Recipe: Pumpkin Bread

The weather here took a drastic change to bring Autumn in a hurry. I personally don't mind, since Fall is my favorite season. The farmers are already selling pumpkins they harvested early, so I'm in the pumpkin baking mood. The inspiration for this recipe came from the My Baking Addiction Pumpkin Bread and the Harvest Pumpkin Apple Bread on Food.com.

Both of those recipes contain way too much sugar and oil for my personal taste, so I modified them to reduce the amount while retaining the moisture and flavor.  I exchanged the 2 1/2 cups of sugar for small amounts of molasses, pure maple syrup, apple sauce, and apple juice. These ingredients add sweetness while providing a deeper flavor and cutting the sugar content by half.

Since I'm drastically  reducing my consumption of processed white flour, I switched it out with whole wheat flour and quick cooking oats. The recipe makes two loaves, but you can turn them into muffins, just make sure to reduce the baking time.

Healthy Pumpkin Bread with chocolate chips.
Great fall flavors without all the sugar.

Recipe: Pumpkin Bread
Yield 2 loaves

Ingredients:
2 cup homemade pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1/3 cup apple juice
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup unsweetened natural apple sauce
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tblsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
pinch cardamom
2 tsp baking soda
1 tblsp lemon juice
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

NOTE: If you use can pumpkin instead of homemade pumpkin puree, add 1/3 cup of water to batter.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with large baking pan of water at the bottom of the oven. This helps keep moisture.

Grease and flour two 8.5 x 4 x 2.5 inch loaf pans.

In a bowl, mix pumpkin puree, oil, apple juice, apple sauce, maple, molasses, spices, vanilla, salt, and lemon juice. Mix for 2-5 minutes to ensure ingredients are well blended. Add oatmeal and mix well together. Let mixture rest for five minutes.

In a separate bowl mix flour and baking soda. Add flour mixture to wet mix, and stir until just blended. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake in preheated oven for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If the sides of the loaf are pulling away from the pan, it is probably done.

Cool in pans on a wire rack for ten minutes. After the pans are cool enough to touch, remove loaves from pans and continue to cool them on the wire racks.

Pumpkin Bread with chocolate chips fresh from the oven.

Recipe: Ranch Dressing

A lot of premade dressing contain hidden ingredients, and can be rather pricey. In attempt to cut out preservatives and find a cheaper alternative to the premade salad dressings on the shelf, I found a home made version. The recipe I came up with was inspired by the easy Ranch Dressing at Bake Your Day, so some credit should go to them.

Dry Ranch Seasoning Mix
2 tsp. dried parsley
2 tsp. dried dill
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. onion salt
2 tsp. black powder
1 tsp. dried chives

Mix the ingredients in a sealed container, which will keep for a couple of months.

When you're ready for the actual dressing, mix 1 tbsp of dry mix with 1/3 cup mayo, greek yogurt or sour cream (your preference), and 1/4 cup buttermilk or plain milk. For creamer dressing use less milk. If you want a lighter dressing use fat-free greek yogurt or sour cream with skim milk.

Homemade Bleach Cleaner

I really like to use vinegar as a non-abrasive, natural cleaner, but sometimes you need something a bit stronger. While vinegar is a good a disinfectant, it does not compete against the killing power of bleach. Rodale provides a good article "This or That: Bleach vs. Vinegar."  For the most part, they  prefer vinegar over bleach for normal day-to-day use, but recognize bleach is better at killing food-borne germs. I like to use a homemade bleach cleaner on my cutting boards. Occasionally I use it in the bathroom for a deep clean.

Here is what I use in my 500 ML spray bottle.
1 tbsp bleach
2 tbsp laundry detergent (Do NOT use detergent with bleach alternatives. This will cause a bad chemical reaction.)
Fill the rest with water.

This is certainly a lot cheaper than buying the pre-made version. It is mere pennies a bottle to make your own. Happy cleaning!

Beauty on the Cheap

Hair Care: Use warm oil to provide deep condition to your long hair or moisturize your damaged hair. This is cheap substitute for the V05 hair oil. Pour 1-2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a small container. Submerge the container in warm to hot water to gently warm the oil. After a couple of minutes, spread the oil through the ends of your hair. Let sit in your hair for 3-5 minutes, then wash your hair with your normal shampoo. Its amazing how shiny and smooth your hair looks and feels afterwards.

Highlights: Hydrogen Peroxide provides a cheap hair lightener. The basic brown bottle from the drug store won't change your dark brown hair to blond, but it will certainly lighten it. Spray a small amount through your hair, brush, and let your hair dry. When I started, I had dark brown hair. After about 2-3 days my hair was a light reddish, brown. It was enough of a difference that my male boss noticed.

I also used the hydrogen peroxide to lighten the hair on my upper lip, otherwise known as my woman'stache. Every morning, I dip a Q-tip into the hydrogen peroxide and cover the hair. It doesn't irritate my skin like the over the counter hair bleach, but still accomplishes the job. Not bad from a small brown bottle that comes in under $1.

Water-proof eye make-up remover: A tablespoon of simple cooking oil mixed with a drop of shampoo does the trick to gentle remove even the most stubborn of water-proof mascara.

Skin Care:
At Petit Elefant, she provides a tutorial to make your own pore strip, which is a cheap alternative to the name brand pore strips you get at the drug store.

In an earlier post, I provided a couple of recipes to make homemade facial and sugar scrubs, which I happen use quite frequently.

Recipe: Greek Dressing

One of our favorite dressings for salads and marinades is Gazebo Room Greek Dressing (pictured left). While coming in at over $3 at the register (and probably will continue to rise with inflation), I thought I could come up with something just as good, but cheaper. Then we moved to a region that did not carry our favorite Greek dressing, so this gave me an opening to get creative.

Just using the items I typically keep in my pantry, I came up with the recipe below. This is our "go to" dressing.

Ingredients

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp basil
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp brown mustard
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup white vinegar

Directions: In a clean sealable jar, add the oils and spices. Then shake the jar to mix ingredients. Add the vinegars and shake. If you're somebody that really like tangy flavor, you can reduce or omit the sugar.

This can be stored on the kitchen counter...no refrigeration required. We use this not only for salad dressing (salads will keep you feeling fuller with a little bit of fat), but to marinade chicken for the grill, dress cubed potatoes for roasting or dressing for our pasta salad. All very yummy!