Weekends are wonderful, aren’t they? Everything seems so much better when the weather’s nice and you don’t have to get up and rush out the door to work. I love summer!
Yesterday I had a huge craving to bake – so that’s what I did at 10pm last night. Batter up J
When in Italy, we took several trips to the grocery store (I adore grocery stores in other countries. It’s my favorite place to visit). One of the things we brought was Italian Nutella! No, it’s not very different from the stuff sold in the US, but it comes in this cool jar that you can use as a cup after. And it commemorates the 1938 World Cup.
Fun!
I used to make a Raspberry Walnut Swirl loaf that was fantastic – so I thought, “Hey – why not use Nutella and fresh strawberries instead?!” The mind works in wonderful ways sometimes.
And really, who doesn’t love a chocolate hazelnut spread? Unfortunately, it’s not as good for you as peanut butter – unlike what the Nutella Company wants you to think: That you should feed it to your kids “as part of a tasty balanced breakfast.” I truly loath those commercials.
Nutrition Tidbit
The thing is, just because it has hazelnuts in it doesn’t mean it’s ‘healthy’. One serving of Nutella is 2 Tablespoons and has 200 calories. In one serving there are only 3g of protein. Peanut butter, on the other hand, is a better source of protein with 8g per 2 tablespoons. Moreover, Nutella has 21g of sugar – that’s about 5 teaspoons all packed into 2 tablespoons! Peanut butter, if you buy natural without added sugar, only has about half a gram.
The moral of the story? Enjoy Nutella occasionally as part of a delicious, sweet treat – but try not to make it part of your daily eating patterns since it’s not a good source of any nutrients needed for good health.
And with that, let’s get to my ‘healthified’ quick bread recipe. Something you can enjoy as a delicious, sweet treat J
Strawberry Nutella Swirl Quick Bread
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup Nutella plus 2 Tbsp
- 1 cup chopped strawberries
- 1 cup flour
- ½ cup wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 6oz vanilla fat free yogurt (I use Greek yogurt)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg plus 1 egg white
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F and spray an 8″ bread pan with spray oil.
Combine dry ingredients: Flours, baking powder and soda, salt, sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix well.
In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients: eggs, yogurt, and vanilla (NOT Nutella or strawberries).
Mix wet ingredients in with dry ingredients and set aside.
Microwave 1/3 cup Nutella in microwave safe bowl for 20 seconds. Pour over chopped strawberries and mix well.
Spread half the bread batter in the bottom of the bread pan. Spread strawberry/Nutella mixture on top and then spread the rest of the bread batter on top of the strawberry/Nutella mixture.
Lastly, heat up 2 Tbsp Nutella for about 10 seconds in the microwave and drizzle over batter.
Bake bread for 55 minutes.
Let bread cool for about 15- 20 minutes in the pan before attempting to take it out of the bread pan since there are many ‘lose’ layers.
Once cool enough, shimmy out of the pan and let finish cooling on a wire rack. If you attempt to cut the bread prior to it being completely cool it may be more prone to crumble.
ENJOY!!
