Making the Most of Your Ingredients

One of my favorite between-class snacks is pumpkin bread. Pair it with a cup of coffee in your travel mug, and you have a great breakfast for on the way to class. Pumpkin bread is also something you can bake a few recipes of and throw in the freezer to enjoy later in the quarter.

Last week, I decided to make a few loaves for me and my roommates. I found an easy recipe online and got to work. After mixing my dry ingredients, I found myself in a bit of a pickle.

Because everything in our kitchen is either used or half-broken, my can opener demolished my second can of pumpkin. There was no way I could use it, and there was also no way I was walking to the store in sub-zero temperatures to get a dumb can of pumpkin.

So I improvised. My roommate, Sarah, had a few extra bananas that she didn’t plan on using. Pumpkin banana bread? Why not? I googled to see if there were any recipes online for the mixture, and sure enough, there were. So I mashed them up and threw them into the batter. The combination of the sweet smell of banana and the spices of the pumpkin was incredible.

So when you are cooking or baking, don’t be afraid to substitute ingredients. Although baking is more exact, there are many options you can find that will save you from having to throw away an unfinished batch of what could be a very yummy snack.