What I Ate Wednesday: Pumpkin Edition

Good morning!!!!!!!!

Holy shit, are things slowing down all around me. Summer is decidedly gone, and I’m sad about it, not gonna lie- but the fall produce is POPPING up here in Portland, and it’s absolutely soothing the burn of no more warmth. Today I want to give you a sneak peak into all the good stuff I’ve been eating! 

This bowl of oats was positively fantastic. In addition to oatmeal, it included home made walnut milk, cinnamon seared apples, a hint of maple extract, pureed pumpkin, and peanut butter.

Let me tell you a little something about Pumpkin: right now, I absolutely have more than I even know what to do with. Let me explain:

By some amazing stroke of luck, one of the first new people I met in Portland happens to be a farmer. Not just any farmer, but one with an overabundance of produce and an under-abundance of time to cook up said produce. As soon as I figured out that this was this guy’s deal, I knew I had a trade in mind. He gives me veggies, I make him some servings of food from said veggies. I asked him what he might think of such a trade and when he responded by saying “This is perfect!” I nearly flipped my shit. Was I really about to be getting a fuckton of free vegetables just for portioning aside some of what I already made? Yes. Yes I was.

So this week, in addition to all the greens and onions and beets and carrots and the last of the summer corn, I got pumpkins. Not one pumpkin, or two pumpkins, or even three. I got five pumpkins.

I figured I better get to cooking.

These pumpkin pie chocolate thumbprint cookies were kind of a perfect pre-workout treat. I had formulated the recipe for KeVita (the post should go up sometime in November!) and I was struck by how tasty and wholesome they were, and how well they held together for something that was both vegan and gluten-free (Pumpkin makes an excellent binder, y’all). I ate one before my workout (with my new maybe-workout buddy! I am still seeking more of these if you like to olympic lift, powerlift, and get all around sweaty and stoked)

Post cookie, here was my workout:

5 sets of 2: snatch grip deadlifts + power snatch

5 sets of 1 complex: 2 military presses + 3 push presses

4 sets of 2: front squats with a three second pause at the bottom

2 supersets

10 seated box jumps

10 dumbell split squats (10 on each leg)

then the cardio!

400 meter row

4 sets of 5 front squats and 10 pull-ups

400 meter row

The whole thing took us about an hour and a half and when I was done I was truly READY for this recovery smoothie.

This mix included more walnut milk, Vega Sport vanilla protein powder, 1/2 a banana, ice, and- you guessed it- pumpkin.

After I threw the smoothie down my hatch it was time to do a little work. My main point of focus these days is putting the finishing touches on formulating my Reset and Restore program, which is a three week group class with a focus on vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free eating, mindfulness and meditation, movement, and feeling fucking awesome. In between recording some of the meditations I am sending people, formulating meal plans, making shopping lists, and researching mindfulness, I ate this soup (a french onion one, the recipe of which was actually formulated for Reset and Restore!) along with a slice of the best vegan gluten-free bread ever topped with a slice of melted Daiya swiss (vegan) cheese. It was p-re-tttt-y damn satisfying.  (there are a couple of spots left in the Reset and Restore, too! Just sign up before Halloween)

For dinner, I made some seared purple cabbage, smoky tempeh crumbles, and a side of mashed pumpkin. I am kind of embarrassed by the constant occurance of pumpkin at this point, but fuck it- let me tell you what I capped my day off with.

A creamy, cinnamony pumpkin pudding. Another Reset and Restore recipe, and this one is a serious keeper.

By shaping my meals around the produce I am getting, I feel like I am both extremely well fed, and saving a TON of cash. That’s a recipe for one happy lady!

What have you been eating lately?