Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

I was CRAVING chocolate chip pumpkin bread this weekend.  It's becoming fall, the leaves are turning color, there is a crisper bite in the air, we burn a harvest scent candle at dinner.  This is the fall I love, the fall that is still summer lol I can still wear flip flops with the temperatures in the 70s.  Anyway I felt like making pumpkin bread so I made it! 
This is a Cooking Light recipe so it's semi-healthy.  There are still a decent amount of calories but it's healthier than it could be.  There are things you could do to lower the calorie amount.  You could replace some of the oil with apple sauce and you could use maple sugar in place of the sugar.  I wouldn't replace the sugar with artificial sweeteners but maybe Stevia could work?  I've never cooked with it though so I don't know.  One of the products I also like for replacing sugar is Whey Low.  It's a natural sweetener (more natural than Stevia) that is made from whey.  I didn't replace anything for this recipe because mom likes all her recipes just regular so they taste the same as what she remembers.  My mother also doesn't gain/lose weight like I do so counting calories for her isn't a big deal.  (Let me tell you, living on your own when you make all the dietary decisions is a lot easier on the waistline).  And of course this recipe has pumpkin so it's definitely healthy ;) All those antioxidants. 

Here are the ingredients needed:  flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, canola oil, eggs, milk, pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling), and chocolate chips.

 

I've recently started sifting my dry ingredients. I never used to, I thought it was all hokey.  I mean what does it matter if your flour is fluffy, you're just going to mix it all together anyway.  But then I read an Alton Brown book and he essentially said anyone who doesn't sift their flour is getting non-fluffy awesome baked goods.  So I'm trying sifting (he just whirls the dry ingredients in the food processor, I use a strainer) for the time being. 

My mound of sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and all spice.  I put the salt in afterwards since I use Kosher salt and it doesn't fit through the strainer.

Next add the sugar, eggs (it called for egg substitute but never buy that stuff so I just used two more eggs in place of the half cup of egg substitute), canola oil, and vanilla (which I added in just for kicks because everything needs vanilla).
 

Mix them till everything is incorporated.

Then add a can of pumpkin (you can make you own as well) and 2/3 cup of water.  Mix till it looks like orange soup.

Then add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients mixing just until barely combined.  Lumps are a GOOD thing.

Now dump a bag of chocolate chips in a bowl and add a tablespoon of flour.

Mix them around to coat the chocolate chips with flour.  This helps them float in the batter and not all sink to the bottom.

Add them to the batter and mix them in by hand.

Luciousness :)

Coat two baking pans with crisco (or butter) then dust them with flour.  You could also use parchment paper.

Then evenly divide the batter into the loaf pans and bake for about 50 minutes to an hour until everything is baked though.  Pumpkin is notoriously wet so it takes a long time to bake.  Fyi pumpkin cheesecakes like to tsunami over the edges of the pan. But that's another story for another day.  One that Sarah can tell.

See how the chocolate chips stayed incorporated throughout the whole loaf?  That's what the flour did.  Yummy chocolate :)

And here is a picture of the finished loaf.  The finished half a loaf.  Because we at the other half.  For which I am partly responsible.  I refuse to feel shame!

Here's the recipe!

3 1/3 cup flour
1 tbs baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp all spice
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup egg substitute (or two eggs)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup low-fat butter milk (or skim milk)
2 eggs
2/3 cup water
1 (15oz) can of pumpkin
1 bag chocolate chips
1/3 cup pecans (if you want to sprinkle them on top)

1.  Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and all spice) together and then sift them.
2.  Mix sugar, eggs/egg substitute, canola oil, buttermilk/milk, and 1 tsp of vanilla in a mixer until incorporated.
3.  Add water and pumpkin to the egg mixture and beat until incorporated.
4.  Add the sifted dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix till barely incorporated (leaving some lumps).
5.  Toss a bag of chocolate chips in 1 tbs of flour then mix into the batter.
6.  Divide batter evenly between two greased and floured loaf pans.
7.  Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes to an hour (or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean).
8.  Once pans are removed from the oven let them sit for about ten minutes, the take the pumpkin bread loaves out and let them cool on a cooling rack.

Mound O' Dirt

This is our mound of dirt.  Or I should say was our mound of dirt.

Do you remember it?  It was here at Mom's retirement.

When we were digging up our side yard to make the garden earlier this summer I used it as an incubator for the good grass we dug up.  I later transplanted the grass to other parts of the yard that needed it.  The mound is now growing weeds.  What's weird is that no matter how much dirt and rocks we piled on daffodils still grew in the thing. 

The reason we piled all the reject dirt from our yard here is because of this tree.  Dad HATES this tree.  He wants to kill it which is why he's piling rocks and dirt on top of its roots to compress them and make the tree die, then it wouldn't be his "fault" i.e. the homeowners association can't put up a fuss when he wants to get rid of the tree.  "Look the thing is diseased and a hazard.  We need to chop it down."  Oooooh daddy.  Anyway, see the side that sheared off?  That branch fell on top of Uncle Scott's car during Mom's retirement party.  These trees (Bradford Pear trees.  The ones that have white flowers in the spring that smell like dog poop?  Yeah those) are weeds.  They grow everywhere and they are really weak (because they're weeds).  If you ever see footage of storm damage and there are trees down it's normally a Bradford Pear.
Ok end of mini lecture, but if you ever willing plant a Bradford Pear in your yard after reading this your house is dead to me.

This is the composition of the mound of dirt.  It's not even really dirt, it's just clay and rocks.

We dug this clay rock mixture out from this strip by the road.

And this strip by the road.  We wanted things to actually GROW, and they won't grow in rocks.  So we dug down three feet and removed a lot of rocks.

And when I say a lot of rocks I mean a LOT of rocks.  Every single one of these rocks came from those two strips of dirt between the sidewalk and the road.

And all these massive rocks too.  It was tough going to get all these out.  (I will say that I dug up the biggest rock.  And yes I am keeping track).

As an understatement, the pile of dirt was an eye-sore.  So we got a landscaper to give us an estimate on how much it would be to remove the dirt.  His estimate $475!  I thought surely we could do it for less.  So dad drove to Manassas (battle of, yes you remembered that correctly from history class) and rented a Uhaul.

And we started filling that thing.

We would shovel the dirt in and then rake it flat.  It took a long time and it was hot.  (funny story, when we drove to the dump to unload the truck I was shoveling and found a frog!  Somehow we had shoveled him into the back of the truck with the dirt and he'd ridden with the dirt to the dump and we only found him when we were shoveling the dirt out!  That was one hard-core frog!  I let him go in the trees, no worries).

Then we drove it to the dump, where it cost $120 to unload!!!  I first of all didn't know you had to pay to dump things, second of all I was planning it to cost more like $60.  Anyway, we then had to unload everything we had loaded in, then drive home aaaaaand . . .

Do it all again.  It took two loads to the dump so between the car rental and the two dump loads getting rid of the dirt ourselves cost around $280.  So we saved close to $200 which is nothing to sneeze at but it might be worth it next time to make someone else do the hard labor.

This is what I looked like after all was said and done.  Lovely.  But at least the pile of dirt is gone and hopefully the tree will be gone soon too. 

Gigantor

 Look at this tomato.

It's HUGE!

This is the biggest tomato I have ever grown. I named him Gigantor (the last one I grew I named Mongo but this one is bigger).  Why I've assigned a gender to an inanimate piece of fruit I don't know.

Here it is by my iphone for a little perspective (I only have an iphone so I can have a phone with me while I run and still listen to music.  Don't judge me.  I also will not be getting the iphone 5.  There I redeemed myself.)

It is over 4 inches wide!

And bigger than the palm of my hand.

Then I cut into it.  I was canning tomato sauce and needed it to reach the 10lbs of tomatoes needed for the recipe.  But look at those colors.  They are stunning.

This is why I really try to grow as many vegetables as possible during the summer.  I feel so much better about eating them.  They weren't picked when they were green and shipped half way across the country (or the world.  I wouldn't put it past China to try and infiltrate the tomato market!).  



I'm also proud of myself , if you couldn't tell :)  I grew a big tomato for the first time ever!  Because growing this tomato is totally my doing and not the result of years of cross germination and whatever those farmers and biologists do . . .

Mr. Turtle

So I was minding my own business, walking out to the car to go to church, aaaaaaand
I SEE THIS LITTLE GUY!

Just look at the little darling!

I immediately whipped out my iphone and started taking pictures.  Of course as I got closer to get a better picture he (she?) noticed me and freaked out.  So I wasn't able to get a picture of his head and claws.

But why on earth would there be a turtle on our front steps?!  Where did it come from?  We have no lakes or ponds anywhere close.  I almost wanted to put up signs in the neighborhood saying "is anyone missing a turtle?"

By the time we got back from church the turtle was gone (I checked under the bushes just to make sure), but it was pretty cool to see it there in the first place :)

Where I Spend My Life

So I originally took this picture.

In August.
Shows you how often I check my calendar . . .


Well once I took a picture of one thing, I figured I may as well (might as well?  I've never been good at that one) take pictures of the rest of it and show everyone where I work!


First of all, I HAVE A CORNER OFFICE!  Well not really.  We have half-wall cubicles and my office is next to the head of the mechanical department's office and he gets a corner office.  So I essentially get one :)

I spent two summers interning here and never brought anything to decorate my office.  So one of the first things I wanted to do was bring in pictures.  So for Christmas mom got me a cute hanging system with some colorful paperclips.  So I printed out pictures and hung them right behind my desk so I could see them all the time.

Here is my pantry.
I have oatmeal for breakfast, peanut butter for breakfast, green tea and a mug when it gets super freezing cold and I'm wrapped in a jacket and a blanket, honey to sweeten my tea because refined sugar is bad for you, and water and iced tea.

Here's what I work on.
These are riser diagrams for a garage.
I also have my Kansas State University paper weight that Daddy got me for graduation.
And my graph paper.  My lovely gorgeous graph paper.  I brought this all the way from Kansas with me.  500 pages.  I'm going back this semester for a football game.  I'll be getting more then.

Here is my fountain (I need more rocks to make it actually a hardcore fountain.  Remind me to bring more rocks to work.  Thanks).  The jar is my scented oil that I use with reed diffusers.  Yum.  It's the best scent ever.  Makes me happy.  And at work I need all the happy I can get.

Aaaaaand the piece de resistance, my ball chair!
In the first few months my back was starting to hurt after sitting for only a few hours, my feet were swelling, and my posture was atrocious.  So I thought about a standing desk, but decided against it due to the whole half-wall cubicle thing.  Could get awkward.  I saw these chairs online and all it is is an exercise ball in a stand with wheels on the bottom.  So simple but it makes a WORLD of difference.  I highly recommend this chair for anyone who has a desk job.  My back doesn't hurt and my posture is better without me even thinking about it.

(my desk isn't dirty, btw, I just messed with the brightness of the picture and it messed it up)

Soccer Tournament

I've always wanted to do this.  No, like seriously ALWAYS wanted to do this.  And I never had an opportunity until now.  So here it goes:

If I was home right now I could be listening to One Direction, and you tubing videos of One Direction, and looking up entertainment news on One Direction, and looking at twit cams of One Direction (etc)

Simmer down now, simmer down.  No need to get angry!

Stay away . . . don't come any closer . . . dang IT, now I have to go get the ball.  Thanks A LOT mid-fieldiers.

Had to save the day AGAIN (sigh, being awesome is so rough).

Hehe I have no idea why we're laughing, but apparently something is funny.

  

Wait, what? I still don't get what was funny in the first place! 

You wish you looked this good in white shorts.  Oh wait, white shorts!  Ok, whew, Labor Day is on Monday.  I can still wear white today.

Watch yo hands chica, yo in my personal bubble!

If you wouldn't mind moving over, I'd like to take that ball away.  Thank you for understanding.  Btw, my hair looks better than yours.

Must. Not. Sneeze! (Dang allergies)

In case you were wondering, Becca and Dad went to a soccer tournament over Labor Day weekend.  Mom and I stayed home and bought fabric.  These are a few shots of Becca from her games.