Recipe: Homemade Pumpkin Bread

Fall is here and its Pumpkin Season - you name it, I'll eat it! There is nothing I don't love about the Fall whether its food, football, or friends!! Even the thought of a warm Pumpkin Spice Latte makes me smile.

This has been my go-to pumpkin bread recipe for as long as I can remember. This recipe comes out perfect every time. It makes two loaves which are delicious eaten right out of the oven or frozen for your next home gathering. I have added my cream cheese icing recipe below for your added eating pleasure...its to die for if I do say so myself!

Ingredients

• 3/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 2 Tsp Baking Soda
• 2 Tsp Salt
• 1 Tsp Baking Powder
• 1 Tsp Nutmeg
• 1 Tsp Allspice
• 1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 Tsp Cloves
• 3 Cups White Sugar (I use 2 cups)
• 1 Cup Canola Oil
• 4 Eggs Beaten (Can use Egg Beaters)
• 1 Can Solid Pack Pumpkin Puree
• 2/3 Water

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two loaf pans.
• In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and cloves.
• In a large bowl with an electric mixer, blend sugar, oil and eggs. Stir in pumpkin. Slowly blend the flour mixture into pumpkin mixture. While blending the mixture add water incrementally. Pour the batter into two prepared loaf pans.
• Bake in a preheated 350 degrees oven for 90 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pans. Enjoy!

Cream Cheese Icing Recipe (w/ Pecans)

Ingredients

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 (1-lb) box of confectioners sugar
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Cup Toasted Pecans (Lightly toasted on stove in pan)

Directions

• In large bowl, cream together cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. 
• sugar gradually, beating constantly. 
• Add vanilla and pecans. Fold in. 
• Spread on loaves ready to eat and enjoy!

Fake Out: Sweet Treats

I have mentioned before that I believe in feeding my kids the purest I can while still enabling them to enjoy food. I believe in the 80/20 rule where you eat 80% real honest food and then 20% is for the "life happens" category. I don't want my kids growing up never have tried anything - its important to test our palettes and as we all know our taste buds evolve over time. There are plenty of foods i never liked as a kid (or even a teenager) that now I love. As parents, its our job to help our kids test their palettes....and much of the time it can be a huge struggle. Don't stress. My advice would be to do your best and stick to it. It will happen and they won't be eating out of a box forever. Once you, as the adult, realize that there is no nutritional value in boxed and bagged foods you'll start to be more persistent. Kids get hungry, they're growing - so feed them! My kids aren't perfect eaters, believe me :) But I do my best to feed them with good/real food. If they're really hungry, they'll eat it!

Here are a few Fake Out Sweet Treats we have enjoyed this Summer. They're yummy & your kids will never know the difference - I promise!

Strawberry & Banana Almond Milk Ice Cream
1 Small Frozen Banana
1 Cup Frozen Strawberries
1/3 Cup Unsweetened Almond Milk

Add all ingredients to your blender and blend completely.  Pour into glasses & enjoy!

Pineapple Milkshake (adapted from Knead to Cook)
1/2 Cup of Chobani vanilla yogurt
3/4 Cup of almond milk
6 Ice cubes
1 Tablespoon flax seed meal
1 Small Banana (I freeze ripe bananas so this would be a good time to use them)

1 Pineapple, skin & core removed, chopped into large pieces (or use frozen)

Add all ingredients to your blender and blend completely.  Pour into glasses & enjoy!

Nutella Cherry Ice Cream Pops
3/4 Cup Nutella
1 Cup coarsely chopped cheeries
1 Cup organic whole milk

Add all ingredients to your blender and blend completely.  Pour into silicone yogurt tubes and freeze for at least 2 hours & enjoy!

Banana Almond Butter Ice Cream - My favorite and also adapted from Knead to Cook)
4-6 Ripe bananas (peeled and sliced)
3-4 Tbsp of almond butter
1 Tsp of vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt

Favorite Toppings:
Chopped nuts
Chocolate chips
Graham crackers
Mini Marshmallows
Sprinkles

Add all ingredients to your blender and blend completely. Distribute ingredients into freezable Mason Jars (about 1/2 way) and freeze overnight. Let stand at room temperature a few minutes before serving & enjoy!

Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am posting this AMAZING cookie recipe on my blog because it deserves every bit of exposure it can! This is by far the best cookie I have ever made and possibly eaten. I discovered this recipe a couple months ago and since then have made double batches for just about every event I have gone to. Without a hitch they're gone in minutes and people don't want to leave without knowing my secret - the secret is Emilie. This is NOT my recipe but a fellow blogger from Scarborough Food Fair and she is amazing. Please check out her site...you won't regret it!

I am re-posting it just as Emilie has it on her website so I don't miss a beat. Her delicious recipe needs no tweaking, but I will say if you're in a time crunch just omit the nutella part and the cookies are just as good! Enjoy!

  

Makes: 2 dozen

Prep Time: 2 hours

Bake Time: 9 Minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 9 minutes

Adapted From: Ambitious Kitchen

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

1 jar Nutella, chilled in refrigerator

coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter until it beings to foam.  Continuously whisk until the butter begins to brown on the bottom of the saucepan, about 5-7 minutes.  As soon as the butter is brown and begins to give off a nutty aroma remove from heat and transfer to a small bowl to prevent from burning.  Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
3. With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.  Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined.  Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat on low-speed just until combined.  Gently fold in all of the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon.
4. Chill the dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator.
5. Preheat the oven to 350°.  Measure out a heaping tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball.  Flatten the ball very thinly into the palm of your hand and then place 1 teaspoon of chilled nutella in the middle and fold the dough up and around it.  Gently roll into a ball (it doesn't have to be perfect!) and make sure the nutella isn't seeping out anywhere.  If it is, cover it up with more dough.
6. Place dough balls on a cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and flatten the tops ever so slightly with your fingers.
7. Bake the cookies 9 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown.  Remove from oven and let sit on the baking sheets for several minutes.  Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.  
8. Enjoy!