This fantastic Cranberry Pumpkin Bread was created as a Halloween recipe for a sponsored post for Mariano’s via Collective Bias®.
I’ve been itching to check out the new Mariano’s store in Chicago’s Greektown neighborhood ever since they opened a couple of months ago. We have one in the suburbs and I’ve been to it and my parents absolutely love it! Needless to say I was excited to finally get on the bus and make a trip over there and get some ingredients to make a yummy Halloween recipe.
I had no idea what to make for the Halloween recipe. I was trying to think of some uber creative Halloween party ideas but then I thought that all of the ideas I was coming up with were not as creative as I thought. They were overplayed. We’ve all seen the creepy fingers and eyeballs and whatnot. I decided to opt for a something that hits closer to home. I bought cranberries and pumpkin at Mariano’s and got to baking!
My Halloween party idea is to keep it homey so the Halloween recipe is a HEALTHY Cranberry Pumpkin Bread. All of the recipes are more likely to be pretty unhealthy around Halloween time. No surprise here, the holiday is filled with candy, chocolate, and more sweets. Why not keep the delicious Autumn flavors and create a better-for-you snack that you can easily bring to a Halloween party and be sure that it will be eaten right up!
The outcome of this Cranberry Pumpkin Bread was just phenomenal. Oh my goodness.. The bread is just slightly sweet, a bit dense, and the tartness from the cranberries is felt deliciously as a beautiful add of burst of flavor. The whole bread has a nice complexity that is hard to beat. Needless to say – this bread most definitely does NOT taste healthy!
It tastes like Autumn should. It’s comforting. It’s dense. It’s a bit moist. It’s just perfect. I loved slathering a pat of cream cheese and jam on top as you could see in my recent Instagram photo. I think it’s a perfect Halloween recipe even if it’s not necessarily one of the “creepy” or “scary-looking” ones. It’s creative nonetheless.
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Check out Mariano’s recent Opera Flash Mob video.
Mariano’s is now definitely one of my favorite stores. They’ve got all the healthy and organic products, they’ve got specialty and cultural products (saw some Polish brands there too! Yay), they’ve got the regular grocery store products… the whole experience was really pleasant. I already like grocery shopping because I’m a weirdo but I certainly like some stores more than others. Mariano’s was much more than a mere shopping trip, it was an experience. The Halloween specialty products were scattered nicely all around the store and they had wonderful sections of fresh veggies and fruit, a nice and big deli department, and I loved their nut & seed section.
Mariano’s is like a Whole Foods but without the pretentiousness and ultra high prices. And I love that they have a reward card.
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Questions for you:
- Have you ever made a scary/creepy Halloween recipe? What was it?
- Do you like those creepy creative Halloween recipes or do you prefer to stick to more comforting and traditional recipes for Halloween?
Let me know in the comments!
Shared at Jam Hands,
