Pumpkin French Toast Bake

The season of pumpkin continues here in Jerusalem! Last week I went to a pumpkin-themed potluck, and, in fact, I will be attending another one at the end of this week as well! For last week’s potluck, I made a pumpkin french toast bake following this recipe with only a few modifications (just cinnamon and nutmeg instead of pumpkin pie spice in the pumpkin filling, challah rolls instead of Hawaiian rolls, and no pecans/powdered sugar for the topping)

Since the recipe requires time to sit in the fridge and set before baking, I started it on Wednesday night to bring it to serve on Thursday. To begin, I combined one package of cream cheese, powdered sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl:

In a separate bowl, I mixed milk, pumpkin puree, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla:

I tore three challah rolls into small pieces and placed them in the bottom of a round baking pan:

On top of the bread, I layered half of the pumpkin mixture, the full amount of the cream mixture, and the other half of the pumpkin mixture:

I covered this to rest in the fridge overnight, and the next day I prepared the topping of flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter:

I baked the french toast for 40 minutes at 350º until it was browned on top:

 

Yum!

Pumpkin Beef Chili

Thank goodness for canned pumpkin, allowing people everywhere to make pumpkin flavored dishes. I picked up a couple cans of pumpkin at the grocery store last week and was excited to make something using one of them. I found this recipe online and decided to make something similar.

*full recipe below

To start, I prepped the veggies by chopping 2 carrots, one red pepper, and half a white onion.

I also prepped a spice mix by combining 1 tablespoon each of paprika and cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon each of red pepper flakes and cinnamon.

I put the vegetables along with 1 lb. ground beef in a skillet with some coconut oil, stirring occasionally until the meat browned:

Meanwhile…I chopped three small tomatoes:

Once the meat browned, I added the tomatoes to the chili along with the spice mix:

For the final touch, I added half a can of pumpkin, mixed thoroughly, and heated through:

I served the chili with bread and it made for a hearty meal!

Pumpkin Beef Chili, serves 4
Ingredients
 - 1/2 white onion
 - 1 red pepper
 - 2 carrots
 - 3 small tomatoes
 - 1 T cocoa powder
 - 1 T paprika
 - 1 t cinnamon
 - 1 t red pepper flakes
 - 1/2 can pumpkin puree (15 oz)
 - 1 lb. ground beef

Method
 - chop onion, pepper, and carrots 
 - combine cocoa powder, paprika, cinnamon, and red pepper flakes
 in a small bowl to have ready
 - heat ~1 tablespoon of coconut oil in a skillet and add the
 onion, pepper, carrots, and ground beef
 - cook, stirring occasionally, until meat is browned. While the meat
 is browning, chop the tomatoes
 - after the meat is browned, add tomatoes, spice mix, and pumpkin
 - stir to combine and continue cooking until heated through
 - serve warm with bread or grain of choice

Pumpkin Cauliflower ‘Risotto’

I love risotto, but I almost never make it because I rarely have arborio rice on hand. I almost always, however, have brown rice on hand, so I decided to make a wannabe risotto of my own creation.

Risotto purists would say this dish bears nothing in common with true risotto because it lacks the incredible creaminess that can only be created by the slow cooking of arborio rice. To them, I say, “try this!”

I started with one cup dry brown basmati rice cooked in two cups water for about 45 minutes:

I added 1 and 1/2 cups of vegetable broth and let heat while I started to steam a half head of cauliflower:

After a few minutes of letting the broth heat, I added 1 cup of pumpkin puree to the rice:

After the cauliflower was soft, I added it to the rice and let heat, covered for about 10 minutes:

This dish was great and made about 4 servings. It is definitely best served warm, although I had it cold a couple days for lunch.

After whipping this up for dinner, I had big plans to go to the theater. The Orpheum is Minneapolis’ venue for touring Broadway shows, and for the last two years I’ve had season tickets and LOVE IT! There are about 6 shows each year, and I look forward to each one. Last week, the Orpheum was showing Once, a musical about a Scottish musician who repairs his broken heart and gets his big musical break by befriending a Czech woman.

The inside of the Orpheum is beautiful, and I had great seats only about 20 rows from the stage:

And no, that is not an illegal picture taken during the show. One of the most unique things about this performance was that the curtain never closed and there were always actors on stage! Additionally, the actors themselves formed the band for the show, and every actor had an instrument that they used both within character and on the side stage as part of a band. As people filed in to take their seats, the whole cast was onstage playing music and singing. At intermission, the audience was invited to go onstage and look at the set.

I loved the show and thought the music was great. I was also super impressed how the actors sang, played their instruments, and stayed so in character the whole time. If you have a chance to see Once, I would definitely recommend it!

Paleo Pancakes and Pizza Luce

Several months ago, I bought the cookbook Practical Paleo.

I don’t follow a paleo diet (and do not support following any strict diet plan!), but I do like a lot of paleo recipes and appreciate the paleo approach to eating for two primary reasons.

1. They promote eating whole foods
2. They discourage fear of fat and encourage regular consumption of fat in meat and other natural sources (see my post about not being scared of fat here)

Despite admiring this cookbook on the shelf and reading through it a few times, I haven’t actually made any recipes from it. Why does this always happen with cookbooks? I seem to always use recipes on the internet or just make them up.

Today was the day for a recipe from the book!

The recipe I chose was for pumpkin pancakes. The recipe was a simple collection of pumpkin puree, eggs, coconut flour (but I used almond), and some spices. Mix it all up:

Cook it all up:

And serve with dried bananas and coconut butter (if you’re me):

Delicious!

In other news, I have a recap from a visit to Pizza Luce from a few weeks ago.

Pizza Luce is a popular pizza chain around the Twin Cities area that specializes in creative options with plenty of vegetarian and vegan selections. We ordered quite a feast and had plenty of leftovers! To start, we ordered Focaccia Katerina which was focaccia bread covered with pesto, goat cheese, and bruschetta:

I ordered a veggieball hoagie with a ‘side salad:’

As you can see, the side salad was enormous. My dining partner ordered a build-your-own pizza with chicken, tomatoes, and basil:

Everything was delicious! I would definitely go here again. Also, if you’re buying gifts this holiday season, Pizza Luce is doing a special where you can buy $100 worth of gift cards for $80.