Pumpkin and Peet’s

I know, I know. Everyone has probably had enough with the pumpkin recipes and so I’m not going to give you another one. I made a batch of vegan pumpkin pancakes last weekend. You can probably find the recipe if you google and the only reason I made them “vegan” is because I didn’t have eggs. I also didn’t have syrup so what you see on top is coconut cream made by mixing coconut flour with almond milk. A fantastic combination if I do say so myself.

The reason behind my showing you these pancakes I’m not giving the recipe for is to tell you about the coffee I received from Peet’s Coffee as a member of Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker Program. Peet’s sent me two bags of their new medium roast coffees to try – Café Domingo and Café Solano. I tried the Café Domingo which is a blend of Central and South American coffees that is smooth, balanced and medium-bodied with more pure coffee taste. Peet’s coffee experts describe it as a medium roast cup with hints of toffee sweetness and clean crisp finish.

For someone who doesn’t typically love non-flavored coffee, I thought this was great (and I mean it)! I added just a splash of half-half and some sweetener and paired it up with the pumpkin pancakes. I feel that pairing this with a fall-flavored dish was a great choice because the coffee truly is smooth and therefore went great with pancakes packed full of spice like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

Peet’s also sent me a bunch of $2 off coupons (their coffee is now available in grocery stores) so if you are interested in some coupons let me know and I’ll send some off to you.

*I received the Peet’s Coffee at no cost as part of my participation in Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker program. The opinions expressed are solely mine and I’d tell you if I didn’t really like the stuff, promise.

Hot Mess

No… I’m not talking about myself. I’m talking about this fantastic dinner I made the other night and subsequently have been eating the leftovers from for the past three nights. That’s good for something because this girl usually can’t stomach eating leftovers more than one time.

Isn’t it a beauty?

I kid.

But who cares when it tastes incredible and leaves me so full and satisfied?

Not me.

As a Foodbuzz Tastemaker, I received these three bottles of Crisco Olive Oil at no cost to sample and review. You know I love olive oil, I use it all the time. So, as you can imagine, I was pretty psyched. I was sent Crisco’s Pure Olive Oil, Extra Virgin and Light. As you can see in this picture, I cracked open the Pure. It sounded like the perfect one to use for roasting the veggies in the above dish.

Oh yes, more about that. What you see there is Vegetable Moussaka. Apparently Moussaka is a “Greek favorite”. Anyone out there who is Greek/more worldly than me (probably most everyone), is probably rolling his or her eyes. But listen, I’d never heard of Moussaka and fortunately now I have because this is going to be a regular around here.

Vegetable Moussaka adapted from The Illustrated Kitchen Bible

Ingredients:

• 1 large eggplant, cubed
• 1 medium zucchini, cubed
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips
• 4 T Crisco Pure Olive Oil
• salt and pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 t dried Thyme
• 1 14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes, undrained
• 1 15 oz can lentils, drained
• 1 1/4 c plain non-fat yogurt (or Greek if you have it)
• 2 extra large eggs, lightly beaten
• pinch of paprika
• 3 oz feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 T sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss eggplant, zucchini and red peppers into roasting pan. Drizzle with oil and toss. Season with salt and pepper.

Roast for 10 minutes. Stir in garlic and thyme. Continue roasting for 35 minutes or until tender. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Stir in tomatoes with juices and lentils into roasted vegetables and season with salt and pepper. Transfer mixture to a four quart baking dish.

Beat the yogurt, eggs and paprika together and season with salt and pepper (if desired). Spread over vegetables and sprinkle with feta. Place on baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake for 10 minutes more, or until top is golden brown. Let stand for 5-10 minutes. Serve hot.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Vacation Memories–Kodak Gallery Photo Book

As a member of Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker Program I was selected to create my own complimentary Kodak Gallery Photo Book and share both the product and the experience with my readers.

This opportunity seemed like the perfect way to showcase my recent vacation photos so that I could share them in an organized way. I don’t know about you but I usually either upload vacation photos to Facebook or they sit around in a folder on my computer that I barely look at.

The process is fairly simple to make a photo book. You create an account, pick the book you want to make and then upload your photos so you can drag and drop them into the book. So easy I could do it. Apparently you can also import pictures from your Facebook account. I didn’t do that but that’s a pretty cool feature.

These are a few of the pages in the book I created. As you can see, I could choose different photo layouts and the size of the pictures on the different pages.

I’ll show you the finished product when it arrives but since I thought this was such a great and fun product, I have a discount code to offer all of you to use to make your own Kodak Gallery Photo Book!

Click here to receive 40% off your own photo book!

Happy Creating! On that note, I’m obsessed with this song. It’s the perfect one for a dreary Sunday afternoon.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KrmxavLIRM]