Pumpkin Overdose

I'll admit it, I do get excited when basically everything becomes pumpkin-flavored in the fall.  But, I always get excited for seasonal/ holiday food - hot apple cider around Thanksgiving, egg nog for Christmas, Reese's eggs in the spring (those totally count), and corn on the cob in the summer!!!

I did have my first pumpkin spice latte of the year while it was still warm out, but mostly I was excited to try out some new recipes.

First I made Mama Peas' pumpkin streusel swirl loaf.

It was delicious!!  I highly recommend it.

I used canned pumpkin for that recipe, but then I roasted a sugar pumpkin I got in my second CSA share.

And I roasted the butternut squash, too, following Angela's tutorial.

Lookin' gooooood.

I saved the seeds from the pumpkin and the squash so that I could roast them and make a delicious, iron-filled snack.  Once again, I followed another tutorial by Angela.

I just realized that it looks like I'm hiding an egg in this picture, haha, but it's really just a hard-boiled egg that I was trying to prevent from rolling off the counter.  

I coated the seeds in about a tablespoon of coconut oil (melted), about a tablespoon of brown sugar, and a hefty sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice

Oh yum.

Come in a little closer to see that gorgeous, crunchy coating.

They taste even better when eaten from an orange dish.

Once I roasted the pumpkin, I scooped out the flesh and put it in my food processor to make a puree.  Easy peasy.  Then I used the puree to make 3 more recipes.  I was on a roll!  First up - pumpkin granola.  It's got a great ingredient list and is very healthy.  It even contains quinoa, which I had never thought to include in granola before.  The quionoa gives it some extra protein, and a great nutty flavor.  (I know quinoa is a seed, but "seedy flavor" does not sound too appealing!)

By the way, old pasta sauce jars make great storage containers!

 I've been eating it with unsweetened vanilla almond milk.  I'm in love.

I also made Kath's baked pumpkin oatmeal.  (And I think my oven must be slanted, judging by the slope of the oatmeal in this dish.)

I'm a huge fan of having breakfast ready to go in the morning, so I baked this on Sunday and had breakfast ready and waiting for me the rest of the week.

In the mornings I just scooped out a section of oatmeal, put it in a bowl with some unsweetened vanilla almond milk (a current favorite of mine, if you couldn't tell), and heated it up in the microwave for about a minute.  Perfection.

Finally, I tried out a savory dish - crock pot turkey white bean chili.  It might sound a little strange, but it was absolutely delicious, and easy to make.  And I just love using my crock pot - so convenient!

I could have eaten this for another week straight.

Sadly, I ran out of homemade pumpkin puree at that point.  But I think I put it to pretty good use.

Oh, and I bought some pumpkin soup from Trader Joe's, too.

It. Was. Incredible.  I first had pumpkin soup in France when I was studying abroad, and I absolutely loved it.  I searched everywhere for something comparable in the States, but the closest I could get was sweet potato and squash soups.  I tried making my own pumpkin soup one time from scratch, but it was an absolute disaster and completely discouraged me from making another attempt.  Luckily, after 5 years, I finally found what I was looking for.  Sadly, I only got one container.  I'll be counting down the days until it comes out again next year!

So is that enough pumpkin for ya?  I wonder what my next seasonal food fixation will be... gingerbread?  Cranberries?  Something peppermint?  Hmm, we shall see.

Song of the day:

"The Story" by Brandi Carlile.  I really love this song because it's such a good mix of pretty and raw vocals.  And it's fun to sing along to (but not fun to hear me singing along to!).

And That's a Very Good Thing

I tried out a new recipe the other night and just have to share the results.  I present to you:  dark chocolate avocado mousse, created by the very ingenious Julie of Peanut Butter Fingers.

Feast your eyes on what happened when I combined 3 simple ingredients in my food processor:

Come a little closer...

Just a little bit closer...

Judging by the name of the recipe, you probably guessed the "secret" ingredient - avocado.  The other 2 ingredients are honey and cocoa powder.  That's it!  Magical.  Truly magical.  I could not believe how light and fluffy it was - just like you would expect of mousse!  I even used an avocado which I had frozen, and it still turned out this light and fluffy.  I ate half of the recipe one night and stuck the other half in the fridge for later - I wasn't sure how it would keep with the avocado in it, but it tasted just as good the next night!

So chocolate mousse is good.  You know what else is good?  Yoga.  Awhile back I bought a Groupon for a 10-class pass to a studio called Anytime Nirvana Yoga.  

Yesterday morning I finally redeemed my Groupon and went to a Power Yoga Basics class.  I was a little nervous at first because I was one of only two students in the entire class, but that actually turned out to be amazing; it was practically like a private lesson.  I've only ever taken yoga at fitness centers and gyms before,  so I'm used to having mirrors lining the walls.  It was kind of nice to focus on how my body felt in a pose rather than how it looked in a pose.  And it was really nice that the teacher could help me to adjust and get deeper into the poses.  Great start to the weekend!  I even feel a little sore this morning, especially in my shoulders and upper back - lots of low planks/ chaturanga dandasana.

This past week I also officially joined the gym associated with my school.  They had a "guest week" for non-members to try out the gym and the classes for free, and I went to about 5 group exercise classes that week (Caribbean cardio, an abs class, a spin class, and a couple of Zumba classes - so fun!) and absolutely loved them.  Even though my semester is really busy, I feel SO much better when I take time to exercise, and I absolutely love group exercise classes.  I can't wait to try out even more!

Some more good things:  these sunsets that I've seen from my window recently.   

And one last good thing: my very first CSA share!

I got kale, zucchini, a red bell pepper, beets, an onion, broccoli, a hot pepper, 2 tomatoes, carrots, an acorn squash, and 2 apples.  So good!  I made "cheesy" kale chips with the kale and red bell pepper, and I made a stir fry with the zucchini, broccoli, hot pepper, and one of the tomatoes.  Everything was really tasty!  I ordered another share which I get to pick up on Tuesday - can't wait!

So those are my good things recently.  Hope you've got some very good things of your own going on!

Song of the day:

"Stubborn Love" by The Lumineers.  Basically, I just love their entire self-titled album.  

DIY Personalized Coasters

Hello friends.  Well, this semester is crazy-busy and I don't see it getting calmer anytime soon, so my posts will be sporadic.  I still want to share fun things as I can, though, so I'm taking pictures and keeping notes for the rare moments when I can squeeze in a post!

In August, I went to visit my best friend right after she moved into a new (gorgeous!) apartment in DC.  I wanted to bring her a little housewarming gift, so I turned to my oft-admired and rarely-used Pinterest boards.  I decided to try making some custom coasters for her.  The link to the original website doesn't work anymore, but I was able to gather enough information from the picture and caption to get started.

Materials needed:  4 x 4 plain tiles from a home improvement store (I got mine at Lowe's super cheap, like $0.15 or something), pictures/ scrapbook paper/ whatever you want to use to decorate, a permanent marker, a straight edge (i.e. a ruler), a utility knife, Mod Podge, a paint brush, clear spray paint, scrap paper.

First, gather your supplies and lay out the scrap paper to protect your work surface.

I wanted to color the edges of the tiles to make them look more polished, and I initially tried painting them.  The paint wasn't going on well, so I switched to a permanent marker which worked much better.  Bonus - no drying time!  It really wore down the marker, though, so use an old one or mourn the loss of the nice, crisp tip of the marker.  (Or maybe that's just me... I have a strong attachment to Sharpies.)

I used a black marker to stick with my black and white theme, but you could color coordinate your edges with your pictures/ designs.

I previously chose some digital pictures that I wanted to use to decorate the coasters, made them black and white on my computer, cropped them so that they were square and slightly smaller than 4 x 4 inches, and printed them out on resume-type paper so that they were a little sturdier than regular office paper, but not so thick that they would be raised up on top of the coasters.

Then I used a ruler and utility knife to cut them out - you want your edges to be as straight and clean as possible.

I printed out a few extra pictures so that I could see what looked best on the tiles.

After you've chosen and cut out your pictures/ scrapbook paper, use a paint brush and Mod Podge to adhere the pictures to the tiles.  My ink bled a little bit when I did this, so I kept a rag nearby to wipe off any discoloration.

After the Mod Podge dries, you can put on a coat of clear spray paint.  This is important:  go outside!!!  I'm speaking from experience here... it's not pleasant to spray this in the house, and you might feel like you're going to die from the fumes for the rest of the night.  Oh, and your family/ roommates/ pets will really not appreciate it.  (My dad: "You care about everyone's environment except for mine!!"  Woops.)  Yeah, I know, who uses spray paint inside?  But it was clear...  clear = harmless, right?  Not quite.  Definitely a blonde moment.  Don't be like me!

After the spray paint has dried, stick four protectors on the bottom of each tile.

You could use felt protectors, or little plastic ones like I chose.  Or you could even use a hot glue gun and make little dots (but I tend to burn myself with hot glue guns so I didn't attempt that method).

And there you have it - personalized, homemade coasters.  They're not very expensive to make, and I think they make great housewarming gifts, or even gifts for birthdays and other holidays.  And it was really fun to choose pictures specifically for my best friend!

I wrapped them up with a pretty bow,

and added a container of homemade red velvet macaroons to go with them.

If any of you read The Fitnessista, you know that Gina has a famous and secret macaroon recipe.  She recently shared her red velvet variety, and I was so excited to try them out for myself!  My grandma let me borrow her old-school dehydrator - doesn't it look like a space ship?

They smelled gooooood.

Yummy.

And they're the perfect little sweet treat to go with a cup of tea!

By the way, my favorite tea right now is Lady Grey - like Earl Grey, but more refined :)  It's decaffeinated, and I think it has a lighter, smoother flavor than Earl Grey.

Even though I'm not usually a big fan of coconut, I did enjoy these a lot.

And they got good reviews from my best friend, a neighbor, and my grandma - so I think they were a success!

Okay, that's all for now - hopefully I'll be back soon with some more fun updates.

Song of the day:

"Blown Away" by Carrie Underwood.  Loving this song right now.

Ski-wee Herman

Trader Joe's continues to impress me.  Last time I was there I found this "European Style" yogurt and thought I'd give it a try.  I haven't been able to get enough of yogurt lately (for breakfast, for snacks, for dessert) and when I studied abroad, I absolutely loved the yogurt in France, so the European description definitely appealed to me.  And it didn't disappoint - I will definitely be getting this yogurt again.

Sometimes when it's so hot, I just don't have a big appetite.  Or I'm just too lazy to chew.  Either way, smoothies for lunch are great options when that happens.  

This smoothie was SOOO good.  It had 1 cup of milk, 1 T chia seeds, 1 scoop of vanilla Sun Warrior protein powder, 1 T natural peanut butter, rainbow chard, 2 small peaches, strawberries, cherries, and a frozen banana (plus some ice cubes).  I cut the peaches over the blender so that the juice would drip right into my smoothie - they were too good to waste a drop!  The smoothie was super tasty, and I felt good that I was able to sneak some greens in there without it affecting the flavor at all.  

It didn't even all fit in that huge cup!  I had some leftover which I put in the fridge - I'd never done that before because I was afraid the texture would be ruined, but that wasn't the case at all.  It still tasted good the next day!

I put my ice cream maker to use again - this time making classic vanilla bean ice cream.  My dad said it was probably the best ice cream he's ever had - I'll take it!  

With some fresh cherries on top... swoon.  Perfection.

Another delicious way to enjoy vanilla ice cream: in float form!  I used Zevia root beer, which is sweetened with stevia and doesn't have any calories.  I also love the black cherry soda and ginger ale - they're all yummy, and I think they're much better than diet soda or regular soda.  My grandma used to make me root beer floats pretty much every time I went over to her house, so this took me back.

You know what's great?  Getting a freshly baked cookie at work!  :)

You know what else is great?  Fun summer activities with family.  My family and I didn't get to go on our usual summer vacation this year, so we did a few local things together as a family.  We went to an Indians game, and had awesome seats.

And I didn't get to see any fireworks on the 4th of July, so I was excited for the fireworks show after the game!

We also went to a water ski show.  I am completely in awe of these skiers - how amazing are they??  This was a father-daughter team.  Unfortunately I couldn't convince my dad to try this with me.  Ha!  I would never be able to do that.  

One of the fearless, daredevil skiers was called "Ski-wee Herman," like Pee-wee Herman - it only took me about halfway through the show to put that together, haha.

Check out this FOUR tier pyramid.  What?!  Insane.  I can barely stand up on a pair of water skis and make it around the lake once.  I am totally blown away by these talented skiers.

Now for a critter update - check out this hummingbird!  It got trapped in our screened-in porch so my dad and I propped the doors open and it flew out, but it must have been really tired because it just sat on the top of this door for quite awhile.  

Can you see me in that reflection?  I had to stand on my tip toes and reach way up to try to get a better view.

And check this out - my dad actually got to hold the hummingbird.  Crazy!!!  The hummingbird eventually flew away and seemed okay.  We've seen quite a few buzzing by and eating at the feeder since then, and I think he's one of them.

Oh hey little buddy!  I looked out of my bedroom window to find this deer walking up the creek.  Look at his cute little antlers!

In other news, I'm still working on painting my table and chairs.  It's a long process, but I'm making progress.  

Are you still reading?  Sorry, I know this is a long post.  If you are, you should go here and enter Gena's juicer giveaway!

Song of the day:

"Heartbeat" by JJAMZ.  I posted another JJAMZ song before ("Never Enough" - also my inspiration for the title of my last post) and now that their full album is out, I can officially declare Suicide Pact as my favorite album of the summer, and possibly the year.  I'd definitely encourage you to check it out!