Interesting Substitutions

Today was my first wake up call after vacations. I dropped Amelia off at my mom's house and headed to the dentist to get two permanent crowns put on. It really wasn't that bad, but if you know me well, you know that I have a phobia of anything medical/dental. I went from that to the doctor to have my blood drawn to check my thyroid levels. Luckily, I didn't faint today. I even managed to sit in the regular chair instead of the special chair for fainters.  It all wasn't that bad, but definitely a different day than last Monday when we shopped at the outlet mall and met up with friends for gelato. 

I decided to try a recipe I pinned last night because, after all, doesn't pumpkin brighten up the most manic Mondays? I attempted to make Crock pot Pumpkin Bread, but I discovered that my bread pan wouldn't fit in my crock pot. I decided to just use the recipe and cook the bread in the oven. It came out great!

I had already sliced up the bread to divide among friends when I decided to take a picture. That is key, friends! I have to bake it, taste it and send it away! I am the only one in the house with a "sweet tooth", so it is dangerous to make a dessert and leave it here. 

So on to the interesting substitutions.....

More times than I want to admit, I begin mixing up a recipe before I realize I don't have all the ingredients. My sweet Bear has made many trips to our neighborhood Kroger while I'm in mid-recipe. 

I knew I didn't have any brown sugar, so I did a quick search and found that you can substitute granulated sugar plus molasses for brown sugar. Genius! It worked! (I know you can tell that this isn't my usual "clean" recipe, but it was a last minute idea and sometimes you can't substitute for the "good" stuff.)

I realized that I didn't have vegetable or canola oil, which I don't usually have on hand, so I substituted olive oil. I know it sounds gross. Olives in pumpkin bread!? But, it was great! Very moist! 

Also, as I got down the list of ingredients as I was mixing everything up, I realized that I didn't have any baking soda. I've been using it to make a lot of cleaning products lately. (I'll post about that one day. I'm very excited about it!) So I decided to use baking powder instead. I was skeptical because I know soda and powder usually serve their own important purpose in recipes. It worked too!

So there you have it, my Pinterest inspired pumpkin bread! :)