Pumpkin Yogurt Bread

Hi friends! Shaun and I made it to the ABQ very late this evening. It's just after midnight here, but on east coast time it's after 2am! We are totally spent from a long day of traveling but are looking forward to a long day of sightseeing tomorrow. I need to get off to sleepyland, but I wanted to tell you about this pumpkin bread that I made and brought on the airplane with us.

 

I adore pumpkin bread! Anything pumpkin, really. But there's nothing better than a good, moist, pumpkiny bread. The only problem? It's not exactly healthy...and certainly not healthy in the quantities in which I like to enjoy it :) When I came across this healthy version on Eating Clean Recipes, I knew I had to give it a try.

 

Admittedly, I did not have high hopes for this bread, due to its healthy nature. I know that sounds bad, but no butter? Very little fat? How good could it be? Oh how wrong I was. I'm keeping this recipe in my permanent collection to make again and again. I feel confident that no one would even know it was healthy if I didn't tell them first. It was so good, in fact, that I made a loaf of it for the blogger Sweet Swap. When I received Matt at Fave Diets Blog for my swap, I knew this would be the perfect treat to send him.

I did make a few alterations to suit my own tastes, and here's the recipe!

 

Pumpkin Yogurt Bread
*Adapted from Eating Clean Recipes
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 egg
1 C dark brown sugar, packed
3/4 C 0% Greek yogurt
3/4 C pumpkin puree
3 Tbsp canola oil
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla
1 C chopped wanuts

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a bread loaf pan. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.

With a mixer, combine the egg, sugar, yogurt, pumpkin, oil and vanilla. Mix in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the walnuts. Pour into the bread pan and bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool, slice and enjoy!

 

So there you have it. A delicious and healthy pumpkin bread made with Greek yogurt!

Question of the Day:

Have you ever been surprised by a lightened up/healthified recipe?

A few things you should know...

It's What About Me Wednesday! So I'm rounding up a few random things about me that hopefully you will find interesting :) If not, just tell me to go back to the food already. Hope you enjoy!

1) I’m not a huge candy eater. Though I adore desserts and have to have something sweet after dinner almost every night, candy just doesn’t do it for me. The only candy that will do it every time for me is Reese’s peanut butter cups! Give me those or give me nothing. Our trick or treaters don't stand a chance of getting any of those at our house this year.

2) I used to have an almost crippling fear of flying. My youngest sister Christine can tell you all about it since she’s endured way to many clammy hand holds on flights to Aruba than one child should ever have to endure. Luckily the key to this first statement is used to. I have done so much flying for work and vacation over the last 2 years that I’ve had no choice but to woman up and accept flying...and dare I say even semi-enjoying it? I realized that if I wanted to be a world traveler and successful business woman with a carefree ‘tude, the fear of flying just had to go.

3) I have to - HAVE TO - make the bed every day. I cannot get into an unmade bed. I simply cannot. I will even make the bed right before I get into it if I have to. The rest of my home could be a total disaster, but as long as my bed is made I’m a happy lady. Even Shaun has gotten into making the bed if only so I don’t freak out am happy. As every man knows happy wife = happy life.

4) I love paper. It’s true. Shaun says I should have worked at Dunder-Mifflin. I would have settled for the now defunct Kate’s Paperie. All of that clean, delicious stationary brimming with possibilities. And don't even get me started on journals. I love.

5) I wear contact lenses during the day and change into eyeglasses almost as soon as I get home from work every day. I know that I should bite the bullet and get Lasik, but it weirds me out. Plus I got new glasses and they are super cute. I’m fairly certain there are no blog pics of me with glasses. Maybe I need to get on that one...

6) I just painted my nails in Deborah Lippman Dark Side of the Moon. I love this color so much and I adore this brand of nail polish. It goes on so smooth and beautifully!

7) I'm leaving for Albuquerque tonight! I'm still not totally packed and have to head off to work for a half day. I have a totally delicious, easy and healthy recipe coming at you tomorrow and perhaps a few updates from my trip (that is, if this rainy weather goes away before our flight this evening! Ahh!). If you missed my ABQ moodboard, be sure to check it out on The Peach & The Pit! I love everything on it!

That's it for me today! Hope you enjoyed this installment of What About Me Wednesday and if you have any questions you simply need to have answered, shoot them my way for next week's post!

Questions of the Day:

Do you have a fear of flying?

Tell me something about you!

psst...Christine is blogging about her groovy college digs over on The Peach & The Pit! Hope you'll check it out!

My Kitchen Office Nook: Phase I

I'm so super excited this morning. Last night I came home from work to a home full of light! We {finally} got the electrician here to install lighting in 4 spots around the apartment and I cannot believe the difference it makes! I'll be back with photos once the walls are painted since honestly, the pics just do not do it all justice. But just know that I'm one happy lady :)

Meanwhile, I'm also making a lot of progress on my kitchen office nook. It's only half way there, but I want to share some in progress updates with you since this tiny change has made such a difference in my life!

Ta da!

Please forgive my dark photos. There are no windows near by this area in the apartment, so there's simply no way to get a great photo. I took this one last night and digitally lightened it up a bit. But you get the idea.

Who would have thought that adding a simple white desk and a few other small changes would make such a difference!

Let's get down to some details, shall we?

I picked out the Micke desk from Ikea because it was small, not very deep and sleek white. I wanted it to match the kitchen cabinets (which are white laquer) and not take up a ton of space. Luckily the desk was extremely reasonably priced and just the right size. We already owned the red chair (which we lovingly call the Swiss cheese chair), also from Ikea, also reasonably priced, and already matches my red-themed kitchen.

Starting on the left side, I stacked up my unread magazines (I have a lot of work to do in that department!) and set a white Ikea planter on top which holds some paint swatches that I'm considering for various spots in the apartment. You'll also notice my skinny little lamp. This is a super old find from Target that we've had laying around for some time now. I have no idea why I didn't throw it away, but it works great as a simple lamp and doesn't take up much space - a double win!

The main goal of the office nook was to have a spot for my Macbook so that I can blog with ease and not in front of the television while watching Good Morning America. I stacked it on top of a cobalt blue placemat that I snagged at Ikea for a couple of dollars. You'll also notice my computer background image is a throwback Halloween image of the man and me :)

Next to the computer is my DIY dry erase board! I've been wanting to make one for some time now. I simply picked up a large frame, covered the inside with a piece of red fabric and put the fram back together. Voila. A simple and adorable DIY dry erase board. My favorite part of this is that the fabric can easily be changed out whenever I'd like! I can't wait to get a holiday themed fabrice going in there! Oh and the dry erase marker wipes right off with a tissue (or with your finger ;))

Pulling back out a bit, you'll see I also added a pen cup, which consists of another Ikea planter. I filled the bottom with rice and added my dry erase markers, a few pens and a pair of scissors. I love the industrial vibe on this planter - it perfectly complements our loft-style apartment!

So there you have it! My DIY kitchen office nook, in its first phase.

Phase II will consist of painting the wall behind the desk (which will hopefully make all of that white pop!), adding a few other organizational fixtures and hanging some shelves overhead for some open storage options for my extensive cookbook collection as well as my binders which contain all of my files. They are currenly all hiding in the den and are extremely unaccessible there. I can't wait to install them!

Questions of the Day:

Do you ever repurpose things from around your home? I repurposed the little planters, the placemat, the Swiss cheese chair and the lamp!

Do you have a desk for your computer? Or is it a roving machine, as mine used to be?