Pumpkin

So I've been on this forum for a few months now and I keep seeing everyone say how good pumpkin is mixed into everything and how much it helps with dieting. So tonight I gave it a shot. I took 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup skim milk, 1/4 cup pumpkin, a little bit of brown sugar, a lot of cinnamon, and a handful of raisins, put it in a bowl - stuck it in the microwave and viola! For about 350 calories it's a GIANT bowl of filling pumpkin oatmeal! What a wonderful discovery! So now I have about 3 1/4 cups of leftover pumpkin and I'd like to incorporate it into meals the next few days.

So I'm looking for suggestions - how do you eat your pumpkin?

make soup!  (v. simple: saute onion and a bit of celery, then a clove of garlic, optional to put in some ginger, then pumpkin and broth/stock of your choice.  at this point, you can leave as is, or add curry flavors, which can also be browned along with the ginger, celery, onion mixture earlier.  blend if you want it to be ultra creamy, add light sour cream or milk if you want, and serve.  some variations use a lot of mushrooms for more veggies too.  i dont eat mushrooms so I am not any help there)

or, make muffins!  or make pasta sauce with it (add carrots, celery, onion, pasta type flavors, serve thick over angel hair or a small specialty pasta)

add to casseroles.  make a smoothy.  possibilities are endless....

This might sound weird, but I make oven-baked pumpkin fries.  Just slice the pumpkin in 0.5-inch-thick slices, toss it in a bowl with a tiny bit of olive oil, and spread in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Put in a 375 degree oven for ten to twenty minutes, depending on how done you like them.  This is great with sweet potato or butternut squash as well.

I use it when I make a vegetarian chili.

oh, can you please post the veg chili recipe?

Season it with salt and pepper and serve it as a side dish instead of mashed potatoes. 

Vegetarian Chili

1Tablespoon oil

1 Cup celery, chopped

2 Cups onion, chopped

2 or 3 Cloves garlic, chopped

1 1/2 Cups peppers, chopped

2 Tablespoon brown sugar

2 Tablespoons chili powder 

3/4 Can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, puree in blender

3 (16 ounce) Cans of low salt tomatoes

1 Can pumpkin puree

1/2 Cup mushrooms, sliced

1/2 Cup carrots, shredded

2 Cans red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 Can white kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 Can romano beans, rinsed and drained

Saute onions and celery in oil. Mix together all ingredients and cook on medium-low heat for 1-2 hours. Alternatively you can put everything into a slow cooker if you have one. Thin with vegetable stock or V-8 juice if necesary. Note: if you want your chili extra spicy add the remaining 1/4 can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce or mix the remaineder with ketchup for a spicy dip for sweet potato fries.

I portion the entire recipe so that I can grab one or two for my lunch bag. This recipe freezes well 

BUGGY-thank you!  how many servings is it?  about 1 cup each?

OH please keep this thread going!!  I grew a pumpkin patch in my yard this summer, and it's completely out of control.  I'm seriously going to be giving away pumpkins I have so many, all from just 4 or 5 little seeds.  It's crazy scary, and I need lots of good ideas of what to do with it!  I'm sure a lot of it will get cut up and sunk into deep freeze, but how can I use it all up?

serving size is up to you. If you have a lot of containers that are the same size, weigh your chili all the same and then enter as your own recipe in the analizer to give you your calorie & nutrition breakdown per serving.

I like to add pumpkin to my cottage cheese. Add some cinnamon and splenda...faux pumpkin pie.

I've been adding pureed: pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot, butternut squash, etc to my kids' french toast.

Just mix in a few tablespoons of one of the above options into one beaten egg, add some vanilla and some cinnamon. Dip the bread into the mixture then cook in a nonstick frying pan till golden on both sides.

It changes the color a bit, but the kids don't notice and it tastes great too.

[I freeze about 1/2 cup of each into zippered sandwich bags and toss them into the freezer. Chop off a bit whenever I want to use some.]

oh man I lovelovelove pumpkin. I like just eating it warmed up with some pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, maybe some maple syrup, etc. yum.

I was intrigued by this thread because Weight Watchers recommends substituting pumpkin for oil and eggs in cake recipes - which is VERY good.  I tagged this thread to try the Veg Chili, which sounds wonderful.  But when I read the "faux pumpkin pie" with the cottage cheese, I thought, "EEEEEWWWW!!!!!  How gross!!"  HOWEVER, it made me hungry for pumpkin pie, so I whipped up a tiny batch.  Can I just say...

YUMMY!!!!  I am TOTALLY making a big ol' batch of "faux pumpkin pie" to take to work with me!!!  What a delicious treat!!!  I really felt like I was cheating!!!  It's LOADED with protein, has a good amount of fiber, and virtually fat free!!!

Thank you so much, TIMETOTONE!!!!