Got Pumpkins? Have Pancakes
If you are anything like me, you had the best of intentions when you bought those cans of pumpkin puree. You had glorious visions of making an amazing fresh baked pie for Thanksgiving dinner and the family drooling at the delicious site. What went wrong? Not enough time, too many kids and about 100 other things to do.
What about the pumpkins growing wild out of your garden? Who knew when you let the Halloween pumpkin from last year go to mush it would sprout up half a dozen replacements.
The solution? Here are a few of my favorite pumpkin recipes.
*Autumn Morning Pancakes*
1 cups egg whites
1 omega egg
¾ cups pumpkin puree
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
½ cup 1% cottage cheese
¼ cup flour (I used Ezekiel)
½ cup oatmeal
Blend in blender until consistency of pancake batter and cook as you would pancakes, flipping when bubbles come through. Top with real maple syrup.
*Apple Pumpkin Omelet*
In a large bowl whisk 2 eggs, 1 cup egg whites, ½ cup pumpkin puree, 1 apple chopped and cinnamon. Pour in a lightly sprayed or greased (Olive oil) skillet over medium, put lid on. Cook 10 to 15 minutes or until you can flip. Flip and put lid on for another 5 minutes. Top with real maple syrup.
*Pumpkin Muffins*
Find your favorite apple muffin recipe and replace ½ the apple sauce with pumpkin puree and use pumpkin pie spice in place of cinnamon. Use a whole grain flour mix and look for a low fat recipe. Add a dollop of apple butter in the middle when 5 minutes of baking time is left. Use small muffin tins to keep these treats even lower calorie and eat them fresh from the oven; skip the butter (definitely skip the margarine!).
Pumpkin is a nutritional powerhouse with half a cup providing 25% of your daily beta-carotene requirements, 10% Vitamin C and a healthy dose of heart protecting potassium.
Don't discard those seeds! Eat them – they are an excellent source of immune-boosting zinc and the nutritional celebrity, omega-3 fatty acids. Roasting the seeds are best for flavour, but that will damage the fatty acids. For the most nutritional bang for your buck, eat them raw.
So next year, forget the dream of winning the pie award. Your heart and your waistline will be the real winner by opting for some of the calorie-reduced, nutritionally-improved recipes above.
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