" For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. " Song of Solomon

January 25, 2008

Raisin Bread



On these cold winter days there's nothing better with a hot cuppa than some warm and fruity quick bread. I picked up a loaf of date nut bread from my local Krogers and found it less than satisfactory. The taste left a lot to be desired and the portion was tiny for the calories . And I don't dare bake anything from scratch. If it's here I'll eat it--- even if it's in the hinterlands of my freezer---I'll find it.

So I came up with this idea--it's another no brainer. But I'm sharing it anyway. Sometimes the simplest things are the things I never think of on my own, so I love it when others share the "obvious" because it's not always so obvious to me. Maybe my idea is one you haven't thought of.

Raisin Bread

Take one slice of whole wheat bread. My current choice is Arnolds---it's a very large slice, 110 calories. On it plop a tablespoon of light cream cheese and pop it in the microwave for 15 seconds at 60% power (this is for a 700 watt microwave---adjust if yours is a different wattage). This will soften the cream cheese rendering it pliable enough to spread evenly on your bread, and the bread will be gently warmed and softened.

Next, strategically place about 10 raisins on top of the cream cheese; follow this with a tiny drizzle of honey, or a sprinkle of your sweetener of choice---mine would be Splenda (if you're using real sugar you may want to blend it into the cream cheese before spreading). Next, douse it with some cinnamon....or leave that off if you're not a fan. And finally I like to spray some liquid "butter" on top of that---gives it a buttery taste and look.

It's ready to enjoy with your steaming hot mug. Nice additions would be some peanut butter---spread that onto the bread prior to the cream cheese step and sort of swirl the two together after they come out of the microwave. Some chopped walnuts or pecans would be nice on top too, for a fruit nut bread.

And if you're inclined you could mix up a batch of a specialty cream cheese like they serve at Panera. I was thinking some chopped apple, chopped raisin, chopped nuts, cinnamon, and sweetener. Raisins and nuts are pretty high calorically whereas apple is not---so you could go heavy on the apple and light on the nuts and raisins.

You could come up with a ton of spreads---the sugar free coffee syrups are great added to cream cheese too. And what about doing a savory cream cheese, spreading it on a good dark bread and topping with some thinly sliced tomatoes adding some salt and freshly ground coarse black pepper. Yummo.
"....there have been many times when I have shed bitter tears, when if I had understood the situation better, I would have celebrated my good luck instead."

DISCLAIMER

I am not a doctor and all information, suggestions, etc are my personal opinion only.