Creamy Pumpkin Coconut Sauce

I love the fall for all the cooking/food making inspiration!!! It’s my favorite season when it comes to kitchen time 🙂 My very first seasonal recipe was this Salted Caramel Chai tea infused concoction I made. The kids and I have been devouring that one with sliced apples, soooo tasty!!!

And now I am looking forward to all the pumpkin and squash recipes I will be coming up with and getting inspired by!! This was another semi-accident. It was late and I needed to get dinner ready fast. I had this leftover baked pumpkin and it only took a few moments for me to realize that the fastest way to eat that (other than straight out of the skin with a fork), was to throw it in the blender with a few other ingredients to create a soup. No wait! I’ll make it a sauce so we can have it over pasta 🙂 And there it was, minutes later, our tasty family dinner.

I topped my bowl off with some homemade spicy seeds.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup fresh raw pumpkin seeds, not dried or cooked (I just keep the seeds after taking them out of the raw pumpkin)
• 3/4 cup almond milk or coconut milk
• 3/4 cup cooked pumpkin or squash
• 1/4 cup coconut cream (from a can, organic toxic free if possible)
• 1/4 tsp real salt
• 2 TBS fresh parsley minced
• 1/4 tsp dried sage

Steps:

• if you dont have left over squash, then bake it in the oven for about 45 minutes
• put first 3 ingredients in blender and blend on high until nice and smooth
• add other ingredients and blend until the herbs are nicely incorporated but not fully blended
• serve how ever you like!
• we did it over zucchini pasta for a light yet satisfying dinner

Check out my other zucchini pasta recipes here:

With tomato sauce

With sesame peanut sauce

With rawlfredo sauce

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Springtime Cucumber Noodle Salad

Crunchy, fresh, lightly sweet and flavorful. This salad was such a refreshing late afternoon snack after spending the day in the sun gardening.

If you do not own a spiralizer, I urge you to get one! They are so easy to use and turn your everyday vegetables into fun culinary experiences. Chopping up cucumbers to make this salad, would absolutely work, but I have to say that eating it with chopsticks because of the noodle like consistency, added to my enjoyment and therefor my appreciation for what I was eating.

Ingredients:

• 1 large cucumber
• 2TBS fresh orange juice
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• 1 TBS fresh basil, chopped
• 1 handful snap peas
• salt
• 1 tsp orange zest(optional)
• basil leaves for garnish

Steps:

• either spiralize your cucumber or shred it using a vegetable peeler
• put it in a plate and toss it with all other ingredients
• enjoy and feel refreshingly nourished!

Sweet Potato Spaghetti

Grain free spaghetti that takes less than 5 minutes to make? Ummmm, yes please!! If you are a sweet potato fan and a noodle fan, than I don’t see why you wouldn’t love this! I’ve been making zucchini noodles for years with my spiralizer. And I truly adore them. I don’t see why I would ever replace them as they are my favorite noodle alternative. But these sweet potato noodles are so fun and much more kid friendly! Ingredients:

• 2 large sweet potatoes (or as many as you want really)
• water
• ice cubes

Steps:

• In a pot bring enough water to a boil where you would be able to submerge your sweet potato pasta with
• in the meantime, following the instructions of your spiralizer, “noodelize” (that is too a word!) your sweet potatos
• once the water is boiling put your “pasta” in, and set your timer for 3 minutes
• really pay close attention as your noodles could quickly turn to mush if you leave them in the booing water too long. Taste them and take them out when they are still a little crunchy, but barely.
• drain when they are to your liking and stick them in a bowl filled with water and ice in order to stop the cooking. Let cool for a couple minutes before draining again.
• serve how ever you feel like!

For this time around I had made miso soup and the kids really wanted noodles to go with it. So I served it these. But of course just a basic tomato or pesto sauce would work great too 🙂

Asian “noodle” salad

This dish is so simple yet packed with flavor. The flavors and texture totally remind me of this asian noodle salad I get at a restaurant nearby. But with more wholesome natural ingredients I am sure. I had some leftover Orange Sesame dressing so went off of that for my lunch today.

I spiralized some veggies for the noodle effect, added a couple other goodies, and had myself a delicious lunch.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup spiralized carrots
• 1 cup spiralized zucchini
• 1 cup shredded cabbage
• 2 tangerines, peeled then cut in half
• 1/3 cup orange sesame dressing
• 1 TBS natural crunchy peanut butter

Steps:

• combine peanut butter and dressing until well mixed
• pour over vegetables
• toss and eat up!

If you don’t own a spiralizer (you should totally get one!!!), you can use a vegetable peeler and slice your veggies lengthwise for a similar effect.