Pumpkin Bread

My most favorite thing about fall: PUMPKIN! Pumpkin Lattes, Pumpkin Pie, and Pumpkin Bread. I even make my 6 month old homemade pumpkin baby food. Gotta start him young on the pumpkin lovin!

Year after year I search and search for a pumpkin bread recipe. I have yet to ever find one I truly like. So this year, I decided I was done trying to find a recipe, I will make up my own. I have made plenty of loaves of banana bread, zucchini bread, and various other bread, to know the basic ingredients of a bread loaf. Now I just needed to get the right ratios and spices for the perfect pumpkin bread.

Well, SUCCESS!! The recipe makes 3 medium sized loaves, or 2 loaves and 6 muffins. Totally up to you.

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
1 can of organic pumpkin 15 oz (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
4 eggs
3 cups of sugar
2/3 cup water
1 cup of oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon all spice
1.5 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking soda
3.5 cups of flour

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour each loaf pan.
2. Mix pumpkin, eggs, sugar, oil and water on medium speed in a large mixing bowl.
3. Once well mixed (soupy mixture), add cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice and salt. Mix for 1 minute on medium speed. This allows the pumpkin mixture to get the spices well worked on.
4. With the mixer on medium, add the baking soda, and the flour slowly. Continue to mix until all the flour has been added.
5. Mix on medium for 2-3 minutes. Mixture will be like a thick soup.
6. Evenly divide the batter into the loaf pans. Batter will make 3 medium sized loaves, or two loaves and 6-12 muffins.
7. Cook two loaf pans at a time at 350 degrees for 40-60 minutes. I check after 40 minutes, and about each five minutes there after. Bread should be a warm brown color, and the tooth pick should come out clean. If you are making muffins they take 12-15 minutes.
8. Immediately remove the loaf from the pan, and place on to a cooling rack.

You can share the loaves with friends, eat them all yourself, or freeze the extra loaves. Enjoy!

Strawberry-Banana Waffles

Waffles are a big breakfast request in my house.  I'm always looking for new recipes and trying out different combinations, I hardly ever make plain waffles (boring!).  I start with a basic waffle recipe and throw in some new ingredients to make it interesting. This morning, I decided to try out a new mix, strawberry and banana!  Don't these look delicious?!?!  They taste so good, you don't even need syrup.....but feel free to pour it right on, or sprinkle with some powdered sugar!  :)

Strawberry-Banana Waffles

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 teaspoon baking powder

dash of salt

1 3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

handful of strawberries (6-8)

2 ripe bananas

3-4 cups oatmeal

Directions:

Mix together-flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. Add in-milk, oil, vanilla, and eggs.  Finally, stir in-strawberries, bananas, oatmeal. I pureed half the strawberries and 1 banana. Then I chopped the remaining fruit because I like to taste the chunky strawberries and bananas in the cooked waffles.

When your batter is ready, pour about 3/4 cup into a preheated waffle maker and cook until golden brown.  I needed to cook mine a few extra minutes after the waffle maker's timer went off because they weren't cooked all the way through yet. This recipe makes 12-14 waffles, and they freeze well.

Looking for other flavors?
Replace the strawberries and bananas with.....

cinnamon & finely chopped apples

chopped peaches & blueberries

chopped bananas & mini chocolate chips

Best Banana Pancakes. Ever.

My girls and I LOVE pancakes, all different varieties. In fact, I don't think I've made plain pancakes in over 5 years.  Our favorite lately has to be these Banana Oatmeal Pancakes.  I took a basic pancake recipe and turned it into something absolutely delicious, if you like bananas  :)  This recipe makes about 18-20 pancakes, and they freeze very well.  Just pop them in the toaster or microwave to reheat!

Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1T sugar
2t baking powder
1/4t salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
2T oil
2 bananas, cut up or mashed
1t vanilla
dash of cinnamon

Directions:
Combine dry ingredients.  Combine wet ingredients.  Mix dry and wet ingredients.  Pour batter into preheated frying pan.  Cook on low heat to be sure the pancake cooks all the way through the middle.