the day i did something a little crazy

so, typically, i'm not super adventurous in the kitchen. but i really enjoy cooking and i love to bake. if i were a contestant on The Next Food Network Star, my POV would be healthy, delicious, and simple (maybe Rachael Ray combined with Melissa d'Arabian?). i don't want to spend hours in the kitchen concocting some gourmet meal while my family is living life somewhere else in the house! i want to create a tasty, good-for-us dish (in less than an hour!) that leaves us satisfied and me not preparing it for hours.

a few years back, a girl in our squadron hosted a fall social. she had made delicious wheat bread and i could hardly believe my tastebuds! it was so good! we were chatting about it and she told me that she uses beans instead of oil. what?!?! i had never before heard of this. how in the world could you use such an exchange and not notice a difference? but, the proof was in the bread, so i believed her. but it took me some time to work up the nerve to try it myself.

until last week. i bought a bag of great northern beans, soaked them overnight, cooked them in the crockpot the entire next day (no seasonings), and then portioned them into 1-cup servings and placed them in the freezer. step one done.

i finally got around to some pumpkin bread baking last week and i knew it was time. time to pull out the beans and give this experiment a try. it was now or never.

i put the (thawed) beans in the food processor and blended them into a paste. i continued with my yummy pumpkin bread recipe as directed and was amazed that the beans just worked themselves right into the recipe. as if that's where they always belonged.

i baked four loaves of pumpkin bread that day and they looked just like every other loaf of pumpkin bread i have ever made. and i've made a lot of pumpkin bread over the years.

and, it tastes the same. now, i used to be one of those put-applesauce-instead-of-oil people and would say it tasted the same, but deep down, i knew it wasn't true. well, i'm telling the truth now. i exchanged a low-fat, high-protein (not to mention chock-full of other nutrients and SUPER cheap) bean instead of oil and there is no difference in taste. you can ask my husband. and he really never lies.

i also cut the sugar in half (who needs three cups of sugar in one batch of pumpkin bread?!?!), used white whole-wheat flour, and the beans, of course. hello, world! meet the new and improved, healthier and just as scrumptious as ever pumpkin bread! it'll save you some room for that pumpkin latte you'll be drinking this fall!

 

so, there you have it. healthy, delicious, and simple pumpkin bread. i dare you to try it!