great Pepper Cookbook from Melissa’s Produce.
Guajillo Spiced Zucchini Bread
A unique zucchini bread recipe with a mild spicy twist.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 6 dried guajillo peppers stems and seeds removed, ground
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup canola oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 cups grated zucchini
- zest of 2 lemons
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Coat 2 loaf pans with cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper, and spray the parchment paper with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and ground chiles.
- In the bowl of the stand mixer, whisk together eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar on medium speed until mixture is smooth.
- Turn mixer to low and slowly add flour mixture until well combined.
- Remove bowl from mixer stand and stir in zucchini and lemon zest.
- Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake 60-75 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely.
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Jess says
Spicy zucchini bread? Interesting. I might have to try this.
Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious says
I have a spiced zuke bread on my site, too, and will have to try adding dried chile to it. Great inspiration!
Elizabeth says
Where do you buy these type of peppers and does it make the bread really spicy or does it just add another component, one that can’t identify, but adds to the flavor?
betsy says
You can buy them from Melissa’s Produce here http://www.melissas.com/Dried-Chile-Guajillo-p/97.htm
The bread is not spicy at all. I think you’ll love it!
betsy says
You can buy the peppers from Melissa’s here http://www.melissas.com/Dried-Chile-Guajillo-p/97.htm
The bread is not spicy at all. I think you’ll love it!