From flying back to Chicago from Kansas last Tuesday, dealing with numerous flight delays and getting back into the swing of a three-day school week, I ended up not going to Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s once. Very proud of myself as I pretty much live through those stores weekly in order to get my odds and ends for the week. Almond milk, snacks, veggie burgers, etc. Thankfully, my mom sent me a care package right as I left with a ton of snacks in it and I was stocked in that department.
Once again, I managed to eat some goodies through the second week of October. Trying to sneak as much pumpkin into my days as possible, organic apples when I can get ’em and a ton of oatmeal, here is what the week looked like.
Whenever I’m with my mom (which is rare now that I’m in college) I always ask her to whip me up dishes I see off of Pinterest or Instagram. Now that she has her own garden on her farm, pumpkins are scattered everywhere. So I thought why not find a really tasty pumpkin dish and go for it.
Our dinner Monday night was a Vegan Pumpkin Sage Pasta with some sautéed kale on the side.
The recipe for the pasta came from the awesome Vegan Richa and although my mom, step-dad and I all really enjoyed it, my mom noted how the addition of almond milk instead of cream and milk made the taste noticeably different. Since I’m used to eating and trying a ton of different vegan dishes, I did not mind it.
As the recipe called for pumpkin puree, my mom used one of her french pumpkins and roasted it to make fresh puree. She also roasted the seeds of it to top on the noodles (along with an optional sautéed breadcrumb topping that was really made the pumpkin flavor stand out).
I recommend checking out Vegan Richa’s blog because she has such a unique array of recipes including Asian dishes, burgers, breakfast, and even Ethiopian food – all vegan!
The following morning I helped my mom make these Pumpkin Oat Pancakes from Cookie and Kate, another one of my favorite blogs. Kate has a TON of delicious pumpkin recipes on her blog (all of which I need to make ASAP) including these yummy looking Pumpkin Pecan Scones with Maple Glaze or this Pumpkin Chai Latte.
These pancakes were the first recipe I’ve created from Kate’s blog and I was extremely impressed. Super moist and not too filling but left a smile on my face. Only downfall? I tried putting maple syrup on top of them and it kind of just soaked into them rather than being a sauce which I had hoped for. I always find myself needing a ton of toppings so I opted for an apple (and then some Purely Elizabeth Pumpkin Fig granola after the photo was taken).
The pancakes are made with ground oats (to produce an oat flour), coconut oil, almond milk and pumpkin pie spices like cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg; giving the breakfast a heavenly scent.
I could have eaten the whole batch (which made about 8). At least I had my mom to share them with!
While we were driving around one day last week, my step-dad drove us to the this amazing hill in Salina, Kansas where the view was breathtaking. We ended up sitting on these super neat stone picnic tables where we ate a picnic (that we brought from Whole Foods… typical me). I made a hummus wrap with roasted butternut squash, beets and kale using my favorite Ezekial Food For Life Sprouted Tortillas and bought a tub of “autumn couscous” from the prepared section at Whole Foods. It had squash and dried cranberries in it. Paired with a La Croix, it was one of my favorite meals of the week. Super simple with an amazing view of farmland. What more could you want?
One of my favorite lunches from the week was a combination of leftovers that my mom had from before I came to visit. This soup was all homemade and vegan. So filling and packed with nutritional benefits. I love vegetable based soups because they really are so much easier to make than any other kind. This one was primarily vegetable stock, kidney beans, tomatoes, onions and collard greens (from my mom’s garden-fresh, local and organic a.k.a. THE BEST).
I paired the soup with some Harvest Snaps snacks (in the Lentil Onion Thyme variety) which are my new addiction. I’ve been seeing Harvest Snaps everywhere lately. Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have them on display all the time and I even catch customers walking past me with 2-3 bags of them in their carts. If you haven’t tried them, go ahead and get on it. Some of their flavors are vegan, while the ones I tried did have some milk product in them but SUPER delicious regardless. I dipped them in my Falafel King Roasted Garlic hummus. Hands down best hummus I’ve ever tasted and to my disappointment, it isn’t sold in Cleveland or Chicago (probably due to the fact it’s a company based in Colorado) but boy did I scarf that tub down in a weekend flat.
The salad I had on the side of my snack and soup was just a leftover mix of butternut squash, beets and kale.
Needless to say I was overstuffed with veggies and in a happy food coma after this huge lunch.
To end out my second week of October eats, I’ll leave you with this b-e-a-u-tiful spread of some fantastic hummus my mom ordered as an appetizer from Sabor Latin Bar + Grille in Wichita, Kansas. It was served with pita bread and pita chips. I believe it was a combo of hummus and beans but whatever it was, I loved it. But come on, when do I have an interaction with hummus that I don’t enjoy?
So far this week’s eats are looking rather delicious and I am going to 3 different eateries in Chicago this coming weekend so October’s third week of eats post next week will be looking preeeetty A+ if you ask me.
Enjoy!
-Addie
