Pumpkin Pie Pancakes

In case you haven't noticed, fall is my favorite time of the year. It inspires all kinds of baking sprees and soup recipes to freeze for the upcoming cold of winter. Though San Francisco can hardly boast much in the way of cold winters...

We've had some pumpkin puree sitting in our cabinet for a little while, just itching to be used. This morning, Katy called out to me from her bedroom, "PUMPKIN PANCAKES!"

You don't have to ask me twice to make ANYTHING with pumpkin!

We found a recipe from AllRecipes.com for a tasty sounding pumpkin pancake but used some tips from one reviewer for a more pumpkin pie-like taste. We went with this reviewers tips. Of course, our recipe utilized whole wheat flour and lactaid milk (we're sadly out of almond milk).

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 ½ c. milk
• 1 1/3 c. pumpkin puree
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1tbsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 c. whole wheat flour

Directions

1. In medium sized bowl, beat the egg. Add remaining wet ingredients and mix well.
2. Add all but the flour and mix well. Add flour half a cup at a time just until mixed. Ours came out quite thick because I misread how much milk to use. Whoops! So I ended up adding more milk anyway. ;)
3. Heat a large skillet at medium-high heat and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
4. Pour the batter into the skillet to your desired sized.
5. Plate and scarf. :D

It would have been lovely to top with powdered sugar, but we didn't have any. Instead, we buttered them up and drizzled a bit of honey on top. Just as delicious! The batter came out very thick, so the insides were still deliciously gooey pumpkin pie filling taste. Absolutely amazing. We also served with some freshly made juice. Mmmm...

Vegan Oatmeal Juice Pulp Muffins

We decided to go back on that juice pulp thing and see what else we could make. Turns out, you can! We adjusted this oatmeal pulp muffin recipe.

Makes about 12-15 muffins, depending on how big you like your muffins. :)

Ingredients

• 2/3 c. juice pulp
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 c. honey
• 2 c. steel cut oats
• 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp cloves
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/3 c. almond milk
• Any extras (I used a trail mix with almonds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and dried cranberries)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prep a muffin tin. We have silicon cupcake cups, but greasing the tins works just as well.
2. Mix pulp, vanilla, and honey in a large bowl.
3. Add oats, flour, spices, baking powder, and salt. Mix well.
4. Add in your extras.
5. Fill the tins as high as you would like. It won't expand when you bake.
6. Bake 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool.

Now, we like to separate these into batches of 4 and pop them into freezer bags once they're cool. This makes for super easy breakfasts on-the-go! We just pull out the next bag to thaw when we finish one. Certainly packed full of nutritious and filling goodies!

Challah French Toast

When I was growing up, my mom's french toast was the be-all-end-all of french toasts. When I was a bit older, she started making it for my friends and my brother's friends at our lake house in the mornings after our long nights up. It became one of those meals that was just EXPECTED when you stayed with us. Though I tried today to make it just like my mom, I'm still trying to get the kinks worked out. But here's what I came up with:

1. My mom uses french loaf, but being in Jew New York, Challah is available at every corner grocery. The traditional bread cooked for the Jewish Sabbath, Challah (pronounce ha-lah or kha-lah) bread is excellent when used for french toast. I bought whole wheat holiday Challah from West Side Market. Holiday Challah is different because rather than being braided, it is in a round loaf. SO. I cut the Challah in half length wise and cut it into 1" slices. Let it sit out overnight to get a bit stale to soak up the batter you'll make the next day.

2. For your mixture, combine and whisk

-- 2 eggs

-- 1/2 C milk (we used unsweetened almond milk because 2 of us can't handle dairy)

-- 1/2 C orange juice (Allie had fresh oranges, so we hand squoze squeezed it

-- 1 tsp ground nutmeg (I was actually eyeballing all these ingredients...)

-- 1 tsp cinnamon

-- 1 tsp vanilla

3. Evenly coat as much bread as you can, making sure not to leave it in too long. I don't like over-saturated french toast, but it has to reach the inside for sure. Before you cook it up in the pan, preheat your oven to 400º. Spray your non-stick pan with some Pam, just to be safe. Cook each piece until it's as brown or black as you want, but don't cook it all the way through. Take each piece off, and put onto a cookie sheet.

4. Finish cooking the french toast in the oven. It will not brown the surface any more, but will make sure to cook the egg mixture that's still inside the bread. Keep the cookie sheet in the oven for 10 minutes or less.

Et viola!

I personally like to do a lot of things to my FT. Powdered sugar, syrup, butter, what ever you want. What do you add to yours? Peanut butter and strawberry preserves maybe?