Pumpkin & Peanut Butter!

Breaking News! I have been informed that November is Peanut Butter Lovers Month! Move over "No Shave November",  peanut butter is much better than your scruff. I feel it is my obligation and PB duty to eat a healthy dose of peanut buttery goodness every day this month. *Sigh, a tough mission but someone's gotta do it.

Apart from being a pb-onanza kinda day, it also happens to be filled with the sweet scent of ohmygoshpumpkinbread! coming from my kitchen. Pretty sure yankee should jump on the bandwagon with a candle named that.

I REALLY wanted to make pumpkin pie, but with Thanksgiving right around the corner I witheld the urge, and went to next best thing. Pumpkin Bread. Heaven.

Pumpkin Bread
adapted from Skinny Taste
serves 16 slices

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
2 egg whites
1 1/2 T vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and coat a loaf pan with cooking spray. My loaf was a little short for my liking in a 9x5 so I would recommend an 8x4 pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, spices, salt, and baking soda.

In a medium bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Add to the dry mixture and mix until combined.

Pour into prepared loaf pan, and bake for 50 minutes or until a knife comes out clean when inserted.

Slice and enjoy with a good dose of peanut butter of course! Or cream cheese. Yes, cream cheese. Don't knock til you try it. You'll thank me later..

Bonus news is that it's only 85 calories per slice! If you prefer a bit of a bigger slice, cut it into 12 for 113 calories a per serving. The OCD in me made me slice it out just to be sure I didn't count half the loaf as a slice. Because I would.

Eat some peanut butter and Happy Veterans Day!!





 

Pumpkin, Pumpkin Everywhere

Happy Thursday! Although I personally despise Thursdays they can still be happy. Especially when they are started with this fall breakfast gem. I'll hold you in suspense until you scroll through my blabbing.

As I lay here in bed, the thoughts of closing my eyes are slightly more appealing then suiting up for a run at the moment. I will hopefully make the move to get my rear in gear for the day. I love the random thoughts that always come to mind when out for a run. I hope someone else out there can feel for my quirky thoughts. Here's some examples:

1. OoO! Dryer sheets! Love that smell!

2. Of course a car would gun it on the corner that I'm vastly approaching.

3. There's other people walking. They must be watching me so I must run faster. Since I'm sure they're thinking, "Wow! What a great runner! She must be training for a marathon!"

4. Mmm! Charcoal grill! Love that smell!

5. Dear god, I hope that dog can't jump that fence.

6. I think I have to pee, great. Nope, false alarm.

You know have a glimpse into my mind. Be afraid.


Now for the moment you have been patiently waiting for...Pumpkin! I have made a handful of pumpkin recipes that have not lived up to my high expectations for anything resembling fall. Pancakes, oatmeal, lattes..but they either lacked or OD'ed on the spice which led to failure. With the last of my can left over, I was inspired to make pumpkin french toast. But not your run-of-the-mill Pinterest material. No, something much more...epic. That's right. Pumpkin PB & Fluff French Toast. Yeah, I went there, and so will you!

Sweet, creamy, pumpkin-y. Answer, E. All of the above. Alas, a pumpkin recipe to be proud of!

Pumpkin PB & Fluff French Toast
serves 1

2 slices whole wheat bread (I used Nature's Own, only 50 calories a slice!)
1 egg
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
splash of milk
1 1/2 T peanut butter
2 T marshmallow fluff

Heat a medium-sized skillet over medium heat, and spray with cooking spray.

Combine all egg, pumpkin, vanilla, milk, and spices in a shallow dish.

Dip both sides of a slice of bread and cook in the skillet for about 1 minute per side. Repeat for the other slice.

Transfer to a plate, and top one slice with the peanut butter, and the other with the fluff, and stack as you would a sandwich.

Top with a good drizzle of maple syrup, and some extra cinnamon.

Eat now, thank me later.

Hooray for Friday tomorrow!!

Southern Comfort

After 4 years of nutrition classes, projects, headaches, and stress the day has come. Dietetic internships if you are unaware are competitive to say the least. The process itself is enough to question why you chose to pursue nutrition, but then the wait just about puts you over the edge. I applied to 2 internships which is sparse in the application field of nutrition. Alabama and Ohio were my destinations. The process of actually applying was long enough, but the wait to find out if I got one or not felt just about the same. Since you only find out on ONE website for everyone who applied, which could be in the hundreds precisely at 7PM, it was mission impossible to even reach the webpage. After an excruciating 40 minutes of unloaded pages, my future lay before my eyes. If the title didn't give it away, I was accept in the Alabama State Department of Education internship! They only take 2 interns for their program, which I get paid to do, so i felt pretty damn accomplished! My friend Karen, who also applied got in at New York Presbyterian, so our apartment was filled with tears of joy, countless phone calls and an explosion of champagne. We followed with a celebratory drink which we decided based on where we were accepted. I of course got an Alabama Slammer, which tasted like pure juice, and Karen got a Cosmo to fit her Manhattan future (She actually first got a Manhattan, but after discovering that it tasted like cough syrup decided on a tastier cosmo!)

Celebrating toast!

The reality of spending a year in Alabama, including the 21 hour drive has not quite sunk in yet. I have already begun my search for a place to live, since I would like to avoid having to bring my entire bedroom contents down. So many happenings in so little time. I thought graduation was enough to handle! But life and the rest of my senior year continues.

This morning I tried a combination of 2 oatmeal recipes from Eating Bird Food. I had some leftover pumpkin, so I decided to make my favorite pumpkin pie overnight oats from her blog, but added in some extra fullness power with a scoop of vanilla protein powder. If you don't have protein powder, no biggie, I think I actually prefer it without, but it did fill me up a bit more. A little out of season, yes but I am such a big pumpkin fan that anytime of year is suitable for me!

Protein Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats

serves 1

adapted from Eating Bird Food

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

1/2 T chia seeds

1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

2/3 cup milk

2 T canned pumpkin

Combine the oats, protein powder, chia seeds, and spices in a small bowl. Add the milk and pumpkin, and stir to combine. Let it sit overnight in the fridge, and enjoy in the morning!

I added a blob of homemade pumpkin butter to mine which enhanced the pumpkin pie feel. If you've never heard or seen chia seeds before, they are a newly found nutritional obsession. I see them on countless blogs and websites. They offer a lot of protein, fiber, and healthy fats, and have a "gel-like" capability when put in a liquid, which makes foods (like these oats!) thick and filling. And yes, they are in fact the same thing as the Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia! Pets I think everyone had, or received as a yankee swap gag gift years ago. Do they still sell those? My favorite was the head with hair. Oh the wonder years...