So the third week of September happened and without any warning fall arrived. Just like that. A week of waiting for the bus in the rain at least ended in a weekend of sunny, but cooler weather. On the up side, pumpkin season! I’m no longer a pumpkin spice latte lover that I once was, but I couldn’t resist buying my first can of purée to whip up these treats.
First up, pumpkin spice smoothies, based on this recipe.

Instead of apple juice I used about a tbsp of honey, and garnished with walnuts, which I had on hand. This made 2 small servings, which were the perfect size for the kiddo and I. Two thumbs up.

Today it was pumpkin bread and mini-muffins. Based it on an Allrecipes recipe, but altered it so much I’m just going to rewrite it here:
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup pumpkin
1/2 c brown sugar / 1/4 c white sugar / 1/4 coconut sugar
1/2 c applesauce
2 eggs

1/4 – 1/2 c lite coconut milk

Optional: walnuts, chocolate chips, pumpkin seeds

Preheat 375. Grease your tins. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Then the wet in a large bowl (not the coconut milk). When adding the dry with the wet, use the coconut milk if the batter gets dry.

I used my small loaf pan, where I added walnuts and pumpkin seeds on top. Then with the rest of the batter I added a handful or more of semisweet chocolate chips.

The mini muffins took 15 minutes. The small loaf (no pic) took about 45 min.

Both got good ratings from the family. Really, you can’t go wrong with pumpkin spice.