It's a rare day when I share a recipe in my blog, but this one is just so darn magical. As in, it always comes out perfect. You cannot wreck it.
When I found a variation of it online (I've tweaked it) it was called Zucchini Bread. But I've never used zucchini. Instead I've substituted pumpkin puree or bananas or yellow squash. And each time, well, the end product was heavenly. And extremely low in fat and sugar, too, and well, you can't mess this one up. Honest.
So I thought I'd share it here so that you, too, could bake magical dessert bread at your house. :)
Magical Dessert Bread
1 1/2 c. flour (I use whole wheat flour)
1 tsp. cinnamon (or more)
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. allspice (or more)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 c. mashed bananas or pumpkin puree or zucchini or yellow squash
2 tsp. sugar (you can add more)
2 tsp. brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 c. applesauce (unsweetened or any)
1 tbs. flax seed or wheat bran
1.) Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a glass pie dish or square glass baking dish.
2.) Cream together sugar, egg, applesauce and whichever vegetable/fruit you are using. Set aside.
3.) Sift together flour, spices, salt, baking soda, baking powder, flax seed or bran.
4.) Slowly add sifted ingredients to creamed mixture, mixing just until moistened.
5. ) Pour into prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes or until done.
6.) Enjoy! (Makes four good-sized servings.)
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I am such a rebel.
You know how, at Facebook, your friends will write something like, "This is cartoon week. Post a photo of your favorite cartoon character instead of your own and make some nostalgic fun for everybody."
Well, I never do that.
And you know those email forwards where, at the very bottom it says, "Send this to ten friends or it means you don't love Jesus."?
I never do that, either. Instead, I just sit here and say, "Ha! I'll show you. I won't forward this to anybody and I will still love Jesus anyway."
Heh.
Always I've been like this.
Even as a teenager I read different books than my friends and watched movies they just pooh-poohed as being family-feel-good. I listened to the Carpenters and classical music while my friends tuned-in hard rock. I never even considered drinking, for I wanted to be a modern Samson who was supposed to never drink, being a Nazarite, (though he did) or cut his hair.
I had long hair when short hair was in. Still have it, even though I'm over 50 (the nerve, huh?!)
And while I grew-up in churches which found it too hard to believe in divine healing and spiritual gifts and miracles, I believed in it all. I believed God was big and that the Bible was literally true. And I confess, I now avoid preachers who make tradition huge, but God, tiny.
I am contrary, yes I am. And well, that is probably one reason I've never been popular.
Good thing I've never wanted to be that, either.
It becomes easier to stand alone when necessary (and sometimes it is) when being popular isn't the goal.
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"When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”
Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”' ... from John 21
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Ahoy! Now there's a verse that can set you free this Christmastime.
What is it to me, to us, if people are doing Christmas all hurried, worried and scurried?
We must follow Jesus.
What is it to us if people spend too much money on gifts? If they start Christmas too early? What business is it of ours?
We must just follow Jesus.
When I wandered into Blogland in 2004, the homemaking blogs blew me away. I mean, I discovered all these peace-filled women who cared for their homes, their husbands, their children week after week, and without complaining (!)
Instead, they baked pies, sat down and read good books and hung laundry outside to dry. They made crafts, scooted their furniture around and painted walls-- all with a grateful heart, as though on no planet is there a more fulfilling way to live.
They didn't write scathing blog posts about women who choose to work outside the home nor criticized others who did Life differently. No, they just followed Jesus. And Grace and Light, also, from room to room, and they reaped the peace which comes only from personal, God-directed obedience.
Oh wow. Instant hero worship! They reminded me of all that is holy in home-keeping and I longed to be just like them, to grow stronger in that joyous lifestyle.
What I've learned? If I want to make a real difference in this insane world (I do! I do!) I must just live my life.
In obedience. In love.
In step with Jesus, walking room to room with Him, remaining within that incredible peaceful atmosphere He brings along with Him.
Yet that peace flickers, dims to dark when I criticize a world of people who are so lost and clueless and who do Christmas 'all wrong.' For Jesus came and died for all of them, us, because He loved us, because we could never, ever save our own sad, clueless selves.
So what remains is for me to love the clueless, too. To keep the peace of Presence strong, gleaming around me. And to just live my life, creating a thirst in others for the wonders that Presence brings.
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Loving the unsaved is tons easier when we stop expecting them to act like they are saved already.
"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands... " 1 Thessalonians 4:11
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The photo: Our first snowfall arrived today. So, alas, the view outside our kitchen window. (At least there'll be no more mowing of the lawn for a long time--woo hoo!)
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