I love a tasty dish that comes together in just a few minutes with just a few ingredients. This pumpkin seed pesto is a wonderful diversion from a normal basil pesto, its perfect for fall - and a great way to use all those pumpkin seeds you'll have laying around after you carve your Jack-O-Lanterns! The fact that you brown the gnocchi in the pan with the mushrooms at the end, it just makes this dish much more magical than normal boiled gnocchi. I'm betting you and your family will really enjoy it. 

Ingredients for Pesto:
1 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
juice of 1 lemon
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil 
1 tablespoon water
1 garlic clove
salt & pepper to taste

Ingredients for gnocchi:
1 sixteen ounce pkg gnocchi
16 ounces baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
2 cups arugula

Directions: 
In a food processor pulse your seeds, cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, water, and garlic until a smooth paste forms. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. Cook your gnocchi for 2-3 minutes in a pot of boiling water until they float to the top. While your gnocchi boil, heat your butter in a large skillet. Add your mushrooms and saute them. Once the gnocchi is done cooking, drain them and add them to your skillet of mushrooms. Add your pesto to the pan and cook everything on medium high heat until your mushrooms are sauteed and your gnocchi are golden brown. Add basil and arugula at the end and cook for another 60 seconds. 

Full of protein, greens, and a wonderful texture and flavor. What more could you want from a quick easy 15 minute meal? Enjoy!

I love a good fall recipe. The spices, the pumpkin, all ooey gooey and warm together. Well in our house we love protein pancakes. They have no flour, are low in fat, but full of protein. They are delicious. Well today I decided to make a pumpkin version of these bad boys, and they did not disapoint. Get in the fall mood, and start your morning off right with these delicious fall spiced pancakes. 

Ingredients: 

1 cup cottage cheese

1 cup oatmeal

8 egg whites

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp all spice

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tablespoon cinnamon 

2 tablespoons pumpkin puree

Directions: In your blender, fluff your egg whites until frothy. Add all of your other ingredients and blend until smooth.  Cook on medium heat until golden on each side. For best results, pulse blender each time before you poor more batter onto your griddle. 

These have a nice warm spice, and classic fall flavors. The fact that its a great way to start your day off in a healthy way, full of protein that will keep your family full, is just an added bonus. Enjoy!

I recently made these chocolate chip pumpkin cookies for some friends and they ranted and raved. Then my husband said they were the best pumpkin cookies he's ever eaten. Even my toddler wouldn't leave them alone. (Ok, and I'll admit, when I was home alone I may or may not have eaten an entire pan of them myself... Anyway, just trust me when I tell you that these are good cookies. 

Mix together in bowl:

-1/2 cup MELTED butter (melted es muy importante for the texture) 

-1/4 cup packed brown sugar

-1/2 cup white sugar

-1 generous tsp vanilla

-7 tablespoons pumpkin purée 

Mix until smooth.

Then in the same bowl, add the ingredients below on top of the pumpkin mixture without stiring yet:

-1.5 cups of flour 

-1/4 tsp baking soda

-1/4 tsp baking powder 

-1/2 tsp salt 

-1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg 

-1/4 tsp cloves 

-1 tsp cinnamon 

-1 cup chocolate chips 

Once everything is sitting in a big pile on top of your pumpkin mixture, fluff all the dry ingredients to disperse them. Then mix them into the pumpkin mixture. Do not over mix or it will negatively effect the cookie texture. Once everything is combined, chill. No, that doesn't mean sit back and relax and picture yourself on a beach, chill the dough silly! Because of the melted butter you MUST chill the dough for 30 minutes before baking. 

Bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen cookies. 

Enjoy!

The other day I was in the mood for some cookies and I made the mistake of asking my toddler what type of cookies we should bake. His answer? Pumpkin cookies. Ok, pumpkin cookies are a random request for the first day of spring, but I'm fostering his new found skill of decision making. So we rolled with it and made some delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. My favorite pumpkin chocolate chip recipe however only uses 6 tablespoons of pumpkin puree. So I am inevitably left with  2/3rds of a can of pumpkin every time I bake them. What to do, what to do. So I invented a new recipe that uses up all the leftover pumpkin! I know I'm not the only one who has left over portions of pumpkin laying around, so without further ado, I introduce to you: Pumpkin Pasta with Brown Butter and Sage. 

Ingredients;
1/2 stick of butter
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp dried french tarragon
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2 box penne pasta (about 8 ounces) 
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup goat cheese
Salt & Pepper

Melt your butter in a frying pan on low heat. Just leave it there and don't mess with it. Let it bubble and get golden. As soon as you see the butter changing from yellow to golden, add your garlic, sage, and tarragon. 

While your butter browns, go ahead and boil your pasta in salted water for 8-10 minutes as the package directs. Strain the water from your pasta, reserving about 1/4 of a cup of the starchy water for later. While that pasta sits in your colander, use your warm pot to heat up your pumpkin puree and mix it with your goat cheese. Once those two are incorporated, add your pasta back to pot and mix. Then add your butter to the pot and mix. If the sauce is too thick, you can add a little of your reserved pasta water to loosen it up. Salt and pepper to taste. 

Due to the brown butter, pumpkin, herbs, and goat cheese, this is a very flavorful dish. It tastes as indulgent as a macaroni, but due to a lot of the sauce being made up from pumpkin, its much less sinful, and a little bit more sophisticated as well. This will serve 2-3 people. 

Enjoy!