Sunday 23 October 2016

Sunday 23rd October 2016 - Pumpkin Mania

Apologies as it has been a few days since my last update, however it has been a busy and productive few days.

Most of the time has been catching up with friends (Friday in Cambridge & Saturday in Milton Keynes), pumpkin picking, business meetings planning for wonderful new activities unfolding in 2017 as well as shopping, baking, making, cooking and trying to relax in between, which hasn't really happened and my body can feel it :)

As I mentioned above, I went pumpkin picking near Cambridge on Friday and came home with 6 pumpkins, all picked by my fair hands and over the last few days, I have been busy making delicious goodies, from food, to cake, snacks, pies, even Raw energy balls made with this ONE delicious vegetable as the main show stopper, and that is so versatile.

I LOVE pumpkin however previously, I struggled to know what to do with it.  Now, I feel I am more experienced and exposed to this delicious and nutritious vegetable that I can be quite creative with it.

So here are some pictures to get entice you to experiment with this wonderful veg:

Pumpkin Picking

I am going to share with you useful tips on how to cook your pumpkin the EASY way where you don't have to struggle with peeling for hours and ending up with achy hands and wrists and arms and shoulders and neck :)

Heat your oven to 120oC.  Wash the pumpkin with cold water.  Put it in a baking dish/pan and cook for about 2 hours (check on it regularly).


After about 2 hours, check that the outer skin is soft to touch and you will know it is ready.

Let it cool for about 30 minutes.

Cut and remove the seeds (to roast later) and the stringy bits (throw away).



Start to cut away the skin (which will now come away nicely and easily).

Now you have pumpkin flesh to do with as you please.

Below, I made 1) Soup with lots of delicious pumpkin seeds, 2) Hummus 3) Roasted pumpkin (used in soup and for curry), sweet pumpkin tarts

Roasted pumpkin

Roasted pumpkin seeds (with a little spray of soy sauce for saltiness)

Pumpkin & Coconut Soup with roasted pumpkin seeds


Pumpkin, Cinnamon & Paprika Hummus


Pumpkin soup, Pumpkin Curry with Basmati rice


Pumpkin Tarts

If you want any of the above recipes, please comment and I will upload onto my recipe page on my website.

All the dishes are VEGAN and gluten free.

And to top it all, not only is this vegetable tasty, it carries with it lots of health benefits.


And as I am writing this very blog, I am treating myself to afternoon tea in my home office and enjoying a cup of tea with one of my warm pumpkin tarts.  What better way to work and treat yourself on a sunny Sunday afternoon.


So the rest of the day is catching up on admin tasks, more business planning and then after that is finished, which I aim to complete by 5pm, I will be relaxing and spending some time with my mum and hoping she is cooking something delicious for dinner as I am all 'cooked' out.

And I leave you now to enjoy the rest of this beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon, with this wonderful Thought for Today by Louise Hay:


Today,

I remember that life loves me.
I let love find me at the perfect time.
~ Louise Hay


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