We’re just a few weeks away from our baby’s arrival into the world. We’ve got most things covered–crib, diapers, bottles, stroller, etc.–but there’s still a few things we need to gather before we can really accept another human into this home. Like pumpkin bread.

Our refrigerator and pantry looked a bit bare this weekend, so I decided to bake up a few things that would make easy grab-and-go breakfasts this week in case I have to grab my bag and go the hospital to deliver this kid.

Pumpkin bread and pumpkin waffles were two things I was craving. Blame fall or the baby, but I want all of the pumpkin spice things I can eat—I already had a pumpkin pie in the refrigerator I had baked up earlier in the week. I don’t expect the pumpkin bread to last long—I’m not planning to freeze it, though I could have if I wanted to. I did freeze all of the waffles. We can always have those for an easy breakfast on mornings after the baby comes.

I love Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for pumpkin bread. It’s everything it promises to be. Most people would use pure canned pumpkin. In fact, I would have used pure canned pumpkin. But when I looked in the cupboard I realized I only had two large cans of pumpkin pie mix, which is already seasoned and has added sugar and salt. Knowing this, I omitted the recommended sugar and spices from a recipe since the mix was already sweet, but added a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg for good measure.  The results were still delicious. My easy version of the SK recipe is below.

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