once again its pumpkin time!

Lets hear your best low-cal pumpkin stuff!

Im craving pumpkin desserts without the guilt. Lets get creative!

I've been making a lot of pumpkin muffins lately. They aren't low-fat or low-sugar, but they are only 150 calories a piece and I make them whole wheat. I can work 150 calories into my breakfasts easily.

I haven't done it this year yet, but making no-crust pumpkin pie is always good. I just bake the filling is greased ramekins for individual sized portions. The crust is what makes pie a calorie bomb and I like it for the filling, so I don't miss the crust.

I also make all our bread, that we eat. Lately I've been making this pumpkin yeast bread: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recip...t-bread-recipe. I make it mostly whole wheat and it comes out to 115 calories a slice. It's not a super low-calorie bread, but it's so good and makes the best turkey sandwiches!

Hungry Girl has an AMAZING amount of recipes for pumpkin, so I usually go there for mine!

I've been craving pumpkin pie ever since the fall weather started, and the recipes they have over there for both pumpkin pie and vanilla pumpkin cheesecake are outstanding. So today I think I'm going to make the slimmed down pumpkin pie recipe.

This is off topic, but when I saw the title of your thread, I automatically thought of a Shakespearean sonnet: "That time of year thou mayest in me behold . . ." LOL! I guess that's what comes of majoring in English in college!

Okay--enough of that. The least I can do having posted something completely irrelevant is to try to get back on track: I was searching for pumpkin bread recipes yesterday, and I saw one by Alton Brown (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/a...ipe/index.html ) that got rave reviews and sounds fabulous (he uses real shredded pumpkin). I was thinking of trying it. He lists the calories per serving, and I think it's something like 230---which isn't too bad as a sweet breakfast meal.

I LOVE pumpkin.

Just cut it in half, take out the seeds, roast it for 30 min (until skin is brown).

I like to add a drizzle of olive oil, a drizzle of honey, and a bit of salt. You can eat the skin as well!

Anyway, pumpkin doesn't have many more calories than broccoli and is high in vitamin c.

Mixing in a big dollop of pure pumpkin puree (unsweetened) into oatmeal makes it creamy and rich and immensely flavorful. Add a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice and maybe a splenda packet or two. Very few extra calories, tons of vitamins and fiber, and major pumpkiny goodness!

Gina, from Skinnytaste does so many pumpkin recipes. Click "older posts" for even more: http://www.skinnytaste.com/search?q=pumpkin

Pumpkin Cake/Muffins/Cookies:

One box of spice cake mix
One (15 oz) can of pumpkin

Mix and bake for 25-30 at 350 degrees. It makes a dense, moist cake that is very low cal/low fat. I like to put fat free Cool Whip on top, if made into a cake.

I've also read that some people add 2 eggs, but I've never done that.

Lin - I wrote a piano/oboe/cello trio when I was 15 based on that sonnet!

Pumpkins are delicious, but they are a nightmare to peel and you have a huge vegetable to use up, so I haven't cooked them in years. Middle Eastern spiced pumpkin and lentil soup was the last thing I did with one, as I recall.

LOL! Esofia, that's one of my favorite of Shakespeare's sonnets.

That soup sounds delicious. Do you have a recipe for it (and can canned pumpkin be substituted)?

I have no idea about tinned pumpkin, you can't get it in the UK. Does it include anything other than pumpkin? The soup involves onions, pumpkin or butternut squash, a few other veg (raid-your-fridge time, but say carrots, leeks, red peppers), red lentils, stock, salt, pepper, and spices: clove and saffron are the keynotes (optionally, and of course if you like saffron), then I think the rest were the classic trio of cinnamon, cumin and coriander.

One day my darling partner decided to take a portion to work. So he popped the tupperware container into his rucksack and off he went. The real marvel is that his mobile phone actually recovered from the experience, after playing dead for a few days and causing him to text everyone with, "This is my new number. I drowned my previous phone in soup."

LOL! That's the reason that I have a separate lunch bag

Thanks for the recipe!