Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

October 12th, 2016 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (1 Comments)

I keep this blog ‘o mine up and running for a number of reasons:

1.  Around Thanksgiving every year the Yes, You Can Make Pumpkin Pie Without Evaporated Milk post gets a lot of web traffic, and frankly, that just cracks me up.  (The traffic to that post basically pays for the annual web hosting fees to keep this whole thing going, so why the heck not.)

2.  The Intermittent Fasting post continues to be visited regularly as well, and I still love IF and want to keep that post up too.

Muesli (with Pumpkin Seeds!)

February 25th, 2014 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (5 Comments)

I’ve been on a muesli kick for the last two weeks or so.

Museli Mix

And just in time, because pumpkin seeds are on the list of healthy, affordable foods – and pumpkin seeds go great in muesli!

Pumpkin Seeds or Pepitas

If you aren’t in the know, muesli is a cereal combo (usually) made with oats, nuts, seeds and dried or fresh fruit.  Bananas have been my fresh fruit of choice lately, but frozen, thawed strawberries have been known to make an appearance in my bowl too.

Top with Banana

(It’s Friday night and I’m writing about oatmeal.  See –> “this post is random.”)

With all the reading and blogging I’ve done about eating less grains and cutting down on carbs, I have a confession to make.

I still love oatmeal.

I know, I know, who cares!  It’s just oatmeal.  The world has much bigger problems than this.  But it sort of feels like a dirty carb secret.  I READ GRAIN BRAIN!  I’VE READ THE PALEO BOOKS!  I’m not supposed to like oatmeal anymore!

But I do.  I admit it.  Sometime I eat oatmeal.  Love me.

Healthy Oatmeal Pumpkin Snack Cookies

December 19th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Snack Attack - (Comments Off on Healthy Oatmeal Pumpkin Snack Cookies)

I’m calling these cookies “healthy” because a.) they aren’t loaded with sugar and b.) they contain squash.

(Well, pumpkin – but pumpkin is a squash last time I checked.  Consider this your homeschooling lesson of the day.)

They are sweetened only with banana and a little maple syrup, which makes them low enough in sugar that I feel I can throw the word “snack” into the title as well, while also keeping my conscience clear.

Healthy Oatmeal Pumpkin Maple Cookies

I whipped these together yesterday morning using this banana oatmeal cookie recipe as my starting point, subbing pumpkin for flour and using maple syrup instead of white sugar.

Potluck Apple Crisp

October 4th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Short or Sweet - (1 Comments)

Over the weekend we had a potluck picnic on the calendar and we were asked to bring an autumn themed dish to pass.  I needed something simple, but more importantly, something that I could remember most of the ingredients to off the top of my head.  Per usual, I was making my decision about what to make while I was on my way to the grocery store.

What’s that saying?  If you fail to plan, you plan to fail?  Whatever.  Let’s just make apple crisp.

First thing on the morning of our picnic, I tore into my bag of Granny Smiths and got to work.

End of Summer Denial

September 10th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (11 Comments)

It’s almost autumn. The leaves are starting to change. School buses are back on the road. The fresh berries are dwindling on the produce shelves at the grocery store. I even had drag a pair of jeans out of a storage bin from the basement this morning.

This bums me out. The berry part, mostly. I’m not ready to say goodbye to summer fruit just yet. I guess the jeans part bums me out a little too. Thanks for not noticing that I pulled said jeans out of the maternity clothes bin, even though I haven’t been pregnant for 2 months now.

So yesterday was my “due date”, and here I am today, still pregnant.

40 weeks pregnant

This comes as no surprise really as I have never had a baby arrive before 40 weeks. This babe appears to be reading the notes the other two left behind, which must instruct all fetuses to stay put until I start making threats to name them Newton or Elphaba.

While we wait, I’m doing all sorts of important stuff around here. You know, like cleaning, doing laundry, playing Spider Solitaire, cleaning again, and most importantly, making cookies.

Oatmeal Cookie Ingredients

We Put the Crunchy in Granola

February 17th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (12 Comments)

Today, I’m bringing my homeschooled children along with me to a prenatal exam with my midwife.

Hi, my name is Alison and I am a former mainstream, rural, middle class girl turned still-middle class, urban, hippie (but not hip) stay at home mom.  Nice to meet you.

Before we head out today, I’m making some granola!  Of course I am.

No matter where you happen to fall on the lifestyle spectrum, chances are good that you’ll like this stuff.

Please allow me to introduce you to my crunchy granola friends:

Maple Pecan Granola Ingredients

Dinner Fail, Cookie Win

October 6th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Short or Sweet - (3 Comments)

Dinner tonight was a total flop. I don’t want to talk about it.

Okay, fine – I’ll talk about it. Let’s just say it involved the crock pot and a bag of frozen spinach, among other ingredients. Frozen spinach is the only ingredient worth noting as I’m fairly confident that’s what made tonight’s meal… an experience.

Anyway, the whole reason I was using the crock pot was because I was once again assisting this afternoon in a homeschool class the girls are in. I thought it would make the day a lot easier to have dinner hot and ready when we got home – so the crock pot was dragged out, and yeah. I already told you how that story ended.

Homemade Cereal Re-Runs

October 4th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (Comments Off on Homemade Cereal Re-Runs)

Homeschooling comes with plenty of challenges, but it’s also got a handful of perks.

One of my favorite perks? We quite often get to enjoy leisurely mornings at home – by design, really.  I’m a morning person, but that doesn’t mean I’m uber-excited to run out the door first thing in the morning on any given day of the week.

More accurately, I’m not uber-excited to get kids out the door first thing.  I’ll happily head out in the wee morning hours in my running sneaks, but a) I’ve only got to get myself ready and b) I don’t need to be reminded to brush my hair before I leave and c) I don’t have say CAN YOU PLEASE GET YOUR SHOES ON ALREADY three times before I finally do it.