Pre and Post Workout Pumpkin "Pudding"

Say that five times fast!!

It was a very pumkin-y kind of day today. My meals today were probably nowhere near balanced, but they were none the less delicious and I ate what I craved which was pumpkin and lots of it. I had picked up a huge thing of canned pumpkin last week and proceeded to put it to good use today.

I'll start with my new favorite creation and current obsession.


After work I had decided I was going to the gym, but needed a little pre workout snack. Here is what I threw into the blender:

as you can tell it's all very precise ;)

about 3 or 4 chunks frozen banana
1 cup or so unsweetened coconut milk
3 heaping spoonfuls of pumpkin (probably about 1/2 cup or so)
dash of cinnamon
heaping tsp. almond butter
1/3 package Jay Robb vanilla egg white protein powder

I just threw all of this in the blender not knowing what would come out, but I was not ready for the deliciousness that ensued. First of all, the texture was AMAZING, it came out so creamy and thick, this might have been due to the guar gum in the coconut milk. And secondly, it really reminded me of pudding. It was SO good. It totally rocked my face off. So I inhaled it and headed to the gym for a super sweaty and wonderful workout, during which all I could think about was the pumpkin "pudding" I had before, so I had to come home and make more immediately.


I used pretty much the same ingredients except this time, no cinnamon and I added a tsp. of ground flax.


I put it in this little parfait cup, and if I could have gotten my face in there to lick it clean I would have!


Breakfast this morning was a TJ's gf toaster waffle topped with some pumpkin mixed with a little apple butter and topped with toasted pecans. OMG, so good! It was like dessert for breakfast, but not overly sweet!


before I left for work, I needed a little more breakfast in my life, and I had about half a cup of coffee leftover, so I decided to make a smoothie creation. I put the coffee, half a banana, about 1/3 cup pumpkin and some vanilla protein powder in the blender. I have been seeing those pumpkin spice lattes at Sbux here lately, and keep wanting one, but I DO NOT want all the sugar that comes along with it, so this totally satisfied that craving. It was creamy coffee pumpkin deliciousness. I was going to take it with me on the way to work, but I sucked it down before I ever got out the door.


Speaking of dessert for breakfast, yesterday morning I had made a pot of overnight oat groats with brown rice, and decided to make Kath's carrot cake oats out of it, after seeing Paige make them the other day.


I cut the recipe down to make a smaller bowl, and used less of everything, it was still sooo filling. And definitely yummy, my favorite part was the "icing" on top.

This post is totally out of order, I know... whatever!


Here is my lunch spread from today for what it's worth, it was the only meal I had today that didn't involve pumpkin LOL. Butter lettuce salad with grape tomatoes, banana peppers, goat cheese with some hummus on the side for protein and blue chips for dipping. I also added a little avocado after I took the pic. I had a pear and a key lime larabar for snackies. And lots of fluids!

I also got my daily dose of dark chocolate in today!


Hope everyone's tuesday back at work/school, etc. was fabulous!! Yay for 4 day weeks, tomorrow is already hump day! I am going to jump off and get some sleep!

See you soon!

Oh, I almost forgot, Gluten Free Gidget, one of my fave fellow GF bloggers is having a giveaway check it out!