Easy Peach Bread (Fresh or Canned Peaches)

Making a quick bread with peaches, Peach Bread, is a wonderful way to enjoy the season's harvest. This simple Peach Bread recipe produces a moist and tender crumb. It's studded with fresh peaches and flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg. Since it's a quick bread, it's easy to make too! 

Easy Orange Cranberry Scones

These Easy Orange Cranberry Scones are the perfect treat to serve up your family during the holiday season! They have a buttery, biscuit like texture and are studded with sweet plump orange infused dried cranberries. They're sure to be a hit with everyone. Make a batch for breakfast or as an afternoon snack! You'll be surprised how easy they are to make!

Easy Oatmeal Banana Bread

Today, I'm sharing my new favorite healthy banana bread recipe with you! This Weight Watchers inspired recipe for Easy Oatmeal Banana Bread is enhanced with the goodness of oats for a healthy banana bread (no butter) full of banana flavor and a great chewy texture! It just might become your new favorite healthy banana bread too!
Sure, everyone has their favorite banana bread recipe. But it's always nice to try new things. What's that saying, "If you don't try it, how will you know?" I believe that saying applies to this banana bread recipe!

Easy Banana Bread

Easy Banana Bread is EXACTLY what it claims to be! Super easy to make, using KRAFT MIRACLE WHIP Dressing in place of butter or oil to produce a super tasty, moist, better-for-you quick bread everyone will enjoy!

Fresh Fig and Almond Quick Bread

When it comes to fresh fig recipes, this Fresh Fig and Almond Quick Bread is a winner! Deliciously sweet fresh figs combine with almond flavor in a quick bread everyone will enjoy!

Apple Cinnamon Quick Bread

Since this week marks the second anniversary of MKA, I thought it might be fun to revisit the very first recipe posted on this blog, Apple Bread, and give it a bit of a make-over. 

When I first made this bread, it was good, but I always felt it had room to be better.  With a few changes, I think I have a real winner.  Dense and moist, as a quick bread should be.  With all the fresh apples around, this is an excellent way to use them up.  Feel free to add walnuts, raisins, or dried cranberries to it too but I left them out to help keep it more diet friendly.

The original recipe called for applesauce, but I left it out entirely and used 2 cups fresh grated apples.  I used golden delicious, because they were on sale last week,  but I am sure any baking type apple would work.  I don't really care to eat Golden Delicious out of hand, so this bread was a perfect way to use them up.  The original recipe called for milk, but I left it out and replaced it with (and then some) plain nonfat Greek yogurt.  I used brown sugar instead of white and upped the cinnamon amounts.

Like any quick bread, this one is much, much better with a stronger apple flavor the next day.  So it's best if cooled, wrapped tightly and stored overnight before enjoying it.  But if you can't wait that long, it's good fresh from the oven too!  ( I may have tried it BOTH ways!)

Fresh Apple Cinnamon Quick Bread

Servings - 16   Serving Size - 1/16th of bread   Points Plus per Serving - 4 Points+

Calories - 139.6,   Total Fat - 4.2g,   Carb. - 24g,   Protein - 3.9g,   Fiber - 0.8g

* the easiest way I have found to cut a quick bread into 16 slices is to cut it into 8 slices, then cut each slice in half.  This gives you 16 smaller halves that are thick enough not to fall apart.  Of course, for those not watching their calorie intake, a full-sized piece is fine! 

2 cups all purpose flour (can be half whole wheat pastry flour)

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 cups grated apple (peels and cores removed)  ( you can use finely diced apples as well) 

2 large eggs

3/4 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt ( I used Chobani ) 

1/4 cup canola oil

1 TBSP lemon juice

1 tsp turbinado sugar for topping (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Coat one 9"x5"x3" loaf pan with cooking spray. 

2.  In large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, soda, baking powder, and salt with a wire whisk.  Set aside.  

3.  In med sized bowl, combine the apples, eggs, yogurt, canola oil, and lemon juice.  Stir to combine.  Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and stir until JUST COMBINED.  Don't overmix!  

4.  Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, sprinkle top with turbinado sugar, if desired,  and bake for approx. 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  Let rest in pan for 10 minutes then remove to cooling rack to cool completely.  As I mentioned, this quick bread is better the next day, so cool completely then wrap tightly with foil or plastic wrap and slice the next day....or not!  lol  

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This version of this bread is very good.  Like I mentioned moist and dense, yet still pretty low in fat and calories.  The apple taste really came out the next day.

Pumpkin Gingerbread Loaf

When I saw the recipe for this quick bread on one of my favorite food blogs,  PreventionRD, yesterday, I just knew I had to make it. Pumpkin + gingerbread?  A hit for sure!  Nicole's bread looked fabulous but it looked  like it focused more on the flavor of the pumpkin, and I wanted to make a true gingerbread loaf with just a hint of pumpkin...and that is what I got after I made a few changes to the recipe.

Pumpkin is not the star in my version of this recipe...rather since it was written as a vegan recipe ( no butter, no milk, no eggs) it's roll is moisture...and it does a perfect job of it!  Nicole is always saying how she loves vegan muffins and quick bread recipes because they are so moist!  And she is 100% correct!  The addition of candied ginger in the batter takes the ginger flavor over the top!  But no worries, if you don't have candied or crystallized ginger, you can use golden raisins instead. 

I am a huge fan of gingerbread.  I have a hard time resisting it when it shows up at Starbuck's around Thanksgiving.  This recipe does not disappoint in the gingerbread taste department while still being fairly low in the fat and calorie department...and I am sure a huge difference from Starbuck's version!  I divided up the loaf into 16 servings.  I find it easiest to slice the loaf into 8 pieces and then cut each of those pieces in half for a serving size. 

With a warm cup of coffee in the afternoon, this moist and dense quick bread is the perfect treat! 

Pumpkin Gingerbread Loaf

adapted from PreventionRD

Yield - 1 ( 9 x 5") loaf,   Servings - 16,   Serving Size - 1/16th of loaf,   Points Plus per Serving - 4 points+

Calories - 134.6,   Total Fat - 3.6g,   Carb. - 24.4g,   Protein - 1.7g,   Fiber - 1.1g

1 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour ( or all purpose flour )

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

3 TBS granulated sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 heaping tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

zest of one orange

1/2 cup unsulphered molasses

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup orange juice

1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree

1 oz. crystallized or candied ginger, chopped

sprinkling of turbinado ( raw) sugar for top ( optional )

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.   Spray 9 x 5" loaf pan with cooking spray ( I use Baker's Joy ). 

2.  In large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, salt, spices and orange zest.  Set aside.  

3.  In med bowl or 4-cup glass measure, combine the molasses, canola oil, orange juice and pumpkin puree.

4.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.    Stir in the chopped candied or crystallized ginger.  Pour batter into prepared pan, sprinkle on turbinado sugar, if using,  and bake in oven for 50 - 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack and slice once cooled.  ( if you slice it while it is still very warm, since the bread is so moist and tender, the slices will easily fall apart!  Waiting is hard, but worth it!  I know, because I didn't wait!  lol ) 

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I really loved this version of this quick bread!  Moist, dense, tender and spicy! 

Hard to believe that Halloween is just around the bend!  I bought my candy to give out, and it is patiently waiting.  The cost of candy has gone up so much, I didn't buy as much as I have in the past.  I figure when I am out, I am out.  It is a good thing not to have too much though, as there won't be tempting leftovers!   How easy is it to pop one of those fun sized candy bars into your mouth without even thinking about it??  

What is your strategy to keep your hands out of the candy this Halloween?  I am not sure if my kids are going trick or treating this year ( they are getting to that age, ya know) and my daughter is away at college...so I don't suspect I will have stray candy to tempt me this year.  But in the past years, I have always made the kids keep their candy out of my sight and up in their rooms.  It worked most of the time!