Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

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With all of my preparations for the Las Vegas Half Marathon, I realize I haven't shared my fantastically delicious pumpkin recipes! I will start with the one that has gotten me through some evil ice cream cravings.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

1/2 cup pumpkin
1/2 packet Truvia (or your favorite sweetener)
pumpkin pie spice (to taste)
8 oz. unsweetened vanilla almond milk
4 oz. nonfat cottage cheese

Mix the pumpkin, truvia and spice to taste and freeze. Depending on how your blender works, you can freeze it in one block or smaller cubes.

Once frozen, blend with almond milk and cottage cheese.

Deliciousness!

Nutritional Stats: 155 calories, 3 grams of fat, 6 grams of fiber, 12 grams of protein

The Great Pumpkin Has Gone Missing!

While millions of Americans feasted on pumpkin pie this week, few worried whether there would still be plenty of that delicious orange vegetable after the Thanksgiving holiday.

It's official. In earlier months rumors of pumpkin shortages have circulated and many, including myself, laughed at the fear of those who stockpiled the canned pumpkin goodness.

Well the soothsayers were right. According to Libby's, the nation's largest producer of pumpkin, there is indeed a shortage:

"Due to poor weather conditions, the pumpkin harvest is smaller than we expected so it may be hard to find LIBBY'S Pumpkin this holiday season. The heavy rains throughout the harvest have made it nearly impossible to pick our pumpkins. That's because tractors and other equipment are not able to move through the saturated fields.

At LIBBY'S, we're proud of our quality and we know that you trust us to deliver the best. The longer the pumpkins sit in these muddy fields, the more likely it is the quality of the pumpkin has declined. So we've made the difficult decision that we will not pack any more pumpkin this year which means that through the holiday season and until next fall's harvest, LIBBY'S pumpkin will be hard to find."

The San Jose Mercury News reported that: "Some chains have been pushing fresh pumpkins as alternatives. But Patti Milligan, spokeswoman for Los Angeles' Sprouts Farmers Market, said the season for pie pumpkins 'is pretty much over, and only a few of our stores still have them.' "

Although there is a shortage, many stores still have pumpkin on the shelves and you will want to grab a couple cans while you have a chance. I have a couple of delicious pumpkin recipes coming this week that just can't wait for next season's crop!

However, once those pumpkins are gone for the season (and shouldn't we take pride in eating seasonally?), there are lovely squash alternatives! The Chicago Sun-Times published a great article on squash alternatives to the famed pumpkin. And Uncovering Food has a number of squash recipes that will help you forget your canned orange friend until 2010.

Baked Red Kuri Squash

Spicy Sweet Butternut Squash Fries

Winter Squash Soup

Red Pork and Winter Squash

Golden Nugget Squash with POM Reduction and Roasted Pinenuts

Toasted Squash Seeds

Oikos Spa Bag Winner!

I hope everyone had a chance to destress this week. I know I have enjoyed the holiday break and the chance to lower my stress level!

After entering every entry into an Excel sheet to assign them a number and then using Random.org to select the winning number, congratulations are in order for:

ManoloMandi!

Please send me your address so I can pass it on to the fine folks at Oikos!

Thank you to everyone who entered. If you get a chance to register at the Oikos Web site, they often have valuable coupons that help make eating healthy even more affordable!

Oikos Spa Bag Giveaway!

When I get stressed out and overworked, I know that it can be hard to make sure I am still taking time for myself to eat right and relax. According to the Mayo Clinic, stress can cause weight gain. Which for some of us can only lead to more stress! As I head off to work with my students for one of the largest competitions of the year, I wanted to leave you with a opportunity to destress.

The fabulous folks at Oikos recognize that this is a stressful time of year and have offered one lucky Uncovering Food reader a chance to take a moment for themselves. This spa-themed giveaway will help you relax and renew at home and includes coupons for 4 free containers of Oikos organic Greek yogurt, a reusable Oikos tote bag, and the "Take- 5" Anti-Stress spa kit, from Earth Therapeutics, which includes a loofah massage sponge, Anti-Stress massage soap, a body brush, Anti-Stress massage lotion and a soothing gel eye mask.


To enter, please leave a comment about why you need to destress and say Ohm. This initial entry is required.

For additional entries you can:
1) become a follower of Uncovering Food (leave a comment!)
2) blog about this contest (link the URL in the comments!)
3) tweet about this contest (mention @UncoveringFood and @Stonyfield)
4) become a fan of Oikos and/or Uncovering Food on Facebook (leave a comment for each page you become a fan of)

The contest closes on November 25 @ midnight PST and a winner will be drawn randomly on Thanksgiving. Good luck!

Oikos Miniature Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake

When my students performed well at a local debate tournament, I wanted to celebrate their success. However, I wanted to keep that celebration healthy and include my students with gluten and nut allergies.

As a health conscious individual who has a fetish for Greek yogurt, I was excited to hear about Stonyfield's Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt recipe contest. Combining Greek yogurt with some seasonal flavors, I came up with a celebratory treat that had my whole debate team cheering. These mini cheesecakes weren't just tasty and allergy-conscious, but the high protein and lack of fat in the Oikos yogurt made it a low-calorie treat for me as well!

Oikos Miniature Pumpkin Cheesecakes with Chocolate Drizzle

Crust:
3/4 cup brown rice flour
2 tbsp flax meal
1/6 cup tapioca starch
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tbsp pure maple syrup
pinch of salt
1/4 cup of water

Filling:
5.3 oz container Oikos Fat Free Organic Plain Greek Yogurt
3/4 cup reduced fat cottage cheese
1/4 cup fat free cream cheese
1/2 cup egg whites
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Topping (Instead of including the chocolate in the cheesecake, I turned it into a drizzle so that I could leave it off a couple of servings for students who couldn't have chocolate.):
Chocolate (I use a gluten free, nut free, semi sweet chocolate)

Preheat over to 300 degrees. Coat a mini muffin tin with your choice of oil/spray (count additional calories accordingly). Mix crust ingredients together. Press crust into the bottom of each tin. Blend the cottage cheese, yogurt and cream cheese together until smooth. Add the remaining filling ingredients. Spoon the filling into the tins. Do not overfill. Remember it will bake up slightly.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the cheesecakes are firm to a gentle touch. Turn off the oven and let the cakes sit in the oven for an additional ten minutes. Remove and refrigerate in the tin overnight before loosening and removing.

The final optional touch is drizzling melted chocolate or dipping the cheesecakes into the chocolate to form a candy crust. I melt a measure amount of chocolate in the microwave (heat for 10 seconds, remove and stir and repeat until desired consistency).


My students LOVED the cheesecake bites and didn't realize how healthy they were until I told them after! The cheesecakes disappeared so quickly the other teachers in my department never got to try them. So it looks like I will be hitting the store for more Oikos yogurt to whip up another batch.

Each miniature cheesecake sans chocolate: 62 calories, 1.7 grams fat, .6 grams fiber, 2.8 grams protein

Do you want a chance to try your hand at crafting an amazing recipe that feature Oikos Greek yogurt? Are you a fan of Greek yogurt and just want to share your love with other fans? How about scoring some free coupons for this fabulous yogurt (that has amazing calorie stats... only 80 calories in a single serving cup!)? Become a fan of Stonyfield Farm Organic Oikos Greek Yorgut on Facebook today!

I am also excited to announce that Oikos is sponsoring a fabulous relaxation giveaway that starts tomorrow on Uncovering Food. I hope that tomorrow you will grab a cup of yogurt goodness, open your laptop, and visit us tomorrow to check out this spa themed giveaway :o)

A Childhood Fave in the Spotlight

It amazes me the speed with which foods become popular and are crowned "nutritional powerhouses." Pomegranate appears to be everywhere and in everything! I remember when I was in high school and would take a pomegranate off the tree in our back yard to school for lunch. All of my friends thought I ate the strangest things. My sisters and I would play with pomegranates, feeding chickens the seeds and making "tea cups" out of the shells. I also remember deseeding the fruit so my dad could make juice and mom could make jelly.

If I knew then what I knew now, I would be stocking up and selling the magical fruit to pay for my high school hijinks. This month is apparently National Pomegranate Month, who knew the fruit would ever get it's own month! Health Central shares scientific finds relating to the health benefits of pomegranates.

While I have been deseeding pomegranates for years, I found a number of my friends had no idea how to handle the whole fruit. Here is a video from Gourmet Magazine that shows how easy it is to do yourself!

That's a Wrap! Uncovering Lavash

As the economy continues it's slowing trend, more people are optioning to pack a lunch rather than buy lunch out in order to cut costs. But basicsandwiches get old fast, as I am discovering on my quest to eat cheap and healthy while traveling. So while in Minnesota this weekend, I set out to explore the local grocery store for something to change up my meals.

Near the deli, I found excatly what I was looking for. Lavash! According to CookThink, "Lavash (pronounced "luh-VOSH") is a thin, round Armenian flatbread (sometimes called cracker bread) made from flour, water and salt. It's traditionally cooked in a tandoor-style oven. Popular in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey, it is available in Middle Eastern markets. "

I was lucky enough to discover Joseph's Flax, Oat Bran & Whole Wheat Flour Lavash. The package was relatively inexpensive and had four large wraps in it. One half of a wrap is a serving and makes a delicious replacement for traditional bread.

This weekend I enjoyed turkey & Laughing Cow Cheese light wraps with sprouts and a spicy honey mustard. I also used the lavash for brekkie wraps of egg, cheese, and chicken. I packed some lavash with individual servings of peanut butter, honey and jam from the hotel breakfast buffet and gave them to my students for airplane snacks (packing the pb, honey and jam in the quart size plastic bag for security!). And when I returned home, I made my favorite of all wraps:

BB&B Burrito (Barney Butter & Banana Burrito)
(serves 2)

1 large Joseph's Lavash, sliced into two
1/2 large banana, sliced in half lengthwise (so two 1/4 banana slices)
1 90-calorie packet of Barney Butter

Warm you panini press. Lay each 1/4 slice of banana on one of the two wraps. Distribute the packet of Barney Butter between the two bananas. Wrap and press!

One serving of Joseph's Lavash: 50 calories, 2 grams of fat, 3 grams of fiber, 5 grams of protein

Nutritional Information for 1 Burrito: 125 calories, 5.75 grams of fat, 4 grams of fiber, 7 grams of protein