Happy Monday! I can’t believe we’re already into mid-December! Pros and cons. I feel like this holiday season is flying by! I haven’t had much time for making cookies or drinking many cocktails, but I can’t complain—it’s been great to be busy doing stuff I love.

Last year, though, I had some time to bake up some festive stuff, so today I wanted to share one of my favorites. Well, aside from bacon. Bacon is my real favorite holiday treat, but I don’t have a recipe for that. You just kind of…make it. That said, this Maple Bacon & Brussels Sprouts side is pretty dope. I like it with eggs for breakfast or with a side of baked wild salmon.

While I’d still consider this bread an “in moderation” food, I made a few healthy changes to enhance the naturally delicious taste of the ingredients while upping the nutrition content. I cut the sugar down to a half-cup (most recipes call for a full cup of everyone’s favorite legal white powder) and swapped in some white whole wheat flour for some of the all-purpose. Using low-fat plain yogurt and pumpkin puree allowed me to cut the butter in half to. While you could use dried cranberries, using fresh instead offers a refreshing twist that’s also lower in sugar.

I hope you enjoy this! Now go deck those f***ing halls of whatever.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cranberry Yogurt Bread

Ingredients

• • ½ cup coconut oil or organic butter, melted
  • ½ cup plain low-fat yogurt
  • ½ cup pumpkin puree
  • 3 eggs, beaten (or 1 egg and 4 whites)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • ½ cup all purpose flour
  • 1 cup white whole wheat flour
  • ½ cup, sugar, coconut sugar, or stevia
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • pinch of sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • Pumpkin Pie Spice
  • 1 cup fresh cranberries
  • ½ cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan or line with parchment paper.
2. Mix together coconut oil, yogurt, eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Set aside.
3. Mix flours, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and and sea salt. Set aside.
4. In a food processor, pulse cranberries to chop (optional).
5. Mix dry into wet ingredients. Fold in cranberries and chocolate chips. Pour into prepped loaf pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees about 50-60 minutes or until bread is beginning to brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Let cake sit at least 10 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack.
8. Slice into 16 pieces.

What’s your favorite holiday treat?