Almost Fall
Need I say more? With the first day of Fall right upon us, many of us are dreaming of sweater weather and piping hot lattes. We will have to wait a little longer to enjoy these seasonal luxuries around here in southern California, but in the meantime...we can cheat a little bit.
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To temper those heavy days of late summer, I like to introduce the flavors and aromas of fall to some cool summer favorites. It piques the senses, mood and imagination, while not melting away into a puddle on the kitchen floor.

Probably one of the easiest transitional treats to make is a spiced granita. For this post, I couldn't decide whether I wanted to use organic cranberry, tart cherry, pomegranate or orange juice...so, surprise, I used a little bit of each. The beauty is, this is your granita and it is entirely up to you what delights your palate. Stirring in a little ginger, clove, maple syrup and cinnamon for this batch, I poured everything into to a baking dish and tossed it in the freezer. After about 25 minutes, open the freezer, take a fork to the edges to loosen the frozen crystals to the center. Repeat, repeat, repeat, continuing to move the frozen crystals to the center of the dish, until the process is complete (about 90-120 minutes total). Scoop and garnish appropriately. Fantastic. Voila.
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Remember the Peach Ice Cream recipe from the Summer Spotlight? Try substituting the frozen peaches for some organic pumpkin puree and adjust the seasoning to suit the mood. Here, I used 2 frozen and sliced bananas, 1/2 cup of organic pumpkin puree, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder and a generous pour of maple syrup. Toss everything into that swiftly Ninja and devour swiftly:

To get my day started on a rightfully autumnal note, I enjoy a variation on my Chia Espresso Energy Cups recipe and transform them into gingerbread flavored gifts. I simply omit the coffee (or not) and add in some cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger, and date sugar to my flax milk and vanilla protein powder, before filling up my chia seed laden jars. Delicious and mood lifting.

Hopefully these seasonally transitional recipe hacks will inspire and excite you for the season upon us, while still enjoying these final days of summer.
Happy Autumnal Equinox everyone!
Enjoy!