One thing I just love about Fall and the holidays is pumpkin. I am a pumpkin fiend, and could eat anything with pumpkin in it almost every day. So, to get my pumpkin jive going, I like to get a jar of pumpkin butter because it's so versatile and you can use it on almost every thing.
Trader Joe's has their own branded Pumpkin Butter which is one of my faves because it has simple ingredients: pumpkin, sugar, honey, lemon juice, and spices. If you're feeling a bit more Martha, you could make your own. Smitten Kitchen has a nice Pumpkin Butter recipe.
Here are 7 ways I like to enjoy Pumpkin Butter:
- On Kashi crackers with organic nutty peanut butter as seen in the picture above. Instead of peanut butter, you could also try almond or cashew butter. The nuts and pumpkin with spices compliment tastily.
- Stir in oatmeal like I did in my version of Toasty Sweet Pumpkin Pleasure. Adding pumpkin butter to oatmeal makes for a real hearty feeling brunch dish.
- Mix in with vanilla flavored yogurt which can make for a lower calorie option to pumpkin ice cream. You can crumble in some graham crackers for a pumpkin pie kinda action. Although, I have to say that Pumpkin ice cream is also an irresistible treat. With the yogurt you can also get some probiotic goodness and other health benefits like improving gastrointestinal conditions.
- Use on meatloaf or chicken. I usually cook my meatloaf with ketchup on top but I tried the pumpkin butter and it's tasty. Next time you bake chicken, after some salt & pepper, slather some pumpkin butter on the skin like kinda like a rub. The sweet pumpkin adds a nice twist. Serve a nice leafy green on the side.
- Instead of jelly or jam, dollop on top of toast or bagel with neuchatel cheese. You can also mix it in with the neuchatel to make your own smear. I love the neuchatel cheese because it has 1/3 the fat of regular cream cheese, and it tastes and feels virtually the same to me.
- Plop right on top of cottage cheese with some walnuts or almond slivers, and there you have a healthy mid-afternoon snack option.
- Instead of syrup, try the pumpkin butter on top of pancakes or waffles. Okay, that might be a little on the dry side, but the pumpkin butter could help you cut down on the syrup. Could be interesting too to try and fold in the pumpkin butter into the batter before cooking. If you try it, let me know how it turns out.
So, do you love pumpkin butter as much as I do? What other ways have you used pumpkin butter?
