Pumpkin Oatmeal

So yes, I'll admit it.

I give into the hype of the seasonal flavors.

Who doesn't though? I love the idea that I can only get pumpkin at a particular time of the year (even if that's not entirely true).

In my last blog, I shared a recipe for pumpkin cream puffs. In the recipe, it doesn't call for an entire can of pumpkin puree. So what do we do with the rest?

Well don't throw it away! Even if it's just a few spoonfuls, it can surely make your morning more enjoyable.

Try adding that pumpkin to some oatmeal. TRUST ME, it will transform your breakfast. I'm not a huge fan of oatmeal, but at 10:30 at night as I'm typing this, I am craving this stuff.



Here's the simple recipe I used. I didn't have any honey (sad, I know) so I'll admit I did add a bit of sugar. I also added my current favorite seasonal spice, pumpkin pie spice. This breakfast will make you look forward to your morning, and will also keep you super full until lunch. Do try, it's way too easy and way to delish to not try.

Happy Fall breakfast!! :)

Pumpkin Cream Puffs

Cream Puffs. What does that mean to you? Sounds a bit girly to me. 

But, for some reason I wanted to make them. And since its the season, of course I needed to incorporate my love for pumpkin. 

These are super easy too. Not too many ingredients. There's just a few things that you want to make sure to do if you choose to make these, and I'll walk you through that. 

Here's the recipe for the cream puffs (or profiteroles) that I used. 

Gather your ingredients to make your choux pastry dough: 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 stick of butter, pinch of salt, 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour, 2 eggs. Can also add some sugar if you'd like. 

Preheat oven to 425F. In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter and salt.

I also added a stick of cinnamon to infuse some flavor, but that's just because I had it. 

Allow ingredients to come to a ROLLING BOIL. This is key. Not just a few bubbles. Remove cinnamon stick. Then immediately reduce heat to simmer and add all the flour at once.

Immediately start stirring ingredients rapidly with a wooden spoon. Not sure why, but they insist on wooden. 

Mixture should become a ball and look slightly sweaty. Kinda like you see here!

Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl and let it cool for 3-4 minutes. Doesn't have to be cold, you just don't want it to cook the eggs. Using electric mixer (or if you have a strong arm and want to use that wooden spoon again) beat the eggs 1 at a time. DO NOT add second egg until the first one is fully incorporated. Can add cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice at this time. Make sure eggs are fully incorporated, but don't over beat. Should look like my picture. :)

Using a pastry bag (or zip lock bag like me) fill with dough. Pipe 1 inch balls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. When you're done, dip finger in water and smooth the top of of each ball lightly. This will give them a pretty shape! Make sure oven is FULLY HEATED and bake for 20-25 minutes. Try and rotate baking sheet half way through baking (10-12 min in). 

Your puffs should puff!

Beautiful!! These look a little brown because of the pumpkin spices.

While puffs are cooling, gather your ingredients for your pumpkin cream filling: 1 cup of whipping cream, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, 1 cup (or so depending on your taste) of canned pumpkin. (I'll show you later what to do with any leftover pumpkin puree) :)

In a large mixing bowl beat whipping cream, sugar, and pumpkin pie spice with electric mixer on medium until soft peaks form. 

I don't know about you, but I never get soft peaks. Mine will start to get a bit firm then I'll throw it in the fridge for 30 min or so and that seems to help it harden some more. 

Fold in canned pumpkin. Cover and chill (allow it to firm up a bit like I mentioned above). Chill until ready to serve.

When ready to serve, make a quick caramel sauce (1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tbls cornstarch, 1/3 cup of light cream (whatever you have on hand), 1/4 cup water, 1/2 tsp vanilla, combine in small saucepan over medium heat until it thickens)

Pipe cream into cream puffs, or you can just cut them in half and spoon cream mixture in. Either way it tastes yummy!  Then pour warm caramel over top.

Dust some powdered sugar and some additional pumpkin pie spice on top. Serves approx. 4 people

YUM!!

Salsa!

 Salsa! Last week I made some. I had about 20 tomatoes that finally ripened from my summer 'topsy turvy' and I figured I could make like 5-10 jars of salsa out of them. I imagined myself handing out salsa to friends and family at Christmas time.

That was really dumb.

I'll show I you just how much i got out of my 20 tomatoes.

Even so, you should still make salsa.

My ripe tomatoes 

Banana, cherry, and jalapeño peppers (wash)

I def didn't use all these peppers. I think I used 2 jals, 2 bananas, and 1 cherry. But I did used 2 cloves of garlic and a big handful of cilantro 

Awesome trick to take the skin off a tomato: Boil a few tomatoes at a time for 1-2 min max

Have a big bowl of ice water on hand.... 

Plop hot tomatoes down into ice water for a minute or so to cool

Then use fingernail to peel skin off tomato. It comes off super easily! 

See?

Skins vs. Naked Toms? I don't know..

Squish as much of the seeds out of the tomato as possible. Use a bowl and gently press down on toms using 3 fingers 

There might be a little bit of seeds left but that's ok. You want the 'meaty' part of the tomato to be left 

While working, set tomatoes in a colander to allow any excess juices to pour out

Cut up tomatoes into half inch dices. Do you see why my idea of making tons of salsa was really dumb? This is all I was left with!!

Okay so this is a bit of a skip. What I did was I got a big pot, stuck my small fist full of tomato dices in the pot, along with a big jar of crushed tomatoes. If you are making this, I would recommend just buying a large jar of diced tomatoes (or crushed if you prefer a more liquid salsa). Then I added: half an onion, handful of cilantro, 2 jalapeños diced (without seeds), 2 banana peppers, 1 cherry pepper (all diced), teaspoon of sugar, a teaspoon of lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer on low, and add additional ingredients to fit your taste.

Here's the recipe:

-1 large can of crushed/diced tomatoes

-2 diced jalapeños (without seeds unless you want it nice and spicy)

-2 diced banana peppers (same as above)

-1 cherry pepper (same)

-2 cloves of diced garlic

-a fist full of roughly chopped cilantro

-1 teaspoon of lime juice

-teaspoon of sugar

-salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a large pot over low heat and mix. Add additional ingredients as you see fit.

Note: Really, you can used whatever peppers to have on hand. If you want to kick it up even more, add cayenne pepper and/or red pepper flakes. 

Soooo, now you have your salsa, what can you do with it besides open up a bag of tortilla chips? Here's a super easy and quick use for your delish condiment.....

Baked Chicken and Salsa

Ingredients:

-2-4 chicken breasts (depending on your family size)

-salsa

-mexican cheese 

-taco/fajita seasoning 

-pepper 

-olive oil

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pound out your chicken breasts a bit. Brush some EVOO on your chicken breasts and then sprinkle taco/fajita seasoning and pepper. Place chicken in an 8x8 baking dish and pour salsa over it (enough to cover chicken). Then sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

This pairs well with corn! I made this the other night when I was in a hurry because of class and Shawn wasn't home. It was super easy and fast, super low calorie and super delish! 

More blogs to come!!