Spiced Pumpkin Bread

Happy halloweekend everyone! Hopefully, you whipped out your costumes that you're allowed to wear 1x a year and it be okay to be a cat, turtle, duck, shower curtain- whatever floats your boat! This year, I was just a kitty cat (would you expect anything else from me?!). But I like to celebrate differently- i was craving some sort of pumpkin and decided to make this pumpkin bread! At one of the culinary schools I visited, the chef prepared for us a pumpkin bread. I took similar measurements, and just did many substitutions. My first attempted bread seemed to be too dense, so I added a little more flour and got a better result! This bread is so delicious and the pumpkin definitely is the key note in this. Omnomnomnom

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

vegan~glutenfree

1-9x5" loaf pan

1 1/2 cups ap gluten free flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 flax eggs (or 2 servings ener-g egg replacer)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 cup almond milk

1/3 cup coconut oil, melted

a handful of walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease and flour your 9x5" pan

2. In the bowl of your stand mixer, add the flax eggs and brown sugar and beat on medium until the sugar is quite dissolved. Slowly incorporate your coconut oil while beating.

3. Add the rest of the wet ingredients- vanilla, pumpkin, and almond milk, and mix until fully incorporated.

4. Next, sift your dry ingredients into a medium mixing bowl (flour, baking soda and baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt). Once sifted, add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, while your mixer is running on low (do this in 3-4 batches, because you don't want all the flour to fly up in your face!). Let it beat for a few minutes, until fully incorporated.

5. Turn off your mixer, and scrape out your batter and place it into the loaf pan. If you want, before you put it in the loaf pan, you can incorporate the walnuts in the batter. I liked mine on top, so I didn't do this.

6. Once your batter is in the loaf pan, "drop" it 3 times-so there are no air bubbles in the loaf.

7. Sprinkle walnuts on top, and bake for 1 hour and 20-30 minutes. Allow it to cool for 30 minutes before you dig in!

Little iggy was sooo sleepy- he didn't want me doing my homework!

Two Awesomely Quick Snacks

Yesterday was my first day off in such a long time and I spent it mostly in front of the TV watching Wimbledon. As you can tell, I was chillin' so much that I just put my computer aside and had myself a personal day. I took a day off from working out, errands, all of the above and just relaxed. It was kinda nice, but then I felt a little bummed because I have so much to yet still do! Hmph! But hey, I got a day off to do nothing so I can't complain, right?

Almost the entire day I rummaged through the kitchen trying to find something I could maybe make, bake, cook, anything! I haven't been to the grocery store in such a long time and my food has been limited. Since I wasn't really hungryyy, I just wanted to munch all day. I had a lot of food that is on the verge of rotting, so I wanted to use most of it up.

Introducing the easiest and best sandwich post workout or as a snack- banana bread almond butter sammich! At work, my boss bought maybe 2 cases filled with bananas; which at work hardly sell. Usually I will take one here and there just so they don't go to waste (and also because I'm wildly in love with bananas). I was craving a Peanut butter and banana sandwich, but wasn't feeling like having a full on sandwich for the day. We were joking about how we are probably going to be making banana breads all week trying to compensate for our rotting bananas, and I thought hey! Why not make a banana act as the bread!! YES! It was actually really filling and it tasted amazing! All I did was slice a banana in half long ways and then add almond butter (homemade) on one side and squished the other side of the banana on top. EASY PEASY.

My next quick fix snackage recipe? Bruschetta. Yup. Vegan and gluten free and absolutely amazing. My mom said it was the BEST bruschetta she's ever eaten. The best part? Only took me 5 minutes to simple put together! Here's a quick little recipe to make the tomato mixture even better!

Tomato Basil Bruschetta 

Serves 8 tiny bruschetti

6 vine-ripened tomatoes, diced

2 shallots, diced

1 tablespoon fresh basil, minced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons EVOO

a pinch of salt and pepper

1/4cup vegan cashew cream (recipes anywhere and everywhere)

2 tablespoons parmesan cheese (vegan)

8 pieces of gluten free bread, toasted

1. All ingredients except toast together and let it marry for an 30 minutes. 

2. toast your bread so it is nice and crispy then top it with your bruschetta. If you have fresh basil, place a leaf on bottom than put your tomato mixture on top.

So easy, yet so delicious!!