Can you tell I have been in a baking mood these days? The thing is, I just don’t like buying treats at the store – they are so filled with yuck that I don’t enjoy them as much. And with my darned sweet tooth, I like to have a little something sweet every day (everything in moderation is a big motto in this house!). On top of that, having a son with a nut allergy makes it even more challenging to find cookies or baked goods that are safe. Soooo that all adds up to me doing a lot of baking.

This recipe is one I based off of other recipes that I saw online, after watching Paula Deen make chocolate bread that looked amazing – but it was loaded with fat. So, purely driven by a craving, I set out to find something I could make without feeling too guilty.  This is a nut-free, and low-fat quick bread that could easily be tweaked (per my notes) to be a dairy-free treat as well. And I’m sure those of you that are challenged with baking without eggs and without gluten could easily adapt this recipe as well.  But most of all, it’s just plain YUMMY!

Chocolate Bread

1/4 cup canola oil
1/4-1/3 cup applesauce (I confess I wasn’t meticulous about measuring – I’m thinking closer to 1/3)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup unbleached flour
1/2 cup cocoa (unsweetened)
1 teaspoon espresso powder (totally optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I use kosher – less sodium)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk (OR 1 cup milk mixed with either 1 tablespoon white vinegar or 1 tablespoon lemon juice OR 1 cup soy milk with the vinegar or lemon juice)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Prepare a 9×5 loaf pan by spraying with cooking oil spray
3. In a mixing bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the oil, applesauce and sugar. Beat well.
4. Add eggs one at a time – beating well after each addition.
5. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl (flours, cocoa, espresso powder -if using, salt, baking soda, baking powder).
6. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk to the oil/sugar/egg mixture, beating well after each, and scraping the bowl a few times.
7. Pour into the prepared loaf pan.
8. Bake for about 1 hour (depending on your oven) until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Let rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool (of course, I skipped the cooling step and dove right in, but patience is not one of my virtues, especially when it comes to baked goods…)

This is a quick treat to make, and was inhaled by my kids (ok, and me, too!). There are recipes for chocolate butter spreads to go with it, or chocolate honey butter – but we liked it plain, or toasted with cream cheese. YUMmmm.

Did you ever notice that the greatest “make life easy” inventions seem to come from parents who have had to deal with some kind of frustration or inefficiency for long enough that they decide they can come up with an ingenious solution? Well I have found another one of these inventions. And, as I find with most of these types of things, it’s a “duh- why didn’t I think of that??” idea. This is specifically geared toward anyone who has to carry an Epi-Pen – a prescription injector that is for life-threatening allergies like food allergies or bee sting allergies. These injectors need to be on parents of children who suffer from the allergies at all times. A matter of 1-2 minutes can mean life or death (so keeping one “nearby, in the car for instance, can be a deadly mistake). The unfortunate thing is, they are awkward to carry, and you typically need to keep two on hand, making it doubly awkward.

But fine, no worries. You can pop them in your pocketbook (mom) or in your back pocket (dad) when going out. But what happens when the child gets older and needs to have them on hand but is going somewhere without his or her backpack? Or what if you are an adult who suffers from an allergy and you want to go out for a run, or do something where carrying a bag is not convenient? Since fanny-packs are long out of fashion, there have been few alternatives, other than carrying the “pens” in your hand.

So along comes a pair of ingenious moms. They, like me, became concerned about their nut-allergy kids as they got older and started going off on their own. A bike ride to a friend’s house, a trip into the town center for an ice cream, a soccer practice. What could they do to ensure that the Epi-Pens would be on hand? So they put their heads together and came up with a simple yet smart solution – called Take In Case. It’s a sleeve made of a stretchy material that has a little padding. The whole thing measures about 6 inches wide and 8 inches long, and it has two pockets that securely hold an Epi Pen each. VOILA! Now any child (recommended ages 10 and up) or adult can carry the Epi Pens on their arm or calf and keep their hands free.

We have been using this for a couple of weeks now and it has been great. My son is 10 years old but is, um, a little “slender” (ok – he’s as skinny as a rail) so it’s a little big for his arm, but he still puts it there anyway, and he actually doesn’t mind carrying it. Not bad!

Check out this site TakeInCase.com for a lot more information, and to find out how to order the case. From my perspective, it’s $25 well spent. And a portion of the sale goes to support food allergy research as well!