How bout pumpkin?

Yeah, how bout pumpkin? While researching a recent blog regarding weight loss and foods that help you do this, I came across a short paragraph regarding pumpkin? So here's the real deal, let's face it-it's not fun carving out a pumpkin unless Halloween's coming up, right? Plus, the other 11 months of the year where the heck are you going to find them? So pick up canned pumpkin. It is canned as a puree with nothing else added, which is perfect. Now here's the deelio-in 1/2 cup of pumpkin, there are only 40 calories, 0.5 grams of fat, 0 cholesterol, 9 grams of carbs...but wait-5 of those grams are fiber carbs!! That's 20% of your daily value of fiber! By the way, it contains 300% daily value of Vitamin A! Nice. So make a healthy pumpkin pie, and here are two other things I just tried this weekend which were outstanding:

1. Pumpkin Tomato Soup
You can get a little creative, but here's what I did:
Sautee 1 cup of celery and 1 cup of carrots until slightly soft, in a soup pot. Throw in some seasoning: garlic, cinnamon, ground cloves, salt, pepper, cayenne, to taste. Coat vegetables, then throw in 1 29oz can pumpkin and 1 29 oz can crushed tomatoes along with 6-8 cups of water and stir until blended. Heat to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 30 min. Throw in some corn for sweetness, about 2 cups, along with 1/4 cup of goat cheese to smooth it out. Simmer for another 20 minutes, then taste. You may need to tweak the seasonings and don't be afraid to try something new! This is how I even came up with this soup on the fly anyway!

2. Tasty Pumpkin Frosty
I used about 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin, 1/4 cup tart l/f vanilla frozen yogurt, 1 tbsp of blue agave nectar (a natural, organic, low-glycemic sweetener), and some cinnamon. stir this around and you have a delicious and creamy treat! Soon I am planning to create a pumpkin pie smoothie...2 scoops froyo, 2 scoops pumpkin, 1 oats/honey granola bar, 1/2 cup soy milk. Sounds good...try it!

Hey remember, get innovative with cooking and be resourceful. You will learn with every new thing you try, and you will master the things you tend to do all the time. Have some fun this holiday, and please post some of your delicious, nutritious creations! Thanks for reading and check back tomorrow!