Make Your Own Pumpkin Spice Almond Milk

I love my hometown. Really, the only bad thing about it is that we don't have a Trader Joe's.

Trader Joe's is insane because their prices are good AND they come out with crazy seasonal products that tempt me to drive all the way to Kansas City to get my hands on 'em. I've never gone to KC just for Trader Joe's (yet), but I admit it's typically the last of my itinerary before heading home.

TJ's has some crazy autumnal products, including fall harvest salsa and pumpkin pita crisps, but the one that caught my eye the most was the pumpkin spice almond beverage. I dreamed of a perfect world, a world where my coffee was supported with just the right hint of a sweet and spiced nondairy creamer. I thought, oh my. Think of all the savory, seasonal overnight oats I could create!

But then I remembered I'd have to drive 3 hours to get it.

So, I solved my own problem (and potentially yours, too!) with this recipe. And, bonus! Tomorrow is National Coffee Day, so if you don't have plans... Now you do. :)

Pumpkin Spice Almond Milk

Ingredients
- 2 cups almond milk (you can make your own or use store bought)
- 1 tbsp pumpkin purée
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- Sweeten to taste. I added about 1/2 tbsp maple syrup.

Directions
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend for about 30 seconds. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 7-10 days.

I'm really happy with how easy and sweet this recipe turned out — I think it'll be a go-to for me each year! Would you add it to coffee or just chug it on its own?

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A Fresh Summer Salad I Actually Wanted to Eat

I think I've admitted it on the blog before: I don't love eating salads. And when I say I don't "love" salads, I mean, I will ward them off with a 9-foot pole unless you somehow convince me it's not really a salad. If you needed further proof, I bought some green juice yesterday, hoping I can get my greens in without having to suffer through chewing them up.

But this salad is one I was able to convince myself isn't really a salad. Premium toppings help, like the kind you'd be up-charged $1.25 for if you added them to your salad at a restaurant. For me, the premium topping is always, always goat cheese. If Fear Factor gets revived for a third time and I'm somehow forced to compete, I think I could eat a cockroach if I'm allowed to cover it in goat cheese.


But, really, eating lettuce is definitely more appealing than eating a cockroach...

Goat cheese helps.

Ingredients:

- Mixed greens (I got ours from our CSA membership)

- Pickled radishes (recipe here)

- 4-5 mini peppers

- Goat cheese

- Dressing of choice (I used an oil and vinegar dressing from Newman's Own)

Directions:

The night before (or the morning before you want to eat this for dinner), pickle your radishes. These are great for this recipe, but they can also be tossed in tacos and other yummy meals. When you're ready to eat, rinse the lettuce, chop the peppers, throw in a handful of pickled radishes and top generously with goat cheese. Finish with your dressing of choice.

Ta da! I guess eating salads isn't so bad after all.

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Spiced Apple and Pear Pie

People. We've got PIES today. Well, OK, just one pie — but if you're looking for pies (plural), I can point you in the right direction.

My friend, Stephanie, is kitchen queen extraordinaire, and she's been one of my dearest pals since college. Steph is one of those people who is gifted at everything, and she's still sweet and incredibly gracious. Trust me, I have hard evidence from the one time we tried to do kickboxing together.

Serious paragraph: Springfield, MO (where we live) is home to some great nonprofits including iPour Life, which has what they call a "10x10" women's empowerment program in Korah, Ethiopia. The women who live in Korah have leprosy or a HIV diagnosis, and they're at risk of losing their children. The goal of the program is to train women in different skills and business knowledge, so they can sustain themselves and provide for their families. You can learn more about the program, including why it's called 10x10, here.

And where does Stephanie come in? Glad you asked! She's baking pies to support a trip she's taking in June. She'll be on the ground in Korah to encourage these women and aid them with home repairs. Stephanie is baking up a storm to support her trip, so if you're into women's empowerment (or if you're shamelessly into pie), head over to werise.life for more!

AND if that wasn't all enough, Stephanie is going to share her pie recipe here today! Here we go:

Dough Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 3/4 cup cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), diced 1 large egg
- 3 to 4 tablespoons very cold water

Dough Directions:

- Put flour, sugar, and salt into a large food processor bowl and pulse to combine. Cut cold butter into - 1 inch cubes and put into processor with dry ingredients. Pulse processor until the dough resembles coarse dough (like cornmeal with only small, pea-sized pieces of butter left).

- Beat the egg with 3 tablespoons of the water; then drizzle it evenly over the dough in the processor. Pulse the dough just until it begins to hold together. If you need to, you can add about 2 tablespoons of ice water to get the dough to come together.

- Take the dough out of the food processor and mold into one large ball. Divide the dough in half and flatten into 2 discs. Wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 2 days. (The dough can also be frozen for 2 months and defrost the dough in the fridge overnight.)

Filling Ingredients (Recipe adapted from The Food Network):

- 1/2 lemon

- 3 pounds baking apples, such as Golden Delicious, Cortland, or Mutsu (about 6 apples) 1 1/2 pounds baking pears, such as Bosc or firm Bartletts (about 3 pears)

- 2/3 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling on the pie

- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon

- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt

- Generous pinch freshly grated nutmeg

- 1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick)

- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

- 1 large egg, beaten

Filling Directions:

- Finely grate the lemon zest and set it aside.

- Peel, core, and then slice both the apple and pear into 1⁄2 inch slices.

- Squeeze the lemon juice over the fruit, then toss fruit with the sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamon, salt and nutmeg.

- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the fruit and cook, stirring until the sugar dissolves and juices simmer, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, and cook, uncovered, until the fruit softens and the juices evaporate some, about 10 minutes.

- Evenly mix the flour into the fruit; then cook about a minute more to thicken the juices slightly. Stir in the vanilla and lemon zest; and remove from the heat. (The filling should resemble a tight compote.) Cool completely.

Form the Pie:

- Heat the oven to 425 degrees and place a rack in the lower third of the oven.

- Lightly dust the work surface with flour. Roll one disk of dough into an 11 to 12-inch circle. Transfer the dough to 9-inch glass pie pan by rolling the dough up around your rolling pin and then unrolling across the pie pan. Then, trim the dough so it hangs about 1/2-inch over the edge of the pan.

- Fill the crust with the prepared fruit so it mounds slightly in the center. Roll the remaining dough into a 12-inch circle. Brush the rim of the crust already in the pan with some of the egg.

- To make a lattice top, cut the flattened dough into 8-10 strips, about 1 inch wide. Carefully layer about 4-5 strips of dough across the top of the filled pie. Then, carefully begin crossing the remaining strips above and under the pre-laid strips until it creates a lattice with about 2 inch gaps between all strips. Trim the dough strips until they match the length of the bottom crust. Press the lattice ends to the bottom crust and use a little egg to seal.

- For a regular pie top, roll the dough onto the rolling pin and unroll it over the fruit so it hangs over the edge of the pie pan by about 1/2-inch. Trim crust if needed, reserving the scraps for decorations or for patching, if needed. Fold the top crust edge under the bottom one, then press the edges together to seal. Cut trimmed scraps into designs if desired and set aside. Flute the crust by pressing a finger into the crust against the other hand's index finger and thumb to make an even impression. Repeat every 1/2 inch around the pie to create a ruffled edge (see photo). Cut a few small steam vents in the top of the dough.

- Brush the top of the pie with egg and sprinkle with sugar.

- Place the pie on a baking sheet to catch any drips, and cook for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 375 degrees, and bake until the crust is golden brown (about 50 minutes).

- If the edges begin to brown too quickly, put a piece of aluminum foil around the edges to cover while the rest of the pie cooks.

- Once the pie is golden brown and cooked through, take the pie out of the oven and cool it on a rack.

Serve the pie warm or at room temperature with ice cream. (Always with ice cream.)

So, clearly, it's a lot of work! But if you have the patience and stick with it, it's SO worth your efforts. Plus, the best part is if you live in Springfield, you can just buy one from Steph! Not only will you have a great pie, but you'll be supporting women in Ethiopia — sounds like a win-win to me!

Pie, guys!

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A Healthy, Easy, Yummy (!) Steak Salad

Y'know what? I'm just gonna come out and say it. Eating healthy can be boring! Most of the time when I try to be healthy I end up eating the same recipes over and over, and I don't even get to add any Chick-Fil-A sauce to anything. It's a struggle, y'know?

THEN some other times you try some cool-girl zoodles recipe and completely ruin it (more on that in a later post).

But then, there are days when the clouds part and a ray of sunlight pours into your brain and you have the idea for an easy, healthy, tasty steak salad. Those are the days I live for.

To be perfectly honest, I don't really like steak. Is that comment going to get me kicked off the internet? But steak is the healthiest red meat that's high in iron, so if you're looking to supplement iron, it's a great option.

And this salad actually made me want to eat steak again, so I'd call it a win-win!

So easy it's crazy.

Ingredients
- Mixed greens
- Steak
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Garbanzo Beans
- Sunflower Seeds
- Goat Cheese

Directions
Grill steak, or pan sear if you live in an apartment (🙋🏼).While steak is cooking, rinse mixed greens, strawberries and blueberries. Toss salad with garbanzo beans, sunflower seeds and crumbled goat cheese.

Now the dressing is where you can make this really fun (or really healthy). If you're trying to make this meal Whole 30, you could remove the garbanzo beans and cheese, use an olive oil dressing, and cry yourself to sleep.

Personally, I used a raspberry vinaigrette. Happy salad days!

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Prosciutto, Basil and Honey Crostini

Oh, honey these are good!

I'm not sure how or why, but one day I woke up thinking about this recipe I wanted to try. If you could even call it a recipe — basically it's just a bunch of things I like on top of some carbs. Anyway, no idea where this idea came from; it must have been God or inception or a dream, but the important thing is that it met and exceeded all my expectations.

So we'll start at the basics. Crostini originated in Italian culture as an appetizer composed of toasted bread with toppings (read: the best appetizer there ever could be). So they're good, and they're easy. Italians often will make crostini with bruschetta on top, but here's my sweet and savory version.

Ingredients
- Bread, Sliced Thin
- Cream Cheese
- Prosciutto
- Basil
- Honey

Recipe
Preheat oven to 450 and brush small pieces of bread with olive oil. Bake bread for about 5 minutes until golden. Apply a light layer of cream cheese on warm bread (get the whipped kind!), place thinly sliced prosciutto on bread, top with basil leaf and honey.

Now. Don't be fooled, the honey is an important ingredient here. It's what adds the sweet to this savory dish. That's why I'm pouring A TON on that front crostini; you know it tasted the best.

Make these for a late summer party, or cook 'em for yourself some Wednesday night just because you deserve party food too.

Let me know if you try these and/or share my love for sweet + savory!

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