Pumpkin Pasta with Sausage, Cauliflower, and Green Beans

The next dish that I discovered in my seasonal autumn food hunt, landed me with pumpkin pasta. Honestly, I've only heard of using pumpkin in drinks, curries, ice cream, pies, pancakes, and other baked goods. So, the idea of using it in another savory dish was totally intriguing to me. Neat! I ended up adapting Paula Deen's Pumpkin Baked Ziti dish. To me, it was like October on a plate. Normally, I associate all of the elements in that dish with pre-Thanksgiving season. So, to have them all jumbled into one dish was unique and tasty.

Modifications:

-use chicken maple sausage

-add a head of chopped cauliflower (it's really delightful when baked and goes well in this dish)

-add chopped green beans

-use fat-free half and half

Chocolate Strawberry Stuffed French Toast, Turkey Bacon, Herbed Egg Scramble

Raquel and I decided to try our first free Vinyasa yoga class offered by our gym over the weekend. Wowie! Even though it was a beginner class, that seriously tired both of us out. And I've been finding it interesting how the two of us are focusing on different points of the class. I was partial to how the whole time felt like a very long, calming stretch for my muscles that get tight after runs. So, even though I was tired, I was also relaxed.

On the flip side, as a climber, Raquel saw it as a workout and it helped her to focus on teaching her climbing muscles better control. Apparently, she felt like the class was an hour and a half of slow brutal push-ups. Thus, she was exhausted, sore and sweaty by the end.

Either way, we felt like a hearty brunch after class. So, I thumbed through my recipes and settled on Ellie's Chocolate Strawberry Stuffed French Toast. I decided on adding a side of 97% fat free black peppered turkey bacon, and herbed scrambled eggs made from my herb garden. My favorite part of this meal is that it was indeed hearty, but it didn't have a ton of calories. Hopefully, it didn't add on the calories that we lost from the yoga session.

Chiles en Nogada, Chiles Stuffed with Caramelized Sweet Potatoes

Ever since the weather started to turn cold, I've been on a hunt to find original seasonal autumnal food. So, that search lead me to the autumn cuisine from our Mexican neighbors. A couple of days ago, I came across these amazing recipes on the SF Gate website: Chiles en Nogada (chiles with walnuts), and Chiles stuffed with Caramelized Sweet Potatoes. The recipes are creations from Jacqueline Higuera McMahan and they are simple delicious!

Chiles en Nogada is a traditional dish from Puebla. In this version, the chile is stuffed with roasted pears, toasted nuts, and chipotle-marinated roast pork tenderloin. It's topped off with a mexican crema sauce combined with toasted walnuts, and drizzled with fresh pomegranates. I have to say that just the idea of those flavors made me drool.

Both dishes are similar to chile rellenos, however I've always kind of shied away from that because chile rellenos are traditionally fried. But, these stuffed chiles are baked! Even the ingredients that were stuffed into the peppers were so creative, healthy, and packed with flavor. My own twist was to mix the sweet potatoes with okinawan sweet potatoes. All I have to say is I've found a new favorite fall dish, and this was it.