I went on a hunt for simple pumpkin desktop wallpaper and I found a whole bunch that were very busy or they looked like Halloween threw up all over them.
So, I made my own.
And now they it's available for download. Select from the sizes below to download your own.
Please, don't let the "paleo" part scare you.
Back in the summer we did a Whole30, which we loved (lost 25 pounds in 30 days). When it ended, we moved to a more "paleo" cooking style. I won't call it a diet. It just so happens that the food we eat and the food that makes us feel our very best (full of energy, focused, not bloated, happy) happen to align with paleo.
With that said, you could easily adapt this recipe to include white flour, for instance, but I say, why change something that's already SO good! It's not necessary.
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It's also not necessary to have seven, but I bet you'll want to.
I could eat these every day...breakfast. lunch. and dinner.
Enjoy!
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Have you seen the pumpkin dip recipe, like everywhere? Yeah me too and I finally caved and made some this past weekend for a little family get together. It was soooo good. Like beyond what you'd expect and it's crazy simple to make.
Mine was a little different, in that I used only 8oz of cool whip and a 1oz box of vanilla instat pudding. That's just what I happened to purchase, so I went with it. It was delicious.
Since I had leftovers I decided to make another dessert with the whipped pumpkin dip. You could make these with smaller shooter type glasses, or even a martini glass.
The bottom layer consists of about 6-7 nilla cookies, then the whipped pumpkin dip, then a layer of chocolate graham crackers, then more whipped pumpkin dip, another layer of chocolate graham crackers and on the top is mixture of cool whip, some vanilla extract and cinnamon. Chill for a few hours and then dive in.
I could eat this every day.
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I'm ashamed to admit that I don't have a pumpkin wreath up yet. I've been going back and forth about what I want and when that happens, I end up becoming so overwhelmed with the options that I do nothing. Anyone else get that way?
I did go shopping at the brand new Michael's that opened up in my small little country town, and I'm now well stocked for pumpkin wreath making. I'll share with you mine once it's done. In the meantime checkout my round-up of festive pumpkin wreaths.
My favorite is Pumpkin Patch Wreath. I love the combo of the pumpkins with the moss. What's your fav?
]]>Seriously, I've done the jack-o-laterns o-plenty (did you see what I just did there? yeah *groan*) and now my pumpkins call for something different. Plus carving pumpkins is so much work. How has time for that?
There are soooo many ways to decorate without carving. But I don't know how much time you have to dedicate to decorating a pumpkin. Being a pumpkin lover, I could spend a good deal of time, but I can recognize that we all aren't in that same boat. So I've rounded up some of my favorites that are pretty quick and easy. I hope you enjoy.
What's your favorite?
]]>I drink half-caff coffee and it's almost impossible to find half-caff with flavors. So I've started to experiment with making my own blends. And of course, it made perfect sense to try a pumpkin spice flavor. It's simple and easy and you'll wonder why you haven't been doing this all along.
Are you ready?
Take 1/4 cup of coffee and add cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger. Mix it up, add to your coffee maker, with 4 cups of water and brew.
You can easily adapt the spices to your preferred "pumpkin" flavor. I like a bit of a stronger flavor, so I'll increase each spice a little more or add a pinch more allspice. It's totally up to you.
]]>The pumpkin takes a backseat here, but lends to the earthyness of the dish. It's not sweet and your normal pumpkin flavor, which is a nice alternative.
The best part? Throw it in the crockpot and forget about it.
I made no changes to the original recipe, because it's simply that good. Check it out on Skinny Taste. You will NOT be disappointed.
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Grab a cup of milk or coffee and enjoy.
]]>Pure, decadent, chocolate cake.
This cake doesn't have a strong pumpkin flavor; instead it lingers in the background. The leading role is the chocolate for sure, but the pumpkin is no doubt a supporting character; lending itself to create a rich and moist crumb that only enchances the chocolate in just the right way. Paired with a Spiced Pumpkin Cream Cheese frosting, together it's a delight. The bittersweet glaze is just the perfect touch to slice through the sweetness of the frosting and fullness of the chocolate cake.
I used these icing colors to tint the frosting orange, but you could certainly skip that altogether or go with any color. I could see a dark red for Christmas or Valentine's Day, or green for St. Paddy's. Then all you would need to do is swap out the Spiced Pumpkin Cream Cheese frosting for any of your favorite frosting or buttercream. The chocolate cake is so good it could just stand on it's own with a little sprinkle of powdered sugar or as cupcakes. The possibilities are endless and oh so delicious.
For these I took a standard zeppole recipe and incoporated pumpkin for some of the water and then added in pumpkin spice for flavor. I'd never made a plain zeppole before so I wasn't sure how these would come up. Overall I'm quite happy with them. They have more of a bread-like consitency than light and airy, but they were still quiter delicious.
I was going to sprinkle them all daintily with powdered sugar, but the way we get them in NY, is usually in a white paper bag filled with a bit of powdered sugar. Then you shake 'em up. That's a zeppola!
I made in the afternoon and brought them with us to my sister-in-laws for dinner at her new house. This meant that I could pawn most of them off on her, so I didn't have to consume 10 or more.
I love baking, but I just can not possibly consume everything I bake. And my husband isn't big on baked things....he's more a chips and ice cream junkie. He did like these though and required that we take a few home with us for later. I'm sure you'll have no problem getting rid of these. They are too good.
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I wasn't sure if I wanted to make mini donuts or cupcakes today. I got a new mini donut pan that I really wanted to try out, but I went with cupcakes today. You can't really go wrong with cupcakes.
I found these in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book and had never tried them before. The crumb is full of flavor and not too dense. When you pick one up, they are definitely heavier than a regular cupcake.
My go-to-frosting is a swiss meringue buttercream. I personally love it because it's not too sugary. But for these I choose a Cinnamon Cream Cheese Buttercream/Frosting. It's not as sweet as a regular sugary frosting but it's not as light as a buttercream. It's somewhere in the middle, which turned out really well for these cupcakes since they are so rich.
You must make these. There's something about the browned butter and pumpkin...just to die for. Just the right mixture of spice and sweetness.
]]>These use human grade ingredients, are easy and quick to make, plus you can enjoy them with your pup.
I just happened to have a dog bone cookie cutter, but any cookie cutter will do. You could even just shape them freeform and bake them. Your dogs won't care one bit.
The thing I love about this recipe is that you can use other fruits (except for grapes/raisins which can be deadly to dogs) and veggies. However if you do replace the pumpkin, you'll want to add about a 1/3 cup of vegetable oil. I prefer to keep the pumpkin and swap out the apple for things like carrots, zucchini, pears, or bananas.
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I make mine on a thin side, because I have tow dogs that don't really chew. They are more whole-treat swallowers, so I find the thinner the better. You could easily roll these out to be 1" or thicker if you prefer.
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After the episode was over, I really wanted a soufflé. It was just all that talk of them on top of how delicious they all looked.
I'm not going to make three different soufflé's. I'm not insane. Instead one single Pumpkin Soufflé...which I've never made before. Actually, I don't think I've ever made any kind of soufflé before.
This one is pretty basic. Eggs, cream of tartar, sugar, pumpkin, cinnamon, and pumpkin spice.
The butter is used for your ramekins...apply a nice even coat and then sprinkle some sugar inside of each and coat all sides. Once done, place these into the fridge until you are ready to fill them.
In a large bowl mix together the egg yolks, pumpkin, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice for about 5 minutes.
Be sure to let your dogs lick out the plain pumpkin cup. Oh is that just me? Well trust me, they will love you for it (plus plain pumpkin is good for their digestion).
In the bowl of your stand mixer (or you could do this by hand I suppose) beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form and then start adding in the 1/4 cup sugar a little bit at a time.
Then fold the egg whites into the pumpkin mixture...little bit at a time. It should remain quite fluffy and light.
Then take your ramekins out of the fridge and fill to the top. You might want to run your finger along the side of the dish to help the batter to stay within the edge of the ramekin. I like a more natural/rustic look, so I left mine alone.
Bake in the oven for 15-17 minutes.
The tops should be golden brown and appear dry, while the center moves/jiggles just a little bit.
I probably could have cooked this one for about a minute more. You can see the little wet spots on the side, but I didn't notice them until I was taking photos.
Sprinkle with a little powdered sugar and serve.
The texture of these was really light and delicate but with a lovely sweet pumpkin spice flavor. The only problem was that I made too many and they don't keep well...so it's eat them now or never.
]]>After we moved to NC, it was apparent that baked goods here are quite different than NY. And not just the bagels and cannoli's, but the cookies and cakes too. I had been on a search for a long time for a good NY Style Crumb Cake that was really so much more crumb than cake. I found that perfect recipe and adapted it into a rich pumpkin crumb cake.
The first step is the crumb topping.
A little bit of flour, brown sugar, cinnamon...and lots and lots and lots of butter.
Looking for a healthy crumb cake? Not it.
We could stop right here and I'd be totally cool with it.
But we must go on...
Now there's two ways that I make this cake. The original recipe calls for a 12x17" jelly pan, where you spread the pumpkin batter out really thin and then pile on the crumbs.
That's a very acceptable way to make a traditional NY Style Crumb Cake, but I wanted to be a little different this time. So instead I got out a 9x13" baking pan and poured half the batter in.
Then half the crumbs went on top of that.
Then more batter. This part can be a little tricky cause it looks like you won't have enough batter, but keep going. Eventually you'll get most of the crumbs covered.
Then the last of the crumbs are piled up on top. This is packed almost to the top of the pan and weighs about 10 lbs.
Bake in a 325 degree pre-heated oven for about 60 minutes. If you go with the traditional style, only bake for 35-40 minutes.
When the cake is done, the crumbs will have a nice golden brown color. I think I overbaked this one by about 5 minutes because the crumbs were a little on the hard side, so be sure to keep checking with a toothpick around the 50 minute mark.
I loved the different textures here with the layered version. The crumbs and then the cake with softer crumb middle. The pumpkin makes the cake a bit more moist which is different than a traditional crumb cake.
Even Frosty enjoyed it....though he only got a little piece. I'm sure he would have been quite happy with all of it.
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