Book Review:
Full of large color photos and plenty of recipes, Giada’s new book is chock full of healthy ingredients and no canned recipes. This book is a great introduction for someone who might want to try eating healthier and introduce themselves to new foods like chia seeds, bone broth and vegetable noodles. There is a chapter for every food group from breakfast, to lunch, to dinner, to dessert. You will even find specialty items like peanut butter dog bone treats and lavender salt scrub. The book states on the back that it is about Eating Clean and this is done very well. The photos of the food are gorgeous.
I have two issues with the book: I wish the 44 pages of portraits of Giada had been replaced with more recipes. I can accept a few… but the book seemed to go a little overboard. Two, if you already make your food from scratch this book may not have you running into the kitchen. If you don’t make your food from scratch, please start and give this book a try!
In regards to the recipes, there are some very delicious ones. The Ricotta Toast with Strawberries is simple, but delicious. A great breakfast or looks fancy but not when you have guests. I made and tried the dog treats myself for our neighbor’s new puppy. They were really easy to make and pretty tasty! The brown butter tortellini again is simple, but delicious. Creamy and full of flavor with a few simple ingredients. The lemon ricotta cookies with lemon glaze are from one of her previous shows I think. I made the recipe years ago and it is one of my favorites and included in this book. Soft cookies with a lemon glaze that have a nice lemony punch.
I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own.
Recipe: I have made quite a few pumpkin breads and banana breads in my time… but not a pumpkin banana bread! This was really a nice treat. Everyone loved it from hubby to the smallest kiddo. I love having a recipe that takes the leftover pumpkin from a can and the few bananas leftover going brown. Sometimes you just don’t have enough bananas to make bread or have 1 cup of pumpkin leftover from making pumpkin oatmeal. This recipe uses them all up!
It is a sweet bread, but not too terribly sweet. The flavors work very well together and texture is absolutely perfect. The bread will freeze well if you want to bake and cool it off. Then, wrap it in a few layers of plastic wrap and throw it into a freezer bag. Once sealed and air removed, the bread should be fine for a month or two.
Why I love this bread:
- Made with whole wheat flour and Greek yogurt.
- Uses up some leftover items in the kitchen.
- Flavor is phenomenal.
- You can use this recipe for breakfast, snack or dessert.
- Freezer Friendly! I may just have to stock up on these during the holidays.
- I love almost anything with molasses in it. 🙂
- 4 Tb. unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 6 ounces plain or vanilla Greek yogurt
- 1 Tb. vanilla extract
- 2 Tb. molasses (optional)
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 cup mashed bananas (2 bananas)
- ½-1 tsp. ground cinnamon (add ½ tsp. for less flavor and 1 tsp. for more)
- ½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice (or simply use the 1 tsp. cinnamon above with ¼ tsp. nutmeg and ginger, each)
- ¼ tsp. ground cloves
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 and ⅔ cups white whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour
- 1 and ½ tsp. baking soda
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x5 pan with baking or cooking spray. I love baking spray myself.
- In a great big microwave safe bowl, add the butter to melt if you have not done so.
- Add the sugars, egg, yogurt, vanilla, pumpkin and bananas. Mix until smooth with a fork or mixer.
- Add the spices. Stir until mixed in.
- Add the flour and baking soda on top. With your fork, blend the flour and baking soda together so it is mixed around. Then, use your fork or a spatula to mix the wet and dry ingredients together. Stir until JUST combined. A few streaks of flour is okay.
- Pour into the 9x5 pan and bake for 60 minutes. Begin watching it after about 50 minutes.
- If the bread becomes too dark on top while baking, loosely cover with foil. I usually check for this around the 30-45 minute mark.
