37 Pumpkin Recipes

Why is it that it is only acceptable to have pumpkin everything during the fall? I believe it should be socially acceptable to enjoy pumpkin in all it's many forms all year round. Let's raise up and say "We want pumpkin everyday all year round!" Let me hear you. 

I was looking for some Pumpkin recipes and found a whole bunch. I thought I would share the love. :) Here are 37 delicious, drool-worthy pumpkin recipes from soups to pasta to desserts from some of my favorite blogs and such. I started with desserts because I believe in having dessert first. 

Desserts:

1. No-Bake Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes 

                                                   

2. The Best Pumpkin Cream Cheese- Filled Brownies

3. Pumpkin Pecan Cobbler (Do I have to share?)

4. Clean Eating Pumpkin Ice Cream

5. Pumpkin-Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies

6. Slower Cooker Sticky Caramel Pumpkin Cake

7. Pumpkin Creme Brulee (I love creme brulee!!)

8. Oatmeal Pumpkin Creme Pies

9. Pumpkin Cheesecake with Salted Caramel Sauce

10. White Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Fudge

11. Pumpkin Cheesecake Truffle (Low Carb!!)

12. Pumpkin Better Than... Cake (a poke cake!)

13. Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting (Good anytime of the year!)

14.Pumpkin Roll (No list would be complete with out a Pumpkin Roll recipe.)

Breakfast:

15. Pumpkin French Toast (yes, please.)

16. Pumpkin Donut Holes

17. The Best Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls (I'm drooling right now.)

18. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes

19. Starbucks Pumpkin Scone 

Pasta:

20. Skinny Pumpkin Pasta Bake

21. Creamy Pumpkin Prosciutto Rigatoni

22. Creamy Pumpkin Pasta Bake

Soups:

23. Pumpkin Chili

24. Low Carb Pumpkin Sausage Soup

25. Creamy Panera Autumn Squash Soup

26. Creamy Parmesan Pumpkin Soup

Breads:

27. Moist Pumpkin Bread

28. Pumpkin Cornbread

Beverages:

29. Crock Pot Pumpkin Spiced Latte (take a sip of that after a long day!!)

30. Pumpkin Pie Frappe (Drink your pie!!)

31.  Best Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte  (save you a bit of money :) )

32. Iced Pumpkin Spice Coffee

33. Skinny Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino 

Extras:

34. Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice

35. Homemade Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer (Just another reason to drink coffee)

36. Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

37. Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispies (Kids will love these.)

I hope you get your fair share of pumpkin this Fall and everyday of the year. And don't forget to share the love of Pumpkin with those that you love. I hope you have a very happy Fall (and lots of Pumpkin). :)

Peace, Love, Bake on.

                                                   Andrea

Healthy Homemade Iced Coffee

Every time I have ever purchased an ice coffee from a restaurant, I have never really liked it. Probably because both times, I went to McDonald's and tried their iced coffee. Both times I did so, it had a horrible  after taste and I'd only go back for another sip just to get rid of the taste that was left after each time I went in for another drink. As you can see, it ended up being this continuous cycle. Everyone I worked with and went to school with kept raving about iced coffee. What was I missing that they were enjoying so much? How did they enjoy this iced coffee that I hated so much? I mean really. Finally, I found a basic recipe somewhere-- I am not really sure where as I can't remember where I found it. This recipe is a skeleton. You can dress it up as much as you would like. I like my iced coffee simple. So, I stick to the basics not doing much to it. If it's not broken, it doesn't need a flavored syrup. :) 

I like to make my own iced coffee because I can control what goes into it. I know all the ingredients that I am going to be drinking and putting into my body. I can control how much sweetener or sugar is used or how much milk is put into it. Not only, I find that making my own iced coffee ends up making my calorie intake lower. This recipe is quick and easy, which only makes me love it more. 

Here is how I make my iced coffee:

  

1 cup coffee

3/4 - 1 cup almond milk

1 dash of Vanilla

2 Tbs. - 1/4 cup Splenda 

I then stir all the ingredients together. I place in a cute mason jar and put it in the fridge or freezer to cool. How much sugar or milk I use depends on how strong the coffee is brewed. Generally, I like my iced coffee to be bit sweeter.  

This is how I make my iced coffee. Use this recipe as the block and build what you would like with it. Make it fit the flavors you desire. If you don't like almond milk, use the milk of your choice. Don't like Splenda? Use Sugar or Stevia. It's all up to you. Don't what it to have a strong coffee flavor, dial back the coffee and add extra milk. It's all in your hands now.

Once I found this very basic recipe, I found a starting point that I needed to guide me in the right direction. Sometimes, I add a little caramel sauce or chocolate sauce for added flavor. Let this be your guide. The sky's the limit. Now I'm going to go pour myself a glass of ice coffee and enjoy a good book. Have a great day. 

Peace, love, bake on.

                                   Andrea

Perfect Sweet Tea.

Well, I am officially a high school graduate. I graduated on the sunny day of May 18th. May was a month of joy and tears. I truly enjoyed my time in high school. However, I am ready to move on. I know that what comes ahead will require hard work and focus, but that doesn't deter me. My family and friends believe that I can succeed, and with hard work, focus, and their support, I know I can. 

April and May were both so busy. As soon as I was done with this huge event that I was coordinating with a friend was over with (which was a huge success), my friend and I had to plan our graduation party. We had about 3 weeks to plan and coordinate our graduation party. It was really tough to get invitations printed, addressed and sent out in time, but we managed. We made all our decorations, which were so cute (I'll have to find some pictures). As soon as that was over, I had all this graduation things to attend to, and, of course, FINALS. That part of the May was relatively stressful, but it's over and I have graduated.

Now it's summer. I can sit back and enjoy the breeze and let my skin soak up some sun-- that is if I put on sunscreen SPF 100. While soaking up the sun and enjoying the breeze, I will take a nice cooling sip of iced sweet tea. Just thinking of iced tea is refreshing. 
Ever take a drink of a tea, and it just isn't all that smooth? Well, I have found the secret ingredient to solve this very serious problem-- baking soda. A pinch of baking soda will give this sweet tea an extra smooth finish, making everyone come back for more. Baking soda really makes all the difference.

Sweet Tea 
adapted from No. 2 Pencil 

Ingredients:

3 family-sized teas bags or 10 regular sized tea bags
4 cups boiling water
12 cups cool water (such as tap water or filtered)
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar (I add 1 1/4 cups)
1/4 tsp. baking soda

Directions:

1. Sprinkle baking soda into bottom of pitcher. Add tea bags to pitcher. 
2. Pour boiling water into pitcher. If there is a lid for the pitcher place it on the pitcher. Allow to steep for 10-12 minutes (I do 11 minutes). 
3. After steeping, add sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved completely. 
4. Pour in remaining 12 cups of water and stir one last time. 
5. Serve in cups with ice. Enjoy. 

*Tips: Store tea in refrigerator. After a few days sometimes the tea becomes dark and has a harsh after taste. I have found that to refresh the tea, I just add a couple cups of water.

Please enjoy this recipe! It really does make really amazing tea. My sister hates sweet unless I make it. This secret really does make all the difference. But it's called a secret ingredient for a reason, so SSSHHHH! It's a secret. Anyway sit back and take a sip of the perfect sweet tea. Happy summer. 

Peace, love, bake on.

                                          Andrea 

Caramel Frappuccino.

           Before the summer was here at my doorstep, I had school. And usually after school, I either hit up the happy hour at Sonic or popped by Starbucks. Usually, though, it was Sonic that I frequented. Starbucks was a special treat that I limited to a once a week thing. When it was quite warm, I would get either get the caramel frappuccino or the Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino, which is a rather new drink available for the summer at Starbucks. The Caramel Ribbon Crunch is most definitely my favorite. After the first sip I took, I was hooked. 

       

 The only thing that I wasn't hooked on was the price. To get a Tall Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino was $4.25 with tax. That's only 12 ounces. To me that is a little pricey. After shelling out the almost $5, I finally had a light bulb shine bright above my head. Why not try to make frappuccino at home? Why I had never even thought of this before is beyond me. But after that light bulb lit up, it was like a whole new world was opened up to me. 

     

        Let's first talk about the basics of frappuccinos. Basically, a frappuccino is ice and milk blended together with syrups and other delicious flavorings. This I knew.  What I didn't know, though, was the ratio of ice to milk. That was my most basic question. 

        The recipe I found was very basic, which was what I liked. It didn't give embellishments so that a reader could be creative on their own. The best ratio of ice to milk I have found is 1 cup of ice to 1/2 cup of milk. This may depend on your taste but this will at least give a place to start.

      Now the next part was the amount of coffee or expresso to add. This I found varied in each recipe I found. So I came up with a happy medium, which I will mention below later. The fun part was finding the syrups to add and the amounts. Of course with a Caramel Frappuccino, you need caramel (duhhh). And with a Chocolate Chip Mocha Frapp.  you need Chocolate chips (duhhh) and coffee. So a lot of the ingredients were self explanatory, but what wasn't was the amount to add. 

    The syrups Starbucks uses are a bit pricey, but you can always use caramel sauce from the grocery store. For the caramel, I make my own and I will be putting the recipe up later. For chocolate syrup, I use the chocolate syrup from Hershey's. For a vanilla syrup, I make my own (which I will be putting up at a later time, too). But you can also just use vanilla extract and a little sugar. For the moment, though, I am just going to put up the recipe up for a Caramel Frappuccino.

   

        Ingredients for a Caramel Frappuccino:

1 cup ice

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup strongly brewed coffee or expresso

3 tablespoons caramel syrup or 2 pumps of Starbucks Caramel Syrup

whip cream (optional)

    Add ice, milk, coffee, and caramel to the blender. Blend together until all the ice completely chopped finely. Put in your favorite cup, add whip cream on top, and drizzle a  little caramel and voila!

As you can see this is so simple to make and so much cheaper. I hope this recipe is as great for you as it is for me! Now sit back and enjoy a cool slurp of your handiwork. 

                                                                       
                                                                                                                          Andrea