Tag: fall breakfast

Pumpkin Spice French Toast

Pumpkin Spiced French Toast
Pumpkin Spiced French Toast

It still feels like summer here on the East Coast, but fall is fast approaching. Fall is my favorite! I can’t wait for the cooler days and the leaves to change color, to be able to wear jeans without sweating to death, and sweatshirts. Who doesn’t love a cozy sweatshirt? There have been a few hints of fall this week with a couple of leaves falling and the nights becoming slightly cooler. It has gotten me in the mood. I make pumpkin muffins at the beginning of the week, and here we are making pumpkin spiced french toast. No, I do not drink Pumpkin Spiced Lattes, that’s yucky, too sweet, but I love the real stuff. Also, pumpkin is a vegetable, and, to be honest, I used butternut squash puree today so it’s another sneaky way for me to put veggies in everything. Toddler approved!

Top this fragrant french toast with maple syrup, coconut whipped cream, cinnamon roll topping, or anything else your heart desires.

Pumpkin Spice French Toast

 Ingredients

  • 2 happy eggs
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin puree or butternut squash puree
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground cloves
  • few dashes nutmeg
  • 6 slices whole grain bread (I used a flourless sprouted bread)
  • Coconut oil for cooking

Instructions

  1. Whisk the eggs until uniformly yellow.
  2. Add pumpkin, vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg whisking to combine.
  3. Dip bread into batter one slice at a time, and allow to rest while your pan pre-heats. This lets the batter soak into the bread a bit which makes for a better texture.
  4. Heat a large skillet over medium heat.
  5. Once the pan is hot add oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan.
  6. Add bread in a single layer leaving room between the slices. I have to cook this in 2 batches.
  7. Cook on the first side until golden brown, 2-3 minutes, flip and cook until the second side is also golden brown, a few more minutes.
  8. Serve hot with topping of choice.
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Vegan Apple Spice Cake for a Perfect Fall Day

Vegan Apple Spice Cake
Vegan Apple Spice Cake

It’s Halloween! One of my favorite holidays. I love costumes and dressing up, and the general fun that Halloween brings. It’s a day when it’s ok to be silly, to take life a little less seriously, and be playful. It’s also a chance to try out different aspects of your personality and play them up in the spirit of Halloween. Even with my love of Halloween we haven’t been able to celebrate much the last few years:( Also my husband doesn’t love Halloween and I really have to push him to do anything that involves costumes. That being said, this year is different! This year we have an adorable child to dress up, and even my husband is excited. He is so excited, he came up with joint costume for he and my daughter, it’s a T-Rex. So cute. Anyway, Grammy made the costumes and I can’t wait to dress Wolfie up!

Is this post about food? Maybe… When I was growing up we used to have super fun time on Halloween. My brothers and I would make haunted houses, we would make our own costumes, carve pumpkins, and my mom would make a big pot of chili and a camp fire. She would sit by the fire and hand out candy while my brothers and I went Trick or Treating, then we would come home and sit by the fire eating chili and the 5 pieces of candy she allowed us to have on the actual day. Side note: this rule was developed after my brothers made themselves throwing up sick on candy by trying to consume it all in one sitting. Silly boys.

This year I’ll probably make chili because of tradition, and I’ll round it out with this apple cake. The base of this cake is my great-grandmother’s spice cake with some apples tossed in. This is a great way to use up apples that are maybe not as crisp as they once were. It is full of warming spices, has the delightful bits of apples that caramelize as the cake cooks, and is exactly what you want on a chilly fall day (plus it smells amazing as it cooks). So Throw you chili in the crock pot, bake this cake, and have a happy Halloween.

Apple Spice Cake 

Ingredients

  • 1 cup non-dairy milk
  • 1 tsp. vinegar
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 TBL vegetable shortening
  • 1 tsp. chia seeds or psyllium husks mixed with 2 TBL water, or an egg if you aren’t vegan
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp. cloves
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 large, or 2 small apples peeled, seeded, and chopped

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 370F.
  2. Add vinegar to milk and set aside.
  3. Cream together sugar and shortening until smooth.
  4. Add the chia seed/water mixture to sugar and mix together.
  5. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
  6. Alternate between adding flour mixture and milk to the shortening, mixing thoroughly between additions.
  7. Stir in the apple.
  8. Pour batter into a greased 9×9 cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until cake pulls away from the edges of the pan.
  9. Great for dessert, breakfast, or a snack!