Low-fat, low-sugar, whole wheat oat pumpkin bread

I love pumpkin bread, I love pumpkin anything honestly. I don't love a cup of sugar and two sticks of butter in a single loaf of bread. So after years of trying lots of different recipes I found the perfect pumpkin bread recipe! I makes a great snack is really rather healthy. 

I love the idea of eating fat free pumpkin bread, and this recipe could very easily be fat free. However, there is no getting around food with fat tastes better. I have started taking the time to calculate how much fat would be in each slice of bread based on how much fat I add to the bread. This recipe ended up with under 3 grams of fat a slice by having a couple of tablespoons of coconut oil. Coconut oil is one of the best sources for fat, and it adds a little nice texture to this bread. Bread with only applesauce always tastes just a little off to me. But if you really want low low low fat get rid of the coconut oil and use only applesauce and don't add nuts or chocolate chips.

I also always make two loafs when I make bread. It freezes so well and takes no extra work to double it. So this recipe makes two wonderful and delicious loafs.


Adapted from here

• 2 cups oats (Process in blender or food processor to flour consistency
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 large banana (mashed) **about 1 1/2 cup
• 3 T. melted coconut oil then add applesauce to make 1 cup
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup agave nectar
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1/2-1 cup chocolate chips or walnuts

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Mix wet ingredients in a medium bowl. Add to dry ingredients and mix until combined. Fold in chocolate chips

Place batter in loaf pan sprayed with coconut oil/ olive oil spray. **Can top loaf with a sprinkle of oats before baking to make it pretty!!**

Bake for 45-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Enjoy! Even John my pumpkin bread hating hubby loves this recipe

November Meal Plan

I can't believe we are down to only one full calendar month in this house! So this month I had to take an inventory of everything we have that needs to be used up and then use it up :)

Week 1:

Sunday-Pumpkin french toast

Monday-Honey Chipotle Tostadas

Tuesday- Coconut curry red lentils I plan on adding some red peppers for more veggies and color!

Wednesday-Lasagna

Thursday-Quinoa and Black Bean chili (we never got around to making this one last month, but I have all the stuff for it).

Friday-Balsamic glazed pizza. I made this last month and it was AMAZING!

Saturday- San Antonio!!

Week 2:

Sunday- Tuna Sushi

Monday- beans, rice and veggies.

Tuesday-leftovers

Wednesday- Israeli couscous

Thursday-Pasta with fancy olive oil (we have been apart of an olive oil club for the last two years. Sadly, the movers won't move it so we have to to use it up in the next month)

Friday- Greek pizza. Another amazing pizza from last month. I still have all the fancy cheeses for this one too.

Saturday-Kate's Grilley cheese

Week 3:

Sunday- Shrimp

Monday-Fajitas

Tuesday-Barley salad

Wednesday- Roasted Veggie pesto phyllo

Thursday-Roasted squash salad

Friday-Leftovers

Saturday-BBQ pork

Week 4:

Sunday- My BIRTHDAY! I'm hoping to not have to cook :)

Monday- Black beans and sweet potato chimigangas

Tuesday- Fall veggie with Quinoa and poached egg I made this last month and it was amazing. I didn't use beets because they didn't have any at our supermarket. So I threw in zucchini and used my "power green" mix and welted it with the quinoa.

Wednesday-Wild rice salad

Thursday-Saturday-Austin! We are being super classy and going to a football game for Thanksgiving, and probably eating BBQ

Black bean and sweet potato chimigangas

Ok, do me a favor and just commit to trying this recipe before you judge the ingredients.

It is an odd ingredient list.

But these are amazing!

I promise.


Black bean and sweet potato chimigangas

1 can black beans, or about two cups cooked black beans
1/2 sweet onion
1 clove garlic-minced
1 sweet potato-finely diced
1 zucchini-peeled and diced
1 red pepper-diced
1 c. chopped spinach
1-3 t. chili powder (depending on how hot you like it)
1/2 t. cumin
1/2 t. paprika
1 t. salt
1/4 c. grated cheddar
1/4 c. grated peper jack
Whole Wheat tortillas
Salsa or guacamole or avocado dressing

Heat 1 T olive oil over medium heat in large skillet. Add onion, garlic and sweet potato. Cook about 5 minutes until onions are tender and sweet potatoes start to soften. Add zucchini, red pepper and spices continue cooking until all veggies are soft. Stir in beans and spinach, stir until spinach welts.

Heat tortillas, fill with about 1/4 c. of filling, top with a little cheese. Fold in two sides, then the other two sides to make a little envelop.

Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes until crispy.

Top with salsa and enjoy

October Menu

It seems like menu planning/grocery shopping takes up a huge amount of my time each week (or every other week if I am on top of things :) So this month I thought I would experiment with a month of planning and shopping. That way each week I can just run in and get produce and not a week's worth of grocery. Then we have plenty of food on our hands if I can't make it to the store one week, or if the government closes the base grocery store (oh wait that happened).

I thought I would post my menu so next October I could do the same exact thing. We eat seasonally so it is hard to just rotate every month or two but we can at least rotate every month. We have a very simple outline for our meals: Fish Sunday, Mexican Monday and Pizza Friday. Then we usually do pasta once a week, beans once a week and then a salad or quinoa or something like that.

I have linked the recipes that have links-if they don't that means it is my recipe and I will post once I have cooked them just in case they don't turn out :). Enjoy!



Week 1:
Monday-Tacos

Tuesday-roasted tomatoes and eggplant pasta-This sauce is so great! But to be honest it reminds me a lot of my favorite lazy day sauce: a jar of roasted red pepper and a can of fire roasted tomatoes with some garlic, salt and pepper. So if you don't want to roasted the tomatoes and peppers just do that. Oh and I used regular pasta-Texas isn't fancy enough for fancy noodles :)

Wednesday-out-this was unplanned, but John passed a very hard part of training!

Thursday-eggplant curry (I followed the recipe on the red curry paste for the sauce. Then stir-fried some eggplant, zucchini, peppers, and peanuts-yum!)

Friday-roasted red pepper and spinach pizza

Saturday-BBQ

Week 2:
Monday-sweet potato chimigangas

Tuesday-cocount lime pasta I always stir-fry my veggies and rice noodles. I then refrigerate for the afternoon and serve chilled. Very yummy!

Wednesday-Butternut squash salad

Thursday-Veggie chili

Friday-articoke and sun dried tomatoes pizza

Saturday-Out

Sunday-Salmon with sunshine rice


Week 3:
Monday-Veggie chili enchiladas

Tuesday-Pumpkin Mac and Cheese I'm not sure I will use this recipe. If you have a semi-healthy pumpkin mac and cheese recipe will you send it my way please? :)

Wednesday-Quino and squash

Thursday-Sweet potato and orzo

Friday-Butternut squash, grilled onion and balsamic pizza

Saturday-Breakfast for dinner

Sunday-Shrimp

Week 4:

Monday-Fajitas

Tuesday-Stuffed peppers (this one is a must!)

Wednesday-Black bean, quinoa and pumpkin

Thursday-Pepper and cornbread salad

Friday-Greek pizza

Saturday-out

Sunday-Fish cakes


Week 5:
Monday-Tostadas

Tuesday-Steak

Wednesday-Pumpkin Ravioli

Thursday-Halloween-I think it's a law to eat chili that night-right? So I will probably make egg rolls :)

Autumn vegetables and red lentils

I found this recipe and made a couple of modifications. It was so good! John and I both loved it (Caleb's pickiness is at a new level so he eats nothing with any flavor). Very easy to make, and lots of flavor.

• 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
• ½ yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 cup Sweet Potato, chopped into 1cm cubes
• 1½ cups dried Red Lentils
• 4 cups Vegetable Broth/Stock
• 1 cup Carrot pulp 
• 1 cup Broccoli florets, sliced
• 1 cup Baby Spinach leaves
• 1 cup fresh Coriander leaves

Spices

• 1 tsp grated fresh Ginger
• 1 tsp Ground mustard seed 
• 1 tsp ground Cayenne Pepper (less if you don’t like medium-level spiciness)
• 1½ tsp ground Cumin
• 1½ tsp Curry powder
• ½ tsp ground Coriander
• 1 clove fresh Garlic, chopped

Instructions

1. Assemble spices in a small bowl.
2. Heat oil in large saucepan or frypan over medium heat.
3. Add onion and sweet potato and sauté until onion is soft.
4. Add spices and cook, stirring, until mustard seeds start to pop.
5. Add lentils and stock and simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Add remaining vegetables and carrot pulp and simmer for another 15 minutes.
7. Remove from heat and stir in spinach leaves until wilted.
8. Serve topped with cilantro.

Israeli couscous with grilled squash and greek yogurt tandoori

I was on a quest to make a lot more dairy free recipes for my sister-in-law who is off dairy right now and I was feeling like a Middle Eastern meal-that was simple.

As I was making this I saw our greek yogurt and really wanted a tandoori sauce on this meal. But you could make it dairy free by using olive oil instead of yogurt. This was so simple and delicious!!

I used a Saigon Blend for this recipe. It is a blend of ginger, cumin, cinnamon, clove, salt, garlic, anise and pepper. I am not sure where you would get it, another option would be curry powder.

Israeli couscous with roasted squash and greek yogurt tandoori

1 c. Israeli couscous
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
1 T coconut oil
Curry powder or saigon blend
1/4 c. greek yogurt or olive oil
1/2 lemon-juiced
1 clove minced garlic

Cook couscous according to package direction. Sprinkle with salt.

Peel squash, cut into four long pieces. Brush with coconut oil and sprinkle with seasoning. Grill for 5 minutes per side, until nice and tender. Cut into chunks.

Combine greek yogurt, lemon and garlic.

Mix couscous, squash and dressing. Enjoy!

Whole wheat spelt flax bagels with chia seed

I have a slightly illogical fear that John is going to die of cancer in his 40s. Not really illogical, that is when his father died, and almost every member of his family has died of cancer at some point. So I went crazy searching how to avoid cancer.

And now we put flaxseed in everything.

Probably won't cure cancer, but will possibly help some. Oh and chia seed. Those seeds my keep my hubby kicking it until he is 50!

But for real, I really wanted a healthy bagel recipe. I read that people should eat more spelt flour, so I use that. I added the seeds to add extra fiber to them. They are delicious but do take some time. Rolling out all those bagels takes some time. But it is worth it! A bagel and green smoothie is literally my favorite recipe.

 I adapted this from here. I triple the recipe because I make them to last us two weeks. They freeze wonderfully! Just cut them before you freeze them, then you just pull one out, pop it in the toaster and have a wonderful bagel every day.

6 t of yeast
4 1/2 T of sugar
3 3/4 c of warm water
4 1/2 c spelt flour
5 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. ground flaxseed
2 T chia seed
4 1/2 t. of salt

Pour the yeast and sugar into 1 1/2 c warm water. Do not stir. Let it sit for five minutes, and then stir the yeast and sugar mixture until it all dissolves in the water.

Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast and sugar mixture.

Pour 1 1/2 c. warm water in the well. Mix and stir in the rest of the water as needed (I always need it all. Adding the flax and spelt flour will make it thick, sometimes I add a tablespoon more) You want a moist and firm dough.

Knead for 10 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.

Place dough in oiled bowl. Cover with damp cloth and let rise until double in size (about one hour). Punch down and let rest for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into equally sized balls (my sizes vary between golf ball to tennis ball. It depends on how hungry I am! I so don't stress about the size, they will all turn out yummy in the end). Gently press a finger into the center of each dough ball to form a ring. Stretch the ring to about 1/3 the diameter of the bagel and placed on greased cookie sheet. Repeat with all balls

Cover with damp cloth and allow to rest 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 425

Bring a large pot of water with 1 T maple syrup to boil. Use a slotted spoon to lower the bagels into the water. Boil as many as fit in the pot (I usually do four at a time). Boil two minutes than flip and boil two more (you will want to boil them that long, this is a heavy dough, you want the bagels to be chewy).

After boiling brush each bagel with egg wash (1 egg white, 1 T water). Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.