
(Last night's dinner, thanks to Roni. Thank goodness there's leftovers.)
Last December, I bought a case of organic canned pumpkin from Amazon.com. It was crazy-cheap, and pumpkin is a weight-loss blogger's favorite food, right?
Because of that, I'm constantly on the prowl for pumpkin recipes. I dug up a fantastic pumpkin risotto recipe from an old Weight Watchers Simply the Best Italian
cookbook (can't find the recipe online to link, but take my word for it, it's fantastic and the book is also crazy-cheap used on Amazon).
I was skimming the Live Well 360 website (which makes fabulous workout bags) and the company compiled a great list of 18 healthy fall recipes from various sources. Lots of pumpkin recipes there, including one from Roni Noone of Green Lite Bites (and Fitbloggin').
Pasta With Pumpkin, Sausage and Spinach -- perfect! I even had all the ingredients, but I subbed Swiss chard for the spinach because I didn't have enough spinach. I also used quinoa pasta because I'm not doing the wheat thing right now. But everything else was the same, I swear, Roni!
(Don't you hate when people comment online on recipes and say "This was great, but I subbed beef for chicken, added a can of tomatoes, changed all the spices, and used pasta instead of rice." Not the same recipe.)
It made five nice-sized servings and the creamy pumpkin-infused sauce was lovely. HERE'S the recipe on her site, which is also the source of her first cookbook, also titled Green Lite Bites.
Pumpkin is a healthy eater's best friend because it's really low in calories, full of nutrients, lasts almost forever in the pantry and can be added to sweet and savory foods. Once a can is opened, I mix it into everything -- oatmeal, pasta sauce, soup, you name it.
And while we're on the subject of pumpkin, let's talk Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes, shall we? A grande with lowfat milk and whipped cream (standard issue) is 380 calories. As they say on ESPN, c'mon, man! A cuppa coffee should not be 380 calories. Make it nonfat milk and take away the whipped cream and you're still at 260 calories. Yikes.
But recently, BzzAgent sent me some Green Mountain Fair Trade Pumpkin Spice coffee to try. I haven't bought flavored coffee in years, because I enjoy coffee-flavored coffee. I don't need my morning mug to taste like cheesecake or kiwis or some other ridic flavor.
But!
I made some Pumpkin Spice this morning and was very pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. Not overwhelming, just a hint of the spices that go into pumpkin pie. All I added was a couple tablespoons of Organic Valley soy creamer. But if I want to make a latte at home, I'll add a half cup of vanilla almond milk and the whole shebang will only be 45 calories -- far better than 400.