When we lived in the Midwest, we welcomed fall, cooler weather, crunchy colorful leaves, and, of course, the beautiful fall food! Just the smell of fall is intoxicating, isn’t it? Our favorite fall foods include apples, pumpkins, and winter squash. So many great recipes are available for these foods. In fact, pumpkin has now become a popular food to use to make gluten free desserts instead of using flour. Who knew?
Fall foods are loaded with antioxidants!
Apples are a good source of Vitamins B and C, fiber and phytonutrients which help protect the body from free radicals associated with aging, stimulate immune function which helps us fight infections as we move into winter. The apple skin contains 3-4 times phytonutrients so make sure you eat it!
We like apple slices with a few pieces of cheese or almond butter to prevent those afternoon sweet cravings. We like to add chopped apples to oatmeal or coconut yogurt for breakfast, sliced apples with some goat cheese and raisins on salads, and a very easy dessert of baked apples – core the apple, stick a piece of butter inside, sprinkle with cinnamon and a dash of sugar and bake.
Pumpkin is high in antioxidants, including beta-carotene – which provides that vibrant orange color, while helping slow the aging process, heart disease and certain types of cancer. Eating pumpkin is good for the heart. It is also a high potassium food which is important for regulating electrolyte balance and prevent muscle cramping and muscle mass.
Pumpkin is also a good source of fiber. We like to add chunks of pumpkin to soup or pasta or add a couple tablespoons of canned organic pumpkin to oatmeal or rice/risotto. Preparing pumpkin from scratch will provide the highest nutritional bang for the buck, but many find that too laborious. Canned organic pumpkin can provide high nutritional value but read the labels and make sure the only ingredient is pumpkin puree, avoiding those loaded with sugar. Check out our flourless pumpkin chocolate brownie recipe that tastes like regular brownies!
Winter quash is loaded with nutrients, as you can imagine, carotenoids and Vitamin A due to their bright orange and yellows colors, as well as fiber and phytonutrients! Winter squash refers to acorn, butternut, kabocha, buttercup, and spaghetti squashes, and more. We love winter squash and Bailey’s carries them year-round, but they are especially tasty in the fall! Give them all a try! We have made squash soup, pasta sauce, roasted, pureed – you name it we’ve tried it!
Happy Fall! And here’s to some cooler weather too!