Just keep rollin'..

with a pumpkin roll! That's right, I made a pumpkin roll last night. But more on that in a bit.
First off-dinner.
I really wanted to try out that butternut squash pasta sauce that I got a while back at Costco. We had some tasty precooked chicken sausage in the freezer that was asiago cheese and spinach flavored that I though would play nicely with the sweet butternut. After opening the bottle and getting a taste of this anticipated sauce I was slightly disappointed. It is good, its just different. I think that maybe it just wasn't saucy enough. The butternut squash flavors were a little overpowering. Don't get me wrong though, I do like it. I will probably use it more as a spread than a sauce (like in a veggie sandwich). I also added some spinach into the pasta, but we only had one 6 ounce bag (and spinach shrinks, majorly) so the pasta was lacking in the veggie department. Of course, it was drenched in basically a butternut puree.

Served with steamed green beans.

As much as I love roasted vegetables, green beans are the best steamed. I absolutely love them.

Close up of the chicken sausage.

My plate-

+ a liberal dash of lemon pepper seasoning to the green beans (love that combo)

Well my parents were a little iffy on the pasta sauce. My dad said it was "very smooth" and then when he asked me what the sauce was called he said "ohh its butternut squash, that's where the smoothness is coming from." Uh yeah dad, that would be butternut squash sauce, not tomato sauce. (he has no taste buds, but I still love him.)
My mom said "I'm not sold on the sauce." (I think? Eh maybe I should quote that..) Anyways, she didn't like it but I don't think she hated it.
My opinion is still open, I liked it (especially the next day for leftovers) but it was a little starchy and sweeter than the normal pasta sauce. I'd definitely try it out if you're one those people that are open to trying new things.

***

Now on to that pumpkin roll I was so pumped about..

I was reading this post over at A Teenage Gourmet about her ventures making the acclaimed pumpkin roll and it got me inspired. She based hers off of Libby’s original recipe that can be found here. I was surprised that the cake part of the recipe called for no oil or butter! This seemed like the perfect recipe to “make over” for a much healthier pumpkin roll that would be suitable for breakfast :P

You see, over at my house, whenever we get pumpkin rolls (very rarely; but when we do, we get them from Great Harvest) we never eat it for dessert as if it were a cake (which is it), but instead eat it for breakfast. And since I love making over recipes, this one was just calling my name :D

I was obviously a little apprehensive about rolling the cake without having it break into a million pieces; but I was determined to make this. I made many substitutions but want to wait till I perfect the recipe before I share it on the blog (I may be making another one tonight!) 

I did run into some problems, however. Mostly because I didn't have the correct sized pan so my cake was thicker than it should have been. I don't know if this is because of the thickness, but as I was rolling the cake out after it had cooled it started ripping all over the place! AHH

I pretty much thought I was screwed but after rolling it back up after I had spread the filling in, the cracks disappeared (enough) so they were pretty unnoticeable. I was too embarrassed to take pictures as I was making the roll since I failed so much in the process, but the end product looks remarkably good, considering!

Yay!

So moist! And spicy! (I added extra spices). I can't wait until I can share my modified recipe with you guys because I think its a real winner. Personally, I think this one trumps the one from Great Harvest but maybe that's because I always give a bakery item higher points when it's healthified :P 

Ripzz all over the place.

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The next moring I giddely pranced (okay maybe not) up the stairs to try my pumpkin roll. My dad had already had a piece and gave it two thumbs up. 

My plate-

Its hard to understand the size of my piece with this aerial view, but oh well. 

As I have already said, the pumpkin roll was AMAZING! Recipe coming soon, guys!

After I had a second opinion of the roll, I had a small cup of greek yogurt and blueberries with lemon curd (!!).

All mixed up after the photo was taken.

If you can find lemon curd in your grocery store (usually with the jams) then GET IT! Although it is pretty easy to make, this jar was on sale for $2 when it was originally around $5 dollars so I had to get it. Love it with blueberries.

***

In other news, my mom didn't know the correct spelling of the name of my best friend of almost five years...

She was writing down her name and number just in case she needed to contact me (since I am phoneless now)-

Uh yeah. Hey mom, it's N-I-K-K-I. *sigh*

Also some good news is that some of the new photos for the blog that I thought were lost with the camera are actually on my computer! I guess I forgot that I uploaded them. So I will be sharing those soon. Mostly just awesome sandwich bread making madness :P

Its 7 and my mom just started on dinner because she has been on a bussiness call, so I guess I should probably go help her out..

More posts coming soon!

<3