Saturday, October 13, 2012

Pumpkin-palooza!

To say I am a little obsessed with all things Pumpkin lately, would be the understatement of the season...but I doooon't caaaaaaare!!!!!
I dove full force into Fall Decor and Food and I'm not coming up for air until February :)
So There.

Trader Joe's has an abnormally large amount of seasonal pumpkin products right now, which I was ALL over.
I still want to go back for the pumpkin breakfast bars, and perhaps some ice cream.

The pumpkin cream cheese spread is amazing, you can almost (I absolutely did) eat it plain, but it is wonderful on toast...or a bagel, or pumpkin bread.
I love pumpkin butter, which, if you've never had it, isn't actually butter, but, more like a concentrated applesauce type spread, with great sweetness and spicy flavor. I drizzle this over pumpkin pancakes or the toast with the cream cheese.
I actually liked the greek yogurt, but it is not overly sweet, like pumpkin pie; rather very much a yogurt taste, with a lot of nutmeg.
The macarons are pretty typical, but fabulous nonetheless. They come from the freezer section, and should sit out and thaw about 30min before serving (who has time for that?! Perhaps, if I had, my rating may have been even higher)
Pumpkin Chai Tea mix is lovely, very much a combo between a Starbucks PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte, duh!) and their Chai Tea Latte.  It definitely is very sweet; I prefer this as an evening dessert (Yeah, I drink caffeine after 3pm, heck, after 9pm, and sleep just fine. *Shrug*), rather than to replace my morning English Breakfast tea. Too sweet for me first thing in the morning.
I know, I know, as much as I love desserts, I drink hot tea plain with no milk or sugar. I don't like overly sweet drinks, only food!
The pumpkin puree, I added to pancakes this morning, and made a yummy concoction by also adding sliced banana, diced apples, oats, lots of vanilla and pumpkin pie spice, as well as cream cheese to the whole wheat pancake batter. These pancakes I served (surprisingly!) with a drizzle of pumpkin butter and a dollop of pumpkin cream cheese. YUM! I love weekend breakfasts!

So, last on my Trader Joe's list is the ravioli, which I plan on having for dinner very soon.
The honey roasted flavor sounds amazing...I have been trying to decide what type of sauce to pair the pasta with.
World Market sells a pumpkin sauce made to serve over pasta, but I am also thinking a browned butter (with sage or rosemary?) topped with ricotta cheese and a honey drizzle might be nice, too. TBD.

Next up, a tutorial run down of my little Pumpkin Forest I've created!