All Things Pretty & Cinnamon Bread: Yes You Can

 Today, I'm joining the All Things Pretty Linky Party and bringing you a cinnamon bread tutorial.

I'm not a cook. Ask my husband; he will corroborate. I'm always uneasy about making things from scratch, and I like my kitchen to look unused. Thus, I leave cooking and baking to professionals. However, I stepped out of my comfort zone and made this cinnamon bread. From scratch. If I can do it, you can do it. Say it with me, "yes I can!"

My boss's assistant gave me this recipe (I swear she's one part angel, one part Betty Crocker). She assured me this cinnamon bread could be made by anyone, including me. She was right. In an effort to make the bread lower calorie, I changed a few of the ingredients. The original recipe is in black; my changes are in pink. Here's what you'll need:

1/3 cup sugar (splenda)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp baking powder (2 tsp cream of tartar, 1 tsp baking soda)
1 cup sugar (splenda)
1 cup milk (vanilla almond milk)
1 egg beaten (egg white)
1/3 oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan and set it aside. Combine flour, 1 cup sugar, and baking powder.

Add milk, oil, and egg to the flour mixture.

Stir until just mixed.

Pour 1/2 mixture into loaf pan. Sprinkle cinnamon and 1/3 cup sugar on top.

Pour remaining 1/2 of mixture in loaf pan. (I also sprinkled a little brown sugar on top)

Bake for 40-50 minutes or until done.

Cool in pan for 10-15 minutes before removing from pan and placing on cooling rack.

Enjoy!

Dinner of Champions

Honey Nut Cheerios + Grapes + Strawberries = My Dinner Last Night. And I loved it! I left work a little early because I didn't feel great. I ate in bed while watching Friends Season 2 on DVD (after 2.5 weeks of living here we're STILL waiting for the cable company to hook up our cable). It was a delightful way to spend a Tuesday evening. What did you do?

Healthy Cookies

My law school BFF, Katie, gave me this recipe, and I could not be more grateful. These cookies are lower calorie than most and satisfy my sweet tooth. If you follow Weight Watchers, they are one point per cookie.

1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup splenda brown sugar
1/2 cup low fat margarine

Preheat oven to 400. Grease baking sheets. With mixer, cream margarine, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract. Add remaining ingredients and beat thoroughly. Separate into cookies on cookie sheets. Recipe is supposed to make 60. I was only able to make 40. Bake for about 6-8 minutes, but watch carefully. Because they are small, they cook quickly.