Pumpkin Oatmeal: The Ultimate Autumn Breakfast

The yellow, orange, and red foliage that bring the needed pops of colours during a gloomy, rainy day and that shine vibrantly in the shining sun. Ahhhh, autumn.. 'tis the season to incorporate pumpkin into every recipe possible. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin bars, pumpkin latte, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and pumpkin oatmeal. Today I will share with you one of the warmest, coziest, most-autumn-y breakfast one could possibly enjoy on a chilly morning. Not to mention it's extremely healthy, full of wholesome ingredients and no refined sugars of any sort.

The dry ingredients: oats + cinnamon

The trick to sweetening this oatmeal without adding granulated or brown sugar, or even honey, is the 'melted banana trick'. After I discovered this creative natural sweetener from Chocolate Covered Katie (who's recipes I adore), I will refuse to make oatmeal without a spotted banana lying around. I don't use the microwave but instead caramelize it (or cook it, if I'm impatient) in my pot before adding the rest of the wet ingredients. It adds so much sweetness and flavour, totally brings a plain bowl of oatmeal to the next level.

A bowl of oatmeal is the perfect breakfast to kick start the day. Oats provide long-lasting energy and are digested slowly, therefore keeping you fuller for longer. This particular recipe has a whole serving of fruits and vegetables in it! Cellulose (aka fibre) keeps the digestive tract squeaky clean! The warmth also energizes the body on a cold morning, or any morning really. Contrary to what I often read on the Internet, cold food is actually not a good way to start the day. Cold food takes away the body's energy, because the body uses up it's energy to warm the food it is ingesting. That's probably why diet articles always encourage dieters to chug down an ice cold glass of water right after getting up. Being raised in a Chinese family, my mom always frowns at me when I pour a ice cold glass of milk into my cereal. But I really have a thing against warm and soggy cereal, it's gross. So, if I am in need of a hot breakfast (that isn't pancakes or something with eggs), oatmeal satisfies.

This recipe can be customized to your liking; feel free to adjust amounts and add or omit items to suit your taste buds. I'm more of a chunky oatmeal kinda gal, so my liquid to oats ratio is a tad lower. Aaaand I love cinnamon, so a heaping teaspoon of that for good measure.

Hot bowl of Pumpkin Oatmeal

Using quick oats is the way to go, because if an empty stomach screaming for breakfast makes you cranky like me, then waiting more than five minutes for food isn't going to cut it. Measure out dry ingredients in the bowl you plan to eat out of, dunk all wet stuff into a small pot, boil, mix, boil eat. Easy and quick. Okay, enough with my meaningless mumble jumble. Here's the recipeeeee!!

Pumpkin Oatmeal

Recipe by Coconut Crumpet

Serves 1 

Ingredients

• ½ ripe banana (the riper the better!)
• ¼ quick cooking oats
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ cup pumpkin puree
• ¼ cup milk
• Splash of vanilla

Extras

• 1 tbsp nut butter – add to pot with wet ingredients
• Yogurt – stir in at the end; flavoured yogurts add extra sweetness
• Chopped toasted nuts – for topping
• Honey – extra sweetness

Directions

1. In a small saucepan or pot, mash ripe banana into a puree. Cook over medium heat until sizzling and 'breathing'.
2. In a small bowl, combine oats and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. Once banana is caramelized or cooked, add milk, pumpkin, vanilla, and any other wet ingredients you wish you add in. Cover pot with lid and bring to a boil.
4. Once wet ingredients have come to a boil, add dry ingredients and stir. Cover and cook for 3 minutes, or according to package directions. 
5. Serve hot with a splash of milk, top with something crunchy, or drizzle more nut butter or honey on top. Dig in!

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡

Aren't my Piglet and Eeyore purple pajamas the best? :P

The Calm Before the Storm: A Snippet of Coconut Crumpet's Life

The clouds move in and summer moves out. It's the Sunday summer leaves Vancouver, wind, rain, lightening and thunder take its place. Back to living in Raincouver...

Honey Roasted Mission Figs

To contrast that gloomy mess outdoors, I discovered a new favourite treat. I've documented my love of ricotta in pancakes and muffins, and my first box of mission figs. Combine the two in an open-faced sandwich, add a drizzle of honey and there you have it, the most classy breakfast ever. Here are some more detailed instructions:

Ricotta, Honey, and Fig Tartine

To roast figs, place them cut-side up on a baking dish, drizzle with honey, add a few cracks of freshly ground pepper and bake at 400˚F for about 15 minutes. Toast a slice of bread until brown. Spread ricotta cheese over one side, taking care to spread all the way to the edges. Drizzle with honey (or mix the honey in with the ricotta before spreading on bread) and top with roasted figs. Bake at around 400˚F until ricotta cheese is browned (about 15 minutes?). Don't be impatient like me and take it out the second a browning spot of ricotta appears. Good things come to those who wait ;)

Whole Wheat Ricotta Peach Scones

After a hectic morning of teaching Sunday school to the cutest grade ones and twos, and a roll of kimbap for lunch, I kept myself occupied in the afternoon by baking up a batch of scones. Whole wheat ricotta peach scones. It's the first batch of scones I've made at home where cutting the dough into shapes was possible. For some strange reason, whenever I make scones at home (yes, it only happens at home), the dough becomes so runny I am forced to make drop scones instead. They don't taste bad at all, but it's frustrating when everyone else can cut their dough into different shapes and mine always end up being circular mounds. I am not super content with the outcome of the scones; they were a bit too greasy and not sweet at all. I'll do a few tweaks to improve the recipe before I post it. For those that are itching to try these scones themselves, I followed the recipe from Smitten Kitchen but used frozen coconut oil instead of butter, milk instead of heavy cream, and added some meyer lemon zest (makes all the difference). I think an egg wash would really benefit the appearance of these scones and some vanilla or almond extract for an extra flavour boost. The glisten you see on my scones is from a drizzle of honey I added at the end and attempted to caramelize under the broiler.

Before the thunderstorm, and where I do my food photography

So this is how Coconut Crumpet usually spends her weekends, that is when there isn't any homework to be done. We'll be watching the rain fall for the next half a year... Although the chilly season brings bad weather, I am looking forward to eating mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival (it's actually before the Autumn Equinox...) this week and pulling out those large cans of pumpkin puree I've been storing in the basement since Christmas. I have a perfected pumpkin loaf to share with you all. It's one of my faaaaavourites! Time to dig out my rain boots and that black peacoat I'm known to wear all autumn and winter long.

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡ 

Fig, Almond, and Raspberry Yogurt Cake

It's my first time trying fresh figs. Alice is yelling at me, "You're mad, bonkers, off your head!" I know... These juicy, succulent, sweet delicacies, why didn't I go out in a mad search for these earlier?

I've been eager to work with fresh figs before the summer season began. My only experiences with figs are using the 'Chinese method'; adding dried figs to Chinese soups (which are usually broths) for sweetness and flavour. Eating fresh ones is completely foreign to my family. So are a lot of other foods; I constantly open my parents' eyes to new and exciting food. 

My neighbour has a fig tree in their backyard, and over the years, its branches have grown over to our backyard. For those that love figs, this would be a dream come true. However, I didn't know when the right time was to pick the fruit so we ended up with starchy, unripe figs in our mouth every time we decided to cut one open. That discouraged us from picking anymore. 

A bowl of fresh Black Mission Figs

During my last visit to our local Superstore, I scored a box of black mission figs for only two dollars! These babies could easily cost five dollars or more. Cha-ching! Finally, I can experiment with these luscious fruits. Hmm... with ricotta, in a muffin, or simply roasted? I can't decide. 

Beautiful, soft insides of a fig

A ripe fig should be soft and its thin skin should almost be wrinkly. A really delicious fig may have syrup beginning to drip out from the bottom end. The downside to purchasing from a grocery store is that the figs may not have been picked at its peak ripeness.

I was surprised at the soft, almost jelly-like flesh of fresh figs. Like dates, it's like nature's candy. It's unlike any other fruit I've tried and this made me very eager to get on with incorporating them into some recipes. After an evening of brainstorming a list of ideas, I decided to begin with a simple yogurt cake, pairing the figs with a drizzle of honey.

Grab a slice!

This cake is moist, flavourful, and fragrant. The yogurt replaces much of the fat while keeping the cake moist. That leaves us with only a quarter cup of coconut oil in an entire cake! I wished the figs had more time to roast and shrivel up a bit more; that would increase the sweetness of the fruit. But even after a bit of cooking in the oven, the figs provided much of the flavour and sweetness necessary for the cake. A sprinkle of sliced almonds gives a bit of textural contrast, and everything is better with some nuts ;)Raspberries give a pop of bright colour to the cake. It's the first time frozen raspberries haven't failed my entire baked good, I haven't had great experiences with using frozen raspberries... ahem. The hidden magic comes from the Meyer lemon zest. A Meyer lemon makes all the difference. The concoction of aroma coming from the oven while this cake is baking is mind-blowing. Ripe fruit, coconut, caramelizing honey, and zingy zest are all present.

A slice of Fig, Almond, and Raspberry Yogurt Cake

I've even healthified it by replacing some of the flour with whole wheat flour, wouldn' be a recipe from Coconut Crumpet without it being guiltless. Low in fat, sugar, increased fibre, and flavoured with fruits and nuts, this makes a fantastic afternoon snack or dessert. It's also very classy and would impress adults. Oh ho ho! Reheat a portion of this cake in the oven and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, honeyed yogurt, or whipped cream and top with a few quarters of fresh fig. De-lish.

Time to dig in!

Click below to view the recipe!

Strawberry Swirled Mini Ricotta Cheesecakes

Here comes another birthday post! This time for my very best friend Az, whom was featured with the glorious chicken wings at Phnom Pehn. Strawberries and cheesecake are two of her favourite foods, so that's what I planned as her birthday cake. But with a twist!

Strawberry Swirled Mini Ricotta Cheesecakes

Unlike my Berry Swirl Cheesecake or Mocha Cheesecake Squares, there are two types of cheeses in this cake, cream cheese and ricotta. The addition of ricotta creates a texture that is much lighter and fluffier. On the cheesiness scale, I'd place these mini cheesecakes between a New York cheesecake and a Japanese cheesecake, but closer to the Japanese one. It's not as spongy as it's Japanese relative, just a bit cheesier.  Perhaps my cheesecakes like puns... (Okay, that was a really bad joke. Just for you, Peanut Crumpet =___=;;)

Fresh Summer Strawberries

The simple strawberry sauce can easily be substituted by almost any other flavours. Other fruits such as blackberries would work beautifully (check out my blackberry + ricotta recipe) or richer flavours like peanut butter or chocolate could be used too! To do so, reserve a bit of cheesecake batter to mix in a generous scoopful of peanut butter, cocoa powder, or whatever flavour your heart desires. To create the heart-shaped swirls, simply dot a few blobs of sauce over the raw batter and drag a toothpick through the centre depending on which direction you wish the hearts to go. A simple yet impressive design!

More fresh strawberries!

To amp up the aroma of these individual cheesecakes, I toasted some almonds to whiz in with the crust. Hiding it in the crust is a discrete way to add another element to the dessert; my mom suddenly asked me "what did you put in the crust?" She definitely knew it wasn't the basic graham cracker crust, but couldn't quite put her finger on what was different.

Strawberry Swirled Mini Ricotta Cheesecakes

These muffin-sized miniature cheesecakes make it clean to pack to work or school for a snack or to share at a party. The paper liner doesn't stick at all once the cake has thoroughly been cooled. Clean and easy to eat, -thumbs up-

Ready to dig into my serving of Strawberry Ricotta Cheesecake

Serving these mini cheesecakes with a generous dollop of the swirling sauce is an easy way to not only use up the leftover sauce, but to strengthen the strawberry flavour. Because, realistically, seven drips of strawberry sauce doesn't stand out much when the cheese flavour is so prominent.

Click below for the recipe!

Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Simple Blueberry Sauce

These will be the fluffiest pancakes you will ever put into your mouth. They are cloud-like and will take you on a field trip to heaven. Really.

Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Blueberry Sauce

My family has been consuming blueberries at record amounts; the 40lbs we picked at Krause Berry Farms just a week ago has pretty much been consumed as is. Being a cook, I wanted to make something with fresh blueberries, as it is very rare I have them at hand to use in a recipe. Frozen berries turn my baking into disasters...it's very unfortunate. So I saved a small box of blueberries to create something magnificent. And I managed to reach my goal.

Time to take a bite of Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Pancakes smothered with Blueberry Sauce

I remember Peanut Crumpet telling me about her mom's uber fluffy ricotta pancakes. With that inspiration in mind, I searched the Internet for a blueberry version. Blueberry + lemon + ricotta appealed to me the most; the light and fresh flavours were perfect for a summer brunch. My mouth started salivating as I scrolled through all the photos, I was so eager to make them!

Admire the fluffiness of these Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

A Day of Coconut Bliss

Exam time has come for us students, which means study time occupies (or should occupy) the majority of our time and effort. Seven tests coming up in the next two weeks for Coconut Crumpet, such joy. I'm not even sure my brain has the capacity to hold four full courses worth of information at one time. And to add to my troubles, I have been feeling sick for two days now. Congested nose, headaches, fatigue... It seems like viruses and bacteria happen to only love me during test times.

Coconut Pancakes

To relieve some of this stress and pressure, I decided to allow myself to enjoy a fancy Sunday morning breakfast. Surely I can use some time to appreciate the most important meal of the day before studying for another few hours. After watching Leaftv's drool-enducing video, my mind has been set to make these pancakes. The time has come for Coconut Crumpet to do so. Although my pancake-making skills are still lacking, I thoroughly enjoyed my coconut pancakes. Get the recipe at A Cozy Kitchen and make these filling pancakes! Using my silver dollar pancake pan, half the recipe yielded me exactly 4 pancakes. My new found way to eat my pancakes is with a generous dollop of yogurt and a drizzle of honey. In this case, with the best coconut yogurt I've encountered so far, Liberte's coconut yogurt. Yes it's fruit bottom (meaning lots of sugar) and almost 9% milk fat, but everything in moderation is okay~

Coconut Bliss 'Ice Cream' in Naked Coconut

So far my weekend has consisted of eating, or studying. A pile of physics review, social studies vocabulary and 410 Mandarin vocabulary words sit on my table longing for my attention. Since studying requires a lot of brainpower, and the majority of calories are burned to function the brain, it's important to fuel the body when doing some serious studying! When my tummy started asking for food again, I went to grab my newly bought tub of Coconut Bliss. You can read about my first experience with this genius masterpiece here. Eating this just alleviates some stress and brings me to bliss~ I can't wait to eat more of it over the course of the upcoming summer season. That is, if I live to see the end of June..

Sunday is the day that passes by much too quickly; church in the morning then afternoon and evening zooms by. Before I can fully recover, is Monday again. A funny quote I saw a while back said "Why is Monday so far from Friday and Friday so near to Monday?" I wholeheartedly agree. To some, summer is right around the corner. For me, summer is so distant, it's almost unattainable. To help me get through busy times, I tend treat my tongue to some of my favourite foods, like coconut. How do you keep yourself motivated during a hard time?


Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡

Butternut Squash Stuffed with Balsamic Quinoa

Butternut Squash Stuffed with Balsamic Quinoa

June has started off beautifully with a blue sky and warm temperatures. The weather is always unpredictable where we live; I've been going between shorts and long jeans on and off since the middle of March! It'll be super hot and sunny one week, then go back to rain for the next month, then back to summer temperatures. It's been a while since we've seen sunshine here, making me very excited for summer! I'll be sitting in class these next to weeks studying like crazy while starring out the window longing to be outside rather than inside.

On a random note, during my family's weekly visit to Costco, my mom discovered this box of amazing-ness for me. Mango. Coconut. Almond. Biscuits. -quiet scream of joy from inside of me- I've been aware of THINaddictive's cranberry almond thins (aka biscotti that has been sliced super thin) for a long time but never really took interest in those. Obviously, I have a soft spot for anything with the word 'coconut' in it, I couldn't possibly say no. There are eight grams of sugar in one packet of 3 tiny cookies, not making these the healthiest of snacks. Nevertheless, I'm very excited to taste them (with a scoop of real vanilla ice cream...:D)
 
I've been blessed with a rather carefree week with no tests and barely any homework. Even so, I usually have to wait for the weekend to roll around until I can try out those recipes I keep saving onto my computer. For lunch today, I made a radish soup. After pureeing the radish/potato mixture, it became this beautiful baby pink colour. But don't let the colour fool you, the added wasabi oil (I didn't have horseradish) gave an extra kick to the already bitter radish flavour. Looks are deceiving... I've decided not to share the recipe as I didn't think it was very good. Not a soup I'd bother making again. Roast your radishes or eat them raw instead. Maybe later tonight I'll attempt a Lemon Coconut Loaf... 

This recipe is what I had for dinner today. I know, butternut squash is totally an autumn produce, but my mom loves it so much she seems to buy one every week. Not that I'm complaining, because it's simply delicious! It's the weekend, so I have the time to experiment and cook my own meals. To season my quinoa, I used my Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing. I left out the extra olive oil today, as there is already oil used to cook the veggies. However, feel free to leave it in for some extra flavour. All the vegetables I used can be substituted for anything you have lying in your fridge; that's what I always use. This is totally a healthy recipe, filled with vegetables, low in fat, good source of fibre and protein... but not in anyway lacking flavour and texture! The rest of my family jealously watched me eat this adorable dish at the dinner table. They wish they had one too!

 

Butternut Squash Stuffed with Balsamic Quinoa

By Coconut Crumpet

Yield: 1 serving

Ingredients

• The bottom of one butternut squash, seeds and stringy bits scooped out
• 3 tbsp uncooked quinoa
• 6 tbsp chicken stock
• Oil, for frying
• 1 clove garlic, diced
• 2 white button mushrooms, diced
• ½ celery stalk, diced
• ¾ cup broccoli florets
• 2 tbsp water
• 3 tbsp corn niblets
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp honey
• Salt & pepper to taste 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place butternut squash cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet (rimmed because juices may flow out near the end). Once oven is ready, bake squash for 35 minutes, or until tender.
2. In a small pot, cook quinoa in stock covered over high heat until liquid comes to a boil. Reduce heat to minimum and continue to cook covered for 15 minutes, until all the liquid is absorbed.
3. Heat a frying pan. When hot, add oil, garlic, and celery until fragrant. 
4. When celery becomes translucent, add mushrooms, broccoli, and water. Cover with a lid and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to medium heat when boiled and steam vegetables for a few minutes. Add corn.
5. In a small microwaveable bowl, combine balsamic vinegar and honey. Microwave for 10 seconds until honey is melted. 
6. Fluff cooked quinoa and add to frying pan. Add vinegar mixture and season with salt and pepper. Stir fry until quinoa is dry.
7. Stuff cooked butternut squash with quinoa mixture. (There may be extra depending on the size of the hole that contained the seeds) Place back in oven and bake for another 5 minutes. 

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡