What I've been cooking

I've been too busy to blog lately, sorry. I've been eating my usual meals, but I've also had a lot of opportunities lately to make "healthy" treats for various social events. I made up a pumpkin cream pie last Friday. Well, actually I just combined two different recipes, one for pumpkin pudding (from the Fuhrman recipe site), and a pie crust from a fruit tart recipe. The pie crust was a treat in itself, made with dates, nuts and ground oats. It was so sweet and delicious (and I couldn't stop eating it while preparing!). But the problem was it overwhelmed the more subtle pumpkin pudding, made from pumpkin, bananas, a peach, some almonds and some dates (and of course pumpkin pie spice). So I didn't post it because I didn't really consider it a success. My very polite guests said it was good but they were mostly enjoying the crust.

A few days ago, I made my own version of pumpkin pie pudding that did taste just like pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie, or so I thought. It's almost too rich and sweet for me now. I'm beginning to realize that pies are loaded with sweets and fats (duh), and if you make a "healthy" version, it's also probably loaded with sweets and fats, that is, if you are trying to make it taste like the version you remember. Pumpkins are kind of dull on their own, which is why you add all that sugar and fat to it. An easier way to get my Fall pumpkin pie spice flavor is to just make my mashed sweet potato with pumpkin pie spice.

Today I made a few things for a reception: an almond chocolate dip (for dipping strawberries, bananas, apples, carrots and celeries into), and a sweet potato apple bake. Here's a picture of the latter:

Both are from the Fuhrman recipe site. The almond chocolate dip has almonds, dates, vanilla, and cocoa powder. It is very rich. I tried not to eat too much because chocolate makes me jumpy. But it was hard to resist nibbling so I got jumpy, which is why I'm still awake at this time. It is very rich, and I feel full. I think my favorite treat of the whole week was the sweet potato apple bake. That just has sweet potatoes, apples, cranberries, raisins and orange juice baked in the oven. Simple, not too sweet, in fact, kind of tart with the cranberries, and not loaded with fat. Though I bet it would have tasted good with a few chopped walnuts. Someone else (Laurie) recommended cinnamon. That would have been good. I would definitely make this one again. All the other treats were too rich. I'm kind of surprised to hear myself say that!

This weekend I'll be away helping out with a sick relative so I'll just bring my own food from my staples list.