How to Cook a Pumpkin + homemade pumpkin puree

Ambitious Kitchen

How to Cook a Pumpkin + homemade pumpkin puree

Pumpkins can be intimidating, but we’ll break down to to easily cut, dice & roast a pumpkin for cooking. Plus, you’ll learn how to make your own homemade pumpkin puree for all of your favorite pumpkin recipes! TODAY MARKS THE BEGINNING OF #AKPUMPKINWEEK. We’re super excited you’re here! I’m not sure about you, but I’m [...]

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Cookie and Kate

Shredded Brussels Sprouts & Arugula Salad with Sunshine Dressing

I’ve been wishing for crisp fall days and getting 80-degree weather instead. So, my boots are waiting patiently in my closet, and I’m enjoying this hearty fall salad instead of soup. All in due time!

This large salad is made with baby arugula, shredded Brussels sprouts, crumbled goat cheese, and toasted pecans. I tossed all of that with my healthier honey-mustard dressing, which I like to call sunshine salad dressing. The end result is tangy and irresistible, crisp and refreshing, and quite filling.

I know that we haven’t crossed the Halloween threshold yet, but—this salad would be a great contender for your holiday table. Make it for dinner tonight, pack it for weekday lunches, and serve it up on the holidays! I’ve included preparation tips below, including some ways to make this salad in a hurry.

Continue to the recipe...

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A Sweet Pea Chef

Apple Pumpkin Bread

This easy and healthy Apple Pumpkin Bread is perfect for Fall.  Make the most of your clean eating lifestyle and make this delicious homemade apple pumpkin bread recipe using whole, unrefined ingredients! 

When I first started testing out clean eating, I wasn’t really sure where to start.  It can kind of feel daunting, in the beginning, when you don’t know how much unsweetened applesauce to use instead of oil or butter, what kind(s) of unrefined flours work best in breads, and so on.

Two of my first attempts at this new cleaner way of living were two different quick breads and everyone seemed to love them.  I made a Chocolate Zucchini Bread and a Pumpkin Raisin Bread.

The Chocolate Zucchini Bread is now one of the most trafficked recipes on the site and, for the Pumpkin Raisin Bread, I was actually asked to cook on the local fox news station.

That was definitely an interesting experience.

So, as any busy blogger can attest to, I went on to not make a single extra quick bread recipe for over a year.

Because why add more stuff that worked well, was easy and delicious, and everyone loves?

Sarcasm totally implied here.

Sigh.

So, we’re full circle back around again and it’s fall.  That means pumpkins and apples are in season, it’s time to bake delicious goodies in the oven to make your home smell so comforting, and – yep – that means breads.

While the earlier recipes still weren’t 100% clean since we were still transitioning to what that exactly meant for us, this apple pumpkin bread is completely clean and is so dang tasty.

A big bonus of this bread is that it’s kid friendly, too.

Jordan, my 9 year old, hates chunks of fruit in her food BUT she will eat every last crumb without even complaining.

Of course, this makes no sense to us — but the only explanation is that this bread is THAT good.

A couple notes on the recipe.  You can totally use canned pumpkin puree to make this apple pumpkin bread, but if you make your own homemade pumpkin puree, it’ll be that much better.  To learn how to make it (it’s totes easy), just click here.

Apple Pumpkin Bread

 

Also, I don’t peel the apple before dicing it and adding it to the batter.  Believe it or not, the apple skin doesn’t even hold up when baked so you don’t even notice it — all that remains is the nutrients that you would’ve lost from peeling it to begin with.  Plus — if it doesn’t bother my 7 year old, I bet you won’t even notice 😉

Apple Pumpkin Bread

This Apple Pumpkin Bread brings together all the delicious flavors of Fall in an easy quick bread recipe.

½ cup unsweetened applesauce ¼ cup unsweetened almond milk 2 large eggs 1½ cups organic pumpkin puree 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/3 cup pure maple syrup 1 honeycrisp apple (cored and diced) 1¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 1/8 tsp ground cloves 1/4 tsp sea salt 1 tsp baking soda 1 tbsp rolled oats (uncooked)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a loaf pan with coconut oil and then set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine the unsweetened applesauce, organic pumpkin puree, eggs, unsweetened almond milk, vanilla extract, and pure maple syrup and mix together. Add the diced honeycrisp apple and stir to combine. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the whole wheat pastry flour, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground cloves, sea salt, and baking soda and mix well. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and spread out evenly. Top with a light sprinkling of uncooked rolled oats. Place into the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick or knife inserted comes out clean.

This post contains affiliate links for products I use regularly and highly recommend.

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Minimalist Baker

Socca Pizza with Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Pesto

Now that we’ve discovered how delicious socca is, let’s make pizza!

This recipe requires just 10 ingredients and 1 bowl to make and comes together in about 1 hour.

The reason I love this recipe so much is it’s like eating pizza but without all the bread and grains. That’s right, it’s grain-free!

It starts with socca batter infused with garlic and nutritional yeast for flavor (oregano is optional!).

Socca Pizza with Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Pesto from Minimalist Baker →