Clean Mini Pumpkin Pie

I’ve been craving pumpkin pie lately.  I really have a thing for pumpkin pie.  Before I started eating clean, I picked up the individual servings of pumpkin pie almost every time I went to the grocery store!  I tried some of the clean pumpkin pie recipes I found online, but they just weren’t cutting.  I played with a recipe this weekend until I got it just the way I wanted.  These babies only have 71 calories!

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Servings: 16

21 Day Fix Container Equivalents:  1 Yellow (I’m counting these as a yellow treat.  They actually have a very small fraction of purple, yellow, blue, red, and tsp.  Their container count isn’t clear.)

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup old fashioned oats
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 can pumpkin puree
  • 12 oz unsweetened almond milk
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Baking Truvia Blend
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 2 eggs
  • 16 pecan halves for garnish

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Prepare 16 muffin cups with silicone liners or spray with cooking spray
  3. Place oats and 1/2 tsp of salt in food processor and pulse until oats become a flour-like consistency
  4. Add butter to food processor and pulse until butter and oats have mixed into a dough
  5. Press approximately 1 tbsp of dough into the bottom of each muffin cup
  6. Mix pumpkin, almond milk, Truvia, pumpkin pie spice, eggs, and remaining salt until well blended
  7. Pour mixture on top of dough
  8. Place a pecan half on top of each mini pie
  9. Bake for 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle of mini pie comes out clean

Nutritional Information: Calories 71, Fat 4.7 g, Cholesterol 34.1 mg, Sodium 192 mg, Potassium 13.9 mg, Carbs 6.2 g, Protein 1.7 g, Vitamin A 3.3%, Vitamin C 0.1%, Calcium 4.8%, Iron 2.1%

If you have any questions about 21 Day Fix, I would love to answer them. Feel free to contact me in the comments below. Check out my story here.

One of my patterns is practically famous!

I love Ravelry.com for those of you that don’t know, it’s a site for everything knitting and crocheting. I’ve recently started posting some of my original patterns to the site. I just opened the main page to discover my Baby Turkey Hat pattern featured as one of their six Thanksgiving patterns! Someone else made the hat in the picture, but that is still really awesome. I love that someone else made one if my creations. I made four of these hats in the last two weeks!

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Baby Turkey Hat

This turned out too cute not to share right away.  A friend sent me a picture of a baby wearing a crocheted turkey hat and asked if I could make something similar.  It was adorable, so I quickly agreed.  I decided to knit the hat instead of crocheting it since the knit hat would be much stretchier.  I didn’t have the baby with me to try the hat on.  I looked online, but none of the patterns I found were quite what I wanted.  Below is the pattern I made up.  It turned out soooooo  cute!

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Materials:

  • 5 US Size 6 double pointed knitting needles
  • Extra needle or stitch holder
  • Stitch markers
  • Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice Yarn in Honey and White
  • Polyester filling
  • Tapestry needle
  • Crochet hook (optional)


Stitches:

Hat Instructions:

With Honey, cast on 72 stitches and distribute them evenly on four double pointed needles.

Join in round (being careful not to twist!) and knit each round until the piece is 5 inches long.  The brim of the hat will be rolled.  Unroll it to measure your 5 inches.

Crown:

R1:  K21, K and place marker on next stitch, K50 (72 stitches)

R2:  K72

R3:  K48, K and place marker on next stitch, K23 (72 stitches)

R4-7:  K72

R8:  (K4, K2tog, SSK, K4) 6 times (60 stitches)

R9:  K60

R10:  (K3, K2tog, SSK, K3) 6 times (48 stitches)

R11:  K48

R12:  (K2, K2tog, SSK, K2) 6 times (36 stitches)

R13:  K36

R14:  (K, K2tog, SSK, K) 6 times (24 stitches)

R15:  K24

R16:  (K2tog, SSK) 6 times (12 stitches)

Cut the yarn with several spare inches.  Thread a tapestry needle and pull yarn through all 12 stitches on needles.  Work in ends.

Leg Instructions:

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The tricky part of the leg is getting started.  You will need to pick up 16 stitches from the hat.  At the first marker, they should be picked up using Honey as shown in the figure below.  The number 1 corresponds to the first marked stitch on the hat.  Pick up the stitches in numerical order.  I find it easier to pick up the stitches using a crochet hook.  Place stitches 1 and 2 on the first needle, 3-6 on the second needle, 7-10 on the third needle, 11-14 on the forth needle, and 15-16 on an extra needle or stitch holder.  A picture of the stitch placement is also shown below.

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After completing the first leg (see pattern below), pick up stitches for the second leg using the same method, but starting in a different place.  The number 1 in the figure below corresponds to the second marked stitch.

Placement2

Once the stitches are picked up, you are ready to knit!  The piece is worked back and forth for several rows and then worked in a round.  The pattern is the same for both legs once the stitches are picked up.

R1:  Starting with the marked stitch, K4, turn

R2:  S1, P4, turn

R3:  S1, K1, KFB twice, K2, turn

R4:  S1, P8, turn

R5:  S1, K1, KFB, K, KFB twice, K, KFB, K2, turn

R6:  S1, P14 turn

R7:  S1, K1, (KFB, K1) three times, (K1, KFB) three times, K2, turn

R8:  S1, P22, turn

R9:  S1, K1, (KFB, K) four times, K5, (KFB, K) four times, K3

R10:  Continuing in round, K36

R11-14:  K36

R15:  K6, K2tog, SSK, K4, K2tog, SSK, K2tog, SSK, K4, K2tog, SSK, K6 (28 stitches)

R16:  K5, K2tog, SSK, K2, K2tog, K2, SSK, K2, K2tog, SSK, K5 (22 stitches)

R17:  K4, K2tog, SSK, K2tog, K2, SSK, K2tog, SSK, K4 (16 stitches),

(Place polyester filling in leg)

R18:  (K2tog, SSK) four times (8 stitches)

R19-23:  K8

R24:  Break Honey and start knitting with White, K8

R25:  (K1, K2tog, K1) twice (6 stitches)

R26:  K1, Bobble, K2, Bobble, K1

Place more polyester filling in the leg if you wish.  Bind off.  I used the Kitchener stitch to bind off.

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Difficulty:  Moderate-Difficult

Time Required:  4 Movies

Overall Experience:  Excellent