After I made mini pumpkin muffins the other day, I had about two cups of pumpkin puree leftover. Since I’m not one for wasting any food, I wanted to make something else with the pumpkin. My friend, Dana, recently made pumpkin lasagna, which she said turned out absolutely delicious. I decided to do the same, but used a different recipe. I chose Robert Irvine’s five-star pumpkin lasagna recipe on the Food Network website, but made a few alterations.

I figured the finished product had to turn out well when the separate components tasted delicious on their own, from the wine infused tomato sauce to the slightly sweet pumpkin and cheese filling to the turkey, zucchini, garlic and onion mixture. Irvine’s recipe calls for spicy Italian sausage, but I decided to use turkey to make the dish leaner.

After removing the lasagna from the oven, it was difficult to resist immediately devouring the entire dish—the aroma was tantalizing. I was not even worried about the risk of burning my tongue. Subtle, but still recognizable, the pumpkin flavor blended beautifully with the other ingredients, even the dash of cinnamon. With each bite, a plethora of flavors greeted the taste buds, both savory and sweet. I highly recommend making this dish!

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Pumpkin has always been one of my all-time favorite flavors. I look forward to the fall season primarily so I can bake and cook just about everything pumpkin—from muffins to soup to pasta. I absolutely love baking these light, moist and delectable bite-sized pumpkin muffins/cupcakes.

I typically ice the muffins with plain cream cheese frosting, however, I wanted to try something different. I decided to add a few spices to the frosting and ended up with a maple cinnamon (with a touch of pumpkin pie spice) cream cheese frosting. The rich and sweet taste of the maple in the frosting was the perfect addition to the muffins—it did not overpower the pumpkin, but its flavor was immediately recognized upon the first bite.

These mini muffins are ideal for an on-the-go breakfast with a cup of freshly brewed coffee or for dessert while snuggling up on the couch by the fireplace.

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