I would categorize myself as a half way decent cook. Michael might disagree. A few years ago, we'd just gotten married and I set out to make the first chili of Fall. We invited our friend over and I began working on the chili masterpiece. I shooed Michael out for the day so he could home to a home cooked delicious meal prepared by his wife. Domestication at it's finest.
When they came home I served it up in bowls, confident in the recipe. We all sat around the table and took a bite. And then spit it back out. I had unknowingly bought the double x-large bouillon cubes instead of the regular ones. The chili was basically salt. Salt chili. We threw the whole thing away and ordered pizza.
I'd like to think I've improved my skills over the years. I cook probably 5 days out of the week and get most of my meal ideas using emeals. (If you haven't heard of it, I highly recommend it. Basically they send you 7 different dinner recipes a week based on YOUR grocery store sales and they have low fat, gluten free, gourmet and more plans available. Oh, it's like $7 a month.)
Anyway, one thing I've always been pretty good at is baking. My favorite fall recipe is Healthy Pumpkin Bread. It's only 140 calories a slice and it's made with pumpkin so hello. And it's easy.
Helene's Healthy Pumpkin Bread
I have no idea where I got the recipe since I wrote it on my recipe card a few years ago.
What you need:
1 cup brown sugar
2 large egg whites
1 cup pure pumpkin
1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup low fat plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
What you do:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 8 1/2″ by 4 1/2″ pan with nonstick cooking spray
2. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar and egg whites (using a wire whisk). Add pumpkin, oil, yogurt, and vanilla extract and stir to combine.
3. In a medium bowl combine all the dry ingredients: flours, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture.
4. Pour batter into pan and bake 45-50 minutes (I find 45 minutes is perfect!). Cool in pan for 10 minutes.
Tomorrow's Prompt: Funniest Memory from Childhood
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