Happy Thanksgiving- Pumpkin Recipes

Happy Thanksgiving! I am very thankful to be with my family in Montana for Thanksgiving. After a 12 hour care ride we are ready to relax, play games, eat and visit. Tomorrow will be a busy day of cooking and eating!

I have been making pumpkin recipes all fall as I had 3-4 small pumpkins that I roasted and pureed. I decided to share a list of some of the recipes I have been trying along with the tweeks that I did to each one. I hope you have a wonderful holiday with family and friends and lot of delicious food!

Red Lentil Pumpkin Soup
(I did not puree mine because I wanted the texture from the lentils. Otherwise, this soup was flavorful and perfect for a fall meal)

Pumpkin Coconut Soup

Pumpkin Ice Cream
(WSU where I went to college had an onsite creamery and every year I would specifically go there for pumpkin ice cream. This one is almost as good!)

Pumpkin Scones
( I used 1/2 wheat and 1/2 white flour; I also had enough of the first glaze that I just added the spice glaze ingredients to the leftovers and did not even make the second glaze batch)

Marbled Pumpkin Bread
(this calls for butternut squash, but I used pumpkin instead. I also used 1/2 wheat and 1/2 white)

Honey Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Butter

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

Pumpkin Waffles

Quinoa Muffins

We are moving in the next couple of weeks. We have been busy with a garage sale, packing up boxes and sorting through all of our stuff! I am trying to use up as much baking supplies and anything in the pantry that I can, so we don't have to move it all. I have a large supply of quinoa currently, so I have been making hot cereal and salads with it.

I usually exercise first thing in the morning and I need a little something to keep my energy and blood sugar up. Usually I have half a banana or a little cereal. I thought some quinoa in a muffin might be just the combination I need. Quinoa brings a perfect balance of carbohydrate, fiber and protein which works great for blood sugar and energy for exercising. I found some pumpkin in the freezer, so I thought I would add that too for moisture and as a replacement for oil. The result- a moist, low-fat, whole grain, high protein muffin with a hint of cinnamon and pumpkin. The quinoa adds a nutty flavor and some dried fruit would be great in these too. I didn't have any on hand, but dried apricot, cherries, or cranberries would be excellent. Enjoy!

Quinoa Muffins
adapted from Every Day Food

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 tbsp oil
1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached which flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup skim milk
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, cherries, diced apricots)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan, bring quinoa and 1 cup of water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer; cover and cook until water is absorbed in quinoa is tender, about 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.
2. Coat a standard 12-cup muffin pan with non-stick spray. In a medium bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and quinoa. Add dried fruit if using.
3. In a small bowl combine milk, egg, pumpkin, oil, and vanilla. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and stir until combined. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups.
4. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. Cool muffins on pan for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Per muffin: 126 calories, 2g fat, 22g carbohydrate, 2g dietary fiber, 5g protein

Delicious Pumpkin Cookie Bars

I always feel better about dessert when I can find something healthy about it. Dark chocolate, for example. The rich, sweet yet bitter flavor with hints of cherry is my favorite treat and the best part is that it is full of disease fighting antioxidants. Two ounces per day is actually recommended by the American Heart Association! How great is that! (Well it is great for me because I love that stuff). The other day I was craving cookies. I originally was going to make regular chocolate-chip, but then I noticed I had a can of pumpkin still in my pantry. I have already made pumpkin bars and pumpkin bread this season but what about a pumpkin cookie? We have already talked about the health benefits of pumpkin, so I already felt good about this creation. While I was putting together the batter I decided I was too lazy to spend the time of actually making cookies, so I turned it into a pan of cookie bars. They were delicious and when I brought them to work my co-workers not only happily devoured them but also asked for the recipe. So, that is why this one is ending up here! You can of course make these into cookies if you would like. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cookie Bars

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 can pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup Canola oil
1 egg
1 ½ cup oats
3/4 cup chopped dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine baking power, salt, and flours in a bowl and set aside. Cream together pumpkin, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon and oil. Add egg and mix until combined. Slowly add flour mixture until combined well. Stir in oats and then add chocolate. Spread into greased 8x8 inch glass pan. Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes until browned and toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. When cooled, cut into bars.

Fall at the Pumpkin Patch

I do like fall . . . sometimes. I love biting into a fresh, hard apple, juicy ripe pears, pumpkin bread and warm soups. When the leaves are turning brilliant colors and you can heard the crunch of crisp leaves under you feet I like that. The past few weeks, though it has felt like we skipped fall and were headed straight to winter. It was cloudy and windy followed by a gloomy mix of rain/snow that froze the plants and made all of the trees droop. There were only soggy, brown leaves under my feet. This past weekend however, it turned in to two days of perfect fall weather. The air on Saturday was crisp and warm and the sun was shining. Some girlfriends and I took some kids from our church to Papa's Pumpkin Patch. The pumpkin patch was buzzing with children laughing and playing on castles made out of hay, jumping over logs, riding ponies, and picking out pumpkins! You really couldn't ask for a better scene on a beautiful fall day.

We had a fun time picking out the perfect pumpkin to sit on my front steps.

This of course put me in the mood for some pumpkin baking! Pumpkins are a must during this time of year and the good thing is that they are super healthy. Pumpkins are high in (get ready there are a lot) carotenoides, lutein, zeaxanthin, iron, zinc, and fiber. Wow! Carotenoides, leutin and zeaxanthin are antioxidants that scanvange for free radicals. What in the world--free radicals?? Free radicals are things (molecules) that run around in our body and attack cells, leaving them open to damage (which can lead to cancers, chronic diseases, etc). Antioxidents help repair damage from free radicals and they help kill free radicals. Our body does not make antioxidants, so we have to eat them and pumpkin is one good way.

Besides pumpkin bars, which are my absolute favorite way to eat pumpkin, pumpkin bread is also a winner in my book. Last year I found an interesting recipe in Cooking Light magazine that was written by a dietitian (from Wisconsin) and called for beer. It sounded interesting and so I of course tweaked the recipe to make it even more nutritious and it turned out to be some of the best pumpkin bread I have ever had. I made some of it in mini loaf pans this year so I could give it to friends and co-workers. Enjoy!

Revamped Honey Pumpkin Bread

1 1/2 cups of white flour
1 1/2 cups of wheat flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup honey beer, at room temperature (or a good wheat beer if you can't find a honey beer)
2 egg whites
2 large eggs
1 15oz can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie spiced)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 2 9x5 inch loaf pans with cooking spray (or 1 12x5 and 2 5x3 pans, or 1 6 mini loaf pan)

2. Combine flours, salt, baking power, baking soda, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl and stir with a whisk.

3. Place sugars, honey, canola oil, vanilla, beer, and eggs in a large bowl and beat with a mixer at medium-high speed until well blended. Add pumpkin and yogurt and beat at low speed until blended.

4. Add flour mixture and beat until just combined. Divide batter between loaves and bake for 1 hour for large loaf pans or 45 minutes for small loaf pans or until toothpick comes out clean. Tent with foil if browning too quickly. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Remove from pan and let cool completely.