The Nourishing Gourmet

Nourishing. Satisfying. Gourmet.

KimiHarris

Healthy Pumpkin Spice Granola

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bowl of pumpkin spice granola

This granola is gently spiced, sweetened with pure maple syrup, stuffed with goodness, and is the perfect fall breakfast or snack. I’ve long been a big fan of granola on top of yogurt, but my kids love it with milk. Either way, it’s delicious! We’ve also been known to snack on it plain too.

For those using Trim Healthy Mama (THM) principles, make sure you check out my other version for my THM Pumpkin Spice Granola recipe. 

One note: 

I’ve included two options here. One with pumpkin, and one with a nut or seed butter. It’s a bit of a hot debate, but really, when we call a recipe “pumpkin spice” it’s referring to the spice blend, also known as “pumpkin pie spice.” You don’t have to have the pumpkin, for it to be considered a “pumpkin spice” recipe! 

I made many batches of this granola while I was recipe testing, and here is the difference between the two: The version using pumpkin is just slightly less crunchy, but all of my family favored it a little more than the nut or seed-butter version. The pumpkin flavor will be subtle here, and not overpowering, but still there. 

The seed or nut-butter version is wonderful because of that added protein, and the heartiness it adds, so is another good option, especially when you don’t have any pumpkin on hand! 

Not a fan of the spice blend? You can also just use cinnamon! 

granola bar with fruit and yogurt

Serving Suggestion: 

You can serve this as fancy or as simple as you like. For a fun little spread, you can make a granola “bar” using chopped fruit, yogurt, and milk. 

Healthy Pumpkin Spice Granola (Gluten-free, nut-free option) 

  • 3 cups rolled oats (gluten-free, organic, if desired, you can also use sprouted)
  • 1 cup of pumpkin or sunflower seeds OR chopped nut of choice, such as pecan or walnut (optional) 
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
  • ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 
  • ¼ teaspoon salt 
  • ¼ melted coconut oil
  • ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup 
  • ¼ cup canned or fresh pumpkin puree OR ¼ cup nut or seed butter of choice (we recipe tested with sunflower seed butter, for a nut-free option. 
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla 
  1. Preheat the oven to 300F. Line a jelly roll pan or cookie pan with parchment paper. 
  2. In a large bowl, combine the oats, seeds, spices, salt and mix gently. 
  3. Melt the coconut oil until just melted in a coffee cup in the microwave, or in a small saucepan on the stove over low. Stir in the maple syrup, pumpkin or seed butter, and vanilla. Pour over oat mixture, and gently stir until coated. 
  4. Scrap onto pan, and spread evenly. Cook for twenty minutes, stir gently, and then cook for another ten minutes. Check the granola. If it seems like it is crisping up, remove. If it seems moist, cook for another ten minutes. In our testing, it was perfect with the seed butter at 30 minutes, and with the pumpkin at 40 minutes. It will continue to crisp after you remove it from the oven. 
  5. Cool and serve. Store in an air-tight container.

Crispy Pumpkin Spice Granola (oil-free)

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This low-fat, THM, yet delicious granola recipe is bursting with spice and pumpkin, and is sure to make your house smell heavenly while it bakes. I LOVE it especially on top of yogurt. I’ll make myself a yogurt bowl with diced apples (or whatever other fruit I desire) and granola. 

It’s a lovely snack or breakfast. It’s perfect for a “E” meal on Trim Healthy Mama (THM), or for those of you looking for a lighter granola recipe. For a THM snack or meal, serve this with fruit and Nonfat Greek Yogurt. If you use a higher fat yogurt it will be a XO (crossover) meal. 

I first learned about this little trick of using egg whites instead of oil from THM recipes. It’s a clever trick, because with the right recipe, they will crisp up in a way that I didn’t think possible without oil. It’s not quite as crisp as with oil, but perfectly lovely all the same. 

I save this version of granola for me, and make this version for my family. They love it! I will make both of these types at the same time, and cook them on separate plans. 

One quick note: For a recipe to be a pumpkin spice recipe, you technically don’t have to use the pumpkin, as it’s really referring to the spice. However, we actually liked the pumpkin puree version better. It’s not quite as crunchy as when we left it out, but it adds so much flavor that it’s worth it. Feel free to leave it out though! I tested this several times without it, and it was great. 

For other THM granola recipes, here’s a shortlist from other bloggers: 

Crispy Pumpkin Spice Granola (oil-free)

  • 2 cups rolled oats (not quick, gluten-free and organic, if desired. You can also use sprouted))
  • ¼ cup erythritol or xylitol, OR 1 tablespoon of THM Super Sweet Blend 
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon 
  • ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 
  • Sprinkle of salt 
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla 
  • 2 egg whites (4 tablespoons) 
  • 2 tablespoons of pumpkin puree (optional)
  1. Preheat the oven to 300F degrees, and line a sheet pan or cookie sheet with parchment paper. 
  2. Combine the oats, sweetener, spices, and salt, in a medium bowl and give a stir. 
  3. Combine the egg whites, pumpkin puree, if using, and vanilla, whisk together, and then pour over the oat mixture. Gently mix until it is coated. If it’s super dry, you can add a little more egg white, but the mixture will be dryer than oil-based granola recipes. 
  4. Scrape onto prepared pan, and place in oven (near the middle). Cook for twenty minutes, gently stir, then cook for another 10-20 minutes, or until the oats are dryer. They will continue to crisp up after they cool. 
  5. Store in an airtight container once done.

Why I Use THM Principles Now

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I know that it has been a surprise to some of my long-term readers that I now use THM principles. It was a surprise to me as well! When I was first introduced to THM, I was glad that others found it helpful, but it seemed overly complicated (just being honest, here). I also didn’t really need it. I was at a healthy weight. I ate healthy food. And there was no reason to change what worked well for me. 

Fast forward, and I had a huge health crisis caused by mold exposure and a mix of other health concerns and stressors. I was extremely ill and extremely inflamed. That inflammation caused weight gain, despite not changing anything about how I ate. 

I had to work extremely hard to get better again, and my family had to make many sacrifices to make that possible. That’s a long story, and I’m so thankful to have regained my health. But once I had improved, I had assumed that my weight would go back to a healthy weight again, and that just wasn’t happening. 

So I tried keto, and I tried intermittent fasting. I read the research and I was encouraged. But my practical experience was that it did seem to help, at least temporarily, with some of my inflammation, but I lost my energy eating that way. It also appeared to slow my metabolism even more, and crazily enough, I didn’t lose weight on it either. Others feel amazing on a keto diet or when using intermittent fasting principles, but my body seemed to just get stressed on it instead. 

It was then that I remembered THM, and I thought, “Why not?” I decided to try a two-week THM trial, and see how I felt on it and how sustainable it would be for me. I noticed such a difference in just those two weeks; I knew I had to continue.

What Sets THM Apart

One of the primary principles of THM is separating your fuels. The body uses either fats or glucose for energy, but when you stack those fuels together, our bodies can’t efficiently burn through them, and you end up with weight gain. 

This would be why mashed potatoes, French fries, heavily buttered bread, and rich curries over white rice can cause some of us to gain weight. They are giving you a lot of carbohydrates (glucose) with fats. 


The keto diet allows you to burn primarily fat as your fuel source, so it does “separate” the fuel sources, but simply by eliminating one of them. 

Keto and Healthy Carbohydrates

But for some of us, being off healthy carbohydrates long-term ends up messing with our hormones and thyroid/adrenal health, which is why many of us feel so tired when eating a low-carb diet and end up with stalled weight loss or even weight gain over time. 

On THM, you eat both fuels (slow carbohydrates and fats), but not together. 

While you concentrate on getting high-quality protein and vegetables in, you eat the majority of your meals with the two fuels separate from each other. This looks like having some meals look very much like a keto meal, but with more freedom with your vegetables and a concentration on protein, rather than fat (though you still eat plenty of fats with these meals). Then you switch to a meal that has slow carbohydrates (sweet potatoes, quinoa, brown rice, fruit, etc.), lean protein, and vegetables, with only a small amount of fat. 

This switching back and forth between the fuels for the body, coupled with eating every 3-4 hours, ended up being highly effective for me. 

My Experience and Results

I lost over 30 pounds, regained my energy, and my metabolism turned back on again. I also lost a lot of the premature aging in my face that had occurred while sick because of inflammation. But it wasn’t just about vanity either. 

Because adding more foods back into my diet (instead of taking them out, such as when on the keto diet), along with separating my fuels, ended up being really helpful for my gut health. Instead of feeling weighed down after I ate because of my sluggish metabolism and gut, I started feeling energized by my meals again. I also was loving all of the delicious meals I could make on the plan.

Much to my surprise, I also found that I could add back in problematic foods too, such as oats, which had caused rather severe issues for me in the past. (I have a theory for why this happened, and it’s related to the impact on our gut health of getting higher amounts of fiber from a variety of sources, something I shared in the free webinar that I hope to offer again soon). 

Getting off excessive weight while being able to eat a wide variety of fiber-rich foods (many of which weren’t allowed on the keto diet) did also help my continued healing journey. It reduced my chronic low-grade inflammation as well. Because weight issues feed into inflammation issues, getting back to a healthy weight helped turn the vicious cycle into a positive cycle, and I’m grateful. 

My Conclusion

The THM umbrella is large, meaning that people use the THM principles, but their meals can look very different from each other. I choose to eat it with a concentration of real food, along with principles I’ve learned from other experts such as Dr. Wahls, and Julia Ross. This combination has made a huge difference in my life. 

It has also helped me regain my joy in both cooking and in what I eat. I so enjoy being able to bake whole grain gluten-free bread again, as well as eat a variety of healthy carbohydrates without feeling like I’m not eating optimally for my health. (For an example of a slow-carb meal, see this Vietnamese Beef Noodle Salad or the Mexican Chicken Bowl on this recipe. For an example of a fat-fueled meal, see this carnitas recipe.)

There are other dietary eating plans that essentially separate fuels in a similar way as THM, but I’ve found THM the most flexible and doable. That flexibility has allowed me to use their principles in the way that is most helpful for healing and weight loss for me personally. 

I will say that, yes, there is a learning curve to eating this way. My initial reaction of thinking THM was more complicated than other dietary plans was correct. But, not only has learning how to eat THM been well worth the effort for me, but it’s also very easy for me to eat this way now.

 If you put some time into learning how to eat with your fuels separated, it does become second nature over time. 

All of this led to me deciding to coach others on how to use THM principles while concentrating on the healing, real foods. And I’ve loved every minute of it. You can read about that here.

To get the full scoop on THM, two books that give you a great head start are:

  • Trim Healthy Mama Plan (This short book gives you just the plan, and helps you understand what principles you need to follow and why.) 
  • Trim Healthy Table (This cookbook gives an great overview of the plan, in short form, as well as a lot of recipes.)

Vietnamese Beef Noodle Salad

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This refreshing, gluten-free salad is full of flavor with the punch of rice vinegar, the saltiness of fish sauce, the sweetness of honey or sweetener of choice, and the herby savoriness of cilantro and/or basil. It also happens to be one of my favorite meals right now. Not only is it delicious, but it is packed with nutrients! 


While, yes, I eat this just because it’s so good, I also aimed to get a rainbow of produce in this recipe, which adds not only more flavor but also important nutrients, antioxidants, and a wide variety of fiber sources. Win-win! 


The other aspect I love about all of the added vegetables is that it helps you stay with an appropriate amount of noodles. We often want a huge plateful of pasta — with this recipe, you can have a large plate of pasta, but half of it is vegetables! 


This recipe also works for those of you who are on THM (Trim Healthy Mama) as an “E” meal. 


We’ve eaten this meal many times through the summer, and it’s perfect for hot weather, but we eat it year-round. 


I named this a Vietnamese recipe, although I do want to clarify that this isn’t a claim to being an authentic Vietnamese recipe, but rather, I’ve used some of the flavor profiles and sauce inspiration from Vietnamese cuisine. 


Notes on the recipe: 


  • Traditionally, a recipe like this would have used white rice noodles, such as rice sticks. I am using whole grain brown rice noodles. You can get something like these stir-fry Thai Kitchen brown rice noodles, though I have been using brown rice fettuccine noodles, as they are cheaper and similar in taste and texture. 
  • This will need to be served right away. If you aren’t serving it right away, you can keep the elements of the recipe separate, and toss right before serving (toss the noodles with a bit of the sauce and/or oil to keep them from sticking before storing them, however, or simply make the other elements – the sauce, the meat, and the chopped vegetables, and cook the noodles right before serving. 


Notes on THM: 


  • While technically you are supposed to use 96% lean meat for an E meal on THM, because I don’t add any fat to this recipe, I use the 93% grasssfed ground beef that I find locally and I think that works well for fat limits for an E meal. If you don’t use a lean meat here, it counts as a cross-over (XO). 
  • Honey isn’t encouraged on THM when in weight loss mode, but the ¼ a cup of honey here is pretty small per serving. I’ve tested this with both honey and xylitol, and both worked very well. Allulose should work perfectly too (and is dog-safe, unlike xylitol). 
  • Brown rice noodles are on plan on THM, but you are encouraged to watch your blood sugar when eating them, if you are sensitive, and to keep your portions small. This recipe works well, because it mixes vegetables with the noodles for a filling meal, without leaning completely on the noodles. 
  • Cassava noodles are not considered on-plan for THM, but for those grain-free, some find that they do well with occasional cassava noodles (cassava is also a wonderful prebiotic fiber!). Some other grain-free noodle options to play with are here. 




Vietnamese Beef Noodle Salad 


Serves: 6-8


Ingredients: 


Meat:


  • 1 lb ground beef (96% or up, for an E meal)
  • 1 tsp dried ginger
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 1 tbsp tamari or coconut aminos or fish sauce
  • Optional: 1 tsp onion powder and 1 tsp garlic powder
  • Optional: pinch or two of red pepper flakes
  • Add more coconut aminos/tamari/fish sauce, and vinegar to taste


Sauce/Dressing


  • Scant ¼ cup honey or ¼ cup xylitol. Other options: Allulose, or of-plan organic white sugar
  • ½ cup hot or warm water
  • ½ cup rice vinegar
  • ¼ cup fish sauce
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely minced
  • Scant 1 tsp dried ginger
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper


Salad


  • 8-12 oz dried pasta *
  • 2 cucumbers
  • 3-6 green onions
  • 2 large bell peppers (red, yellow, or orange)
  • 1 bunch of cilantro
  • Optional: a few handfuls of (Thai) basil
  • 4 cups shredded or thinly sliced cabbage


*We usually use brown rice noodles, but I also tried this with 8 ounces of cassava noodles for a grain-free option. Both worked! But the cassava needs to especially be eaten right away as it will get mushy if left to sit. Cassava noodles aren’t on THM, although some use it as a personal choice option if needed.


Directions:


  1. Make the sauce by first stirring together the hot or warm water with the sweetener of choice. Add the rest of the ingredients. Set aside.
  2. Prep the vegetables: Peel the cucumbers and cut into small wedges. Seed and thinly slice the sweet bell peppers. Thinly slice cabbage, chop the green onions (removing the top two inches and discarding), and wash the cilantro, remove the stems, and chop.
  3. Cook pasta according to box directions, but make sure you salt well. While the pasta cooks make up the ground beef, adding the seasoning as it cooks, and stirring frequently.
  4. Drain the pasta once just tender, and rinse with cold water. Drain well. Add to a large bowl with the vegetables, and then toss with the dressing.
  5. Serve right away. You can also add more rice vinegar and fish sauce to add more flavor if needed. Over time, the noodles will start absorbing the sauce, so, if needed, you can add a bit more vinegar and either tamari, coconut amino acids, or fish sauce, to taste.