The Blondissima

Pumpkin Curry

Thursday, October 10, 2013

This dish was inspired by a dish I had Thai restaurant I visited once. They had a vegetarian tasting menu that changes seasonally and it was such an unique experience because the food was amazing! One of the exotic dishes I tried there was pumpkin curry served on a bed of banana leaves. The chucks of pumpkin still had the outer skin on it so I could see it was a green pumpkin. So when I got home I googled what it was and discovered kabocha squash which is dark green on the outside but tastes sweeter than a pumpkin, a bit similar to a sweet potato. Surprisingly my local grocery store had it. I experimented making this recipe two different ways and this is what I've come up with. You can throw in whatever other vegetables you want, I liked using a bell pepper but green beans would work as well. You could also add chickpeas for more protein. I wanted authentic Thai flavor but couldn't find Thai basil (so I used regular basil) and found working with fresh lemongrass was a bit challenging. I served this on top of Jasmine rice.

Ingredients:
1 Kabocha Squash
1 Bell Pepper
1 cup of coconut milk
2 tablespoons of red curry paste
1 onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 lime
Jasmine Rice
lemongrass (optional)
fresh cilantro, mint, or basil (season to your liking)
pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F.
Cut the squash in half, remove the seeds, and bake face down for 30 minutes.
In the meantime remove the outer tough layers of the stalk of lemongrass, cut off the end and top third and discard. Chop the remaining lemongrass.
Place lemongrass in a food processor to grind it up. This step is important because otherwise the sliced pieces will be hard to eat.
Chop the onion, garlic, and bell pepper. Saute in a large pot with the lemongrass heated with oil.
Add the curry paste to the onion mixture.
Remove the squash from the oven, chop the squash into bite size chunks and discard of the skin.
Add coconut milk and and squash to pot. When the sauce comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer for about 8 minutes.
Remove from heat and squeeze lime into the curry. Season with pepper. Top with your choice of cilantro and mint leaves or fresh basil.

Pumpkin Soup

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Ingredients:

4 Macintosh apples - peeled, cored and chopped

1 tablespoon butter

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree or (better yet fresh)

4 cups vegetable broth

1 cup water (optional)

Directions:

1.	Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, curry, and cumin; saute, stirring often, until onion is soft and fragrant.
2.	Stir in apples, pumpkin, broth, and water. Bring to a boil, stirring often. Cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3.	Puree soup in a blender, be careful it's hot.
4.	Return soup to saucepan; reheat, covered, over low heat.

Nutritional Analysis
5 servings
120 cal, 2g protein, 9g fiber, 18g sugar (from just the apples)

I serve this with tofu croutons, 1/5 a package per serving
130 cal, 14g protein

Total 250 calories, 16g protein

Pumpkin Pie Shakeology

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

It's fall which means pumpkin flavored everything! For some of you that means Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, but since I don't drink coffee I added pumpkin to my shakeology! I love Shakeology because it's not just a protein shake but a whole meal with 70 amazing ingredients and will keep me healthy during cold season. It's super easy to make and a sweet alternative to getting a pumpkin donut at Dunkin Donuts. This recipe won't taste the same with another brand of protein powder as Vanilla Shakeology has a distinctive flavor that adds to this, plus you won't get the full nutritional benefit with another brand.

Lots of other protein powders are full of synthetic and artificial ingredients. Shakeology is made of high qualify natural ingredients. You want to give your body the best, that's shakeology.

Ingredients:
1 scoop Vanilla Shakeology
3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
½ cup pumpkin puree
1 Tbsp. coarsely chopped raw pecans
1 tsp. pure maple syrup
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
ice (optional)

Directions:
1. Place almond milk, pumpkin puree, pecans, maple syrup, pumpkin pie spice, Shakeology, and ice in blender; cover. Blend until smooth.

Nutritional Information (per serving):

Calories: 260 Protein: 20g Fiber: 9
(minus the pecans it's 210 cal)

Funny story - I've been making this pumpkin pie shakeology for a week now and today when I mixed it, it tasted blah and I thought am I just tired of drinking it? Then I realized I forgot to put the shakeology powder in the blender! lol I was just drinking pumpkin mixed with almond milk! lol

Guess what! The MGM hotel in Las Vegas now has Shakeology on their menu at the Avenue 24 restaurant! Soon to be offered in room service as well.

Sugar pumpkins - bake your own pumpkin!

Monday, October 7, 2013

Welcome to Pumpkin Week on my blog! Let me introduce you to sugar pumpkins, they are about 2 to 4 pounds, thus much smaller than the pumpkins you buy for halloween carving. They are sweeter and don't have that stringy flesh carving pumpkin have so they are perfect for all your pumpkin dishes.

They only cost $2 each but make sure your cashier knows you're not buying a carving pumpkin and rings it up correctly, that happened to me and I saw she had charged me $8 for a little pumpkin! I prefer to buy sugar pumpkins instead of canned pumpkin because the taste is really quite different from fresh pumpkin and I've found that all my pumpkin recipes come out tasting different as well. Not to mention the orange color between fresh and canned pumpkin is totally different!

My goal is to show you how simple it is to prepare a sugar pumpkin so you're not daunted by this task. It does take some time but totally worth the effort for the better flavor of fresh pumpkin.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F and grab a sharp knife.
Slice the stem off first so you don’t have to slice through the stem, then slice the pumpkin in half.
Scoop out the seeds & guts with a spoon, you can save the seeds for roasting if you want, though I've never had success with this. lol
Place pumpkin face down on a baking sheet.
Roast for about 50 minutes or until you can poke a fork easily through it.
Let the pumpkin cool for 10 minutes then scoop out the insides and store in tupperware.
Leave in fridge overnight to chill some more then place the pumpkin flesh in a food processor to blend to make it smooth for a puree.

1 small sugar pumpkin should make enough puree to equal one 15-oz. can.

How to Cut a Pomegranate

Friday, October 4, 2013

It's pomegranate season and I'm excited to see them at the grocery store! And not just because they look gorgeous sitting in a bowl on my kitchen counter, but because they're a superfood with a high nutrient makeup! Pomegranates are originally from the region of Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq and are the oldest known fruit in ancient writings. Pomegranates are high in vitamin C, numerous B vitamins and antioxidants which helps in cancer prevention and skin health. They also aid in lowering cholesterol levels.

Consuming pomegranates regularly can help prevent acne and eliminate its root causes by correcting digestive problems and promoting healthy circulation of the blood. The fruit is rich in iron, a constituent part of hemoglobin that helps absorb oxygen. Oxygen is carried to the skin cells, making the skin look fresh and smooth.

Cutting open a pomegranate is a messy operation since the juice splatters everywhere and stains. I wanted to share a foolproof method to avoid this!

Fill a large bowl with water.
Submerge the pomegranate in water and cut in half.
Loosen the red seeds with your fingers; they will sink to the bottom of the bowl while the white peel will float to the top.
Drain the water and your pomegranate is ready to eat!