Excuse me.

So thought I'd share a couple pumpkin-y breakfasts with you. I'm going to New Orleans this weekend to play some meowsic and I'm very excited. My waist-size is less excited, but I can't wait to fill my tum tum with delicious red beans and crawfish. Anyway, I wanted to post something before I went on that trip.

I wish I could say that I cut up a pumpkin, baked it, and puréed it, but I didn't feel like it this week. I imagine I'll be doing that next week for Halloween and then again for Thanksgiving. I think I might also make one of my apple pies next week, so I'll let you guys in on my process for making those as well.

But for now: canned pumpkin.

One of my favorite things that I own in my kitchen are these containers:


Oggi acrylic canisters. I use them for all kinds of shit, and I never let food spoil in them, because I love these things so I can't just toss them like I sometimes (always) do with plastic Tupperware. So this week, I opened a can of pumpkin and dumped it into one of these and put it in the fridge. I then used that for these things...

Pumpkin Smoothie
Yummm!
You're going to need:

• Pumpkin
• Frozen kefir (plain)
• Almond milk
• Cinnamon
• Ginger (ground)
• Cloves (ground)
• Stevia (I used Truvia)
• Ice (ice, baby)

Okay so I mostly made small smoothies this week, but I think you're good with this rule:
For every half cup of frozen kefir, use 1/4 cup of pumpkin.

I typically used half a cup of kefir, 1/4 cup of pumpkin, a few ice cubes, like 2/3 cup of almond milk (enough to get the blender going) and then spiced it to taste. I like my pumpkin sweets spicy, so I probably used like a tsp of cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/8 tsp cloves, and 1/8 tsp stevia. I mostly just poured it in, though, so I'm guessing. lol recipes. Start with a little and see how it tastes once you blend it. You can always add more and blend again.

Pumpkin and Apple Overnight Oatmeal
So easy!
You'll need:

• 1/2 cup whole oats
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 cup almond milk
• Pumpkin
• Cinnamon
• Ginger (ground)
• Cloves (ground)
• Stevia
• Honeycrisp apple (or any apple to your liking)

To make the oatmeal, combine the oats, chia seeds, and almond milk in a container (I used an Oggi container) and put it in the fridge overnight. When you wake up in the morning, the oatmeal is soft and awesome and ready. Add some pumpkin. I probably added 1/4 cup. Add some cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and stevia. Stir it up. Cut up about 1/3 of your apple into cubes and add it to the oatmeal. You can eat the rest of your apple now or do like I did and save it for a snack in the afternoon (with maple almond butter!). And now you have yummy autumn oatmeal.

You could add a bunch of stuff to this... nuts, dates, cranberries, sea salt, maple syrup.... all KINDS of stuff! But that's what I made this morning and it was most pleasant.

So anyway... I've got a couple things coming up maybe... but we'll see... hopefully...