Straight Outta Pumpkins: Food Fight Friday

Hola friends!

Yay! It’s Friday already and that means we have another handful of food to toss your way. Since we are approaching the 4th week of October I think it’s only appropriate for me to talk about pumpkins.

You know when you walk into the grocery store the pumpkin display calls your name. You walk in all laser focused and motivated to karate chop your list and get out, but you hear something coming from the mound of pumpkins. “Psst, psst…@dandays, Dannndayyysss, pumpkins are so good with chocolate. Psst, psst… @plantstoplanks, plantstoooooplannnkkkss, you know you want to create something from me… psst psst… @weirdheadaches, weirdheadddachessss, c’mon use me in your kitchen…” Anyone else hear their haunting halloweeny voice?

I mean, you’ve surely seen some of the pumpkins this year, right?! Maybe it’s every year, but I’ve noticed that the variety is endless. I’m talking a plethora of all sorts of pumpkin madness: white pumpkins, flat pumpkins, warty pumpkins, big ones, small ones, half orange half white ones… carving pumpkins, baking pumpkins, decoration pumpkins and of course food fighting pumpkins.

If you’re still pretending to not know what I’m talking about, here… have a gander yourself.

Pumpkins are everywhere and it’s a sin to not make something pumpkin-y in October. Why not make some Pumpkin Pie Bites just for @foodfightfriday 🤷🏼‍♀️ because if you think pumpkin pie is delicius then check out these guys.

Pumpkin Pie Bites- straight outta pumpkins

Ingredients:

1 Cup almond butter
1/2 Cup pumpkin purée
1/4 Cup maple syrup (pure)
2 Tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 Tsp vanilla extract
1/4 Tsp sea salt
1/2 Cup chocolate chips

Your start up will look like this. Can anyone guess my favorite store? Haha

Pumpkin First

Pre-heat your oven on 375F. Line a cookie sheet with foil and set aside.

Start by de-stemming the pumpkin. I don’t know any other way to do this than to carve from the top like I’m making a jack-o-lantern. Now cut the pumpkin in half from head to toe (stem to bottom).

Take a spoon and scoop out all of the stringy guts and seeds. I place my seeds in a colander to be washed and prepped for roasting.

Place the pumpkins cut side down on the foiled cookie sheet and cover with more foil.

Pop them in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the pumpkins are soft to the fork.

I made extra sure my pumpkins were soft to fork… Now peel the skin off trying not to burn yourself. A wise person might wait until they are cooled but I like a little bit of heat so I went for it ‘straight outta oven’.

Place the softened pumpkin in your blender and blend that bad boy.

Refrain from the impulse to add water or other liquid to the pumpkin. Once it gets going it will provide quite enough moisture for itself (did that make sense? 🤦🏼‍♀️).

Cookies Second

Add pumpkin purée, almond butter, maple syrup, pumpkin spice, vanilla extract and sea salt in a medium to large bowl.

Then add the chocolate chips and fold in evenly. This is also where you can add more or less chocolate to taste.

With your oven pre-heated to 350F and a fresh cookie sheet lined with foil and greased with oil let’s line these babies up.

Spoon dollops of cookie guts onto the baking sheet. The consistency will be more like a pumpkin pie than a cookie. Go ahead and shape them with your spoon.

Toss them in the magic machine for 15 minutes or until slightly golden. I tested by touching the cookie and feeling for its backbone. You know, if it pushed back a little then it was done, but if it pushed in easily then add a few more minutes.

Seeds Finally

Ingredients

Sea salt
Black pepper
Cumin
Chili powder
Cayenne pepper
Olive oil
All spices are to taste

Set your oven to 375F. With your fresh clean seeds in a bowl, pour in a little olive oil, sprinkle with all of the spices and put a lid on. Shake it all up thoroughly.

Spread the seeds out on your lined baking sheet and roast for 30 minutes.

If after 30 minutes the seeds aren’t browning, kick your oven up to 400F and roast for 5-10 more minutes.

Voila!

You’ve got a big fat pumpkin purée ball to the dome and fresh roasted seeds to wash that down. The Pumpkin Pie Bites were just a bonus :)

Store them in your refrigerator and enjoy for exactly one whole day. That’s how long it took for my husband and I to kill them. What? It’s called a winter coat…

Thanks food flinging funky fanatics for catching all of this pumpkin straight to the face. Tossing food wouldn’t be the same without you.

As always Pura Vida ✌️