Feeding children day in and day out can get boring for both the eaters and the chef. In the providing of 2 snacks and a lunch each day, I work really hard to find new presentations of known foods that will be eaten and ways to introduce new foods. It helps when I have a group that enjoys their fruits and vegetables and do not think snacks have to only be baked goods.
All that being said, if you answer the question”What’s for snack?” with “…..chocolate chips” you have an instant hit on your hands.
So my job is to find recipes that allow for the addition of chocolate chips with lower fat and less sugars. A long-time favorite around here (I think I could serve this every day without complaint) is the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread from the Dr. Cookie Cookbook . As much as I also enjoy this bread, I get tired of making it. This week the puree to be used (the freezer is full of vegetable purees from the abundance of produce we processed this summer) is baked pumpkin. Now I don’t have a lot of recipes for pumpkin in my collection of cookbooks, so it was off to my pinterest boards. I’ve been collecting recipes for baked goods that look interesting and easy to do (kid friendly baking) on donuts, muffins & quickbreads during my daily web browsing. Time to actually try a few.

Recipegirl has a Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread - good whole wheat, but I also wanted to use up a last cup of yogurt, so keep looking.

chef in training had an Easy Pumpkin Bread - not sure if I could sub the yogurt for the water and not ready to experiment just now. Keep looking

Maybe I should just do donuts (always another hit) like those tasty Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Spiced Donuts from Shape, or Buns in My Oven’s Pumpkin Donuts, we have done both before from. They are baked and healthy, but I really want a quick bread that uses yogurt.

Pumpkin quinoa, pumpkin cornbread……where is a recipe for a quick bread with yogurt. I cannot believe I do not have one pinned. A quick 10 min. check of my board found no recipe that used the ingredients I wanted to without experimenting. Time for a quick site wide search. Immediate find: So I Guess I Can Cook Now – Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. Extra bonus is it makes 2 loaves for the work of one. I changed up the flour mix to make more whole grain (1 C each flour, wheat germ and whole wheat flour). Posted in Cooking With Us under Breads & Muffins (drop-down pages).

The bread was moist, smelled great and disappeared as soon as the snack plate was laid out. The kids immediately asked if I had more of this. Think we have a good substitute for our Banana Bread.