Three-Ingredient Healthy Pumpkin Apple Cobbler

So, I am trying to eat healthy over spring break, because I’d eaten terribly during midterms. Happens to the best of us.

I’d planned healthy dinners all week, and they were all satisfying and flavorful. But, there’s that sweet tooth. It’s a troublemaker, I tell you.

Luckily, I had just what I needed. Normally, berries and fat free whipped cream is my go-to sweet after dinner. That night, however, it was rainy, dark, and 40 degrees. I wanted something warm, with winter spices. I opened the pantry and found a pumpkin cake mix, a can of apple pie filing, and a diet cream soda.

Voila, dessert is done! Actually, this makes a pretty good breakfast too (just sell it as a coffee cake).

It’s a riff on the idea of a dump cake and a soda cake combined. Obviously, you can change the flavors based on what you have. I currently have a vanilla cake mix and a can of peaches next to my extra diet soda, so that combination may happen this weekend.

It really does work. I am not lying to you here. The soda moistens the mix and produces a perfectly normally-textured cobbler or cake. I don’t think it would ever make a fudgy result, but a semi-fluffy, very moist result is pretty much certain.

This recipe is so easy, it’s barely a recipe, but here you go!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pumpkin cake mix
• 1 can apple pie filling
• 1 zero calorie canned cream soda (or root beer)
• Optional: raisins and walnuts, additional cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice, whipped cream

TO PREPARE:
Preheat the oven to 350
Generously grease a 9×9 baking pan
Pour in the apple filling.
In another bowl, mix the cake mix, soda, raisins/walnuts, and pour over the apples.
Sprinkle additional spices on top
Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean

Serve with whipped cream and no guilt! I’m no nutritionist, but a similar recipe I found weighed in at 160 calories for 1/10 of the cake.

Haunted Trail Mix

Nothing is better on Halloween then curling up and watching a good, scary movie. Which, for my wimpy self, means Hocus Pocus or The Haunted Mansion.

When hosting a movie night, I love to have something that people can snack on during the movie. Something that doesn’t involve utensils, and is familiar, like popcorn. Well, tonight I am invited to a Halloween Potluck Movie night, so I knew I needed to make a movie munchie! I evaluated my pantry, and soon realized that I have quite a few ingredients to use up! I have a large box of Count Chocula, a bag of candy pumpkins, some dried cranberries… it’s a start!

I also had a lot of Halloween sprinkles on hand, so I knew I needed something sticky to make them attach to the snack mix! Melted chocolate chips was my initial instinct, but when I was shopping, I found caramel candy melts. What’s more Halloween than caramel? Throw in some salted nuts and pretzels to counter the sweetness, and it’s a perfect trick or treat!

This stuff is totally addictive! It’s sweet, salty, and you don’t have to take your eyes off the movie! I packaged it in cute little Halloween treat bags and passed them out when we got there! These are also a perfect homemade treat to give to trick or treaters or take to a kid’s party. It’s all kid-friendly snacks!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups Cracker Jacks (or caramel corn)
• 1 bag Chex Mix sweet and salty mix (it has pretzels, M&Ms, and all the Chex cereal stuff)
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup candy pumpkin mallows or candy corn
• 1/4 cup salted peanuts
• 2 cups Count Chocula cereal
• Caramel Candy Melts
• Halloween sprinkles

To Prepare:
Simply mix together the first 6 ingredients. Melt the candy melts in the microwave, and pour them on top! Dump on plenty of sprinkles, and stir it all together until evenly coated.

Store in fridge until the melts are set, then package into treat bags!

Trick or treat!

 

Baked Halloween Sweet Potato Fries

Who says all Halloween recipes have to be unhealthy? Not I! This is a great side dish or party food that is completely festive without being a calorie bomb! It’s kid friendly AND adult friendly, and it bakes for an hour, so you can get the fries in the oven and work on the rest of your meal!

It leaves room for dessert, which is all I really need. I didn’t need a dipping sauce, but ranch or ketchup would be lovely. I served it with some other appetizer-like things, like some eyeball stuffed mushrooms and a witch fruit tray. But this would be adorable paired with a cheeseburger with a face carved into the cheese, or some “bat wings” (buffalo wings). To keep it healthy, a baked chicken breast with some bright green pesto on top would have an eerie effect and be loaded with nutrition. They’d also be great on a tailgate spread! No matter how you serve them, this is a treat that has no tricks! You can feel good about eating/ serving these.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 large sweet potatos
• 3-4 tablespoons oil of choice
• seasoned salt

TO PREPARE:

Preheat the oven to 400, and oil 2 baking sheets.

Slice the potatoes into 1 inch slices, then use a pairing knife to carve the faces, as pictured.

Place the potatoes on the baking sheets, and brush each with additional oil. Sprinkle on the seasoned salt, then bake for 50 minutes to an hour, depending on the size. Serve hot!

 

Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake

 

As a lover of all things Halloween, I take any excuse to bake a spooky treat! Luckily, when my boyfriend and I started dating, I got myself another excuse: his birthday is October 17th!

I am home for fall break, so this was our best chance to celebrate, even though it’s a little early. I knew I wanted something fall flavored, not just a classic chocolate or vanilla. I also am well aware of my boyfriends favorite flavor: coffee! He is one of those people that orders extra shots of espresso not for the caffeine, but the flavor. So what is a fall-flavored cake that would go well with coffee? Well, that’s an easy one!

I intentionally asked him a few weeks earlier if he liked pumpkin spice lattes. He replied emphatically that of course he did, they’re coffee and pumpkin! Have I mentioned that he loves Halloween as much as I do? Anything seasonally themed around October is perfect for him.

Well, the answer was obvious! I knew I wanted to do some fancy decorations, so I wanted the cake to be pretty simple. A doctored-up spice cake mix would work perfectly with the addition of some sour cream, extra flavorings, and lots of instant coffee! By adding more ingredients, I can turn a two-layer cake mix into a three-layer cake, which makes it even more of a spectacle.

I’d recently seen a Halloween cake with meringue bones around the sides, and I loved the way it looked! I did not feel like baking a meringue, so I decided piping some white chocolate was the best option. I can do it while the cake is baking and just leave them in the fridge until I’m ready to decorate!

Soon, everything came together. I presented it to him, and he was completely thrilled. When we took a bite, I realized this may just be the moistest cake I’ve ever made. With canned pumpkin, sour cream, melted butter, and a creamy frosting, it literally melts in your mouth! However, it is NOT too sweet! The coffee counters it perfectly. It is also very light and fluffy; my mother compared it to a really light pumpkin quick bread.

Overall, this cake is a winner for October birthdays, a Halloween dessert, or a show-stopping Thanksgiving finale if you’re not into pie. It’s impressive enough for any dinner party. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 spice cake mix
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 15oz can pumpkin
• 1/4 cup instant coffee (if you use instant espresso, which is fine, use less. Just taste the batter until you like the coffee flavor.)
• 6 cups white frosting (homemade or canned- I dyed mine orange)

For the garnishes: pumpkin mallows, black decorator frosting, sprinkles, white candy melts, Halloween cookie cutters.

TO PREPARE:

Preheat the oven to 350, and prepare three 9 inch round cake pans (I do spray, parchment paper, and more spray. It NEVER sticks).

Combine all the cake ingredients (everything but the frosting and garnishes) in a large bowl and whisk until everything is incorporated. Scoop evenly into the three pans (I use a cup measure, alternating between each pan to keep it even).

Bake for 25 minutes or until firm on top and the sides pull away from the pan. Don’t do the toothpick test; this cake is naturally very moist and will probably leave a soft crumb on the pick, and you do NOT want to over bake it because a tooth pick wasn’t clean.

If you want to decorate it like me, backtrack a bit. While the cake was baking, melt some white candy melts in the microwave. Four big blocks did it for me, in the microwave for 1 minute and 15 seconds, followed by some vigorous stirring. Get a ziplock bag and open it, then place it into a large cup, with the edges pulled over the sides to get a good aim at the inside of the bag. Pour in the chocolate!

Get a sheet of parchment paper onto a baking sheet, and spray it. Place some Halloween cookie cutters on the paper. Snip the end on the ziplock bag, and pipe into the cookie cutters, filling each shape completely. Allow to sit for about 2 minutes, then remove the cookie cutters. The shapes may spread some, but that’s okay! We don’t need perfection here! Apply sprinkles, candy eyes, etc, until they look just how you like. Pop the baking sheet into the fridge and let them chill and set.

Once the cakes are cool, get your white frosting ready and dye it orange, if desired. Frost each layer of the cake, and down the sides! For the top, I used cookie cutters again as stencils to create the black cat, then I free-handed the Jack O’ Lantern face with black gel frosting. Then, decorate with some mallow pumpkins and sprinkles. To finish, get out the white candy melt garnishes and stick them to the sides. I didn’t need any additional frosting, but if you only did a thin layer, you may.

Tah Dah! Trick or Treat!  

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 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!

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Soup with popcorn!

Ahhh fall is in the air, here in Arkansas, and it is a glorious thing indeed.

Fall is by far my favorite season of the year. It’s cool, but not freezing outside. There are no snow storms or spring showers. The leaves turn to beautiful colors, but don’t die. Pumpkins, corn, and apples come in season, and everyone starts to prepare for the upcoming holiday months.

Yes, nothing quite gets me like a crisp fall breeze hitting my cardigan while I smell Oak in the air and drink my favorite beverage of all time, apple cider.

Because I love fall so, so much, I stretch it out as long as possible and do every possible fall activity in the book. Halloween parties, pumpkin patches, apple picking, corn mazes, trunk or treats, trick or treating, fall movies, hikes, camping trips, the works!

And, of course, LOTS of fall cooking! Pumpkin cookies, bread pudding, apple crisp, caramel apples, bratwurst, corn, and LOTS of hot drinks.

So, this pumpkin soup is a great part of my fall menus. It absolutely tastes like October, it’s a gorgeous color, and it’s a very light, healthy meal to have before a rich fall dessert, or as a side dish to a big hunk of fall pot roast.

It’s also optionally vegetarian (depending on what stock you use) and super low fat and low carb. It’s a guilt free meal that feels like a warm, fall comfort food.
Here you go:

Ingredients (4 large bowls):

• 4 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 very large white onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 2 cups popped plain popcorn
• 4 cups chicken stock or veggie stock
• 4 tablespoons plain greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup (really just a good splash) of milk
• popcorn, pumpkin seeds, hot sauce for garnish

Heat the butter in a large soup pot, then add the onion. Saute until very tender, almost caramelized. Add the garlic, ginger, curry, and cumin, and cook until smelly, like 2 minutes.

Add the popcorn and toss around to coat it in the butter and seasonings. It’ll start to turn to mush, and that’s great.

Add the chicken stock, pumpkin, yogurt, and milk. Stir until the yogurt dissolves. Simmer for 10 minutes, until the popcorn is pretty much gone and the soup is nice and hot.

In batches, puree it all in a food processor! Remember, hot liquids expand, so only fill it like halfway. Combine all the pureed batches in a big bowl, and taste it for seasoning. You may want a hit of salt, if the pumpkin is too sweet for you.

Garnish with the popcorn, seeds, and hot sauce. Fall in a bowl! What’s for dessert?