Lemon Bread

Hi Everyone,

Made it through one more day!  I actually had a great Monday.  Nothing great happened, woke up, went to work, exercised, made dinner and blogged.  That’s my everyday, but the reason for a good day, you wonder?  New attitude!  I woke Sunday and decided to just be happy!  When you walk by people smile and say hi.  Go to work and just do your job and if it’s a crappy work day, oh well, they pay you to do the crap and besides be grateful you have a job!  I am totally going for this and since my day went well, I’m happy!  It sounds stupid but this is true, “smiles are contagious, so pass it on”.  How can anyone be mean or angry to a happy person?

Since my root canal Friday, I’ve been pretty feeling good.  My cheeks are a little swollen, but no pain.  The only thing is I can’t eat crunchy yet.  But with that, I lost a couple of pounds.  It goes to show, I think my afternoon snacking of granola and pecan crisps probably are part of my weight gain.  I haven’t had either of them since Thursday.  I think that’s the longest I have gone without granola!  Oh and I have been eating clean, no processed foods!   Making everything from scratch.  I love the flavors and the left overs!  Funny when I was a kid and young adult, I never ate left overs, I thought they were gross, but not anymore.  A lot of food tastes better the next day!

Last week I slacked on my workout!  I did my strength training two days and cardio for two days.  After the dentist visit Friday the last thing on my mind was exercise, so  I decided to give my body a break so I wouldn’t burn out and would continue my workout on Monday!  I did and it felt good!  I am keeping up with my Jackie Warner 30 Jump Start and it’s getting easier, thank God!  I can’t wait to see if I tone up in 2 more weeks!  I can feel it in my arms!

So since I can’t eat crunchy you know had to go to the next best thing, bread!  Yes I already admitted I am a bread addict, so sue me!  he he  This is a wonderful lemon quick bread.  I’ve been to Starbucks, I know your shocked and I keep seeing there lemon pound cake for 480 calories a slice and I think Hell NO!!  Nothing is worth that many calories, nothing that I could eat in 30 seconds flat, so I had to make the next closest thing I could think of, that I knew would be semi-healthy, low calorie and if I eat a piece or two I won’t feel guilty!

This bread has a sticky, but chewy top and soft moist middle.  It has just the perfect amount of lemon.  When I made the glaze, I tasted it, after I put it on the bread and thought, ohhh weeeee thats tart, but you know what, it wasn’t tart once it was on the bread!  I am so happy for that, I thought I ruined my mini loafs, but nope I didn’t!  You know me and mini loafs.  One for my work, one for Hubby’s and one for home!  I can’t have one big loaf at home or I will eat it all!

This bread is made with yogurt for extra protein boost and half whole wheat pastry flour and half all purpose flour.  Plus love which gives it the best flavor, ok that was totally geeky!  What can I say?  That’s me!

Lemon Bread

Ingredients:

1 Cup Greek Non Fat Plain Yogurt

1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. granulated sugar

2 eggs or egg substitute

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. lemon extract

2 teaspoon lemon peel, grated (about 2 lemons)

1 Cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 Cup all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Glaze:

3 tablespoon sugar

1/4 cup(s) lemon juice, fresh

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°

Beat yogurt, sugar, eggs, vanilla and lemon extract until blended

Stir together flour, lemon peel, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to yogurt mixture,mix just until blended. Spoon batter into a greased and floured 9- x 5-inch loaf pan or 3 mini loafs.

Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour for 1 large loaf or 30 – 35 minutes for 3 mini loafs, or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, shielding with aluminum foil after 50 minutes to prevent excessive browning.

To make glaze:

In a small sauce pan add sugar and lemon juice, stir until dissolved and clear. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in (a pastry brush works great for this, as does using a toothpick to make tiny holes that draw the syrup in better).

Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Then eat!!!!

makes 15 big slices

Calories per slice:  111,  Fat:  .02,  Cholesterol:  0,  Sodium:  137,  Potassium:  32, Carbs:  23,  Fiber:  1.3,  Sugar:  10.3,  Protein:  3.9

That beats Starbucks 480 calorie lemon pound cake.  I’m still working on making a low calorie pound cake, but I believe it’s called pound cake because it takes a pound of butter, which I refuse to use in anything!  Sorry Paula Deen, I like butter, but not that much!

I really enjoy making quick breads, it amazing everything you can do with them.  From sweet to savory.   I have 4 ripe banana’s so I can create another bread this week.  What is your favorite kind of quick bread?  I don’t know what mine is, I like them all!

Time for me to go, I am going through yogurt withdrawals.  Remember when I got moldy yogurt from Trader Joe’s?  Well they gave me my money back without receipt or the yogurt, so I bought another one and guess what?  Moldy!  Arrrrrr!  So I returned that one too!  They said they must of gotten a bad batch, now there out of stock, so I am going to head to my local grocery store and pick up Chobani, which I never had or Fage which I just tried today and I like it.  The only problem is, there about $2.00 more then Trader Joe’s and there sugar is higher.  I love yogurt, it’s my evening dessert with fruit and peanut butter!  Since I can’t have crunchy I must have yogurt!

Ok, as I think about it I really need my Greek Yogurt!  Have a great day and remember to smile and pass it on, you will have a great day!!! 😉