Healthy and Fun Pumpkin Recipes for Kids

It’s not even fall yet but there’s a certain cool wind in the air that makes leaves turn and that begs for autumn colors and smells in the kitchen. This is an awesome list of recipes that bring you great advice to make healthy and fun pumpkin recipes for kids. Include your children in the reading and plan pumpkin meals with them. I included mine in the testing/tasting and they were thrilled to see that pumpkin can be eaten for breakfast, afterschool snacks and dinner.

What do your kids think about pumpkin in smoothies, granola bars or pizzas? I believe that these will result in new food discoveries for you as a family. Take a look and be bold. Experiment, you will love them!

#1 Pumpkin Smoothie Recipe

This delicious seasonal smoothie from Rebecca Lewis, dietitian at HelloFresh, makes a fun and colorful breakfast for kids who want to try something new. In the fall, Rebecca loves incorporating pumpkin into as many of her meals as possible — including smoothies! What gives pumpkins their gorgeous orange color is the anti-oxidant beta-carotene. This nutrient is helpful in slowing down aging in the body and is useful in preventing cancer.  Moreover, pumpkin is a rich source of vitamin C (something we can all use a little boost of in the upcoming winter months!) 1 cup of cooked pumpkin = only 49 calories and 3g of fiber.  A healthy choice that will fill you up without stacking on the calories!

Ingredients

• 1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or fresh)
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or low-fat or fat-free milk)
• 1/2 frozen banana (adds creaminess and sweetness without added sugar)
• handful of ice cubes
• dash of pumpkin pie spice 

Instructions

• Blend and enjoy!
• If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice in a your pantry, you can make your own with the following spices, or cinnamon alone will still give you great flavor.
• Pumpkin Spice Mix: 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon, 2 teaspoons ground ginger, 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg, 1 ½ teaspoons ground allspice and 1 ½ teaspoons ground cloves. Mix the spices together in a small bowl.

#2 Pumpkin and Dark Chocolate Muesli Bread Recipe

This seasonal pumpkin bread mixes the best of autumn and breakfast with pumpkin and muesli–oh, and chocolate, too. It comes from Hannah Barnstable, a mom of two who got the idea to make her own muesli when honeymooning in New Zealand. With her honeymoon came lots of hiking, camping and hunger, and a nourishing breakfast became extra important. Muesli became a staple, and breakfast became more than a meal. She then created a line of mueslis called Seven Sundays.

Check out the recipe here on Seven Sundays.

#3 Pumpkin Pancakes Recipe

Pancakes! Did anyone say pancakes? When I told my youngest that we were going to try pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, she had no difficulty getting out of bed before school. This recipe makes creamy pancakes that taste naturally sweet with pumpkin and we like the orange color too. We made ours on the stovetop and tried two different batches, one with chocolate chips and one with apple slices on top. The apples were particularly good when maple syrup and honey appeared on the kitchen table. It was a frank success and super easy to whip up.

Check out the recipe here on Mama Smiles.

#4  Gluten-Free Pumpkin Granola Bars

These granola bars from Nuts.com are extremely easy to make and much better for your family than store-bought varieties. All of the ingredients can be combined in one step using one bowl for less cleanup–always a perk when cooking with kids! These can also be individually wrapped and brought on hikes, picnics, etc.

Ingredients

• 1 cup gluten free rolled oats 
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup cashew butter
• 3/4 cup honey, or maple syrup
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 3 tsp pumpkin spice

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 350F/180C. Line an 8×8 square baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine and mix the ingredients together with a spatula until they are thoroughly combined. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking pan and flatten it with the spatula.
• Bake for 25 minutes. Let the bars cool in the baking pan and cut them into 8 pieces, or however you like. You can store them in a sealed container for up to 5 days on your kitchen counter. They will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months if individually wrapped.

#5 Pumpkin Chip Muffins

These wholegrain mini-muffins from Kendra at Tiny Tummy Tales look and taste wonderful. I love the fact that the recipe uses both pumpkin puree and hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas), making it a doubly healthy snack. Pumpkin seeds are high in zinc and pumpkin puree packs vitamin A and carotenoids to help improve your family’s vision. Double pumpkin is a win-win win for your family.

Check out the recipe here on Tiny Tummy Tales.

#6 Mini Pumpkin Soup Recipe

Kids absolutely love these mini pumpkin soups as they are cooked and served directly in mini pumpkins. If you ever wondered what people do with cute decorative mini pumpkins, this is a tasty idea to turn them into a quick dinner. Instructions for this recipe are so easy that kids can even make them themselves with minimal parental supervision. Try them with different mini pumpkins and see which one you prefer!

Check out the recipe here on FrogMom.

#7 Pumpkin Muffin Recipe

These pumpkin muffins make an easy on-the-go breakfast that double as low-calorie breakfast. Indeed, this recipe comes from Cara Walsh, doctor specialized in weight control Medifast in California. She uses applesauce instead of butter or oil to cut down on calories and fat, resulting in dairy-free and low calorie muffins.

Ingredients

• 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin puree or 2 cups fresh pumpkin puree
• ½ cup apple sauce
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• ½ tsp. salt.

Instructions

1. Combine pumpkin, eggs, apple sauce, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl—stir until combined.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt together in a separate bowl.
3. Add dry ingredients to wet.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350°.

#8 Pumpkin (Base) Pizza Recipe

Pumpkin as pizza? If you’re as intrigued as me, you’ll try this recipe created by Anna Johnson, a mom of two little boys who struggles on a daily basis to get vegetables in them and also works on the marketing team for CardioTech. Her boys love mini pizzas, so she decided to hide some veggies and made a pumpkin pizza base using the following recipe.

Ingredients (for 4)

• 1 cup pureed fresh pumpkin
• ½ cup fresh broccoli blitzed in blender
• 1 cup plain yoghurt
• 2 cups self-raising flour

Instructions

• Mix vegetables and yoghurt, then add the flour and mix.
• Knead until you have a smooth dough and cut it into small pizza rounds. The dough will come out quite soft. Refrigerate and add more flour if necessary.
• Prebake pizza crust on oiled non-stick trays during 10 minutes.
• Top with your favorite toppings and bake 10 to 25 minutes at 400F/200C.

Anna uses mainly veggies (onion, spinach, tomato etc) as toppings and a minimal amount of cheese, or replaces normal cheese with cottage cheese as low fat option. As the recipe makes quite a large batch, she freezes half of it to make life easier.

We topped ours (photo) with onions, apples, mozzarella and sage leaves and my girls also tried mini pizzas topped with mozzarella + black olives and mozzarella + apples + pumpkin spices. Neither of them could taste the pumpkin in the crust and when I told them there was broccoli too, they looked at me in disbelief. Way to go for hiding veggies!

#9 Pumpkin Chewy Cookies

Judi and Shari Zucker, known as The Double Energy Twins are best-selling authors of seven published books on health and natural foods cooking. Their latest book, The Memory Diet-More than 150 Healthy Recipes for the Proper Care and Feeling of Your Brain, features recipes that are sugar-free, gluten-free and plant based.

This chewy cookie recipe, from their latest book, uses maple syrup combined with pumpkin to give cookies a chewy, sweet flavor. You can store these cookies in the freezer up to 4 months just in case you want a quick snack. With my girls, we tested this recipe with chocolate chips instead of raisins and it tasted great. 

Yield: About 40 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups oat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup pumpkin purée
• 1 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup safflower, or sunflower oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350. Lightly oil a cookie sheet and set aside.
• Combine the flours, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium bowl.  Add oats and raisins and stir until well distributed. Set aside.
• Place pumpkin puree, oil, maple syrup and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and stir until well distributed. Set aside.
• Add flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix well.
• Place a heaping tablespoon of mixture on to the bookie sheet and spread cookies at least 2 inches apart, as cookies will spread when heated.
• Reduce heat to 250 and bake for 15-20 minutes. Let cookies cool slightly before removing from cookie sheet.

#10 Olive Oil Pumpkin Tea Cake Recipe

This dairy-free pumpkin bread or cake uses the natural goodness of olive oil to make a moist and seasonal pumpkin bread. It tastes wonderful at the end of the afternoon on an autumn day, paired with a cup of steaming Earl Grey tea and a side of Seville orange marmelade. It’s also great at breakfast, on its own or with honey, and it’s an easy pumpkin bread to slice and pack out for a day out with the kids.

Check out the recipe here on FrogMom.

#12 Coconut Flour Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Combining coconut flour, maple syrup and pumpkin, this pumpkin bread makes a delicious snack after school or on-the-go for picnics. I like that the recipe is basically gluten-free but that Sarah offers advice on how to make it strictly gluten-free. If you’re new to coconut flour, it’s simple ground and dried coconut meat. It includes neither grain nor nuts, but comes from the inner white meat inside the coconut hull. As I love everything coconut, this pumpkin bread is definitely on my autumn list.

Check out the recipe here on Little Bins for Little Hands.

More on Apples, Pumpkins and Harvest

• Corn Kernal Fall Tree Craft from Play Dough & Popsicles
• Kids in the Kitchen: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from Crafty Mama in ME
• Learning About Pumpkins {Free Printables Round Up} from Faith and Good Works
• Books about Pumpkins for Kids from CraftCreateCalm
• Apple Tree Counting Mat from Look! We’re Learning!
• Harvest Theme Word Search from Tales of Education at Home
• Board Books About Apples and Pumpkins for Toddlers from The Jenny Evolution
• Pumpkin Science Activities from iGameMom
• Apple Read and Play from My Storytime Corner
• Pumpkin Preschool Printables from  Living life and learning
• Pumpkin Patch Alphabet Match from Schooling a Monkey
• Apple Sight Word Game from Books and Giggles
• Challenge Math – Apple Theme from Planet Smarty Pants