I’ve got something exciting to talk about tomorrow, but in the meantime I wanted to share this Roasted Veggie and Arugula Salad that we made last fall and loved. It’s a great dish for vegetarians or as a hearty side to a salmon dish, for example. We hope you enjoy!

******

We at GMS are very excited about the impending autumn. Although autumn hasn’t really shown its face around these parts, we are expecting it will soon, and in anticipation of that we’ve come up with an easy roasted vegetable & arugula salad that you guys can throw together and enjoy in the cold months – with plenty of veggies for good measure. Our inspiration was this delicious looking salad.

This recipe involves taking oats and pepitas and roasting them with a little sweetener (we used brown sugar) and a little olive oil, and then roasting a pile of vegetables (we used beets, a butternut squash, a shallot, and a sweet potato) and serving it all over arugula, using whatever dressing you feel like in your heart – we used a peanuty dressing and did not regret it.

For the whole recipe, head here. You won’t regret throwing together this quick dish for a side – or a main course. It’s colorful, it’s easy, it is a pile of veggies, and it’s got some crunch. It’s perfect for cooling temperatures when you still want the vibrant greens that summer held.

October is finally here – one of our favorite months of the year. It hardly feels like fall, but maybe that’s just because it continues to be in the 90s on and off here in LA. Yesterday was a cloudy rainy day, though, so maybe it’s almost time for true fall weather!

In the meantime, fall produce is coming in nicely – I had my first pomegranate yesterday, and I am so excited for them to be juicer and sweeter as the season becomes full swing.

So here’s what we got:

Apples * Acorn Squash * Brussels Sprouts * Kale * Mushrooms * Pomegranates * Pumpkins * Spaghetti Squash * Tomatoes

First of all, you gotta try these Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranate. All the flavors of fall in one dish, and perfectly sweet and savory together.

This Spaghetti Squash is another one of my favorites – easy to put together, and you can really top it with whatever sounds good to you. But bacon is one of our favorites, obviously.

If you use fresh tomatoes to make this Minestrone Soup you won’t be sorry – throw some fresh kale in there, and you’ll have a pot of soup that’ll fill up just about anyone.

These Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies will change the way you look at cookies. They are chewy and pumpkiny and full of chocolate and literally are the physical incarnation of fall in a food.

What other recipes remind you of all? Let me know – I’ll take all the advice I can get on fall’s best foods!

October is one of our favorite months – the weather in LA cools off, the sun goes down early, candy is abundant, and of course, we can start planning for Thanksgiving (kidding, not kidding?) Until turkey’s on the plate, we’ll make do with these sweets!

We’ve cooked up a new paleo creation at GMS, and we are really excited to share it with you! It combines a version of the super simple paleo pancakes and some delicious fall ingredients. This is a lovely fall treat, perfect to have for dessert or just anytime! The recipe makes enough for a crowd (about two dozen bites).

*Recipe requires a food processor. My mini food processor worked fine!

The “sandwich” part of the bites are made from paleo pancakes.

Ingredients for paleo pancakes:

3-4 soft bananas
5 eggs
Ground Cinnamon
Olive oil spray or coconut oil spray

Ingredients for pumpkin cashew butter filling:

1 cup roasted, unsalted cashews
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 can pumpkin
1 tsp pumpkin spice
salt

Other ingredients:

Blackberries

Also needed:

Toothpicks

Directions for paleo pancakes:

1.) Mash up 2/3 of a banana into a mixing bowl. Add a dash of cinnamon.
2.) Add 1 egg and mash everything together. Add another dash of cinnamon. Mix again.
3.) Spray a pan with oil of your choosing and set pan over medium-high heat.
4.) Pour the batter into pancake-sized circles (4-5).
5.) Once golden brown on one side, flip and cook the other side.
6.) Re-grease pan between batches.
6.) Set the pancakes aside.

Directions for the pumpkin cashew butter filling:

1.) Add 1 cup roasted cashews to food processor
2.) Add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and pinch of salt to the cashews at a time. Blend. Repeat until the cashews have a butter consistency. Be careful not to add too much olive oil or else the flavor will get overwhelmed with an olive oil taste! The cashew butter doesn’t have to be completely smooth.
3.) Add 1 tsp pumpkin spice and 1/2 can of pumpkin. Blend until smooth.

Putting It All Together:

1.) Cut the pancakes into 1 inch squares.
2.) Put a dollop of the pumpkin cashew butter on top of a square of pancake.
3.) Top with another pancake square
4.) Cut a blackberry in half. Add it to the top of a toothpick and place the toothpick through the rest of the mini sandwich.

And, you’re done! These bites are delicious and great for fall parties! I just made a batch of the pumpkin cashew butter to keep around and use as a filling for other dishes as well. And, we’ve talked about using the cashew filling in a Thanksgiving paleo pumpkin pie!

If you guys know me in real life (or probably if you just know me from this blog actually) you know that I love cast iron in all forms. I use my cast iron to cook pretty much everything, rarely pulling out another sauté pan unless I need two at a time.

I registered for these tiny cast iron dishes (to go along with my cast iron frying pan and cast iron griddle) and though you might not be able to tell in the photo these are small, trust me – they are! They are perfect to make tiny peach crisp in, if you have some peaches you meant to eat that you didn’t that now are too mushy for eating out-of-hand.

The full recipe is here – but these come together so easily! Peaches, some flour, some sugar, some oats, and some butter – you’re basically in business.

I recommend serving these babies fajita style (aka, in their cast iron dishes!) with a big scoop of ice cream – heaven! The perfect end-of-summer dessert that hints fall around the edges.