Orange-Nut Bread

2 cups flour (you may use all or half whole wheat if you wish)
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
zest of one orange
¾ cup walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts or almonds, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
¾ cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Oven at 325. Grease or spay a loaf pan. In a bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and zest. Add nuts and stir until evenly distributed. Mix together wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Make a well and add the melted butter, eggs, orange juice and vanilla. Stir until smooth. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake about 50-60 minutes, until the top is brown and firm and the sides are pulling away from the pan. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

Sweet Potato Bread

1 2/3 cup flour
1 ½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
½ c oil
½ c water
1 c mashed sweet potato
2 eggs
½ c chopped nuts (optional)

Oven at 325. Stir all dry ingredients together. Add oil, water, potatoes, and eggs. Mix well. Stir in nuts. Spoon in a greased loaf pan. Bake 75-90 minutes until bread pulls away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Grapefruit Pecan Quick Bread

1-2 large pink grapefruit (about 1 1/4 pounds)
1 tablespoon grated grapefruit rind
2 cups all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour or a combination of the two
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped pecans

cooking spray
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 tablespoon water

Coat an 8 1/2 x 4 ½ inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

Peel and section grapefruit over a bowl, reserving juice and membranes. Set sections aside.
Squeeze membranes to extract juice and discard membranes. Place sections and juice in a food processor and pulse 3 times. Set aside 1 and 1/4 cups mixture and reserve remaining grapefruit mixture for another use.

Combine rind, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in center of mixture. Combine grapefruit mixture, oil, vanilla and egg. Stir well. Add to grapefruit mixture dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Stir in pecans.

Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Combine powdered sugar and water and stir well with a wire whisk. Drizzle over bread and let cool in the pan 10 minutes. Remove bread from pan and let cool completely on wire rack before serving.

**Note-This bread freezes well. If you are freezing it, do not cover with the sugar and water mixture. The sugar mixture adds a lot of sweetness to an otherwise slightly sour bread; I would not omit it!

Spinach, Veggie and Cheese Strata

1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 box (9 oz) frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed to drain
2 medium red bell peppers, cut into strips (or any color besides green pepper)
1 cup sliced leeks
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 loaf (9 oz) ciabatta or French bread, cut into 1-inch cubes (6 cups)**
7 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Spray 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. In 10-inch skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add spinach, bell peppers and leeks; cook 4 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until crisp-tender. Remove from heat. In baking dish, spinach mixture, 1 cup of the Cheddar cheese and the bread. In large bowl, beat eggs, milk, mustard and pepper with wire whisk until blended; pour over bread. Sprinkle with remaining Cheddar cheese. Cover with foil; refrigerate at least 4 hours but no longer than 24 hours.

Oven at 325°F. Bake loosely covered 40 minutes. Uncover; bake about 30 minutes longer or until top is golden brown and knife inserted in center comes out clean.

**Note-In my family we save the bread ends in the freezer to use later for french toast. They also make a great substitution for the french bread loaf in this recipe.
**Note-You may also add several cups of chopped ham to the spinach mixture for a yummy addition.

Orange Cranberry Muffins

2 cups flour **
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
zest of one orange
1 egg
4 tablespoons melted butter or oil **
½ c milk
½ c orange juice
1 ½ c fresh or unthawed frozen cranberries**
½ c pecans or walnuts, chopped

Oven at 375. Grease a muffin tin. Stir together dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl, whisk together egg, butter or oil, milk and orange juice until blended. Add to dry ingredients, stirring until just moistened. The batter will be slightly lumpy. Fold in the cranberries and nuts, being careful not to over mix. Spoon batter into the muffin cups. Bake 20-25 minutes. Let cool in tin for about 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Makes 20 muffins.

**Note-As always I encourage using whole wheat (or a combination of whole wheat and white) flour to boost the nutritional value of these muffins.
**Note-If you are using cranberry sauce (see note below), you may lower the amount of fat by half or more.
**Note-these taste yummy when you use leftover cranberry sauce, perhaps from the winter holidays. Use 1 1/2 cups of sauce, or a combination of sauce and whole berries, to equal 1 1/2 cups. We never know what to do with the leftover sauce, and now we have a delicious and totally new solution. Enjoy!

Overnight Carmel French Toast

1 cup brown sugar
½ cup butter
12 slices bread
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
6 eggs
1 ½ c milk
1 t vanilla

In a small sauce pan over medium heat, heat butter and sugar stirring constantly. Once sugar is dissolved/melted, remove from heat. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Top with the bread. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla and remaining cinnamon. Pour over bread. Cover and chill 8 hours or overnight.
Remove from fridge 30 minutes before baking. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

**Note-with the carmel topping, I find this french toast sweet enough. The bread itself (if bites are eaten apart from the topping) is not very sweet. If you desire more of a sweet bread, you may add about 1/4 cup of extra sugar to the egg mixture.
**Note-While eating this, I thought it would taste delicious with apples in the carmel topping. If desired, stir in about 1 cup of finely chopped apples after the carmel has melted in the sauce pan.

Pumpkin Apple Strussel Muffins

2 ½ cups whole wheat flour**
2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups canned (pure) pumpkin
2 eggs
¼ cup veg oil
2 cups apples finely chopped**

¼ c sugar
2 T flour
½ t cinnamon
2 T butter

For muffins:
Oven at 350. Combine flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in large bowl. In a separate bowl combine pumpkin, eggs, and oil. Stir into dry ingredients, stirring until just moistened. Stir in apples. Spoon batter into muffin cups (sprayed or lined w/ paper). Makes 24 muffins.

For streussel topping:
Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over muffin batter. (About one teaspoon over sprinkled over each muffin)

Bake muffins w/ topping for 30-35 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes in pan then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

**Note-These muffins are quite nutty/chewy with all whole wheat flour. If you are more sensitive to that you may want to use half whole wheat flour and half regular flour.
**Note-I recommend shredding your apples, that way the peel is small enough that you can leave it on and not notice it in the muffins.

Pineapple Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup natural apple sauce
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup crushed pineapple (drained)
3 cups whole wheat flour**
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoons nutmeg
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Oven at 350. Cream eggs, oil, apple sauce and sugar. Add vanilla, zucchini and pineapple, mix well. Add dry ingredients, mix until moistened. Stir in the raisins and walnuts. Divide batter between 2 greased standard loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour. Slice each loaf into 12 pieces.

**Note-You can use regular flour or a mix of whole wheat and white flour, but I encourage you to use at least some whole wheat flour as it is a super easy way and tasty way to get whole grains into your diet.
**Note-this recipe does not taste too much different than standard zucchini bread recipes. I included it because with apple sauce, zucchini, pineapple and raisins, each slice has nearly a 1/4 cup of veggies and fruit in it, which is much more than your standard zucchini bread recipe. Because of all the added fruit, it is an extra moist bread as well.