I’m a food writer living in Vermont, and I’m always on the hunt for nutritious-but-still-tasty snack recipes to pack for my hiking adventures. Now that fall is in full swing, I (among millions of other home cooks) couldn’t wait to dive into all things pumpkin. I checked out TikTok and found tons of videos of people baking pumpkin bread with the help of Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Bread and Muffin Mix. It looked delicious, and my interest was piqued.
So, I hopped in my car, drove to the local Trader Joe’s, about 30 minutes from my home, and purchased a box of the humble four-dollar mix. After trying it myself, I admit that I totally get the hype.
But I wanted to live on the edge and take my pumpkin bread to the next level. This wasn’t too hard to do because, like any other kind of premade boxed mix, it is customizable, which makes it easy to upgrade the recipe to your liking.
The mix comes packed with 26 grams of carbohydrates (per one-half-inch slice of the baked loaf), the body’s primary fuel source, says Haley Singer, a registered dietitian based in Chicago, Illinois. But, on its own, the pumpkin bread mix…
