Pumpkin Fluff

Nicole found this recipe here. That guy found the recipe at allrecipes.com . I love that site.

She sent an email to me with the title: will your guts please approve a nearly plastic dairy-like substance?!?

Stupid lactose intolerance.

I said, "bring it".

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix together instant vanilla pudding mix, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. Fold in the thawed frozen whipped topping. Chill in the refrigerator until serving. 

This took her approximately 35 secs to make. Served with cinnamon (maybe hers were regular....can't remember) graham crackers as the dipping mechanism, this was REALLY good. Really really good. Four of us had our faces about 2 inches from that bowl, shoveling bite after bite in, for a solid 15 mins.

SUCK. SESS.

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. 

Juicing!

Threw together a tasty one today, so I thought I'd share.

Friday night, LeGreg and I celebrated a friends new job. We started off decent, making chicken and steak fajitas (with sauteed sweet potato, SO GOOD). But then we drank all the beer in the world and ate a giant off the shelf pizza from the grocery store at 1am and then immediately went to bed.

I have felt better in my life than I did on Saturday morning. Let's just say that.

You know when you eat/drink a bunch of crap and you feel like you should apologize to your body and only give it organic vegetables for the rest of your life?

I was there.

I mentioned to boyfriend that some fresh juice would be so good and he offered to go to the store and get provisions.....fine by me!

Anyway, today I went through the leftover produce to see what I could throw together, and actually whipped up a really good juice!

3 apples (pretty small. no idea what kind. maybe fuji?)
1 carrot
1 orange
1 lemon

Quite refreshing, if I might say so!

Creamy Roasted Tomato, Garlic, and Onion Coconut Soup

I love Oh She Glows.


I'm clearly not vegan, as she is, but there are some legit tasty recipes on there. 


The recipe for this soup looked SO good. A must try. And I'm totally stoked for soup season.

Yield: 6 cups
Roasting vegetables:

• 5 pounds of roma tomatoes, washed & sliced in half
• 1 large sweet onion, peeled & sliced
• 2-3 large garlic bulbs, prepared for roasting
• extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, & pepper, for vegetables

Soup:

• 3 cups roasted tomatoes
• 2 tbsp roasted garlic flesh
• all of the roasted sweet onion
• 1 can light coconut milk (reserve 2-3 tbsp for garnish)
• 3 cups vegetable broth (I used low-sodium)
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp garam masala or make your own
• 1 tsp salt or to taste (you may have to reduce amt. if you used full-sodium broth)
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• for garnish: garlic croutons, coconut milk, pesto, herbs, garam masala, pepper, etc.

1. Preheat oven to 400F and line 2 baking sheets with tin foil (note that parchment paper will burn). Grab a small casserole dish to place the garlic in. For how to prepare the garlic, see this tutorial. Lightly drizzle on EVOO onto onions and season onions and tomatoes with S & P. Roast for about 30 minutes and then check on the vegetables. You might have to remove the onions early as they cook the quickest. When the onions are golden and lightly blackened on the edge, you can remove them. Continue roasting the garlic for about 60 minutes or so (check it after 4 5mins), and the tomatoes for about 1 hour and 20 mins. Your oven times will vary though, so keep an eye on them! (I wasn't really sure how "done" tomatoes look. I went by her pic, but her looked way flatter than mine did. I cooked for about an hour and a half)

2. Add 3 cups roasted tomatoes, 2 tbsp roasted garlic flesh, and all the onion into a large pot. Add coconut milk, tomato paste, and broth and stir well.

3. Stir in the seasonings and spices to taste. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 5-10 minutes.

4. Carefully transfer into a blender, processor, or use an immersion blender. Pulse for just a few seconds until chunky. You can also make it smooth, but I liked the texture. Serve immediately and garnish with reserved coconut milk, a sprinkle of garam masala, croutons/bread, and fresh black pepper.

Ok. This was good. It wasn't as mind blowing as I was hoping, though. It sort of tasted like eating a good pasta sauce with a spoon. I think maybe I had too many tomatoes? and the toughened tomato skins from the roasting? Ehhh....about that whole texture thing. I will definitely make this again, and maybe tweak things a little bit. I think there are a lot of variables in play and might have made mine a little different than hers. It was still tasty, though, and I now own garam masala to play with! Smells so good. I'm totally going to make some Indian style chickpeas with it. 


Party on.

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.

Grillin'

I want to grill stuff. Mostly meat. But I can't have a bbq on my apartment balcony, which is probably for the best.

So I bought a grill pan.

Most of the options were non-stick and it seemed like a non-stick grill pan wouldn't give food nice grill marks. Not that I actually really know, but whatever.

I got a cast iron pan because cast iron is bad ass. It's heavy as all hell and is supposed to last 483 years and I can knock the daylights out of a home intruder with it.

So I got and found out how much WORK cast iron involves. I saw that it was pre-seasoned. Pre-seasoned? With, like, all-spice? Oh wait, I have to rub it down with veggie oil before AND after every time I use it? Ugh. So I followed the exact instructions for "before use" and, when it was all dry, it was RUSTY. The hell?

I was pissed.

I was taking that shit back.

I told a woman I work with and she was all "oh yeah, that's normal. That's why you have to oil it down, so it doesn't do that anymore".

Oh.

Oops.

Fast forward a month to now, when I finally bought veggie oil and am ready to use the damn thing.

Another coworker gave me some killer looking zucchinis. Perfect.


I sliced one up and let it sit in some balsamic vinaigrette and tossed it on the hot grill.

I brushed on some extra vinaigrette because I'm pretty sure you're supposed to brush stuff on things you're grilling? Right?

Whatever.

End result: SUCCESS. Tasted grilled and was cooked perfectly. Can't wait to actually try meat on it!

Juicin'

My new "thing".

I bought a juicer and am diggin it.

Boyfriend showed me this movie, which I HIGHLY recommend. It was pretty awesome.

On that same website are a few recipes and I've tried 3 so far. This has been my favorite!

Apple-Beet-Carrot

1 Apple
2 Beets
3 Large Carrots
1 Piece Ginger (thumb sized)
Spinach / Kale – (optional) (I used spinach)

I'll definitely try more of them out. One thing I've learned is that my juicer is NOT a fan of kale. Cripes, you'd think I threw in a handful of nails.