Pumpkin options...

 I have never tried a pumpkin and I think it's the best time of year to try it. However, I do not know what to do with my orange friend.  How do you like your pumpkin? =]

I like it canned, and used in bread. There are easy recipes you can find on here for pumpkin bread and muffins :)

I do various things with it, usually baking: cheesecake, muffins, quickbreads, and the like. It's excellent in pancakes, also.

I look at a lot of food porn, and one of the sites I like is called Cara's Cravings. It's healthy food, and a lot of it is really creative. She's got a pretty decent section of savory recipes with pumpkin (about 40 recipes or so) that look really delicious - stuff like soups, curry, tostadas, risotto, etc. You should check it out and see if there's anything that catches your eye!

Pumpkin is eaten as a vegetable in New Zealand.  Basically anything you can do with other squashes you can do with pumpkin.  Roasted, stewed, made into soup--it's all good!  And very good for you...

I mix it with protein powder, water, and a bit of baking powder, cinnamon, and allspice to bake muffins with!

One of my goals this year is to not have All Things sugared.  The other night I made chili- beans and tomatoes, onions and hamburger and spice.  I baked a small squas and halved it and put the chili into the halves.  Very tasty.  You can do the same with pumpkin.  You can hollow out a pumpkin and put stew etc. into the pumpkin and bake it in the oven.  You can mash pumpkin and eat it instead of potatoes.  Cheap, filling under- valued food this time of the year.

Original Post by sunflower59:

Pumpkin is eaten as a vegetable in New Zealand.  Basically anything you can do with other squashes you can do with pumpkin.  Roasted, stewed, made into soup--it's all good!  And very good for you...

I'm not sure our Halloween pumpkins are so good for these things, although I totally agree as long as it's the right variety.

I have used a smallish orange pumpkin for soup, that's cooked right in the pumpkin as it bakes in the oven.  Also some of the small ones -- I think they're called sugar pumpkins are good for making the pie filling.  Canned is probably the way to go if you live in the US.  

As for me I'm carving my pumpkins and roasting the seeds :)

I like pumpkin in my oatmeal. 

I partially cook the 1/2 cup of oatmeal.  Then I add 1/4 cup of pumpkin along with some splenda, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger.  I then pop it back into the microwave.

It tastes like dessert, yet it is crazy filling and guilt free!

I second the oatmeal idea :p

Another variation would be Swiss oats (also called Overnight oats). Mix yogourt, milk, pumpkin, spices, raisins and oats. Soak overnight. Simple and very good, especially if you're on a run.

Call me weird, but I tried it with applesauce and raisins and it's delish. Add cereal, yogurt and call it a Pumpkin parfait, lol.

never had it fresh...I really enjoy it canned though. Good straight out of the can mixed with a little pumpkin pie spice and honey. Mmmmm. I also like it in oatmeal (again with honey and pumpkin pie spice)

I also love it in oatmeal.  I use 1/3cup quick oats and add in 1/3 cup canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and Splenda.

I also just heat up 1/2cup canned pumpkin with pumpkin pie spice and Splenda, add cinnamon and ginger if u want, or smoe FF Redi-Whip, it's like the inside of the pumpkin pie, but only 40-50 cals depending what you add :)

Pumpkin soup is awesome too!

Does anyone have a recipe for muffins that utilizes protein powder rather than flour?

I looove pumpkin. Cupcakes, bread, muffins, pie, pancakes... I finally tried soup, though I prefer the sweet side of pumpkin. My Japanese teacher was the opposite-- in Japan they bake it and eat it with soy sauce. You could basically apply pumpkin to anything.

Halloween pumpkins work great for soups and for roasting. The day after Halloween I went and bought three huge pumpkins for half price, cut them up, put the chunks in freezer bags and stuck them in the freezer. Now if I want a delicious pumpkin soup a couple months from now; I can dump a couple of the bags in the crock pot with lite coconut milk, onion, garlic, curry,cumin salt and pepper, put the pot on low and have soup in the morning (or in the evening if I manage to do this before work)