Baked Breakfast Oatmeal Pie

   As part of Pie Week, I wanted to include some Breakfast pies.  I found this recipe for Baked Breakfast Oatmeal Pie  and just knew it would be perfect.  My youngest daughter and I stirred together the ingredients the night before and the next morning I popped it in the oven while my kids were getting ready for school.

 It was perfect! It is basically just a baked oatmeal recipe, but looks like pie because it is baked in a pie plate.  I reduced the sugar by over half, just because my kids and I don't really like our oatmeal too sweet (I usually don't add any sweetener to my own) and used almond milk instead of normal milk.

This was a big hit.  My kids enjoyed a slice warm out of the oven and they loved snacking on the leftovers, cold, right out of the fridge.  There are so many ways that you could make variations of this, like adding fruit or making a savory option.  It really seems like there are limitless possibilities and it is super quick to throw together.

I also saw this Pigs in a Blanket Pie and thought it was just too funny to pass up.  I whipped up some whole wheat pancake batter and put turkey sausage links into the batter.  The only problem was that it took longer than I expected to bake through, so my kids had to wait until after school to eat it since it wasn't ready before they left.  Fun idea though.

I also used  the filling from this recipe for Savory Breakfast Pies with Cheddar Cheese Crust , but used pizza dough as the crust.  I made them for dinner and they were a big hit.  I used canadian bacon instead of ham in the filling and also omitted the milk and used a little bit of oil instead of butter to cook the onion/veggies.  They turned out really cute and my family loved them.  I didn't get a picture quick enough though.  They ended up looking like little calzones.

 
Here is the recipe for Baked Breakfast Oatmeal Pie
* I used 2/3 cup pumpkin puree
* I reduced the sugar to  a little less than 1/4 cup
* I used almond milk (original) instead of regular milk 



 

  

Baked Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes and Perfect Pumpkin Cookies

Once again, I present horrible photos! Sorry about that. I kinda forgot about the time change and how it gets dark early and etc., etc. But, I wanted to share these 2 quick, easy and delicious pumpkin treats with you that we made this past Sunday for a family dinner.

I wanted to make a soft pumpkin chocolate chip cookie and decided to give this recipe a try. I thought they turned out really great. My kids loved them too.

I had 3/4 cup pumpkin puree left and didn't really feel like letting it sit in my fridge, so I quickly found another recipe that used exactly that much pumpkin. They aren't technically donuts, but a mini muffin that kind of tastes like a donut. They are dipped in melted butter and then coated in cinnamon-sugar. Similar to the ones I made last year, but the ingredient list is a little different.

Here is the recipe for Baked Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes
*I only dipped the tops into melted butter instead of the whole thing

Here is the recipe for Perfect Pumpkin Cookies
* I made 42 cookies

Self-Frosting Pumpkin Nutella Muffins and Chocolate Pumpkin Peanut Butter

There is a small problem with opening a huge can of pumpkin puree- You must make more and more yummy pumpkin treats! Of course, I am joking, but I found myself with some leftover pumpkin puree after I made parfaits and donuts and decided to make these muffins. I sent them to work with my husband and didn't even get to try a crumb. I had made this banana version a couple of weeks earlier and thought the pumpkin ones would be perfect for fall.

I had just 1/3 cup of pumpkin puree left, so I made this Chocolate Pumpkin Peanut Butter that I saw on Pinterest. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it because it disappeared too quickly. But, I guess that could be a good thing since it just shows how delicious it was! Very good on whole wheat toast.

Here is the recipe for Self-Frosting Pumpkin Nutella Muffins

Here is the recipe for Chocolate Pumpkin Peanut Butter
* I didn't have dark chocolate peanut butter, so I just followed her other instructions and
added a little bit of honey, to sweeten it, to taste

Pumpkin Pie Quinoa Parfaits and Baked Pumpkin Donuts

I finally got into my first can of pumpkin for the season and also used my donut pan for the first time. I had some cooked quinoa in the fridge and saw this fun idea for a Pumpkin Pie Quinoa Parfait. I've tried other recipes that use quinoa in a non-savory breakfast way and this was a great one. Very original and a great way to change up the humdrum of your normal breakfast, snack or dessert.

I also saw this recipe for Baked Pumpkin Donuts that uses melted ice cream in the batter. I had just the perfect amount of leftover vanilla ice cream in my freezer from a recent birthday and whipped these up just in time for my husband to take them to work with him in the morning. I didn't get to try one, but my kids really enjoyed the mini donuts!

Here is the recipe for Pumpkin Pie Quinoa Parfaits
* I used plain nonfat greek yogurt and added a little bit of pure maple syrup
* I used less graham crackers crumbs than called for
* I topped it off with some crumbled pecan nut clusters

Here is the recipe for Baked Pumpkin Ice Cream Glazed Donuts

Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Roll Cookies

I've made Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls in the past and also tried Cinnamon Bun Cookies, so when I saw a recipe that combined those 2 ideas, I had to give it a try. I made a few changes to the recipe that I found and made these very delicious, unique cookies.

The dough is mixed together like a typical cookie dough, but it is rolled out like you would cinnamon rolls. A cinnamon-sugar mixture is sprinkled over the dough and then it is rolled up and chilled. I actually made the dough on a Tuesday afternoon and didn't have time to slice and bake the cookies until Friday morning. I had rolled the dough out on parchment paper, so once I had it filled with the cinnamon sugar and rolled up- I wrapped it in the parchment and kept it in the fridge for a couple of days.

The amazing part about these cookies is that they actually taste like a cinnamon roll and have the texture of both a cookie and a cinnamon roll. I was really quite surprised when I bit into one and it had such an amazing, interesting texture. I was able to share these cookies with quite a few people and many others had the same reaction and look of surprise when they bit into these cookies. These cookies are the perfect fall treat and a wonderful cookie to share with friends!

Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Roll Cookies adapted from this post
who adapted from Dine and Dish

Yield: 3 dozen

Filling:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1Tbls ground cinnamon

Dough:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups all- purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4-1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
dash of ground cloves

For the glaze:
2 Tbls butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-3 Tbls hot water

Cream together butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl, until light and fluffy. Add egg, pumpkin, and vanilla and beat until well incorporated. While this is beating, combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk together. Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture in several additions and mix until everything is combined.

In a small bowl, stir together the filling (sugar and cinnamon) until well mixed. Turn out dough onto parchment paper and spread or roll out into a large rectangle. Sprinkle the filling mixture over the dough, leaving about an inch around the edge. Roll up the dough jelly-roll style, using the parchment paper to help. If the dough starts to break as you're rolling, don't worry, just pinch it back together. Wrap and refrigerate for a few hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove dough from refrigerator, unwrap from plastic and cut into 1/4" thick slices. Place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet or baking stone, 1-2" apart. Bake in preheated oven 9-11 min, until just beginning to brown around the edges or until just set. Cool a few minutes on the cookie sheet and then transfer to a wire rack.

Once cookies have cooled, make the glaze by using an electric mixer to mix the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Add hot water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the glaze has reached desired consistency.

Place glaze in a ziploc bag, cut a small hole in the corner, and pipe glaze onto cookies, following the swirl of the cookie. Allow to set.

Mini Pumpkin Donut Muffins

These Pumpkin Donut Muffins have been popping up all over.
I saw them in Everyday Food Magazine and definitely wanted to give them a try.
The nutrition information was a little bit scary to me for the regular size muffins, but I guess that is where the "donut" part of this recipe got the better of the muffin.

I decided that I would have to make minis, in order to make all of that go away. The Food Librarian beat me to it- check out her post about these HERE

My daughter had to bring a snack to school, so I knew that mini muffins would be a great way to have a little something sweet to share with her class. She saw the picture of them and was very excited about having them as the snack. The other kindergarteners were excited too. These mini muffins were a huge success.

I sent the rest of the minis with my husband to work and they were enjoyed by everyone.
I sampled one and they were really delicious.
These could be dessert of breakfast. You decide.
The perfect little goodie for the holidays!


Recipe for Pumpkin Donut Muffins
* I made mini muffins and got 48 from the full recipe
* I used half the amount of melted butter called for for the tops of the muffins. I dipped the top of each mini muffin in the melted butter and then put the mini muffins in the cinnamon-sugar topping. Because the mini muffins were warm, some of the cinnamon-sugar topping stuck to the parts of the muffin that had not been dipped in melted butter.

Ginger Sugar Cookies, Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies, Chocolate Peppermint Bars, and Chewy, Chunky Blondies w/ holiday add-ins

These are the cookies that I made and sent in the mail to some family members. When I am making a bunch of treats at the same time, I always try to choose a variety of flavors and textures. Since it is Christmas time, I made sure to choose some cookies that had appropriate flavors for this time of year. Ginger, pumpkin, peppermint, cranberries, etc.

I recently received a copy of The Gourmet Cookie Book, a cookbook in which the best cookie from the pages of Gourmet magazine was chosen for each year, from 1941-2009.
I thumbed through this book and chose a couple of recipes to try. The ginger sugar cookies stuck out to me because my family loves ginger and they looked like a chewy, delicious cookie.
They smelled yummy and my kids each sampled one. My 4 year old thought they were too spicy, but my other kids loved them.
These pumpkin oatmeal cookies look ordinary enough, but boy are they tasty. I was curious about their flavor, so I ate one. These were sooo good. Usually it seems like oatmeal cookies have all sorts of add-ins, like raisins, or nuts or chocolate chips, but these were so yummy because the stars of the show were just the pumpkin/spices and oatmeal. I will definitely make these again and again.
These chocolate peppermint bars were described by my son as "brownies with candy cane flavor". I didn't try one, but my son really didn't want me to send these in the mail. The batter was hard to spread, but it evened out in the oven. Not very pretty, but good to eat.

The last cookie I made is a classic bar cookie that always gets great reviews- Dorie's Chewy, Chunky Blondies. I have made these multiple times before and they are always a crowd pleaser. Usually they are chock full of nuts, chocolate, toffee bits, coconut-basically whatever you want to add.
This time I decided to add in some holiday flavors, so I went with dried cranberries, white chocolate chips, chopped macadamia nuts and toasted coconut.
These bars are perfect for sharing.

Ginger Sugar Cookies from The Gourmet Cookie Book
March 1965
Cream 3/4 cup softened butter and gradually beat in 1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed.
Stir in 1 egg and 1/4 cup molasses and blend thoroughly.
Sift 2 1/4 cups flour with 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp each of cinnamon and ginger, 1/2 tsp cloves, and 1/4 tsp salt.
Gradually blend the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture and chill the dough for 1 hour.
Drop by heaping teaspoons into 1-inch balls and dip the tops in sugar.
Arrange the balls at least 3 inches apart on a greased baking sheet and sprinkle each cookie with 2 or 3 drops or water.
Bake the cookies at 375 degrees for about 7 or 8 minutes, or until they are firm.

Chewy, Chunky Blondies adapted from Dorie Greenspan's “Baking: From My Home to Yours” p.109

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts
1 cup toasted coconut

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan and put it on a baking sheet.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add both sugars and beat for another 3 minutes, or until well incorporated. Add the eggs one by one, beating for 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing just until they disappear into the batter. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the chips, cranberries, nuts, and coconut. Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and use the spatula to even the top as best you can.

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the blondies comes out clean.(I usually have to keep adding 5 minutes at a time, until they are done- don't be afraid to let them cook a little longer). The blondies should pull away from the sides of the pan a little and the top should be a nice honey brown. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for about 15 minutes before turning the blondies out onto another rack. Invert onto a rack and cool the blondies to room temperature right side up.

Cut into 32 bars, each roughly 2-1/4 x 1-1/2 inches.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies as seen on The Way the Cookie Crumbles

2½ cups (12 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (7 ounces) white sugar
1 cup (7 ounces) packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line two baking pans with parchment paper or a silicone mat. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large bowl with a hand mixer), beat the butter and both sugars until fluffy, about one minute. Add the egg, beating until incorporated, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin. With the mixer on the lowest speed, add the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated.

3. Drop heaping teaspoons of dough onto the prepared baking pans. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned around edges. Let the cookies cool slightly on the pans before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Recipe for Chocolate Peppermint Bar Cookies from The Gourmet Cookie Book-
December 2006

Pumpkin Chiffon Cake

Here is a quick idea for a light dessert that would be perfect for your Thanksgiving celebration.
I saw this Pumpkin Chiffon Cake in Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine
and since I had 10 egg whites in my freezer and also because I had been wanting to try a airy/light type of pumpkin cake, I made it right away.

This cake is easy to make- you simply whisk everything except the egg whites together in a large bowl. Then you whip the egg whites, like you would for angel food cake and fold them into the batter. I baked this cake in my angel food cake pan, which has special ridges for the resting upside down part.

We could hardly wait for the cake to rest, but once it had and we sprinkled it with powdered sugar- it was as good as gone.

Delightfully light and airy, but still full of pumpkin flavor and spices.
This is one I will make again and again. It was wonderful.


Recipe for Pumpkin Chiffon Cake

Impossible Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

Do you love pumpkin pie?
I do. I know it is dense, but I love it.

A couple of weeks ago I was making some desserts for a fall dinner and wanted a pumpkin pie type dessert, but in smaller form, without the crust.

After searching on the net, I ran across this recipe and decided it would be the perfect thing.
Pumpkin pie in a cupcake.

There is a bit of flour in the batter and that somehow makes a sort-of crust around the outside, while the inside is pretty similar to the filling of a pumpkin pie.

I made these the day before and kept them in the fridge overnight.
I topped them with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream and they were ready to go!

I think these cupcakes are a great way to practice portion control over the holidays without giving up the traditional flavor and texture of a classic dessert.


Recipe for Impossible Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

National Bundt Cake Day- Spicy Pumpkin Mini Bundts

National Bundt Cake Day is here again! The Food Librarian has been counting down to this day just like she did last year, by making 30 days of Bundts! Mary is so creative. Each and every bundt has been imaginative and delicious. My favorites that she has posted this year are the Ice Cream Bundt, the Buttermilk Butternut Squash Bundt (probably because I made it last year for this day of celebration), Meatloaf Bundt with Tunnel of Egg
and the Root Beer Bundt (I've made that one too).

I have loved looking at all of her beautiful Bundt cakes.

Of course I wanted to join in the fun, so this year I made Spicy Pumpkin mini bundt cakes. Now when I say mini, I don't mean those cute individual mini bundt pans that hold about 1 cup or so of batter. I mean I used my mini cupcake bundt pan, which is like a muffin tin, but it has little bundt molds in the pan instead of the usual muffin tin.

I took these as the refreshments for a cub scout meeting and they were gone in a flash. Everyone really enjoyed them. I made a simple icing of powdering sugar and skim milk to drizzle over the tops. They were delicious!

If you haven't made a bundt cake lately, today is the perfect day to do so. The Food Librarian has made at least 60 bundts, so go check out her blog if you need some ideas.

Here are the bundts I want to try the most from this last Bundt frenzy- Zucchini Olive Oil Bundt ,
Lavender-Lemon Bundt,
and the Snickerdoodle Bundt.

Oh who am I kidding? I want to try them all!



Recipe for Spicy Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes

These are the perfect little treat. They combine a yummy graham cracker crust and a creamy pumpkin cheesecake filling. I found the recipe on Pinch My Salt and it was a real winner.
These were 1 of 4 mini treats I made for a recent fall dinner. Two of the desserts were pumpkin based and two were apple.
I have a mini cheesecake pan but couldn't find it, so I just used a normal muffin tin and baked these up in paper liners.

These mix up fast and the crust isn't prebaked. The crust is baked along with the filling and they are done in about 15-20 minutes.
Can you beat that? Cheesecake in such a short amount of time?

These are topped with cinnamon whipped cream.
You can't really feel guilty about a mini serving of delicious cheesecake.
These were just perfect.


Recipe for Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes
from Pinch My Salt

* I used a normal sized muffin tin instead of a mini cheesecake pan and increased the baking time by a few minutes

Pumpkin Spice Granola

This recipe and variations on it, have been floating around everywhere the past couple of months. I think it originated on Baking Bites, so that is where I went to get the recipe when I wanted to make this granola.

The interesting thing about this granola is that it contains pumpkin puree and there is no oil or butter at all. The pumpkin puree is combined with applesauce, maple syrup and other things, and that is what binds it all together.

I don't keep puffed rice cereal on hand and I had seen some granola recipes that used uncooked quinoa/amaranth in granola, so I subbed some uncooked quinoa and uncooked amaranth in my granola mix. I liked the extra crunch that they added.
I threw in some roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and chocolate chips as my add-ins. I don't really care for dried fruit in my granola and I knew the addition of chocolate chips would make this more appealing to my kids, who happened to love this granola.

This was really good and a fresh take on granola. We loved it.

* note-I don't eat yogurt very often, but this granola was really good with Siggi's Orange & Ginger yogurt.

Recipe for Pumpkin Spice Granola from Baking Bites
* I used 1/2 cup uncooked amaranth and 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa in place of the puffed rice cereal
* I added 1/4 cup ground flaxmeal to the dry ingredients
* I added 1/2 cup roasted pepitas to the granola after the first 30 minutes of baking
* I stirred in 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips after the granola was cool

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Ok- Let's talk about the best pumpkin cupcake out there.
Because this is it.

I'm sure that I saw this cupcake last year or the year before that even, but I never paid it too much attention until I saw it recently on Tracey's blog. Tracey mentioned a post that Bridget did where she compared different pumpkin cupcake recipes and this one was her clear winner.

I was in a cupcake mood and already making a small amount of Snickerdoodle cupcakes, so I figured why not make these pumpkin cupcakes too. Then there would be more options for people to choose from when I offer them a cupcake.
For some reason it seems easier to me, to bake more than one thing at a time. It sounds crazy, but it works for me. I tend to plan at least a couple things each time I bake. Just for the fun of it. This time it was 2 cupcakes and 2 frostings.

This pumpkin cupcake is light, but has really great pumpkin flavor. Very nice taste and texture. I can't even describe it properly. It is just perfect.
I like to frost my cupcakes with pretty frosting, but I can't stomach that much frosting on a cupcake when I actually eat it. That being said, I thought this cream cheese frosting was a pretty great match for the pumpkin cupcakes. I can't say that the maple flavor was too noticeable in the frosting.

I also used some of the Seven-Minute frosting I had leftover from the Snickerdoodle cupcakes (I made that frosting first) to frost some of the pumpkin cupcakes. That was a really great combination. These cupcakes would taste great just dusted with some powdered sugar too.

Recipe for Pumpkin Cupcakes

Pumpkin Pie Shake

I had a little bit of pumpkin in the fridge, leftover from some sort of baking adventure and decided it would be fun to make a shake out of it.
I remembered seeing a Pumpkin Pie Shake in Cooking Light many years ago, so I looked it up and decided to go for it.
I used a combination of vanilla frozen yogurt and vanilla ice cream in this shake. I didn't have pumpkin pie spice, so I just sprinkled in some cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves.
I don't ever use Cool Whip, so once I poured this into glasses, I just added a tiny scoop of ice cream to top it off.

This was really good! It had great flavor and was so simple to throw together.
I love that it really did taste nice and pumpkin-y.
My family loved this shake.

Recipe for Pumpkin Pie Shake
* I used a combination of vanilla frozen yogurt and vanilla ice cream

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

It's that time of year. The time when I start making pumpkin everything.
I feel kinda embarrassed admitting this, but a couple weeks ago, I bought every last can of pumpkin off the shelf of my local Publix and I will use it all in the next couple of weeks.
I really wanted to make Pumpkin Bread Pudding last year, but never had the right occasion for what I felt, was a really rich dessert.
Then, this year, I ran across a pumpkin bread pudding recipe on smitten kitchen that she made using only whole milk. And a few eggs. One of the things that makes bread pudding so ridiculously rich is the fact that most of the time cream is involved and lots of egg yolks. This recipe made it seem almost healthy. (don't laugh!)

I just happened to have a leftover baguette from when I bought the ingredients for this,
so it just seemed like the perfect time to make the bread pudding.

I toasted my bread cubes in the oven before I threw this thing together, just so the bread would be completely dried out and crisp.
This turned out perfectly. I have made bread pudding before and my husband prefers that I call it something else because he thinks that the word "bread pudding" sounds digusting. So, we call it "French Toast Pie" for his benefit.
We tried a bite as soon as I pulled this out of the oven and it was good. We let it cool a little and added a dollop of slightly sweetened whipped cream- really good. We let it rest a little while longer and tasted another bite- delicious. I put the leftovers in the fridge and they were delicious the next day and the day after that. My husband didn't taste it until 2 days later and he loved it cold, straight from the fridge. (with whipped cream)
I had my son reading the ingredients to me and we accidentally added 1 tsp of salt. It didn't matter. This still turned out fabulously.

Perfect.

Recipe for Pumpkin Bread Pudding
* I toasted my bread cubes in the oven at 400 degrees F, for about 8-10 minutes to make sure they were dried out and crispy
* I used only whole milk
* I added close to 1 cup of pumpkin
* this was really good right out if the oven, warm, at room temperature and cold- after sitting in the fridge for a couple days (yes, we tasted it at all those different times)

Oatmeal Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I like muffins. I don't like to eat muffins that taste like cupcakes. I prefer healthy muffins and it is fine with me if they aren't super sweet or full of fat, as long as they still taste good and aren't dry.
I wanted to make pumpkin muffins and found a recipe that I tweaked quite a bit. Luckily pumpkin puree keeps baked goods nice and moist, so this recipe didn't need a lot of oil or butter. Low-fat buttermilk also added to the nice texture of these muffins. I like the texture that the oats add to this muffins as well.
I made these before school one morning and added mini chocolate chips because my son thinks that mini chocolate chips make anything better.
I was really happy with the results of these muffins. Moist, flavorful and pretty healthy!

I also just wanted to share this idea I saw in a recent issue of EveryDay Food for a healthy breakfast- Savory Oatmeal with a Egg. I didn't follow the recipe, but I did use their idea (partially). They used quick-cooking oats, a soft cooked egg, and no spinach.
I made my steel cut oats on the stovetop, then fried an egg in a small amount of olive oil. Then I sauteed a couple handfuls of spinach, in the same pan. I sprinkled a little bit of shredded cheese over my oatmeal, then topped it with the egg, spinach and chopped green onions. It was really good. My 3 year old liked it too.


Oatmeal Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins adapted from FitSugar
Inspired by Carrots-n-Cake and About: Lowfat Cooking

Ingredients

3/4 cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 cups old fashioned oats
6 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg or 1 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 1/2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 large egg
1/3 cup low-fat buttermilk + a couple more Tbls if the batter looks too thick

1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line muffin tin with muffin cups.
2. Whisk dry ingredients and spices together in a large bowl.
3. Add pumpkin, oil, egg, buttermilk, and vanilla to a medium size bowl and mix thoroughly. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredient and gently fold together, just, until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
   
4. Fill muffin cups evenly and bake for 18 to 25 minutes. Mine were done in 22 minutes.
   

Makes 9 muffins.

Southwestern Pumpkin Patties

One of my favorite things about fall is canned pumpkin. I opened a large can of pumpkin a couple weeks ago and starting making some great pumpkin recipes.
I wanted to make something savory and I found this recipe for Southwestern Pumpkin Burgers over at Eating Well. I changed the name to patties because it didn't seem right to call them burgers.

I happened to have one cob of fresh corn left in the fridge, so I used that. I kinda eyeballed the amounts of onion, corn, red bell pepper, etc. and I ended up having to use more pumpkin puree than the recipe originally called for to make the patties hold together.
I found these fun looking Flatout FOLDits and so we used them to hold our patties and toppings.

These were pretty good. The flavor was very similar to a savory sweet potato recipe, if you are looking for some sort of comparison.

This was a fun way to use pumpkin.

Recipe for Southwestern Pumpkin Patties
* I used panko instead of bread crumbs
* I used Flatout FOLDit Artisan Flatbread because it looked fun and different