Two Bits Tuesday

This week's entry revolves around food, surprise surprise. All things pumpkin!

1. Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal: This week I tried two new pumpkin breakfast ideas - the first of which was Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal (recipe from Undressed Skeleton). Even though the recipe only calls for half a cup of oats, it makes a huge bowl of oatmeal with the water, almond milk, sprinkling of pecans, and pumpkin puree added to it.

While the oatmeal was extremely filling, I couldn't get a good balance to avoid a bland taste (trying to cut back on sugar, I'm so used to maple brown sugar oatmeal). Next time I'll add brown sugar to it. Or I'll just start with maple brown sugar oatmeal as a base!

2. Pumpkin Pie Protein Shake:  I usually do some sort of "green monster" shake with spinach for breakfast most mornings because it's easy to make and drink on the way to work, but figured I'd try out a pumpkin recipe for fall. I followed the recipe from Eating Well... Living Thin(er!), using almond milk, a tiny bit of half and half, scoop of vanilla protein powder, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, a little splenda, and plenty of ice. The recipe called for using frozen whipped topping (cool whip), but I didn't have any, and honestly I thought it tasted great without it. I figure I'll try adding chia seeds to it tomorrow morning. I will definitely continue making this one. It was delicious.

Anyone else obsessed with pumpkin during the fall as I am? I'm sure there will be more pumpkin recipes in my future!