Fall Treats! Candied Pumpkin Seeds!

So if you are anything like me, you hate seeing good food go to waste. I love to make pumpkin seeds after I carve out my pumpkins. They are easy, delicious and super festive (and I do like getting into the seasonal spirit).

Last month me and the boyfriend did the traditional pumpkin carving in preparation for halloween. I went pretty simple this year:

The pumpkin seeds are definitely the reason why I carve pumpkins now.

Baking pumpkin seeds was actually never anything that we normally did in my house growing up. I just decided one year I was going to do it, and I’ve been doing it ever since. I like to experiment with all sorts of different flavors. I would recommend trying chipotle seasoned pumpkin seeds and curried pumpkin seeds.

This year, however, I went sweet.

Ingredients:

• Seeds from one pumpkin, cleaned and dried over night.
• 1/2 c of evoo
• 1/2 c of brown sugar
• 1 tbsp of cinnamon
• 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice (or equal amounts of ground cloves, ginger and nutmeg)

Basically once you have taken the seeds out of the pumpkin and have given them a good washing to remove the fleshy bits you can set them out on a towel to dry overnight.

The next day simply remove the seeds from the towel and place them in a mixing bowl. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Throw in the olive oil, brown sugar and spices. mix until well coated then place the seeds on a greased cookie sheet.

Once the oven reaches the appropriate temperature sit those babies in there for about 20-25 minutes. You can take them out and give them a stir at the halfway mark if you want. They should be pretty golden brown at the end.

Put them in your favorite serving dish and amaze your friends with your delicious treats.

Look at that sweet delicious treat! It really is that easy to make.

Me and the roomie relaxed in true fall spirit by watching an awesome horror slasher flick.

What are some of your favorite fall treats?

Raw Vegan Cheesecake

So for the past year  I’ve been following a series of YouTube videos called My Drunk Kitchen. It is every bit as delightful as it sounds. One of her episodes featured drunkenly creating raw vegan cheesecake. I am not in any way Vegan, I love chicken and cheese way too much to ever give them up for more the 4 months at a time. However, I do believe in sustainable eating and experimentation so I have developed a fondness for vegan baking. While there is no actual baking involved in raw vegan cheesecake, I still put it under the category of baked goods.

Here is a link to My Drunk Kitchen. I encourage you all to check it out because Hannah Hart is fucking hillarious and I want her to be my BFF.

So this recipe definitely requires a food processor or (in my case) a high powered blender. The better the blender the creamier the cheesecake will turn out.

Ingredients:

For the crust:

• 2/3 cups of walnuts
• 2/3 cups of dates
• 1/2 cup of unsweeted shredded coconut (I omitted this this time because the guy is really allergic to coconut)
• 1/2 tsp sea salt or kosher salt

For the filling:

• 2 cup of raw cashews that have been soaked in water for at least 4 hours (soaking them overnight is best)
• 1/2 cup of organic raw coconut oil that has been melted
• 1/2 cup of agave nectar (or honey if you have that instead)
• 1 tbsp of vanilla extract (or vanilla bean if you have it, which, since i’m poor, I did not)
• Juice of two lemons
• 1 cup of strawberries, or any berries you choose to use!
• Hand full of assorted berries to garnish

Okay, so first thing we have to make the crust. You can do this in any pie dish.

Combine the walnuts, dates salt and coconut in a food processor and blend until you can mold the mixture. Place the mixture in the pie pan and put in the freezer to chill while you make the filling.

In a large food processor or blender, blend the soaked cashews, coconut oil, vanilla, agave and lemon together until the mixture is smooth. I used a blender and this took a decent amount of time to get all the mixture smooth enough.

For this recipe I poured half of the cashew filling into the pie pan and then blended the remainder with the strawberries. If you are using frozen strawberries, you should thaw them first before you try to blend them on high with the cashew mixture. Its up to you how blended you want them, you can blend it smooth or leave chunky bits of strawberry, you can’t really go wrong. Pour the berry mixture onto the other mixture and smooth with a spatula.

Store this in the freezer until the mixture gets pretty solid, I would say at least an hour. Take the cheesecake out of the freezer 30 mins before you want to serve it. You can either keep the leftovers in the freezer or store in the fridge if you don’t mind the texture being a little softer. Throw some berries on top and enjoy!

I was surprised at how rich and creamy this turned out, being made mostly from nuts. The lemon adds the perfect tang to the mix, mimicking actual cheesecake perfectly. After making this a few times it has become a family favorite and I don’t think I’ll go back to “normal” non vegan cheesecake.

I think next I’m going to experiment with chocolate vegan cheesecake or orange flavored cheesecake. The possibilities are endless!

This post it even making me hungry. I have one last slice of cheesecake left. I think I’ll go enjoy it!

Pumpkin Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting

 So here is the cupcake recipe I used with my freshly made pumpkin puree. This recipe calls for 2 cups of pumpkin puree. The batch I made resulted in probably 10 cups of puree from a medium sized pumpkin. This batch of pumpkin puree should make more then two dozen cupcakes. One pumpkin = over 50 pumpkin cupcakes. Sounds good to me! I tend to use healthier versions of ingredients but anything can be swapped out if you prefer the standard ingredients.

Pumpkin cupcakes are perfect for breakfast on the go (which is a must for me since I am in no way, shape or form a morning person). And these taste great with a home made pumpkin spice latte or eggnog latte.

This recipe is a little more on the moist, dense side of cupcakes which is just my personal preference. This is not your typical fluffy cupcake!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup of stevia (or sugar)
• 1/2 cup of oil
• 1/2 cup of agave syrup (or honey/molasses, or one cup oil if you don’t want added sweetener)
• 3 eggs beaten
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 cup of skim milk (or water)
• 1 tsp salt

Okay so with cupcakes the biggest thing is to mix the dry ingredients together and the wet ingredients together.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake baking pan with cupcake liners (fall inspired ones preferred :-p)

Combine the flour, sugar/stevia, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a mixing bowl.

Next combine the ‘wet ingredients’ together or the oil, agave, eggs, pumpkin puree. vanilla extract and milk.

Once both are well mixed slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, folding them in together until they are all mixed and there are no pockets of flour. Try not to over mix!

Once the mix is blended fill the cupcake liners 2/3 of the way. The cupcakes will rise and we don’t want them to mushroom!

Put them in the oven for 25-30 mins and let them rest a little. You can check if they are done by poking them with a fork. If the fork comes out clean they are ready.

Once they have cooled a little frost them! I love cream cheese frosting but to each their own. For these cupcakes I just mixed a little cream cheese with about a half a tin of vanilla frosting I had sitting in the fridge with some food coloring, cinnamon and orange zest. If you feel like living dangerously add some melted butter.

Enjoy!