These Pumpkin Snickerdoodles have a thin crispy outside with a soft inside. Not too cake-like and just enough spice. I ate 4 just to make sure they were perfect and could have gone for another if I weren’t on a diet. Self-control has to begin somewhere, bwa ha ha ha.
Pumpkin Spice Waffles, Two Ways
Most of you know that I coach a private weight loss group and provide detailed meal plans to help the girls reach their goals. I’m following the meal plans closely myself and am on my way to a completing a 40lb weight loss. Not everything is predictable but I’m on track to finish by the end of the year. These scones are part of our plan this week and they are such a treat! My kids were jealous, so I made a fresh ground whole wheat version for them.
The Fit Mama recipes won’t hurt a young person if they want to eat them once in awhile but the ingredients are more expensive than traditional ingredients and they are too low carb/low calorie for a steady diet for a growing child. It doesn’t take long for me to make a version for me and one for them and I’m excited to share both the recipes.
Fit Mama Protein Pumpkin Spice Waffles
Healthy Pumpkin Pecan Scones
Scones and hot tea are one of my favorite autumn breakfasts. I made the first batch of pumpkin scones for the Fit Mama meal plans. They were delicious and just happen to be both gluten free and dairy free. Then I made a second bath with fresh ground whole wheat flour for the rest of the family and they got thumbs up too. I’m pleased to share the recipes for both.
Fit Mama Pumpkin Pecan Scones
Southwest Butternut Chicken Stew
A few years ago I was searching for butternut squash recipes and found a beautiful picture of a chicken stew. I clicked over to read the recipe and was immediately disappointed. The black bits in the stew were olives, and I’m not a fan. The black color was part of what made the dish so beautiful, so I wrote up the recipe I was hoping to find. Then I threw it in the crock pot and fed it to guests, because I live dangerously like that. It was delicious. The slightly sweet flavor from the butternut contrasted perfectly with the spicy southwest flavors.
Did you know that Butternut squash and pumpkin are in the same family? If you’d like a homemade dark orange, thick sweet puree for your pumpkin recipes, consider subbing butternut instead. There has been a rumor going around that canned pumpkin is really butternut squash…but after some research I’ve found that to be false. And also learned about a new strain of pumpkin that is destined to be in my garden next year. If you have one of these KING of eating pumpkins, you may use that instead in this recipe.
Southwest Butternut Chicken Stew
1 1/2 lbs Butternut Squash, peeled and cubed
4 cups chicken broth
1 lb boneless chicken
1 onion, chopped
1 can, 15 oz black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can, 10 oz Rotel tomatoes, undrained
1 1/2 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup, dry quinoa, rinsed
1/4 cup Cilantro
1/4 cup Sour Cream
In a slow cooker, combine everything except the quinoa and cilantro. Cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 6. Pull out chicken and chop or shred, then return to the pan. Stir in quinoa and cook for 30 minutes longer. Garnish with fresh cilantro and sour cream just before serving. Serve with tortilla chips or Fritos.
Butternut Squash is fairly easy to work with. It’s easier to cut through than the some of the tougher squashes. I just trimmed off the ends, then scooped the seeds out of the bowl. I love this squash so much, I saved and dried my seeds to try in the garden this spring.
A vegetable peeler works great for removing the skin. You’ll just need to make more than one pass.
If you still see streaks of green on your squash, there’s still skin there. Keep using the peeler to remove layers until it’s just orange. Then you can cut it into cubes.
This is day 7 of 31 Days of Pumpkin Recipes
8 Pumpkin French Toast Casserole
9 Healthy Pumpkin Pecan Scones
10 Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
11 Pumpkin Muffin/Drop Cookie Mix
12 Easy Pumpkin Cake
13 Pumpkin Dump Cake
14 Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal
15 Pumpkin Mousse
16 Pumpkin Cheesecake
17 Pumpkin Latte
18 Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
19 Pumpkin Chili
20 Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies
21 Pumpkin Biscuits
22 Maple Pumpkin Butter
23 Stuffed Sugar Baby Pumpkins
24 Pumpkin Pancakes
25 Pumpkin Waffles
26 Pumpkin English Muffins
27 Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
28 Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts
29 Pumpkin Biscotti
30 Pumpkin Caramel Monkey Bread
31 Impossible Pumpkin Pie
Homemade Pumpkin Bagels Video Tutorial
This isn’t a new recipe to this blog, but it’s still one of my favorites. The soft inside and chewy outside make a lovely grab and go breakfast. I originally wrote this post in 2015. Grant is now in 1st grade! I don’t regret spending that last year with him, and even though the kids are all in school now, we decided my time is still best spent at home helping things run smoothly for everyone.
Tee hee. This video makes me giggle. When I watch the replay and Grant (4) dumps the pumpkin on the counter, I roll on the floor laughing and then back it up and watch it again. Maybe because I was there for the original moment, trying to balance a camera and helping Grant with the cooking at the same time. How the pumpkin on the counter shocked us both and I got the giggles, which I tried to hold in making a weird background noise. Grant, relieved that I wasn’t upset said, “We better clean that up.” Which made me giggle all the more.
After we made quite a mess but got most of the stuff in the bowl, I said “What should we do now?” I thought Grant would say, “Let’s clean up!” but he said “SMILE.” Which made me giggle all over again.
This boy is the joy of my days. The sleepless nights, messes, tantrums, and battles are all worth it. I had the option to spend this year in a classroom blessing other people’s children, while I earned money that my family needed. I would have had to let someone else be with Grant during the day, and I just couldn’t. It’s his last full year at home and I fought for my chance to be the one to clean up his messes and talk him down from the ledge of toddler insanity. It was selfish and selfless at the same time. He needs me as much as I need him and there’s something priceless about that.
For those who prefer a written recipe here you go:
Pumpkin Bagels
- 2/3 cup warm water
- 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
- 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 Tablespoon active dry yeast
Put all ingredients in the order listed in your bread machine. Set for the dough cycle. When the cycle is ended, divide the dough into 10 balls. Poke your finger through the center and make a large hole. Let the bagels rise for an hour or until doubled. Pour 8 cups of water into a stock pot, boil bagels for 1 1/2 minutes, turning once. Remove to a dish towel to drain. Place bagels on a greased baking sheet. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with a little sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden on the top. Cool on a wire rack.
This is day 6 of 31 Days of Pumpkin Recipes
7 Butternut Chicken Stew
8 Pumpkin French Toast Casserole
9 Healthy Pumpkin Pecan Scones
10 Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
11 Pumpkin Muffin/Drop Cookie Mix
12 Easy Pumpkin Cake
13 Pumpkin Dump Cake
14 Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal
15 Pumpkin Mousse
16 Pumpkin Cheesecake
17 Pumpkin Latte
18 Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
19 Pumpkin Chili
20 Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies
21 Pumpkin Biscuits
22 Maple Pumpkin Butter
23 Stuffed Sugar Baby Pumpkins
24 Pumpkin Pancakes
25 Pumpkin Waffles
26 Pumpkin English Muffins
27 Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
28 Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts
29 Pumpkin Biscotti
30 Pumpkin Caramel Monkey Bread
31 Impossible Pumpkin Pie
Caramel Filled Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
These cinnamon rolls start with a pumpkin based yeast dough, filled with cream cheese caramel, for an ooey gooey breakfast treat that triples as a perfect dessert or after school snack.
The dough is the same as our Pumpkin Dinner Roll Dough, but halved so it will fit in your bread machine. Of course you can mix it up in your mixer if you prefer, or even make the larger batch like I did so there are plenty to share.
Pumpkin Dinner Rolls
These tender rolls are light, delicious and child approved. Mildly sweet, these rolls are the perfect compliment to a Thanksgiving feast (or an autumn after school snack.)
Pumpkin Sugar Cookie Cutouts
These soft rolled sugar cookies have a nice pumpkin spice flavor but are not too cake like. They hold their shape while baking and with the pumpkin spice glaze are pretty much irresistible. It’s a Coffman original recipe.
How to make pumpkin puree
Photo credit: Tim Mossholder
While canned pumpkin is really delicious, it’s super easy to make homemade pumpkin puree to use in all your fantastic recipes. Homemade puree freezes really well for year long stockpiling. Even though pumpkin pie, bread, doughnuts, pancakes, cookies, muffins…..dot our winter menus long after October, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas, the time to grab your pumpkins is now. Tourism pumpkin patches will till their pumpkins under the day after Halloween and it will be terribly hard to find one anywhere. If you buy them now, stored properly, they will keep long into the winter.
Any pumpkins will work, but the tiny ones have the sweetest most pumpkiny flavor. And the gray pumpkins have the darkest flesh. This one even had a sweet melon smell. And it doesn’t have to be pumpkin, butternut squash is in the same family and makes an even thicker, rosier puree.
Pumpkin Spice Mix
At the last minute, I decided to participate in the Write 31 Days blog challenge. I participated two years ago and loved how it challenged me to post more often.
I took the year off last year, but am jumping back in this time with 31 Pumpkin Recipes :). Some are recipes I’ve had in my rotation for a bit, and some are brand new being tested in my kitchen as we speak. Some are savory, but most are sweet.
Before we can cook much with pumpkin, we need a good pumpkin spice recipe and I’m proud to offer you my own blend, which has gotten thumbs up all around from my recipe testers.
This recipe makes enough to fill a 2 1/2 oz spice jar, or you can quadruple it for a pint canning jar. All spices are their ground versions.
4 Tbs Cinnamon