Today, I baked.

Did you know that it has been a week since my last post?! I did not realize it had been that long.

Since my last post I've taken a trip home, attended a breakfast for a good cause, did some shopping, and worked a whole lot. 

Today was my first day off in what felt like a really long time (It's really only been like 4 days...). I started the day off by making some more of that delicious granola from my last post, only this time I made the lower calorie version which substitutes applesauce for the oil. Now, normally I can't really tell the difference between "light" versions of foods and the full fat versions. This is not one of those times. The flavor of the granola is pretty good, but instead of crunchy bits of delicious you get larger clumps of chewy "okayness". I used it to top my breakfast yogurt and it was pretty tasty, but I won't be eating this by the handful like the last batch. 

After some early Christmas shopping and dinner with the boyfriend I came home and baked some more. I've been dying to make Pumpkin Scones and was super excited to finally have the time to try it out. I found a recipe from sparkrecipes.com. I had to make some substitutions due to the fact that I don't have an incredibly stocked pantry. I substituted the cloves with cinnamon, and had to replace 2 T of sugar with 3 packets of Stevia sweetener when I ran out of real sugar. 

I was a bit nervous since I've never made scones before, but they turned out fantastic! Leave it to me to bake scones the day I decide to start tracking my calories again. Well, here goes a lesson in self-disipline! 

{pumpkin shaped pumpkin scones}

Cozy up

After a few weeks of indian summer, I'm more than happy the weather has changed. The air is crisp, cool, and carries the slight scent of leaves and rain. There's something about the smell of autumn air that makes me want to curl up under a cozy blanket with a mug of something warm and watch a movie while something delicious bakes in the oven. So tonight, I did just that. 

After roasting some pumpkin seeds to bring home to my daddy, I decided to make homemade granola for the first time. As with the quiche incident, I'm pretty disappointed in myself for not making this sooner. It's probably the simplest recipe ever, and turns out such fantastic results. I made this version from Tiny Urban Kitchen with the optional vanilla and brown sugar. I also added a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice for a little something extra. I will never buy granola from the store again.

If you decide to make this, I highly suggest eating a bit of it right after it comes out of the oven. The warm honey makes it slightly chewy which is absolutely delectable mixed with the crisp oats. 

Now I'm off to curl up with some cider, a movie and a bowl of pumpkin pie yogurt topped with some crunchy goodness. 

{don't you just adore the face on my ghost mug?}

Happy Weekend, and Happy Halloween!

Easy as Pie

Last night I was riffling through my cookbooks looking for something easy and satisfying to make for dinner.  I have a few cookbooks but somehow I always end up overlooking them in favor of online recipe sites (they're just so convenient!). I figured since I have these books, I really should use them every once in a while.

I finally decided to make something from the dusty pages of a cookbook that was made in my grandmother's honor for her contributions to Project Linus in North Carolina. The recipes in the cookbook are all family recipes donated by members of the community my grandparents lived in for over 20 years, so they're all incredibly comforting, delicious, and {most importantly} relatively simple. The winning dish was Crab Quiche.

Now, I'm embarrassed to say that I've sometimes scoured restaurant websites in search of a place where I could get a slice of Quiche for breakfast or brunch. How silly of me, quiche is insanely easy to prepare. Granted, if you make your own pie crust it gets minimally complicated, but I avoided that by purchasing a frozen crust. Here's the recipe:

1 9" pie crust

1/2 c. mayo

2 T. flour

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 c. milk

2 (6oz.) cans of crab meat

8 oz. shredded swiss cheese

1/3 c. chopped onion

1/3 c. chopped mushroom

Blend the mayo, flour, eggs, and milk until smooth. Stir in the Swiss Cheese, crab meat, onion, and mushrooms. Pour into the pie crust and bake at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

This goes into the oven and 45 minutes later- TADA! Cheesy, yummy goodness comes out. 

I made a side of roasted asparagus to accompany my quiche and it was the perfect mid week meal! 

Now that I know how friggen easy quiche is to make, I'll probably end up making this my lazy day meal. Plus, any combination of meat/cheese/veggies is going to be equally as delicious, which means the possibilities are endless!