Tag Archives: pumpkin

Pumpkin Double Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins

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It took me a couple of days, but I knew I had to get this recipe posted for you guys.

This recipe is a little time-consuming – you have to make three separate batters and layer them together – but the end result is totally worth it. 

These are muffins and not cupcakes, no frosting and the texture is more muffin than cakey, but they still work perfectly for dessert. 

Pumpkin Double Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins

Yield: 30 muffins; Prep Time: 1 hour; Cook Time: 23 minutes

Instructions

For this recipe you’ll need to prepare the pumpkin batter, chocolate batter, and cheesecake filling separately and then layer them together into the muffin tins.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.  Line muffin tins with baking liners then set aside.  You’ll need to prepare the batters in separate bowls but the prep time will go more quickly if you work on both simultaneously (i.e. measure all your flour at once, all your eggs at once, and so on).

for pumpkin batter

  • 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1.5 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Combine pumpkin, eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla in a large bowl.  Beat until well-combined.  In another bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (flour through salt).  Working in small batches, whisk dry ingredients into wet.

for double chocolate chip batter

  • 1.75 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
  • 1 cup skim milk
  • 1/3 cup canola oil
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Place dry ingredients (flour through mini chips) in a large bowl.  In another bowl whisk together milk, oil, egg, and vanilla.  Pour wet into dry and carefully fold together, taking care not to overmix.

for cheesecake filling

  • (2) 8oz packages 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese
  • 1 cup confectioners sugar
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Use electric beaters to cream together cream cheese and sugar for 3 minutes.  Beat egg whites and vanilla into the mixture.

muffin instructions

Place approximately 1.5 Tbsp of pumpkin batter in the bottom of a muffin liner.  Top with 1.5 Tbsp cheesecake filling, placing filling as close to the center of the cup as possible.  Top with 1.5 Tbsp chocolate batter.  Repeat process with remaining batters until all of the tins are full (you will most likely have a little bit of chocolate and cheesecake remaining when the pumpkin runs out, but 30 muffins are plenty).  You may wish to alternate which batters are the top and bottom layers, I did half of each.  Carefully use a toothpick or chop stick to swirl around the edge of each tin, ideally mixing the batters a bit but not moving the cheesecake filling.  Bake at 375* for 20-23 minutes, until muffin tops are firm and an inserted knife comes out clean.

Adapted from Rachael Ray’s Cheesecake-Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes and Food Network’s Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Hallowed Breakfast

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Happy Halloween! 

We didn’t have any fun plans this year but I am all about any holiday with theme candy and colors!

I even applied those colors to my breakfast.

orange = pumpkin, black = chia seeds and mini chocolate chips

My (stove-top) base was 1/2 cup each water and skim milk, 1 medium banana, 1/4 cup oats, 1/2 cup canned pumpkin, and 1 Tbsp chia seeds.

With a handful of shredded, unsweetened coconut and 1/2 tsp mini chips for topping.

This was good but I had too much food and not enough time, I’ll probably only finish eating half of the bowl.

spooky snack preview

I don’t have time for “lunch” on Mondays, but I do have a few things packed to snack on during our short breaks.  A gorgeous looking Comice pear,

and a vanilla YoCrunch with candy bits for the holiday.

What are your Halloween plans?  Did you celebrate already this weekend?  Costumes?!

It’s About The Week

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Since Tuesday was completely devoid of veggies I made sure to fit some into every single meal today!  My life is still so all over the place and some days I don’t even come close to eating the healthiest diet.  I try to make up for those days by getting in extra nutrients on the days where I can.  Healthy living is more how your week looks than any one day in isolation.

For breakfast I got in a massive dose of Potassium and Vitamin K, aka pumpkin.

Into the blender went:

  • 1 medium banana
  • 1 cup skim milk
  • 1 Tbsp chia seeds
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1 cup Plain Fat-free Stonyfield yogurt
  • 1 Tbsp maple syrup

I ended up with a massive smoothie!

Lunch was all about Folate, or chick peas.

I topped a leftover half serving of channa marsala with some mango chutney.

I also snacked on this baggie of Combos during my last class.

I didn’t say every food choice was about nutrition, some things you eat just for fun!

Dinner was all about Lycopene (and some others), with baked eggplant in tomato sauce.

This dish was so darn good, even as leftovers!  A billion times better than it looks, that’s for sure.  I’m going to publish the recipe soon as part of a Foodbuzz sample post, it deserves some love.

The other half of dinner was mini rigatoni with sharp cheddar and evoo.

This bowl was delicious and I definitely went back for a full serving of seconds!  Plus a few big handfuls of unphotographed kettle chips; we had some reeeeeeally frustrating things happen at school today and I might have been stress nibbling a bit.

When you eat for health do you tend to look at things day by day or take more of a weekly approach?

Health Fair Fare

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Good morning!  I’m especially chipper today because I got a whopping 10 hours of sleep last night.  I always turn into a bit of a bear at the slightest hint of cold but it appears this year my body requires a full-scale hibernation!

Yesterday morning did get off to a good start with a yogurt bowl.  Into the last ~ serving of Wegman’s 0% Greek yogurt I stirred 1 Tbsp chia seeds, 1 Tbsp maple syrup, and 2 Tbsp Silk Plain Almond Milk.

Then I plopped in a big handful of raspberries before the mix had time to resolidify.

And since I used up the last serving I could use the container as my bowl; portable, yo.

Note: I use the word “yo,” unironically, often.  If we’re going to be friends you should know.

We have our Coordinated Program stuff on Thursday which usually means a 4-hours-straight block of class, but yesterday we technically got out a bit early because we were putting on a health fair!  The program was split into two projects this semester – one group is organizing the chili sale (my group) and the other group organized an on-campus health fair – but everyone in the class ultimately participates in both.  I think the Health Fair group did a great job!

The fair was professional and I was especially impressed with all of the non-dietetics students for how interested they were in learning about nutrition.  I was at the “quiz” table (not shown) and it was a ton of fun.

We didn’t really have time for lunch but I did snag a baggie of baby carrots from one of the other tables.

Plus we all hit up the bake sale.

Our pumpkin fudge pops were a hit!  I also ate most of this carrot cake bar my friend Hillary made.

Yum.  We laughed that it wasn’t really dessert, just that I was making sure I got in my orange veggies for the day!

We recently got a recall notice for the husband’s car so I spent my afternoon out at the Toyota dealership.  I did a little bit of studying and made the best meal I could from the vending machines.

I brought Adam home a handful of those pretzels but it was too late, he had already eaten two big servings of leftover African Peanut Stew, aka both of our dinners.  I was pretty tired and I couldn’t get take-out so instead of grumping around all evening I just got into an early bed.

And since clearly getting up at 5am this morning was easier that most, I had time for breakfast at home today.

I mixed a Stonyfield Low-Fat French Vanilla Yogurt with pumpkin pie spice and 1/4 cup of canned pumpkin, then topped with 1/4 cup of All-Bran Bran Buds and 1 Tbsp unsweetened coconut.

This was like mousse with crumb topping … sort of!  I do adore that Bran Bud cereal though.

I’m done with class at 1pm today and I’m hoping to bang out a lot of work for next week’s test.  We are getting back our 2nd test from last week today and considering how bad the 1st one was I bet I’ll be motivated.

Which has more caffeine (no looking it up!) a grande coffee from Starbucks or a Red Bull energy drink?

Tervis, Tastes, TV

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Today was a perfect day with the husband and dog!  Especially the walk we took around a new block (as in new to us) this morning, pictures to come tomorrow.  I did not do any school work though I did deal with the laundry and eat some veggies.

I even got some veggies into my breakfast, via pumpkin hot chocolate!

To back up, here is the Tervis tumbler I received via the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program.

I grew up with glasses from Tervis and when Adam and I started living together they were one thing I was sure I wanted and was willing to spend money on.

Even though I’ve used them forever and know how great they are at keeping drinks cold and not sweating all over the table, until I received my letter with the package I’d never thought about putting anything hot into a Tervis.  Thankfully I had a fantastic recipe to try out.

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate, serves 1

  • 1 cup skim milk
  • 2 Tbsp milk chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Heat milk to simmering in a small pot.  Whisk in chocolate chips until smooth.  Whisk in pumpkin and spice and continue to simmer 1-2 minutes.  Serve, preferably topped with whipped cream!

It was a lazy sort of day and somehow Adam and I made it until 2:30 without eating anything outside of hot chocolate (he doesn’t like pumpkin so I made his with booze!).  We were running errands by the time that we realized we were long overdue for a meal.

So we went to India Gate and had the best meal we’ve eaten yet in Buffalo!

The service was great, the food was healthy and packed with flavor, and the location was footsteps from our apartment; we’ll be back!

We started by splitting a mango lassi.

It was pretty good, but the last (first) time I went to India Gate I had a fig lassi and there was just no beating that!

Adam and I wanted to try several flavors so we made sure to both order things the other would enjoy.

Chicken Makhani – boneless, skinless tandori chicken breast prepared in tomato, butter and cream sauce and garnished with cashews and raisins – for Adam,

and Bhartha Paneer – fresh eggplant cooked with home-made cheese and special house sauce – for me.

Plus rice.

Here was plate #1 –

Adam’s sauce was so rich and creamy!  And my eggplant had the perfect amount of spice.  The homemade cheese was pretty fantastic as well, Adam actually thought it was tofu the first few bites!

And plate number 2 –

Another scoop of Bhartha Paneer plus a bite of rice with Makhani sauce on top.  The husband and I were practically swooning by the time we finished!  Everything was so rich without being too heavy and it was tons of fun trying a few new things.

We also tried a handful of this spiced lentil mix (I think?!) on the way out.

The only meh.  All this did was make it essential for me to buy Good & Plentys at the store.

Speaking of sweet, after we dropped off the groceries and picked up the dog we headed out for this –

I had Coldstone’s pumpkin ice cream in my head all afternoon and was thrilled to see that they had caramel frozen yogurt to mix it with!  Plus graham cracker and caramel sauce.

It was wonderful.  And the price was wonderful too; Adam and I both ordered kid’s sizes and we ended up only paying $3.20 total.

We are finishing our wonderful day by cuddling on the couch and catching up on TV.  Note – major props to “Modern Family” for the funniest (and most tasteful) gay joke I’ve ever seen on tv!

Since our 3pm lunch was also basically breakfast and dinner – minus dessert! – I’m going to grab something else to eat but I’m done blogging for the day so I can cuddle.  Either an English muffin, a cookie, or both.  Happy cuddling, readers!

What’s your favorite Indian dish to order?

My Exam Was On A Low Carb Diet

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{This post was started last night.}

One three-hour review session probably wasn’t enough, but at least I don’t think I failed today’s exam.  And I handed in my paper too so now it’s two down, one to go for this week; phew!  I did make one really silly (really embarrassing!) mistake that is going to cost me a lot of points.  I was thinking adult DRIs for CHO but fixating on percentages for CHO in the DASH diet and ended up saying that older adults require only 55-65 grams of carbohydrates each day!  <– Carbs are the primary energy source for brain function and the RDA is 130 grams/day!

I think I needed more coffee.

That’s ice, Godiva Pumpkin Spice Coffee, Plain Silk Almond Milk, and a big splash of English Toffee Syrup.  I tasted before sweetening and sadly I don’t think I like the Godiva Pumpkin Spice Coffee outside of pumpkin latte oatmeal.  Too much spice for me.  I brought the rest of the bag in to my friend Kim and she’s going to report back.

Here was the rest of breakfast.

A 2% Fage with Strawberry.

And a Berries GoMega Superfood Bar that Odwalla sent me to try.

I didn’t care for the bar and only ended up eating two small bites.  My negative review is for a positive reason though – this tasted like a berry muffin!  It’s just that I don’t like muffins all that much.  I shared with a friend who confirmed my muffin assessment.  We did admire that it provided 25% percent daily value of your Folate and Calcium and 50% daily value for Vitamin E for only 210 calories.  If you are a muffin person I recommend it.

Lunch was a bagel sandwich that I recommend to everyone.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin + Applegate Farms Honey Maple Turkey + reduced fat pumpkin cream cheese (mine is from Einstein’s Bagel Bros) = Yum!

I’ll be honest and admit that this could have used a slice of cheese, but other than that it was pure perfection.

I brought in the rest of the Ghirardelli dark chocolate (a Foodbuzz sample) to share with the girls as study fuel.

One piece was enough for me.

And before I knew it – mostly because I was thinking too hard to look at the clock – my exam was done and one final class stood between me and freedom!

In this case, freedom meant beer.

Adam and I split this Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale 40/60 his favor.  Tasting note – not bad, but not really pumpkin-y either.

And I drank this Dogfish Head Punkin Ale all by myself.

I really did taste pumpkin, brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg.  And beer!  This is my favorite pumpkin brew so far this season (2nd would be Shock Top’s pumpkin).

Notes – I hadn’t had much to eat, I was tired, I’m a lightweight.  Those notes are important because what I did next was get drunk and go to bed at 8:30 pm!  Haha, I’m sure I needed the sleep.

I’m feeling well-rested now, which is awesome because I’ve got to do some serious learning for tomorrow’s exam.  Hope everyone is having a good week!

Beenie Weenies

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I stayed up until almost 2am last night getting myself on the right page study-wise; yuck!  I was so tired and distracted that I probably would have been better off just going to bed but it felt good to check “make notecards” off of my list.  I’ve had a busy day so I haven’t gotten to review as much as I’d like but I’m going to make an early(ish) bedtime my priority today.  Thank goodness for the 3-hour break between classes before tomorrow’s exam!

I slept in instead of showering (it’s also possible I’m still wearing the shirt I went to bed in last night, but that’s neither here nor there) but I did leave myself time to make breakfast.

They’re back!  Pumpkin smoothies are one of my favorite things about October; they just don’t feel right during other months.  They are squash-y and just a bit sweet and the texture is more pudding than smoothie which makes them all the more fabulous.

For 1, I blended –

  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/2 cup Wegman’s 0% Plain Greek Yogurt
  • 1/2 cup Plain Silk Almond Milk
  • 1 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 2 big shakes pumpkin pie spice

I didn’t have time to pack lunch so I was excited when I found out we were doing some cookie sampling in class (I split 2 with a friend).

Nevermind!  We were making sure that some prepared mixes hadn’t gone bad before we used them for a bake sale next week but these had definitely expired.  The white chocolate chips were rancid and gave me the worst chemical feeling in the back of my throat, like my nose was being scorched.  One small bite of each was definitely enough!

I fled to the vending machines for relief, at that point I probably would have eaten beef jerky to get the taste out of my mouth.

Thankfully I found peanut M&M’s and didn’t have to resort to jerky 😉 I shared with friends and probably ate ~2/3 of the package.

I had a 2:45 orthodontist appointment so I stayed at school after class to get a bit of work done.  Then I had to go to the post office, then I had to take the dog on a long walk…  I haven’t really been mentioning No Take-out ‘Tober because it’s been pretty easy but this afternoon was the first time I wanted to run screaming into an eatery.  We were mid-walk, 8 hours since I’d eaten breakfast, and let’s just say Webster was glad I’m semi-vegetarian or I would have tried to stick him in a hot dog bun!

I made myself a bowl of juicy things as soon as I got home.

A yellow nectarine and a red plum.

I made something for the husband too.

He called to say he was on his way home and I thought about greeting him at the door with a martini but decided that a spinach salad on the table was basically the same as a martini at the door.

Right?  Probably not, but at least I set out vitamins (seen lurking in the background).

It’s good to make a snazzy salad/fruit course when you’re serving leftovers for dinner.

Particularly if those leftovers are hot dogs and baked beans, aka Beanie Weenies.

Let’s be real though, I loved this meal!  I topped ~3/4 cup of apple cider cabbage leftovers a serving of hot dogs and beans, topped with a dollop of 0% plain Greek yogurt and lots of drops of Sriracha.

Plus 2 servings of Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos that Adam brought home from a golf tournament this weekend.

My favorite chips are the foldsies.

Yum.

Leftovers or not, this was a fabulous dinner.

I’ve got to scurry into the shower so I can get to bed and at least be rested if not reviewed for my test tomorrow.  I’ll leave you with this, meet Pig –

Godiva Pumpkin Spice Latte Oatmeal

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Happy Columbus Day!  I believe that the man was more of a monster than master-navigator, but I’m always happy for a day off.  I took advantage of today’s freedom and made myself a nice breakfast.

Disclaimer – I was sent some of Godiva’s newest seasonal flavors to try free of charge via the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program.

If you are a food blog reader, “Pumpkin Spice” can send your mind only two places – lattes and oatmeal.  I went with latte oatmeal.

Godiva Pumpkin Spice Latte Oatmeal, serves 1

  • 1/2 cup brewed Godiva Pumpkin Spice coffee*
  • 1/2 cup skim milk
  • pinch salt
  • 1/3 cup oats
  • 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup canned pumpkin
  • toppings of choice
  1. Combine milk and coffee in a small saucepan and heat to boiling.
  2. Stir in salt and oats and simmer five minutes, stirring regularly.
  3. Stir in spice, brown sugar, and pumpkin.  Continue to cook until desired consistency is reached, stirring regularly.
  4. Serve and top as desired.

I topped my bowl with unsweetened coconut and butterscotch chips.

*Note – this recipe produced a strong coffee flavor.  If you are less of a latte lover you may want to adjust the ratio of coffee to milk.