Are you wondering what to do with leftover pumpkins? How about roasting them and adding them to your oatmeal?
I've been doing that the past few weeks and it's fabulous. I LOVE my Coconut Multi-Grain Crockpot Oatmeal but have made a few minor changes for the pumpkin version. I thought I'd share it with you for some variety.
Roasting Pumpkins
This has been a learning process for me in getting the right texture. I clean the seeds out of a pie pumpkin and cut it in quarters, brush a little olive oil on it and roast it at 300 for 2 to 3 hours. When it's cool enough to handle I use a paring knife to cut the peel off, but usually the pumpkin needs to soften some more. So I kick the oven up to 375, put the pumpkin chunks into a baking dish and put 'em in the oven for another hour or so, covered, so they don't burn. When they're soft enough to mash with a fork I take 'em out then use a mixer to mash 'em real good.
If I'm not going to use them all at once, I freeze them in a sandwich bag in 1 C amounts to use later in soups, muffins or oatmeal!
(See more details and pictures here.)
Pumpkin Coconut Multi-Grain Crockpot Oatmeal
1/2 C steel cut oats (cheap in bulk at the health food store)
1/2 C buckwheat groats
28 oz almond milk or 2 cans coconut milk
1 C applesauce, unsweetened
2 C mashed pumpkin
1.5 t vanilla extract
1 C shredded coconut
1.5 t cinnamon
1.5 t ginger
1.5 t cloves
1.5 t nutmeg
1t sea salt
1/2 C pecans, chopped
6 T molasses
Add all ingredients to crockpot at night before bed. I add a little water to the coconut milk cans to rinse them out and add it to the oatmeal.
Set crockpot on low for 6-8 hours. (My crockpot gets hot so I try to do this Sunday afternoon for about 5 hours.)
My husband likes to add banana to this version, or whatever frozen fruit we may have. I like it with 1/2 cup frozen blueberries. We reheat in the microwave for one minute, stir and heat for another 20 or 30 seconds. Then I add the blueberries and microwave for another 40-ish seconds!
If you don't have time or energy to play around roasting your own pumpkin, canned pumpkin works great as well. Just be sure to get 100% pumpkin, not the pumpkin pie mix.
This is a quick, easy, healthy alternative to boxed processed cereals and is warming to the body on cold winter mornings!
Want it gluten-free? Be sure to buy gluten-free steel cut oats. (Buckwheat groats are gluten-free.)
What do ya think? Are you going to try this?
**This recipe is Andrea Beaman approved!**