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

Nectarine & Almond Banana Bread

Nectarine & Almond Banana Bread

Just a quick post on a variation of my recent Healthy Banana Bread recipe! Since nectarines are currently in season, all plump, sweet, and beautiful, I decided to incorporate this summer fruit into my banana loaf. Here are the alterations I made to the banana bread recipe linked above:

1. Leave out the shredded coconut
2. ½ tsp vanilla and ½ tsp almond extract
3. 1 nectarine (or peach), divided. Dice ¾ of the fruit and slice the last ¼ into super thin slices for topping the loaf.
4. 1 tsp of cinnamon, or more, if you love cinnamon like me :P
5. Instead of toasted walnuts, use ¼ toasted almonds. Either whole almonds chopped into smaller chunks or sliced almonds. Now don't be like me and toast your sliced almonds but forget to fold them in until the loaf is already in the oven.... Fail Coconut Crumpet, fail..

Nectarine & Almond Banana Bread

Sound yummy to you? I promise you this will be the best banana bread recipe ever, the one and only banana bread recipe you'll need. Endless types of banana bread can be created with this healthy base batter. Mix in different nuts, chocolate, fruit, and flavours to create your dream banana bread. I'm thinking of adding raspberries to this variation to make a Peach Melba banana bread! Sounds so cute~

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡

Healthy Banana Walnut Bread (with Coconut!)

Healthy Banana Walnut Bread with Coconut

Recently, I've returned to my obsession with Despicable Me minions. Last year, us Nutty Crumpets were crazy enough to put the Banana Song at the end of our YPI presentation. We thought it would be funny and end the seemingly depressing topic on a light-hearted note, but that nearly cost us not advancing to the semi-finals. Although I can't say the second movie was the best movie I've ever seen, it was definitely an entertaining movie to watch. Yes, it completely contrasts the first movie as Gru the villain is no longer doing evil deeds, but the increased amount of minion action makes up for it. 

What the banana minion says when you pull the banana

Mc Donald's currently carries minion toys as part of the kids' Happy Meal. It's extremely strange for me to want to visit Mc Donald's much less beg to go. The toys certainly do their job very well of luring children (or children at heart, ahem) into buying their food. Thankfully, Happy Meals are not the worst thing to force down your throat and are fairly priced. The portion control and healthy options like milk and apples makes for a acceptable fast food meal. By the way, the hamburger is the 'healthiest' entree option, Happy Meal or not. Anyways, back to the toys. I was disappointed to find that my preferred minion toy was not available on the first trip to get a Happy Meal with Az. Since then, I have dragged my parents to five different locations in search of the 'banana minion'. A successful Coconut Crumpet feels happy about her accomplishment. But my mother says I need to become more mature. I beg to differ.
 
Not only is the banana minion my favourite, but I've become addicted to playing Minion Rush on my phone. And I rarely ever play games, mainly because I'm terrible at them. Something about collecting bananas and running other minions over is so amusing to me. Evidently I seem to have some bias towards the combination of minions and bananas. So, with the bananas that have been sitting frozen in my freezer for months, I dedicate this beautiful banana bread to all 10 million of the minion fans out there.

Super tall Healthy Banana Walnut Bread

Chocolate Banana Cookie Dough Cream Pie

Who says a vegan can't have pie?!
A pie that is so delicious and good for you at the same time? Yes please!
Your family and friends would NEVER believe this pie isn't laden with processed sugars, butter, lard, modified corn starch and all that "natural and artificial flavouring" junk. But i don't blame you if you decide you want the whole pie to yourself because I grant you permission to eat this whole pie! 
But do try controlling yourself eh? ;)

Vegan whipped cream is the best thing I've ever experienced in my life. It tastes so. freaking. delicious. 
Coconut whipped cream= happy peanut crumpet

Chocolate Banana Cookie Dough Coconut Cream Pie

yield 1 pie that would make you go "MAMA MIA" 

Crust:

1 c. almonds

1 c. walnuts
1 1/2 c. dates

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Chocolate Layer:

4 large bananas (set 2 aside for slicing)

3 tbsp. agave

1/4 c. almond butter

1 tbsp. coconut oil

dollop of vanilla paste (or splash of extract)

Pinch salt

1/4 cup cacao

splash of almond milk

Whipped Cream:

1 can full fat coconut milk, in fridge overnight (I used Thai Kitchen organic coconut milk)

1/8 - 1/4 tsp. stevia

splash of vanilla extract

For the crust, put everything into the food processor and pulse until it forms a sticky gooey delicious mass of dough. Remember to pulse so the oils of the nuts don't release as much to prevent it from being too oily! Take a generous amount of dough to press into your pie pan. Put your crust into the freezer to firm up while you make the filling. 

For the leftover "crust", roll them into cookie dough balls the size of the nail of your thumb and set those aside. 

For the chocolate layer, put all of your ingredients in the food processor (except the almond milk) and just give it a whirl until super smooth with the consistency of a thick pudding. If you think your mixture should be a little runnier, add a teensy weensy splash of almond milk, but don't add too much or the filling won't hold its shape!

Pour this lovely concoction into the prepared crust and let sit in fridge until it firms up a bit.

Once firm, slice your 1 banana thinly (so you get more slices), and scatter them in addition to some of the cookie dough balls all over the chocolate layer. Bat your eyelashes at the pie and admire for 1 minute (optional step ;) ). TIME TO MAKE THE COCONUT CREAM!

Take the coconut milk you've been hiding in your fridge and spoon off all the thick goodness from the top. You will be left with clear liquid which can be used for smoothies, or any coconutty baked goods. It tastes sort of like a coconut syrup/extract. I know coconut crumpet would approve. After the scooping of the yummilicious full fat coconut milk, it's time to whip it up baby! Use a handmixer or stand mixer for optimum fluff, but because I don't have a hand mixer and I didn't want to wash the large bowl of my stand mixer, I decided to whip by hand. Wheeee! When you get soft peaks, add your stevia in and whip until you get moderately stiff peaks! Now, you don't want to eat this whole bowl because your pie will make it all up to you later. So just spread this goodness on your pie and lick ALL the equipment that touched this luscious cream. 

Garnish your pie with another sliced banana and your remaining cookie dough balls, and stick it into the fridge for at least 1 hour before eating! (or you can eat it all gooey and melty :) )


Lots of nuts,
Peanut Crumpet xoxo

The "To-Die-For" Banana Bread

Before I begin this post, I would like to clarify that the recipe below has been originally modified to develop a flavor similar to that of the true "To-Die-For Banana Bread" by Erin Heland. In other words, this is NOT the authentic "It's to Die For" Banana bread recipe. 

For details, please visit http://itstodiefor.ca/