pumpkin streusel bread

Pumpkin bread is a favorite this time of year. I love it. but always felt guilty eating it. The typical holiday loaves are loaded with sugar and oils, and very little of anything good, like the bread's namesake fruit. Then, I discovered this recipe.

This is a Cooking Light recipe, made even healthier with a swap of whole-wheat pastry flour. Yes, that's right - it's whole wheat, people. Oh yeah, and most of the oil is replaced with yogurt and the majority of the refined sugar is replaced with honey. And no one will ever know the difference. This is a company-worthy recipe. It also freezes well, not that you'll have any left over.

Have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving! (Oh, and with the leftover pumpkin, make this seasonally spicy baked pumpkin oatmeal for breakfast.)

Pumpkin Streusel Bread
Ingredients

Topping:

• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chilled butter or stick margarine, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Bread:

• 2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour (can use half whole wheat, half all purpose for an even more tender loaf)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup raisins or cranberries (I skip this)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup plain or vanilla low-fat yogurt
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To prepare topping, combine first four ingredients until crumbly. Set the mixture aside.
3. To prepare bread, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next seven ingredients (flour through nutmeg) in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture.
4. Combine the pumpkin and next five ingredients (pumpkin through eggs) in a bowl as shown above; add to flour mixture. Stir just until moist.
5. Spoon batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray; sprinkle with topping. Bake at 350° for one hour (it make take up to 15 minutes longer) or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

healthy, tasty banana bread

When I was a girl scout, my mom and I made banana bread for a baking contest. The recipe won the blue recipe for taste, but not necessarily for health. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious, and is still a family favorite, but the loads of butter, sugar and white flour made it more of a dessert than a healthy bread loaf.

Since graduating college, I've been on the hunt for a better-for-you, yet still tasty, banana bread. Almost six years later, and somewhere between five to ten recipes discarded, I have found it. It goes easy on the butter and sugars, heavy on the whole wheat and spices, uses yogurt instead of oils and packs a health punch with the addition of flax.

Give it a try; you won't be disappointed. And your waistline will thank you, too.

Healthy, Tasty Banana Bread (very modified from Cooking Light)

• 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (~2 large ripe bananas)
• 1/3 cup plain fat-free vanilla or plain yogurt
• 5 tablespoons butter, melted, or canola oil 
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar or honey (decrease the cooking time slightly if using honey)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice 

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed. Add granulated and brown sugars and vanilla; beat until combined.
3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through ground allspice). Add flour mixture to banana mixture; beat just until blended. Pour batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan; cool completely.

hearty cinnamon-raisin bread

This recipe comes with a funny story - and a lesson. I skimmed the steps instead of reading them thoroughly, like usual. By doing so, I missed a crucial rising step that required an additional hour and a half of waiting ... after the first hour and a half rise time. So when I started this at 9:00 p.m., I didn't know what I was in for. It's now 2:00 a.m. and I just wolfed down two slices out of sheer hunger and exhaustion (and because it's homemade bread fresh from the oven!). Admittedly, it's delicious. But next time ... I'll start it in the morning. :)

Here's how it began: I love the way this special bread is warm and sweet and spicy all at the same time, but the grocery store versions are just too refined for me. I recently saw a how-to article in one of my food magazines about how to make whole-wheat cinnamon-raisin bread. Ellie Krieger (one of my favs) lead the way, which gave me a little more confidence since I typically enjoy her healthy recipes. It actually uses half whole-wheat and half bread flour, but the fiber and nutrition is upped tremendously over the grocery store kind because of the swap. The recipe also gave me the opportunity to use my bread hook, a device I've had for five years and never once used (sadly – I'm usually a fan of quick breads, like this zucchini-pineapple quick bread.)

It's a little time consuming, so save it for a rainy weekday inside and then treat yourself to a toasty slice with some coffee. Or, better yet, try making French toast with it. You won't be disappointed!

Hearty Cinnamon-Raisin Bread
Ingredients

• 2 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
• 2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk (reviews said that warm milk could be substituted here, just omit the water)
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons canola oil, plus more for brushing
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant dry yeast
• Cooking spray
• 2/3 cup raisins
• 1 tablespoon plus 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

Directions

1. Make the dough: Measure out 1 1/4 cups very warm water and check the temperature; it should be 120 degrees F to 130 degrees F. Combine both flours, the dry milk, egg, canola oil, honey, salt, 2 tsp. cinnamon, yeast and warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix three minutes on the lowest setting, then increase to the next highest setting and mix five more minutes. The dough should be soft and sticky (and warm!).

2. Let it rise: Transfer the dough to a large bowl coated with cooking spray. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until the dough has nearly doubled in size, about one hour, 30 minutes.
3. Soak the raisins: Dry raisins will rob moisture from the bread, so soak them first in boiling water until plump, about 30 minutes. Drain and pat dry.
4. Fold the dough: Transfer the dough to a floured work surface. Picture it as a loose square. Lift up one side of the dough and fold about one-third of it across; press down on the dough with spread fingers to remove any air bubbles. Repeat with the remaining three sides of the dough.
5. Add the filling: Mist two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans with cooking spray. Divide the dough in half; roll out each half into an 8-inch square. Brush each square with canola oil, then sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon (it's high in antioxidants!), brown sugar and raisins.
6. Form the loaves: Roll up each square of dough into a tight cylinder; place seam-side down in the prepared pans. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until the dough fills the pans and springs back when touched, about one hour, 30 minutes.

7. Bake the bread: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Brush the loaves with canola oil and bake until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the pans and transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Next time I will roll mine a little thinner and tighter to help the cinnamon and raisin filling to more evenly distribute throughout each slice. Still delish, though.

thai ginger-honey beef salad

For dinner I wanted something fresh and colorful, and also something I could pair with steak. I've been craving a Thai-style beef, but also something healthy and light. So I found a recipe from Epicurious for a ginger-honey marinade for beef – one that has a little kick and uses lots of herbs and spices – that would be perfect for a salad.

Color: that's how the salad was built. Red tomatoes, orange carrots, yellow pepper, green cucumber, earthy mushrooms, purple onion. The colors alone, not to mention all the fresh flavors, got me excited. Then we pulled the beef out of the marinade. Intoxicating and spicy, citrusy and sweet, it went on the grill until it was tender and made our mouths water.

Simple. Tasty. Colorful. Fresh. Healthy. Make this steak and serve it over salad or with other Thai-style side dishes (Ina's peanut noodles would be amazing). You won't be disappointed.

Thai Ginger-Honey Beef
Marinade & Steak

• 3/4 to 1 lb. of skirt or flank steak
• 1 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 cup honey
• 6 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 1 tablespoon cilantro
• 1 tablespoon mint leaves (home grown!)
• Juice from one lime, about 1 tbsp
• 1 small Thai (or serrano) chile or jalepeno
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1-inch piece ginger, peeled and sliced

1. Place all ingredients (soy sauce through ginger) in a food processor and puree. Place steak in a bag or shallow dish and pour the marinade over it. Tightly cover or seal and allow the steak to marinate in the refrigerate for at least two hours.
2. Preheat the grill to 350*. Grill, turning once, until the meat is the desired doneness. Remove the meat from the grill and wrap it tightly in foil; allow it to rest for 10 minutes. Slice it thinly against the grain. Serve immediately.

Note: I whipped up a homemade salad dressing of orange and lime juice, sesame oil and a little soy sauce. Refreshing and delicious with the citrus and sesame.

Before I go, let me just say that the advantages of marinating meats before grilling go beyond flavor boosting. Grilling meat at high heat produces carcinogenic compounds (heterocyclic amines [HCAs] and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs], just in case you were wondering). Marinating meat helps to prevent these compounds from being formed. In fact, rosemary, oregano and sage are credited in being some of the best to add to a marinade for just that purpose. All the more reason to pour on the flavor before you grill!