Fiber Fool

If you’ve been a reader here in recent years, it is no secret that I love my pumpkin! Really, that extends to pretty much any orange fleshed squash or tubar with pumpkin being my all time favorite. That is certainly one of the many reasons I love fall so much. I can go just about anywhere and enjoy something pumpkin-y from a latte to a bagel and cream cheese or donuts (though they aren’t really on the list this year). I even tried pumpkin fudge one year - that wasn’t really my thing, but then fudge isn’t often my thing so I shouldn’t have been surprised. Anyway, that means this week’s 10 on Tuesday is pretty easy for me. It will mostly be a trip through my archives. Though the photo up top is for a recipe I plan to share tomorrow for a savory pumpkin dish that is great for gatherings.

1. One of the really obvious ones is in the form of pumpkin seeds. I love pumpkin seeds and they are a great source of iron! Who knew? Not to mention fiber and good fats too. My favorite way to spice them up is with a kind of curry inspired mix of sweet and smokey spices.

2. Pumpkin Scones are a wonderful seasonal weekend indulgence, especially when paired with a honey cinnamon butter. Yum!

3. For weekday breakfast on the go I’ve been loving some pumpkin molasses muffins somewhat similar to those I posted about back in 2007. Though I have to say I’ve improved upon that recipe greatly tossed in a few little sparks of texture and flavor and have a phenomenal recipe going in the final edition of Nourishing Knits.

4. Then there is a long time favorite of mine, a copy cat recipe of a Great Harvest bread - pumpkin chocolate chip bread! Yum! I haven’t made any this year. I’m a little scared to run the numbers on it, though really it has lots of whole wheat in it so I may not be quite as bad as I think.

5. I love making pumpkin butter too! It is so good on pepperkakor as well as scones or morning toast. I only wish it could be safely canned. But since it is so dense and can’t be canned I just make sure to freeze enough puree for a batch that I do around the holidays so we can share it with friends and family.

6. There is of course also the traditional pumpkin pie, which I adore! I think I’ll be making a crustless version when my family is here is Thanksgiving since 4 of the 5 humans are watching their diets.

7. Oh, and how can I forget? I’ve managed to sneak in 2 of the minis this month, the pumpkin pie blizzard at Dairy Queen! So good! Though I can sort of satisfy my craving if I wear a blindfold and make a green pumpkin smoothie :-)

8. I made a wonderful pumpkin soup in the slow cooker from The Art of the Slow Cooker cookbook that we enjoyed all of last week. I tired of it a bit towards the end, but spiced it up with some chipotle powder and made it into a full meal with the addition of some white beans.

9. A local restaurant makes a wonderful pumpkin pecan waffle that I haven’t had yet this year, but will have to do an extra round of treadmill work here soon and indulge in it.

10. Our last batch of fruit-sweetened granola that I made was sweetened with pumpkin and banana puree. I over baked it a tad, but it has promise. Unfortunately that was the first time I decided to double the batch and use the full size oven (hence the over baking, I had been using our convection toaster oven over the summer).

I have a long list of pumpkin recipes I’d like to try yet. I ended up starting a pumpkin board on pinterest and will likely slowly add links to recipes that made my autumn linkity posts last year as I have a few minutes to spare here and there.

And don’t forget to pop by tomorrow for a savory pumpkin recipe I’ll be sharing!