Ginger Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread with Maple Butter Glaze

It's the 15th, and that means it's time to share with you what my Baking Partners and I have whipped up in our kitchen. Because it's Fall, the star ingredient for this month's challenge is pumpkin. There were three pumpkin bread recipes to choose from, all suggested by Tamy of Three Sides of Crazy. Though all three seem really good, the Ginger Pumpkin Bread from Simply Scratch really caught my attention. "WHY?", you may ask. Well, it's simply because I love the flavor of ginger, and upon seeing the recipe, I instantly imagined how my taste buds will be tickled with the wonderful combination of pumpkin and ginger! 

Truth be told, my husband and two daughters aren't big fans of pumpkin. So to make sure that I won't end up eating the pumpkin bread all by myself, I thought of adding chocolate chips and cinnamon to it. I knew that chocolate chips combined with the awesome flavor of cinnamon will make the pumpkin bread very hard to resist, and I was right! Just a few minutes after taking pictures, this gorgeous Ginger Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread was already half gone! Yes, that's how good it turned out!

The bread truly has a very wonderful flavor and was so moist and soft. But it doesn't end there. Covering it with maple butter glaze made it even more amazing! I highly recommend that you try this recipe. Even if you're not a pumpkin lover, I'm sure you'll love this!

Homemade Fruit Juice Combos

Of all the kitchen gadgets we have, I must say that one of my favorite is our Jack Lalanne's Power Juicer. We have it for more than a year now, and considering how simple it is to use and how quick it allows us to have freshly squeezed juice, I really think it's such a great buy! We bought it for just $89.99 at Costco, and its performance and ease of use make it so worth the price. It is very easy to operate and clean, and it has a 3-inch wide chute which lets me add whole fruits and vegetables without having to cut them and I love that it truly saves me a lot of time. I also love that it has a big pulp catcher which means that nothing goes to waste. If you have time, you can use the pulp to make bread, cookies, muffins, cakes or even salsa. I highly recommend this juicer. If you want healthy delicious drinks for you and your family, you should check it out.

Though we still drink store-bought juice from time to time, we know that it's not as healthy as freshly made juice, so we see to it that we prepare homemade fruit or vegetable juices at least three times a week. We love individual fruit juices like apple, grape, grapefruit, mango, orange, strawberry and individual vegetable juices like carrot, celery, cucumber and tomato. But we enjoy fruit and vegetable juice combinations a lot more. It's always such a great drink to start your day with. I'm sure you will agree that two or more kinds of fruits or vegetables combined together makes a glass of juice healthier and more exciting to drink. :)

Among the fruit juice combos we enjoy are these two...

The one on the left is Apple Carrot with Ginger Juice and the one on the right is Grapefruit Orange Strawberry. Believe it or not, my daughters love these combos. They found it a little weird the first time they tried them. The second time around, I added honey and they found it awesome! After discussing with them how healthy these juice combos are, they loved them even more. They just love the thought that an 8-oz. glass of either  Apple Carrot with Ginger Juice or Grapefruit Orange Strawberry Juice will give them Vit. A, Vit. B, Vit. C and minerals such as calcium iron, potassium, phosphorus, silicon and chlorine among many others, and can help prevent cancer and other diseases. 

Next time, I'll share with you some veggie juice combos that we love. For now, enjoy these two refreshing fruit juice combos...