Whole Wheat Pumpkin Spice Latte Muffin Recipe

And more Pumpkin Day Prep! (recipe)

Ingredients

The muffins:
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (mine's just ww, not pastry. Worked fine.)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp espresso powder
• 2 tbsp hot water
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt
• 3/4 cup (packed) brown sugar
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 1 large egg
The topping:
• 1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

The muffins:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place 12 liners in a muffin tin and spray the liners with cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and salt.
3. In a small bowl, stir together espresso powder and hot water until espresso powder dissolves. Let it cool to room temperature.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl with a hand mixer), combine pumpkin, yogurt, brown sugar, canola oil, egg and espresso powder mixture. Mix on medium speed until well combined.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and beat on low speed until just combined.
6. Spoon the muffin batter into the prepared muffin cups.
7. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
8. Remove muffins from the pan and allow to cool. Serve.

I sampled one. FOR BLOGGING PURPOSES ONLY. Holy crap it's delicious. 

Crock Pot Turkey White Bean Pumpkin Chili

October first is Pumpkin Day for Nicole and me.

All things pumpkin are to be consumed.

ALL OF THEM.

Since I'm going out of town this weekend and am training someone Monday after work, that leaves me with approximately zero time to make delicious pumpkin things to shove in my face on Monday.

Oh hey! I have a freezer!

Boom.

I'm prepared as ish, you guys.

I started off with this chili, which I cooked through the night last night in my crock pot. I heart that thing SO HARD.

Ingredients:

• cooking spray 
• 2 lb 99% lean ground turkey
• 1/2 tsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp chili powder, to taste
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp oregano
• 2 (15 oz cans) of white northern or navy beans, rinsed and drained
• 15 oz can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 4.5 oz canned chopped green chile
• 2 cups low sodium, fat free chicken broth
• fat free sour cream for topping (optional)
• chopped cilantro and chives for topping (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat a large heavy saute pan over high heat and lightly spray with oil. Add meat and cook, breaking it up until white, about 5 minutes.  Add to crock pot.

Add oil to the saute pan, then onions, garlic, sauté about 3 - 4 minutes; add cumin and sauté another minute. 

Add to crock pot. Add beans, pumpkin puree, green chilis, broth, chili powder, oregano, and bay leaves. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.

Remove bay leaves and adjust seasoning to taste before serving.

After it was done, I divided it up into small containers and stuck in the freezer to save for Monday. In the SMALL spoonful taste I had, it was legit. Bring on Pumpkin Day.

Pumpkin Pie Chia Pudding (Parfait)

(The original recipe is for a parfait, but I can't be trusted with cookies or other topping-like things in my house).


The linked blog, Oh She Glows, adds chia seeds to all kinds of smoothies and puddings and stuff. I didn't really think much of it, assuming it was the new acai trendy superfood or something. 


But then chia seeds were mentioned in the rad book I'm reading and they're the secret wonderfood of the ancient runners or whatever. Even after having used it a bit, I'm not convinced that I'm a better human being because of it, but who knows! Maybe I don't use it often or consistently enough.


Enter two things I'm interested in right now: pumpkin and chia.

Pumpkin Pie Chia Pudding

A healthier alternative to a delicious pumpkin pie filling! Feel free to play around with the ingredients to suit your taste buds. (her notes, not mine)

Yield: 2 servings or 1 & 3/4 cups
Ingredients:

• 3/4-1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 cup canned pumpkin, chilled if possible
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 2 tbsp vanilla protein powder, optional
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon, or more to taste
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1-2 tbsp maple syrup, to taste (I have pumpkin syrup, so I use that instead)

1. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together all ingredients until combined and no clumpy bits remain.
2. Place bowl in the fridge for 1-2 hours or overnight, to thicken and chill.
3. Serve with raisins, walnuts, or crushed ginger cookies if desired.

So, chia seeds swell up, kind of like tapioca, when they're in liquid. Put too much in, they get slimy. I follow this recipe pretty closely (no protein powder because I don't have any, sub pumpkin pie spice for ginger & nutmeg, no toppings), and find the texture just fine. It's only a little sweet, a lot healthy, SUPER pumpkin-y, and seriously takes about 45 secs to whip together. I've had it as my afternoon "sweet" snack at work almost every day. Lovin it. 

Pumpkin Lasagna

Yes. 


You read that right. 


Did your jaw drop open when you read that, like mine did?


Because mine totally did. 


Like whoa. 


People. It's pumpkin season. The bestest of all the seasons. It's time for ALL THE PUMPKIN THINGS. I read a blog on Tumblr about a pumpkin shortage on the east coast and I was all "HA! Stupid east coast. They can't get anything right. WEST COAST IS THE BEST COAST, BITCHEZ!!". And then I went and bought every single ingredient for this except the pumpkin and only then found out that there is NO canned pumpkin to be found. None. Zero. Wtf. 


In a time of food crisis, I did what any logical person would do. I called my mother. Ok I called my dad. Whatever. My mother's pantry is the like the Room of Requirement in Harry Potter. It possesses just the thing that YOU need. I needed pumpkin. She had it. Epic win. Major perk of working with daddy-o is he gets to be my delivery man for leftovers, random baking experiment goodies, and canned goods. Lucky guy!


So. Let's get to it. 

Recipe is here. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie mix)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 to 6 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 pound spicy Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 28-ounce can tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 16-ounce box lasagna noodles
• 1 large egg
• 2 1/2 cups ricotta cheese (I tried non-fat. I'm not a big supporter of non-fat-things-that-are-supposed-to-be-fat things, but it was in the size that I wanted and cheaper. So there. It worked just fine.)
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (I used soy cheese in an attempt to not totally kill my stomach with ALL THA CHEEZ. They didn't have just soy mozzarella, though, so I got a blend.)
• 1/2 cup shredded romano cheese (There is no soy romano. FYI)
• 1 large zucchini, very thinly sliced (I used the slicer side of my shredder tower. Perfect.)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the pumpkin puree in a fine sieve over a bowl; set aside to drain while you make the sauce.  (Maybe pumpkin puree isn't the same as plain canned pumpkin? I don't know, but my pumpkin wasn't juicy and I don't know what a sieve is....so I skipped this.)

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until translucent, 6 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 2 more minutes. Add the sausage and cook until brown, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Pour in the wine and cook until reduced by half. Stir in the tomato sauce and herbs and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Season with salt and pepper, cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.


Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the lasagna noodles and cook as the label directs. Drain and toss with the remaining 1/2 tablespoon olive oil. (APPARENTLY I got the no-boil noodles from Trader Joes. Accidental win! I just put them in the dish dry and they turned out great.)


Mix the strained pumpkin puree with the egg in a bowl (gross) and season with salt and pepper. In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella and the romano.


Build your lasagna in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish (I used an 8x8 dish beeeeecause that's the only dish I own. I attempted to adjust the portions accordingly): Start with a layer of sauce, then top with a layer of noodles. Evenly spread half of the pumpkin filling, then half of the zucchini, over the noodles. Top with half of the cheese mixture and cover with some of the sauce. Repeat the layers, finishing with noodles and sauce; sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup mozzarella. Bake, uncovered, 35 to 40 minutes, or until bubbly. Let cool 15 minutes before slicing.


This was GOOD. Good good. I felt like it maybe had too much sausage, because the spicy sausage flavor sort of overpowered the pumpkin flavor. LeGreg suggested just using regular sausage instead of spicy next time. I'll play with it. That's what she said. 


ANYWAY. I, of course, didn't exactly adjust the portions just right, so it was to the brim. The pic on the website is way prettier than mine, natch, but whatever yo. 


Moral of the story is that when canned pumpkin is available again I'm buying 97 cans to secure my spot on Hoarders and making this 100 more times. 


Pumpkin on.

Pumpkin Smoothie

Fargo came over and we attempted to recreate the Pumpkin Smash smoothie that Jamba Juice used to have...SUCCESS. It was so freakin perfect! And totally easy:

1 cup soymilk
1/2 cup canned pumpkin pie mix with spices
2 cups vanilla frozen yogurt
1 cup ice