Pumpkin: It's What's for Dinner...

...& lunch & breakfast, & even dessert.

I've had pumpkin in every meal today I love it! (Bare with me if you're not a huge pumpkin fan).

Lunch

Tuna mixed with celery, garlic, onion, tomatoes, carrots and pumpkin, a little salt & pepper & and lemon juice
I just threw everything together in the kahari. I enjoyed it a lot!

Dinner:

Pumpkin, Carrot, Ginger, Coconut Soup

So with all the pureed pumpkin I have sitting around I was just going to make a pumpkin-banana smoothie but I wasn't craving that I was craving more roti. What goes well with roti? Soup. And I got to make something new!

1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup grated carrots
2 t. grated coconut
2 cloves garlic (diced)
1 inch ginger (diced)

That's it!

I placed everything in my blender to mix and chop things more finely.


Then threw in a sauce pan to heat.

So easy & delish!

I added wheat germ in my flour to make roti


Dessert:

NO Bake Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Pumpkin Topped Cookies

Sugar
Butter
Milk
Pinch of salt
1 Tbsp Peanut butter
½ t. Vanilla
Oats

Heat milk, sugar, butter, & salt bring to a boil for one minute.
Stir in peanut butter, oats & vanilla. Let it thicken and then scoop rounds out on to cookie sheet or cutting board.

Pumpkin topping:
Heat sugar with a very little bit of butter
Stirring well until mixture turns to a liquid and brown, add a little pureed pumpkin and mix. I even add a little shredded coconut.
Top over cookies and place cookie in the fridge to settle.

This little guys are yummy!

~Sara

Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal

Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal with Bananas & Candied Peanuts

Oatmeal is a huge breakfast staple but lets be honest, it can get boring fast. So I've been experimenting with different, fun, and flavorful options to dress up our dear oats.
I love pumpkin and I make it at least once a week. I buy one pound and lately I've been cooking it and pureeing it to add to smoothies, or to bake pumpkin cookies or adding it to my oatmeal.

1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup oats (or how ever much you want)
pinch nutmeg
pinch cinnamon
1/2 t. vanilla
salt & sugar optional

I put a little water in my pan just to cover the bottom and add my 1/2 cup pumpkin, bring to a slight boil. Add oats, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, salt & sugar, stir well for about 2 minutes.
You could also use milk if you like it creamier.

Top with 1/2 sliced banana and candied peanuts (late last night I made candied peanuts and they were so good in today's oatmeal)

Enjoy!

~Sara

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Chili

It's the fall season back home but, sadly, there's no change in the weather in Guyana...it's still hot!
A lot of the favorite fall foods we know and love are available year round here...I've been eating a lot of pumpkin and sweet potato for months already. But I've definietly been craving familiar fall foods like pumpkin cookies, pumpkin spice lattes, candied yams, and of course pumpkin pie (I did make yummy pumpkin cookies!). So in spirit of the fall season I experimented with some fall ingredients and whala....
Beans
Sweet potato
Pumpkin
Tomato
Sweet peppers
Garlic
Onion
Ginger
1 tsp peanut butter
Cinnamon
Cumin
Olive oil

Pre-cook beans, sweet potato and pumpkin, until soft.
Heat a little olive oil in kahari or frying pan and saute garlic and onion throw in the pumpkin with a little water, let simmer for a few minutes than add all other ingredients and mix well making sure the peanut butter is melted and evenly coating everything.

I thought it tasted pretty good but to make sure I wasn't being completely crazy (I wasn't sure about the peanut butter) I had Tony try it...he liked it!
It would be really good over rice.

~S