Three Ingredient Pumpkin Patch Cookie Cups

I promised myself this year that I would post a recipe at least once a week. So, it was Thursday night and I realized I’d been eating leftover skinny pumpkin soup from my freezer or tuna salad all week. No cooking to post!

We also just had another roommate move in, so my storage space is minimal as can be.

So, I needed something I can make quickly that doesn’t require a lot of ingredients. I also haven’t posted a dessert recipe in awhile, and fall is the season for dessert!!

That’s how these delicious treats were born. I made them in-between classes, and put them out for my roommates! They literally come together so fast, and they are SO DELICIOUS! It also happens to be the first day of fall, so why not use it as an excuse to bake something sweet?

This is a great example of how to take a store-bought product and elevate it into something special! They make a great fall or Halloween treat that you can pull together on a week night! Serve them to your trick or treaters, or at an adult party. We all know every age loves a frosted cookie.

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tube store bought cookie dough (I used a seasonal caramel apple flavor they had at the store. Any flavor would be delicious! Or use homemade if you’re feeling it.)
• 1 tube green frosting (or make your own buttercream and dye it green if you’re not a college student)
• 12 pumpkin mallow candies (these you probably cannot make from scratch!)

TO PREPARE:

Preheat the oven to 350. Form your dough into 1 inch balls, then flatten into a round disk and place each one in a greased muffin cup. It doesn’t have to be perfectly shaped to the cup; it will spread in the oven. Do grease the cups though; usually, I don’t for cookies, because they’re buttery enough not to stick. These, however, need to come out totally whole with no stress.

Bake for 15 minutes, and let cool for 5.

Run a butter knife around the edges and remove the cups. Let cool completely.

Pipe green frosting with a star tip if you wanna be like me. Or, spread it with a butter knife if you don’t. Lastly, pop a pumpkin on top!

Now, you have a show-offy dessert that was as easy as it gets! Some fall colored sprinkles would be a lovely addition if you happen to have the pantry space for them 🙂

Fall Broccoli Salad

In the south, broccoli salad is a classic potluck side dish. It has no lettuce; it’s not THAT kind of salad. But it stays crunchy almost indefinitely and is a great way to get a veggie on a plate without cooking it!

It’s the time of year for apples, cider, walnuts, dried cranberries, raisins, etc, so they all make an appearance in this fall-flavored salad.

I also make the dressing out of Greek yogurt, which is much healthier than the traditional mayo concept.  You can make this the morning of an event or right before. It’s amazing served as a side to basically anything: chicken, sausage, a cheesy, melty sandwich. It’s a great contrast of light and crunchy against something rich and creamy. And, it tastes decidedly like a fall side dish, not a summer picnic dish.

INGREDIENTS:

• 5 cups raw broccoli florets
• 2 honeycrisp apples
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup golden rasisins
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1 large red onion, diced
• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 2-3 tablespoons apple cider
• 2 tablespoons honey

Literally just combine the first 6 ingredients. In a small bowl, whisk together the rest of the ingredients and pour over the salad. Keep in the fridge.

The apples shouldn’t turn brown too quickly, but if you’re worried about it, add a little lemon juice.

I love fall 🙂

 

Fall Mac and Cheese with smoked sausage and sage

It’s family weekend here at my University, which means my parents and boyfriend are joining me up in the Midwest!

I knew they weren’t going to get here until late evening. Too late to go out, and too late to grill hotdogs at their camp site. So, I decided to throw together a casserole that I could wrap in foil and bring to them.

It’s fall here, so I refuse to cook anything that doesn’t have fall flavors.  I decide to do a baked mac and cheese with some delicious fall flavors thrown in, because mac and cheese is a great vehicle for new ingredients. My parents are not content unless there’s meat, so sausage is the way to go! I’ll throw in some canned pumpkin to make it creamy, and lots of sage because it compliments sausage.

Riffs on mac and cheese are always amazing. I love buffalo chicken mac, jalapeno popper, BBQ pork. There was no way this would fail.

This recipe was so delicious. The bread crumbs make an excellent crunchy topping, the sausage gives the whole dish some excellent smokiness, and the pumpkin flavor just lightly accentuates the cheese without being overpowering. My mother said she wouldn’t be able to call it pumpkin just from eating it, but she could tell there was something special in there.

We all devoured it, and I think you will too. And while this is not one of my healthy, low-carb recipes, it is certainly worth every bite. Plus, I used whole wheat protein-enriched pasta, turkey sausage, skim milk, fat free cream, and the pumpkin means you don’t need as much cheese! So it’s not THAT bad! I paired it with a broccoli salad and a pumpkin ale!

This would also be great as a Thanksgiving side dish! Just a sinful thought….

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pound penne pasta (it’s my dad’s favorite, but use whatever you want)
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup cream
• 1 15oz can pumpkin
• 4 tablespoons chopped sage (it’s a lot, but you need it to be prominent among the other flavors)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar mix
• 4 links smoked sausage
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup grated parm
• 1 tablespoon oil

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350

Cook the pasta according to package directions, drain, set aside

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Add the flour and stir for about 1 minute. Pour in the milk and cream, and season with salt and pepper. Stir until slightly thickened and bubbling!

Add the pumpkin, sage, and cheese. Stir to combine, then toss in the pasta.

Layer the sauced pasta with the sausage in a 11×13 greased dish.

In a small bowl, mix together the oil, breadcrumbs, parm, and some additional sage, if desired. Sprinkle over the top.

Bake for 30 minutes, and enjoy every last bite of fall flavor!

 

Slow Cooker Skinny Pumpkin Soup

Last week, I posted one of my favorite recipes of all time, my Sugar Free Pumpkin Muffins. Not surprisingly, it was my most popular post yet! Ironically, I was already planning another pumpkin recipe for this week, so I’m sticking with a theme here!

Most pumpkin soups are loaded with heavy cream to make it rich. This one is made with Greek yogurt instead, which is not only way lower calorie and fat, but adds an excellent dose of protein to this meatless soup! I also use gluten free chili seasoning and low sodium chicken broth, because everything helps! It can also be made vegetarian with mushroom or veggie broth!

However, the best part of this soup is by far the apple cider. Cider, to me, screams fall, especially early fall before the Holidays arrive. It adds a sweetness and a crispness to this soup that is unbelievable! One bite, and it’s 50 degrees outside and you’re in a sweater. At least mentally.

A further reason this soup is perfect is it’s only a few ingredients, most of which are pantry stored, and it takes four seconds to throw in a crockpot. So, I’m not taking up more than my allotted 1/3 of my apartment kitchen, and I can put it together before class instead of putting on makeup and have a huge pot of soup ready tonight!

It really does make a lot, by the way. I will be freezing it in individual portions and putting one in the fridge before bed every night.

Ingredients:

• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon butter or oil
• 1 packet chili seasoning or your own mix of salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder
• 2 59 oz cans pumpkin (that’s the giant size that makes two pies)
• 1 cup apple cider
• 4 cups chicken broth or veggie broth (that’s one box)
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

To Prepare:

• In a medium sized pan, melt the butter. Sauté the onion in the chili seasoning until translucent, like  4 minutes. Dump into crockpot.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together the cider, pumpkin, and broth until smooth. Pour into crockpot and stir everything together.
• Cover and cook on high 4 hours, then stir in the Greek yogurt and serve!

How about you top it with popcorn, crumbled rice cake, chives, shredded cheddar, sour cream, or a flipping grilled cheese?! Mmmmmm

Also, don’t forget you can freeze this thing! Enjoy!

 

Shortcut Sugar-Free Pumpkin Muffins

Ah, fall is upon us! I am so 100% ready for leaves, scarves, light sweaters, Halloween decorations… And THE FOOD! Fall ushers us into the sweet realm of caramel apple, s’more (because summer is way too hot for a campfire) and pumpkin!

Here’s the deal though: fall is the beginning of the holidays, and we have to pace ourselves! Halloween? Load me up on junk food! Why? Because I haven’t been junking since September! That’s why I made this recipe: fall flavors that can be a slow warmup for the holiday sweets.

It’s also perfect for my apartment, because it’s only three main ingredients and it uses the entire containers of each thing, so I’m not left with a half empty jar of pumpkin and half a container of apple sauce spoiling in my fridge while I’m filling up on muffins!

These are sugar-free, vegan, and only about 90 calories each! However, if you want to ruin that, add some white chocolate chips, shredded coconut, or dried cranberries! They’re a very moist muffin, with just the right amount of sweetness you want from a breakfast muffin (they’re not quite in the super sweet cupcake realm).

Happy fall y’all!

Ingredients:

1 sugar free vanilla cake mix
1 15 oz can pumpkin
1 4oz container unsweetened applesauce
3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (so you don’t use this whole container, but c’mon, you’ll use this stuff! Add it to smoothies or just plain milk, oatmeal, or peanut butter!)

To prepare: Preheat the oven to 350

Whisk together the applesauce and pumpkin, then stir in the cake mix and spice!

Bake in 24 muffin cups with paper liners for 18 minutes.

Eat all you want!