Hello there punkin

Fall is in the air and I am excited.  It is by far my most favorite season.  I love the smell of burning leaves, sweatshirts, tailgating (duh), and the cool weather.  I dislike being extremely hot or cold.  So this weather is my heaven.  My favorite flavor in the fall is pumpkin!  Mmmm!! I can not get enough of this stuff.  I put it in pastas, smoothies, pastries, drinks...you name it...I will try it.  This week I made a smoothie and pumpkin fettuccine.  I get bored really quick when it comes to breakfast.  I need to switch it up a lot.  I can only eat so many eggs, or so many bowls of oatmeal.  I like change!  My solution when I get in this rut....SMOOTHIES.  I <3 them.  You can make so many different flavors that it never really gets old.  I am a planner.  I always have been.  I get anxiety if I do not have a plan.  Its my nature and I like it.  It keeps me organized and knowing what is going on at most moments in my life.  Grocery shopping is another one of the things that I must be organized about or I will stress.  I know I know....you are probably thinking I need to lighten up.  But I enjoy it.  I really do.  If I could go grocery shopping and plan meals as a full time j.o.b.  I would.....in a heart beat.  It's fun and challenging to me.  I enjoy sitting down and planing my meals and then organizing what I will be getting.  And yes my lists are organized.  I organize them however the store I am going to is laid out.  I don't want to have to back track and be wandering all over the store.

 So I plan out which store or stores (yes sometimes I go to several) I am going to and then write my list accordingly.  The reason for many stores is that I love Trader Joes, Whole Food and Fresh Market however some things are just cheaper at Marsh or Kroger.  And I also go according to sales.  I want to get the best deal on my food as possible.  Yes it is a process, but to me it is worth it. 

The past couple of days I have made a "pumpkin pie" smoothie for breakfast.  Um hello....can you say yummy!  I do not mind sipping on this my entire way to work.  It makes me in such a good mood and its healthy.  I put protein powder in all my smoothies since I don't get enough through out the day.  You can absolutely leave it out.  I made mine with half milk and half plain yogurt but you can do whatever you want.  My protein powder is a tad sweet so I don't use any sweetener and use plain yogurt for that reason too.  If you don't use any protein powder I would suggest vanilla yogurt/greek yogurt or honey flavored.  I ran out of pumpkin pie spice so I just used cinnamon and nutmeg.  Equally delish as pumpkin pie spice!

Pumpkin Pie Protein Smoothie

1/3 c canned pumpkin

1 frozen banana

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

5 ice cubes

¾ c. milk

1 ½  tsp. pumpkin pie spice


For dinner pumpkin fettuccine.  I bought several cans of pumpkin at the store and just could not get enough of the flavor.  So behold yummy fettuccine.  Now the easy way to make this and not so healthy is to buy a jar of alfredo or make your own and stir in some pumpkin puree.  I wanted to lighten it up a little bit.  The way I made mine was

Cook about 3 servings of fettuccine

3/4 cup of chicken broth
1/4 cup of finely chopped onion ( i used red cuz i had it on hand but you can use any kind)
1 clove of finely minced garlic
S&P
2 wedges of garlic and herb laughing cow cheese

Boil all the above ingredients until the chicken broth evaporates.  Let the onion and garlic brown.  While the broth simmers mix together the below ingredients in a separate bowl.

3/4 cup of pumpkin puree
3/4 cup of milk
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
S&P

Once the chicken broth mixture is browned pour in the pumpkin mixture and heat through.  Once its warm pour all over your pasta and enjoy!  Healthy and delcious!

Hope you guys enjoy!  Have a great long weekend and be safe this labor day!

xoxox

Karin