Purely PUMPKIN

PUMPKIN is one of the tasting team’s FAVORITE tastes, and we are SO glad that Libby’s finally returned to the grocery store shelves.

 

So, we’ve decided to give you a taste of some of our favorite pumpkin-flavored treatz.

1.      Toggy’s famous steel-cut pumpkin oats: Best breakfast evaa! In a small saucepan, cook up your steel-cut oats (follow the instructions on your container). Toggy likes them best with half water, half soy milk (light plain flavor!!) and just stir occassionally. They really do take about 20 or 25 minutes, but they are WELL worth the wait. Stir in 1/2 a banana and a bunch of canned pumpkin (and some freshly ground flax??) at the end. Toggy recommends serving with a big spoonful of almond butter and maybe even some blueberries or ground walnuts!

2.      DJ Ericat <3’s Pumpkin smoothies (and gets weird looks when she brings them to the libary):
In the Magic bullet…
•       Lots of canned pumpkin (Around ½ cup)
•       Yogurt (plain, vanilla, greek… whatever you have)
•       Milk (I use vanilla soy milk)
•       ½ banana
•       Ice
•       Cinnamon and/or brown sugar
•       Ground flax seed… if you’re into that

3.      Pumpkin Pizza! Does it sound weird? It’s not. It’s delicious.
•       A serving of mixed veggies (we like tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, cauliflower, and zucchini... but be creative!)
•       Canned pumpkin
•       Tortilla/wrap of your choice (we like Flat Out sandwhich wraps or any kind of tortilla!)
•       Shredded cheese
Preheat the oven to 400ish. Sauté the veggies in some olive oil, salt, pepper, and other seasonings of your choice. On a wrap or tortilla, spread some canned pumpkin mixed with a little salt and pepper. Then, pile on your sautéed veggies and sprinkle a handful of shredded cheese. Stick it in the oven for 10-15 minutes… whenever the cheese is melted and the wrap/tortilla gets crispy. Nom nom!

4.      Pumpkin Spice Lattes

No recipe here! Go to Starbucks (or Summit if you’re in Davidson) and fetch yourself a pumpkin spice latte ASAP.  Studying will be much less miserable, we promise!

5.      Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt (pictures to come!!)
Fro-yo is one of the Tasting Team’s true loves… so obviously pumpkin fro yo is a winner in our book. We recommend Red Mango’s pumpkin spice and Freshberry’s Pumpkin Cheesecake. These are seasonal, so get them while they’re hot (….frozen).


6. Pumpkin Cheesecake
This amazing cheesecake was crafted by Erica's mom in honor of Thanksgiving. Here's the recipe! We topped it with some homemade whipped cream mixed with a few ounces of brandy and some chopped crystallized ginger. Deeeeelicious!

7. Pumpkin Pancakes
 Nom nom PURE breakfast heaven.  Just mix in some canned pumpkin with instant pancake/waffle mix instead of some of the water. I topped them with lots of baby blueberries and a little bit of syrup.

We love pumpkin so much that even The New York Times, that guy from The Hangover, and Ke$ha agree with us!

Comment with your own favorite pumpkin creations!! What will you come up with...?

XOXO,
The Tasting Team