Pumpkin Pancakes

It's that time of year... all things Pumpkin! Last year, I wrote up this Pumpkin Latte recipe, this year, it's pancakes and Pumpkin Power Bread.  There were lots of of Pumpkin Pancake recipes out there, so I combined a bunch and this is what I got! As it turns out, this recipe is Vegan!

Ingredients:
3/4c whole wheat flour

Pumpkin Pancakes

1T sugar
1tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin spice
1/3 c pureed pumpkin
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 c Almond milk (coconut or cow's milk would work too)

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add pumpkin, milk and vanilla. Stir until just mixed. Batter will be thick (like biscuits). Heat griddle or fry pan on Medium heat, using a little non-stick spray, oil or butter. Spoon batter into pan. Cook 4 minutes on each side. Makes about 4 pancakes (2 servings).

Serve with real maple syrup and chopped pecans or walnuts!

Note: These are really dense and filling. You really only need 2 pancakes! Remember there is no oil in the batter (as is typical with pancakes), so using a little fat in your pan is necessary! I used coconut oil, which also added delicious flavor!

Pumpkin Power Bread

I love bread! In particular, I love bread with stuff in it, that makes it flavorful and fun to eat. Even better when it has healthy stuff in it! This was great fresh out of the oven, and fantastic toasted! It made a fun mid-morning work snack, and a great weekend breakfast with coffee!  Not too sweet and a lot of great flavor! This is pretty much the recipe from The Chew with just a little less sugar.

Ingredients:

Pumpkin Power Bread

1 1/2 C whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp baking soda

5 Tbls Sugar

1/2 tsp Nutmeg*

1/2 tsp Cinnamon*

1/2 tsp Allspice*

1 tsp ginger*

1 C pumpkin puree

2 eggs

1/2 c Coconut Oil**

1 tsp Vanilla extract

4 T Honey

1/2 C walnuts, chopped

Heat oven to 350. Sift together dry ingredients; including spices in a small bowl. In a large bowl mix together Pumpkin, eggs, oil, vanilla and honey. Add dry ingredients to wet and combine. Do not over mix. Stir in walnuts. Pour mix into buttered bread pan, and bake 35-40 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

* You could substitute the nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and ginger, for an equal amount of Pumpkin Spice (or 2 tsp).

** I substituted half of the Coconut Oil with Prune Puree. 

Breakfast Pudding

A friend of mine saw this recipe in a magazine, and scribbled down the basic idea and then said, "you should try this, it sounds good."... uh... ok! I'd seen recipes that called for putting a fried egg on your oatmeal, but that didn't sound appealing at all! This idea sounded a little scary too, but when the weather turned colder, a hot cereal breakfast sounded good. It provides some great protein, and this one serving will keep you content all morning!

Here are the basic ingredients:
1/4 cut cream of rice cereal
1 cup of water
1 egg

Crack egg into small bowl, beat with fork and set aside. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a small pan, then add cereal and whisk. When cereal starts to thicken (about 2 minutes) spoon a few tablespoons into the egg to temper, then add the egg to the hot cereal and whisk together, cooking for about another minute.  Pour cereal into bowl and mix in flavorings.

There are a million ways to flavor this stuff! I usually start by cooling it off with a few tablespoons of Almond Milk. Here are some of the combos, I've tried. I use about a tsp of anything sweet unless noted;

Brown Sugar
Honey
Maple Syrup (with or without toasted almonds, walnuts, pecans)
Pureed Pumpkin- heaping Tablespoon, usually paired with Maple Syrup
Cinnamon and vanilla (dash of each)
Peanut butter and honey
1/2 sliced banana

I haven't tried it, but I suppose Cinnamon Raisin, or Apples and cinnamon would work.

I've also made this as a batch (3 servings at once) and then just heated it in the microwave with some almond milk to thin it out a little. This works well, and saves time and dishes in the morning.

I actually ate this on the morning of my duathlon, it was in the low 30's, and the hot cereal was filling, and provided the right mix of pre-race carbs, with the protein to sustain me.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

This time of year, lots of recipes call for Pumpkin Pie Spice. It seems like a huge waste of money (and space) to buy a spice mix like this that you will not use much of, and that contains just a mixture of what you already have in your cabinet.  Here is the blend that I use. I typically make a batch of this whenever pumpkin first starts arriving in my brain, and use it through the season.

4 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

Mix together and store in a sealed container.

Use it in these recipes:

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Pumpkin Pancakes

What's on MY plate?

I haven't been the best blog writer these days. There's no excuse except to say, I'm busy! Who's not?! The last 6 months I've been training hard for my first triathlon (in June) and Duathlon (in Sept). While I've been a healthy eater for a long time- the training put a whole new spin on things for me. After losing 10 pounds in 4 weeks, I knew I needed to change things up in my diet. Sure, I was eating healthy, and constantly, but was I eating enough, and the right mix of food?

 My schedule revolved around eating to live, not living to eat, like usual.  I wasn't being creative with meals, just doing the basics. In this time I did a lot of reading... and now I want to share with you some of what I've learned. Sure, this blog is mostly about food, but it's also about living a healthy lifestyle.

In general, you could say that I'm moving towards Natural Eating. My thoughts about this started to change, when I had a flash back to an Essential Oils seminar that I went to this past winter. For over a year now, I've been using essential oils instead of lotions and perfume. Then a few months ago- I decided to spray some perfume on before I went out, within an hour I had red itchy bumps on my arms where I had sprayed. I thought back to my seminar, when the speaker talked about how absorbant your skin is, and why would you use perfume, it's just dumping chemicals into your bloodstream. Long story short- if I'm not willing to put chemicals on my skin, why am I eating them?!

This led me to really cutting back on low-fat and no-fat foods. Realizing that to replace the flavor that comes with fat, manufactures tend to use salt, sugar and  chemicals to make up the taste. Yuk! How is THAT healthy? I'll would rather work off the tablespoon of real cream in my coffee, than make my body process and detox a non-dairy creamer (um... what is it??)! Same goes with sugar. Give me the real stuff, plain and simple, most of the "natural" sugar substitutes are created by chemical processes anyway.

So then I started finding lots of info on the Real Food Movement. Some of my friends, and followers participated in the 10 day Real Food Challenge. To put it simply; you eat real food! :) Anything that comes out of a can, box, bottle or bag, should have less than 5 ingredients. This sounds simple, but take a look at the ingredients on your loaf of bread! Then, check out your jar of peanut butter. More than 5 ingredients, right? And what are some of those words even mean? It goes straight back to the old saying... if you can't pronounce it- you shouldn't eat it! I encourage you to spend more time reading labels and enjoying real food.

So that's where I am at today. Enjoying more real food. Stay tuned, and stay healthy!