Mia's Pumpkin-flavored Parade And Other Goodness

This is day two of random blogging, so brace yourselves for THAT (and pumpkin-flavored stuff.). In cased you missed it, day one of random blogging had a contest and it's still going until 10/10. My new goal is to hear from all 50 states, so tell your friends. I'll give a better prize for something epic like THAT. 

Click here to check it out. $10 Amazon gift card and an e-book by moi for you (maybe. If you win.) 

 Mia's Random Blog Post About Fisher Cats and Other Creatures

I love pumpkin-flavored stuff and it's even better that it seems to go hand-in-hand with my kids going back to school. Sort of a win/win on the enjoyment front. Pumpkin coffee and pumpkin loaf as the school bus leaves? You betcha! I mean, so sad to see you go, my children. 

So this year, I've expanded my quest for pumpkin-flavored goodness to encompass a variety of foods, so I thought I'd do a rundown of them. I'm also going to connect this to writing at the end in some manner (I haven't gotten there yet mentally) so for now, just enjoy the pumpkin parade. ::insert flourish of music!::

RAWR! 

Parade of pumpkin-flavored crap and other stuff Mia has tried.

An * indicates new-to-me food this year.

Pumpkin-flavored coffee... Hell to the YES! This is like the Holy Grail of pumpkin-flavored riches. Have chalice, will drink. Dunkin Donuts K-cups kick royal pumpkin ass, as does Green Mountain Coffee.


Pumpkin flavoring for coffee... Sometimes you gotta go with a flavor shot. Starbucks is the least favorite but a skinny latte counts as a Power Food in Weight Watchers, so I indulge once a week. I adore Dunkin Donuts pumpkin-flavored syrup, though. ADORE.

Pumpkin creamer... Good stuff. If you can't get pumpkin coffee to go in your at home coffee, then go for second best.

Pumpkin donuts, muffins, loaf... Nom, nom, nom. It's hard to go wrong. 

*Pumpkin Pop-tarts... This is a NO. Not worth the money or the WW points. I tossed out the box after eating just one. I don't toss out food usually because I was raised in the era when starving children in some third world country would discover your selfishness somehow (it was before texting and the Internet, so I have no clue how, but damn it, my parents knew and those kids knew, too.) Well, I would not send them to the starving children. They deserve better.

*Pumpkin English Muffins... Taste best with honey. I've been told to get pumpkin butter spread stuff but I'm too lazy for that. I'm waiting for the Cranberry ones like a kid waits for the Easter Bunny.

*Pumpkin Swirl Bread (I think it's Arnolds but I'm not sure.) Eh. I liked it with peanut butter or honey. I would eat just about anything with honey, btw. It's the new crack food for me.

I'm telling you, it's not that color...

*Pumpkin Jell-o pudding... ::wrinkled nose:: It was oddly colored, more like...well...it wasn't attractive. All I'm going to say is the last time I'd seen that, it was in a kid's diaper. It tasted okay if you could get over the coloring. Now, maybe it's because I made it on a sort of dim afternoon and I have to replace two little candelabra lights in my kitchen light... Maybe? I dunno. I also made it with skim milk, so maybe that didn't help.

Pumpkin cheesecake... This is right up there with my love of bacon and Diet Coke. Coffee is not a love, by the way. It's a necessity. Like air or blood. Gotta have that stuff to live.

*Banana Oreos... Okay, I know this is not pumpkin, but I tried them this week and they are icky! Don't go there. I also bought Mega Stuf Oreos but haven't sampled them. Maybe I'll go get one, just for quality control's sake. I'd hate to steer you wrong.

I took this wonderful picture from:
 fatguyfoodblog.blogspot.com 

*Mega Stuf Oreos... OMG OMG OMG. I just had FIVE and I could just race around the house with the sugar high--and I do not usually do more than a shuffle. They contain Oreo stuffing on steroids, this plump, white stuffing, all sweet and tasty... Yeah, then there's the cookie part because frosting needs a delivery system. Divine. 

Parade Judging Conclusion... 
I'm sad to say, most of the pumpkin stuff I have tried this year wasn't worth the expense. May 2014 bring a better variety of pumpkin-flavored things for me to enjoy. 

~*~

Some pumpkin links for your reading enjoyment...

12 Most Unnecessary Pumpkin-flavored Products Pumpkin Pringles and Pumpkin marshmallows? Um, no. Just no.

7 Pumpkin-flavored Things Even Better Than A Pumpkin-spiced Latte  offers a humorous look at the world of pumpkin-flavored things. I want me a hat like that!

~*~

How Mia Links Pumpkin To Her Writing... 

Well, I honestly can't since I haven't written a character with my drive and quest to try all the pumpkin things. 

Do my other characters share my love of food or other things? Why, yes. From Spy Games: Endgame--Charlotte loves scallops and hates shrimp. Her hero, Aaron, is allergic to cherries (like me.) From Spy Games: Lethal Limits--Tia whips up a mean dinner of roast chicken and biscuits! And Jake adores lattes (I do, too. Maybe he has pumpkin ones.) There's food play with pineapple in Exceeding Boundaries (I adore pineapple.) Chase in Spy Games: Trained for Seduction is probably more ambitious than I am. While in France, he took cooking classes and excels in creating French cuisine. I believe he served Kate coq au vin, a favorite of mine. I was a chef at one point, though not classically trained in any sense of the word.

Will I work pumpkin into a book as a favorite of a character? I guess I have to at some point! 

Tune in to see.