good things.

I don't want to turn this space into a food blog, but I must discuss my latest culinary discovery. PUMPKIN. I don't know why I've only ever eaten during this delectable squash during the fall/Thanksgiving season. It is absolutely delicious. I bought an extra large can on a whim during my last grocery extravaganza and have been on a binge of concocting pumpkin dishes all week. 


First I made a frozen ice-cream pumpkin pie that I topped with some slivered almonds and some whipped cream. I used a pre-made graham cracker crust (easier), layered it with vanilla ice cream, added a pumpkin/whip cream mix and froze. Voila! Instant yummy. It also takes longer to eat because of the frozen-ness so the yum factor is prolonged, which is always a good thing.

I still had a bunch of pumpkin left so I whipped up some pumpkin chocolate bars the following day. I would have never thought to mix pumpkin and chocolate, but I'm glad I did. They turned out kind of bread-like because I added an egg when the recipe didn't call for one, but they were still pretty pleasant tasting. I also decreased the sugar and chocolate chips to save some calories. Considering I still had the frozen pie in the freezer from the day before, I shared a bunch of these with my neighbors and Serena. Everyone put a big stamp of approval on these bad boys. 

THEN, since I still had more pumpkin left, I decided to try a new twist on the banana smoothies that Q. always makes. I blended the following with some ice: 


+1/2 c. pumpkin
+3/4 c. plain Greek yogurt
+1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spices
+1 c. almond milk
+half of a small banana 


So. good. And would you believe it? I still have about half a cup of pumpkin left in the fridge. I really don't think I'll ever get sick of this stuff. And it's not too shabby for the salud, either. Yay.