Recipe Makeover: Nancy's Pumpkin Bread

Every year for the past 5 years, a friend of mine brings a much anticipated and appreciated loaf of pumpkin bread over as a holiday gift. And every year I think to myself that it just might be one of the best-tasting pumpkin breads I've had. Well, this year I asked her for the recipe.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I did warn her that I would be "messing with" her recipe by lowering the fat, saturated fat, and sugar and switching to half whole-wheat flour. If you are a sweet potato fan, then by all means use cooked, pureed sweet potatoes in place of the canned pumpkin.

Here's what happened nutritionally:
The calories decreased from 258 to 169 and the grams of fat and cholesterol were chopped in half, saturated fat was cut by 2/3rds, and fiber doubled.

Nancy's Light Pumpkin Bread

Photo: Elaine Magee

Ingredients:

1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup egg substitute
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup lite pancake syrup or maple syrup
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
6 tablespoons lowfat milk or fat-free half-and-half
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, nutmeg & ginger

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with foil or paper liners, or if making bread, coat a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with canola cooking spray (dust lightly with flour if desired); set aside.
2. In large mixing bowl, combine all the wet ingredients by beating on medium speed until well blended.
3. Pour the dry ingredients, all at once, into the mixing bowl and beat on medium-low until blended, scrape sides of the bowl and blend again.
4. Fill prepared muffin cups with 1/4 cup of batter or pour all of the batter in the prepared loaf pan. Bake until top of muffins spring back nicely after gentle pressure (about 30 minutes). If making a loaf, bake for about 70 minutes.

Yield: makes 12 muffins or 1, 9 x 5-inch loaf. If you want to make 2 loaves or 24 muffins, just double the recipe.

Nutritional analysis per serving: 169 calories, 3 g protein, 29 g carbohydrate, 5 g fat, .5 g saturated fat, 3 g monounsaturated fat, 1.5 g polyunsaturated fat, 18 mg cholesterol, 2 g fiber, 185 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 27 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids = .4 gram, Omega-6 fatty acids = 1 gram.

Original recipe contains 258 calories, 10 grams of fat, 1.5 grams saturated fat, and 36 mg cholesterol per muffin or slice.

NOTE: If you want to add the Cinnamon Vanilla Glaze - In a mixing bowl, combine 1/4-cup light cream cheese, 1/2-cup powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons fat free vanilla creamer or similar, and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.

Related Topics:

• Healthy Cooking with Elaine Magee, RD
• Healthy Cooking Newsletter - recipes, kitchen and shopping advice in your inbox

Frugal Food Gift #4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

An Easy, Decadent Treat That Everyone Will Enjoy

Admittedly there is nothing healthy about this food gift. Well, you could use high cocoa chocolate chips to pump up the antioxidant value of the melted chocolate...but that's about it. I can tell you though that these chocolate dipped peppermint sandwich cookies are loaded with flavor and if you take your time eating and enjoying it, just one cookie is usually very satisfying. This is a great way to use up some of the leftover holiday sprinkles you have hanging around in the back of your spice cabinet. You could recycle holiday bowls, plates, and small gift boxes or place the cookies in holiday gift bags you have lying around.

Each box of cookies cost about $2.50 each ($5.00 total) plus you can pick up a bag of chocolate chips for about $2.00 for a total of $7.00. Since the batch makes about 6 food gifts, each gift will cost about $1.16.

Chocolate Covered Candy Cane Peppermint Sandwich Cookies

Ingredients:

• 11.5-ounce bag semi sweet chocolate chips (milk can be substituted)
• 2 boxes of peppermint sandwich cookies, about 66 cookies total (I buy mine at Trader Joe's - they look like Oreos but the vanilla filling has crushed candy cane in it--but if you can't find them, just use Reduced Fat or regular Oreos)
• Holiday sprinkles, or if you are using regular chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed candy cane works well

Preparation:

1. Pour chocolate chips into a 2-cup glass measure (or similar) and microwave on LOW for about 1 minute. Stir gently and if not melted, microwave in 30-second intervals until almost completely melted. Stir with spoon to distribute the heat evenly and finish melting the chips.
2. Line two jellyroll pans with wax paper. Dunk one of the cookies halfway into the melted chocolate and scrape away some of the excess chocolate with the flat side of a dinner knife or use the edge of the glass measure. Lay dipped cookie on the wax paper.
3. Repeat with remaining cookies until all the melted chocolate has been used (about 33 cookies per cup of chocolate cups). Sprinkle holiday cookie decorations/sprinkles or crushed candy canes over the chocolate of each of the cookies. Place jellyroll pans in the refrigerator to harden the melted chocolate.
4. Place cookies in holiday gift bowls, bags or boxes or on cookie plates. If you use about 11 decorated cookies for each gift, this recipe will make about 6 gifts!

Yield: makes about 66 halfway dipped cookies

Nutrition Information: 77 calories, .6 g protein, 11 g carbohydrate, 3.8 g fat, 1.4 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, .6 g fiber, 60 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 44 percent.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• Healthier Holiday Cookie Recipes
• Holiday Cookie Swap

Frugal Food Gift #3: 5-Minute Fudge

Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge

One of the food gift ideas one WebMD community board member shared was a really easy recipe for peanut butter fudge. I played with her microwave instructions for the fudge and turned it into an 8 x 8-inch pan of higher fiber, higher cocoa rocky road by adding some Fiber One bran cereal and using high cocoa chocolate chips.

You can buy the chips for $2.50 and we are only using half a bag for one batch of the recipe ($1.25), plus one cup of natural-style peanut butter which will cost about $1.25 (on sale a small pint jar will run about $2.50). A cup and a half of the added marshmallows will add a cost of about $.75 and a cup and a half of Fiber One will add a cost of about $.50, for a total cost of $3.75. The batch of rocky road will make about 4 food gifts.

Each food gift will cost about $.93 if you recycle some holiday dessert plates or wrap each slab (cut the square of rocky roady into 4 smaller squares) of the rocky road in plastic wrap, and decorate with holiday stickers and some ribbon.

5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road

Ingredients:

• 1 cup high cacao bittersweet chocolate chips (ie. Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips)
• 1 cup natural style peanut butter
• 1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
• 1 1/2 cups Fiber One bran cereal

Preparation:

1. Line an 8 x 8-inch baking dish with foil.
2. In microwave-safe glass bowl, combine chocolate chips and peanut butter. Microwave on HIGH for 1 minute. Remove bowl and stir with spoon for a minute to finish melting chocolate chips. If necessary, microwave mixture for an additional 30 seconds and stir again.
3. Stir in the marshmallows and Fiber One cereal and pour mixture into prepared dish, smoothing mixture out to cover the bottom of the dish. Keep in refrigerator until hardened (about 1-2 hours). Lift foil from dish and place rocky road on a flat surface. Cut into 4 square slabs and wrap each with plastic wrap or cut rocky road into bite-size squares.

Yield: Makes 36 large bite-size pieces.

Nutrition Information per serving: 77 calories, 2 g protein, 7.5 g carbohydrate, 4.5 g fat, 1.3 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 2 g fiber, 11 mg sodium (this value will be higher if there is salt added to the peanut butter). Calories from fat: 52 percent.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Dark Chocolate's Heart-Healthy Benefits
• Chocolate Pictures Slideshow: This History of Chocolate in Photos

Frugal Food Gift #2: Tea Time

Here's an easy gift for the tea drinkers on your list. Keep your eyes open for a great deal on coffee mugs or tea cups. Often you can find them on sale for about $2 dollars each or a set of 4 mugs or tea cups for $8. You can also check the dollar store - they almost always have mugs in stock. And don't forget resale shops - you can sometimes find cups with matching saucers that are quite lovely.

Then buy a box filled with an assortment of individually packaged tea bags (you can find these on sale for about $3) and distribute the tea bags between about 3 of the mugs/cups.

Each of these food gifts will cost you about $3!

You can dress up each of the cups with some see-through cellophane wrap and ribbon too.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: Age-Related Vision Loss
• Holiday Tea is Here!

Frugal Food Gift Idea #1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce

Around the holidays, cran-raspberry sauce comes in handy for turkey dinners or turkey sandwiches or as topping for brie served as a holiday appetizer. The beautiful bright red color brightens up any holiday table.

Making the recipe below for Cran-Raspberry Sauce will make 3 gifts of about 1-cup each. You can use three 8-ounce jars that you have around the house (just make sure they have been washed well preferably in a dishwasher). Add a bow or some ribbon and keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready to give it as a gift.

The fresh cranberries can cost about $3 plus the raspberries (one pint) will cost around $2.50. By using jars you have around the house, an orange you have in the fruit bowl, and some sugar from your pantry, the total cost is about $5.50 with the cost per gift around $1.83.

Lite Cran-Raspberry Sauce

Ingredients:

• 15 ounces fresh cranberries (about 4 cups)
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• Zest from 1 orange, finely chopped
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

Preparation:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine cranberries, sugar, orange zest, and water. Bring to a boil, reduced heat to LOW and cook for about 5 minutes.


2. Stir in raspberries and continue to simmer on LOW heat for 5 minutes more.


3. Ladle mixture into three 1-cup jars (or similar), cover and keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve or give as a gift.

Yield: Makes about 3 cups

Nutrition Information (per tablespoon): 17 calories, .1 g protein, 4 g carbohydrate, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, .2 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 0 percent.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• Crazy for Cranberries!
• THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS (FOOD GIFTS)

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents

Frugal Food Gifts

Even without a tight holiday budget, homemade food gifts are a great way to share the holiday spirit of giving. People usually welcome homemade food gifts because they are consumable (you don't have to worry about where to put it or how to return it). And people usually give you food items you don't normally make for yourself, be it an old family recipe for marinara sauce or a pan of homemade light wheat cinnamon rolls, light cran-raspberry sauce or a loaf of freshly baked pannetone bread.

If you get your ingredients on sale or at a member-style warehouse like Sam's Club or Costco, it will cost you even less per food gift. In the next four days, I'll post four easy but festive food gift ideas (complete with prices and photos) that you can give as hostess gifts or to friends and neighbors.

Here's the part where you save money!
The average cost of the food gifts I'll be posting is about $2 per gift (ranging from $1.25 to about $3). If the gifts you would normally bring to friends and neighbors cost about 15 dollars, you will spend about $20 for 10 homemade food gifts compared to about $150.

Every year I try to invent a few more food gifts - it's part of what I do for a living as a nutrition expert and writer. Of course I tend to focus on the healthful options. Over the years I've done:

• Homemade cinnamon rolls (always a favorite) with wheat dough and light in fat and sugar, but still delicious


• Cranberry walnut bread or pumpkin pecan bread (less sugar and fat and more fiber)


• Homemade pannetone bread


• I did designer fudge one year (inventing various different fudge recipes for people's specific favorite flavors)


• Remember those jars with layers of ingredients that end of being a batch of cookies or brownies? I've done that too!!

For 4 more food gift ideas, stay tuned for the next 4 days.

Frugal Food Gifts...The Series

Holiday Food Gifts That Make Cents
#1: Light Cran-Raspberry Sauce
#2: Tea Time
#3: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge
#4: Chocolate Dipped Cookies

Related Topics:

• The Recipe Doctor's Top 12 Healthy Cooking Gadgets
• 13 Food Gifts NOT to Give