Maple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Spread

This is such an easy recipe that can be used on everything from pumpkin bread to bagels to cinnamon rolls. This stuff is addicting.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces of cream cheese; softened to room temperature
  
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• a couple drops of vanilla
• 3 Tablespoons real maple syrup (or more to your liking)

Directions:

1. Whip cream cheese with mixer until smooth.
   
2. Mix in cinnamon, vanilla, and maple syrup.
   
3. Refrigerate until set and the best part is it’s always spreadable even straight from the fridge.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

This recipe is SO good! It's moist, not too sweet and absolutely wonderful when topped with maple cinnamon cream cheese spread.

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I used 365 brand from Whole Foods)
  
• 1 1/2 cups sugar (I used raw can sugar which makes this recipe much healthier)
  
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 can pumpkin (15 oz) (Walter and I pureed a pumpkin we bought at the Farmer's Market about a month ago, so we have a freezer full of pumpkin puree to be used)
  
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup coconut oil; melted (coconut oil is a very healthy fat that is a great substitution for canola, vegetable or other not so great oils)
  
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients well. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, mix wet ingredients.
3. Pour wet ingredients in the center of dry and mix together until well incorporated.
4. Pour into 3 bread pans that have been greased & floured.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 45min-1 hr, until a knife comes out clean.

*You can freeze the other two loaves until you're ready to eat them.

Homemade Bread

I have recently been doing a lot of research on healthier, more natural foods and have come across a few recipes. One of the recipes Walter found was for homemade bread. If you've ever read the ingredients on the package of a loaf of bread, then you know that you're ingesting more than just oats and grain; there are a lot of preservatives in bread. Since I'm trying to move away from as much processed foods as possible, I was thrilled to find a homemade bread recipe with baking instructions. The instructions are kind of lengthy and in-depth, which is great, but instead of trying to type them out I'm just going to post the ingredients below. You can read the step by step instructions by visiting http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/11/04/homemade-bread-cheap-delicious-healthy-and-easier-than-you-think/

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup milk
• 5 teaspoons sugar (or 1 1/2 tablespoons)
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 5 teaspoons butter (or 1 1/2 tablespoons)
• 1 package active dry yeast (you can get yeast near the flour at your local grocery store)
• 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups flour (get unbleached white for your first attempt)
• Corn starch or nonstick cooking spray (just to prevent the bread from sticking to the bowl or pan)
  

I haven't tried this recipe yet, but it looks fairly easy and not too intimidating. I hope to try it out in the next week or two, and will try to give an update once I've made some.