I’m obsessed with autumnal flavors right now. I’ve been going through a pumpkin phase, a maple phase, a squash phase, and now a cranberry phase! Aren’t fall flavors great? I think I associate them with Thanksgiving, one of the best holidays. Plus, you get to enjoy unique flavors that you don’t really get to taste the rest of the year, so take advantage of the season, while the trees are still popping with color!

I ate the pumpkin pancakes in my previous post three days in a row this week, and pumpkin pie yogurt twice! I’m now the biggest fangirl of katheats.com. Beautiful photos + healthy food + delicious-sounding recipes = win!

I made a half batch of Kath’s cranberry sauce today, and ate it on top of yogurt. I can’t wait to try it in my oatmeal tomorrow morning! Like she cautions, it’s a pretty tart recipe, so if you’re sour-shy, you might want to find a different cranberry fix.

Cranberry Sauce from katheats.com
16 oz cranberries
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup brown sugar
Cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla to your heart’s content

Heat the cranberries, water, and sugar on medium heat until they start to boil. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Make sure the pot doesn’t boil over. (Several times, the lid started rattling, and I was almost afraid it was going to fly off the pot!) A few minutes before the end, add the spices. Let cool and enjoy! 1/4 cup of cranberry sauce = 40 calories and 2 grams of fiber!

Speaking of sour, I bought some True Lemon packets today. It’s an awesome invention- dehydrate some lemon juice and sell it in packets for lemon fiends like me who can never squeeze enough lemon wedges in their waters and Diet Cokes. You can order a sample of True Lemon, True Lime, and True Orange at www.truelemon.com. (I couldn’t wait the 2 weeks it would take to arrive!)

It’s Sunday morning, it’s not even 9:00 am, and I’ve already exercised. There should be a parade in my honor, or at least a chocolate-iced, kreme-filled Krispy Kreme with my name on it.

Instead I was a good girl and made pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin yogurt. PUMPKIN MANIA! I found the recipes on a yummy food blog I just discovered, katheats.com. I was in a hurry to eat while the pancakes were still warm, so the picture isn’t nearly as attractive as the photography on katheats, but to give you an idea of what it looked like:

Pumpkin Pie Yogurt and Pumpkin Pancakes

Recipes from katheats.com:

Pumpkin Pancakes (130 calories)
1/4 cup oats
1/4 cup egg whites
1/4 cup pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon

Who knew you could make pancakes with so few ingredients?

Pumpkin Pie Yogurt (110 calories)
1/2 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. Splenda

I’m also looking forward to trying the Pumpkin Oatmeal recipe from the Libby’s website. 1/2 cup oats, 2 Tbsp. pumpkin, 1 Tbsp. light maple syrup. Actually, I lied. The recipe calls for 2 Tbsp. LIBBY’S pumpkin. Don’t tell them I’m going to use the store brand!

I am a culinary genius. I have previously introduced you to the wonders of the Potato Chip Sandwich.

However, my inner mad scientist has been scheming away, and I’ve been coming up with some new concoctions that even Alan admits are “crazy.” Behold! Free recipes from the upcoming Krazy Kooking with Kiki Kookbook! Try them now before you have to pay the $19.95 cover price.

Eggy Maple Oatmeal

Make some oatmeal. Fry an egg. Smoosh egg around in oatmeal (mmm, yolky!) and squirt maple syrup on top. Bonus points if the yolk is nice and runny.

Grilled Cheese Salsa Sandwich

Stack components in the following order:
Bread
Cheese
Salsa
Cheese
Bread

Fry or bake it up!

I gave the Crustless Pumpkin Pie at Recipe Zaar a try, and it’s pretty decent. Mostly I was intrigued by the idea of eating an entire QUARTER of a pie and doing less damage than a half cup of Häagen-Dazs would. Oh, delicious, delicious damage. Chocolate Peanut Butter, call me! Mmmmmm. Sorry, I was having a moment there. (Don’t worry, Turkey Hill Light Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks, I’ll never leave you.)

Anyway, if you’re not afraid to roll up your sleeves and get down and dirty with artificial sweetener, and you’re feeling a little nostalgic for Thanksgiving at the beginning of October, squash away!

A lucrative career as a food stylist and photographer is probably not in my future. In the pie’s defense, it looked fluffier when it came out of the oven. Spending two days in the fridge under a carton of strawberries has a way of flattening things out, you know?

Crustless Pumpkin Pie
15 ounce can of pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
12 ounce can of evaporated nonfat milk
3/4 cup egg substitute (I used egg whites instead, since I have 15 hens to do my bidding)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (I did 1.5)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup Splenda

1. Crank your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix everything up.
3. Pour the mixture into a sprayed 9-inch pie pan.
4. Pop that baby in the oven and bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees F. Then reduce the heat to 325 degrees F and bake another 45 minutes.
5. Carefully use a spatula to scrape every last drop of pumpkin pie goodness off the bowl, and lick aforementioned spatula with wild abandon (assuming raw eggs don’t freak you out).
6. The recipe says that “Pie is done when knife inserted into center comes out clean.” I totally forgot that step and my pie came out fine.
7. Remember to turn off your oven.

1/8 of the pie will set you back: 121 calories, 1 g fat (0.3 g saturated fat), 1 mg cholesterol, 236 mg sodium, 21.5 g carbohydrates, 0.4 g fiber, 17.1 g sugar, and 6.9 g protein). In other words, one QUARTER of the pie is just 242 calories and 2 g of fat. (Before you drizzle it with light maple syrup and heap mounds of Cool Whip on it, that is.)