Random Bites of Autumn Deliciousness
I haven’t created many unique and stellar recipes this past week … in fact, since we have been quite busy, I have been enjoying simplicity a bit. Don’t worry, this isn’t just a “what I ate” post. Think of it like a collection of mini recipes.
Lunch all week has been two poached eggs atop whatever vegetables need to be eaten most urgently. But, I did fit in a “new to me” veggie. What could that be nestled in that pile of cabbage? …
Why kabocha squash of course! I finally gave into the food bloggie peer pressure (and the fact that organic kabochas were on for $.49 a pound!). Since I was a kabocha virgin, I didn’t experiment, I used this tested recipe for Japanese Style Simmered Sweet Kabocha. I didn’t have dashi, so I just used water, and it still came out delicious! The only thing I couldn’t figure out was if I was supposed to cover the pan as it cooked. I did, and ended up with tons of liquid left, so if you try it, don’t cover. I ate the squash skin and all (my first time for that too!) and it was wonderful.
For some reason, I was obsessed with making a Pumpkin Pecan Pie Spread for our morning rice cakes. After three mornings of trials, I was satisfied, but never did get what I would call perfection. Nonetheless, since the husband was getting a bit burnt out on pumpkin, I called it a day. Here is where I left off …
- 2 Tablespoons Pecan Butter (I used some Artisana I was trialing, but you can also make your own)
- 1/4 Cup Pumpkin Puree
- 1 to 2 Tablespoons Maple Syrup (I took the middle ground with 1-1/2)
- ½ Teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
- Generous Pinch of Salt
- Protein Powder (optional)
In a small bowl, whip it all together. If desired, stir in protein powder to your desired taste and consistency. I like to add a little egg protein powder; it also thickens it up a bit.
This spread really is so simple that you could easily customize it to your tastes by tweaking an ingredient or two, or even simply subbing the maple syrup for your sweetener of choice. This yielded enough for four rice cakes, two each, perfect!
Now, for my sweet treats of the week, I seemed to have a bit of a graham cracker obsession … cinnamon graham crackers to be specific …
This is nothing more than a cinnamon graham topped with lusciously creamy cashew butter (seriously, this stuff is like frosting!) and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Mmmm.
But the following may have even topped that one …
Maple-Pecan Graham-wiches
- 1 Tablespoon Pecan Butter (would probably be awesome with any nut butter!)
- 1/2 Tablespoon Maple Syrup
- 1 Teaspoon Coconut Oil or Coconut Butter, melted
- 2 Whole Cinnamon Graham Crackers (each broken in half, so you have four squares)
Combine the nut butter, maple, and coconut oil or butter in a small dish. Refrigerate it for just a few, allowing it to thicken just a bit as the coconut oil cools and solidifies. Top two cinnamon grahams (cinnamon-side up) with the butter, top with remaining graham. Enjoy the oozing goodness.
If you don’t like messy sandwiches, try this snack open faced.
Hopefully you have found some delicious inspiration amongst this haphazard post! I have just a few quick shout-outs to end with.
- Thank you to All Access Pass to Jack for the Lemonade Award. I will have to pass this on very soon!
- Zesty is having another blog makeover giveaway! I want to win so bad that I am telling you all to enter just to get myself one more entry. Logical?
- I have another big giveaway coming up too. Stay tuned, it will be up in just a couple of days! (I have to go write it up now).
Oh yes, and Happy Halloween!!
16 thoughts on “Random Bites of Autumn Deliciousness”
You wouldn’t want to go through life any longer being a kabocha virgin, so good for you!
STOP IT with those graham-wiches, seriously – too freaking delicious 😀
I am sooo envious of that stash of Artisana butters you have. Sure Almond butter is “okay” but cashew and pecan? Oh my.
Ok but here’s how you make CB:
Soak 1 c cashews for 8 hours. Drain.
Put in Vitamix with 1/4 c agave, give or take.
Blend the heck out of it. You’ll get to butter state in about 2 mins.
Enjoy.
The graham sammies. OMG I am gluten sensitive and cannot do grahams and missssss graham crackers and yours with the choc chips look tooo dang good. OMG now I am craving them.
Did you ever get busy with pumpkin donut holes this week or the apple crumble? No pressure but sincerely wondering what you thought if you made them!
amazing eats! i don’t think i’ve ever tried sweet kabocha. we have it at the market i work at right now, maybe i’ll get some! all your snacks look so delicious and adorable. you can totally make money off of those!!
I’ve had a lax food week too.
Mmm yours all look delicious! I never thought to top a rice cracker, as stupid as that seems. haha I’ll have to give that a try, it looks/sounds wonderful. And when my brother and I were younger we came home from school and made our own snacks while my mom was downstairs teaching piano. We would experiment little “recipes” and one was similar to your graham cracker one. We smeared peanut butter on a graham cracker, then lined up PB Capt’ Crunch, then topped w/ another peanut butter smeared graham cracker. We thought we were GENIUS CHEFS and even went so far as to write the recipe down in the back of one of my mom’s cookbooks, since we had discovered something amazing. hahaha
I love simple and easy. I’ve been making “double batches” and we have left-overs. I’ve made tons of soup and put it in glass jars – and into the freezer they go for later on.
I sometimes think my readers believe I eat beautiful food every night – and while it’s always delicious it’s often simple. And real. Love that you shared this.
These look so good!
i’ve been eating a similar peanut-pumpkin spread all week, thanks to the leftover pumpkin from cupcakes last weekend and my lack of grocery runs (aka: lack of real food for sandwiches). i skipped the maple syrup, but that sounds fantastic! obviously, good minds think alike =) Happy Halloween!
The pumpkin pie spread sounds SO good! I’m drowning in all the squash and pumpkin from my garden and have to give that a try.
I love all of these fall recipe ideas. The pumpkin pecan pie spread sounds too good to be true.
Love the graham cracker recipes! Cinnamon graham crackers are a favorite snack of mine. I hadn’t eaten them for year, but for some reason I started craving them after returning from a Europe trip 8 years ago. I’ve snacked on them ever since.
Everything looks great. The pecan pumpkin spread sounds wonderful, but I know what you mean about hubby getting overdosed on recipe experiments! And kabocha is just the best. . . soooo delicious.
Oh my, so much kabocha deliciousness 🙂
I’ve gotta look for that cashew butter!
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