Once September rolls around, it seems like every single food gets a pumpkin spice spin. While some products nail that warm, fall flavor, while others create a unique taste that you can't exactly put your finger on. Regardless of how accurate your pumpkin spice-flavored foods taste, the pumpkin spice trend is alive and breathing. Chances are you either love all things pumpkin or are angry at the pumpkin spice gods for even making this a thing. I decided to round up as many pumpkin spice foods as I could find to eat for an entire day. Basically, everything that entered my mouth for a 24-hour period had fall's favorite gourd mixed in.
Breakfast
I started off my day with some mini-bagels topped with Trader Joe's pumpkin cream cheese spread. As someone who regularly enjoys pumpkin spice-flavored foods, this cream cheese hit the spot and nailed the spices that are essential to the season. After this, I was about ready to go jump in a pile of leaves with an oversized sweater on.
Lunch
By lunchtime, I was craving a hearty meal that I could sit down and eat with a fork and knife. But alas, the pumpkin spice-flavored foods are mainly snacks, so I put together a conglomerate of pumpkin snack foods to count as my lunch. First up was Trader Joe's Greek nonfat pumpkin yogurt. I'm a huge Greek yogurt person, so I was super excited to eat this and hit the spot as part of my lunch. It's a large portion of Greek yogurt compared to some other products, and totally functions as a satisfying snack. This yogurt nailed that natural pumpkin flavor without confusing the taste by adding too many spices.
I followed up my yogurt with Trader Joe's country pumpkin spice granola cereal. After having recently made my own homemade pumpkin spice granola, I was a bit wary to try this new boxed version. But this pumpkin spice granola was a nice break from my homemade version that I had been eating for two weeks straight. The puffed corn and raisins nicely balanced out the pumpkin spice taste.
I finished my "lunch" off with one of Trader Joe's pumpkin cereal bars. This had me reminiscing about those Nutri-Grain bars that my mom would bring everywhere when I was a kid. The softness of these bars is a nice change from tougher, nut-based bars. There were times while eating this that I felt I was enjoying a pumpkin dessert of some kind. The pumpkin interior had a different taste and spice balance than the other foods I had eaten up to this point, so I was not a bit tired of that fall flavor just yet
Dinner
I was pretty excited for my dinner because I had actually planned a "meal" to eat that didn't include me just eating random pumpkin snacks that I had found at Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's pumpkin soup and pumpkin soup crackers were my final two pumpkin foods of the night, and I was actually excited to taste what pumpkin flavors these two products were bringing to the table. The pumpkin soup crackers had an almost cheesy-taste, which was great for me as I was beginning to get tired of that artificial pumpkin taste that I had encountered a few times throughout the day. Without the crackers, the soup would not have had much of the spice element, so combining the two was a perfect idea.
As I ended my day of pumpkin spice foods, all I really wanted was a salad and some fruit. I came away realizing that most pumpkin spice foods are snacks, and it is difficult to make a whole day of meals out of what is available. The overwhelming amount of pumpkin that I ate that day did not scare me away from eating more pumpkin products sporadically throughout the coming days. Doing this for one day was not super difficult for me, but if I had to do it for multiple days, I would surely turn into an angry jack-o-latern. It's true that each food has it's own take on the taste of "pumpkin spice". Whatever side of the pumpkin spice debacle you're on, it's worth giving some pumpkin spice products a try.