oats

Mom In Mom Out

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What a delicious whirlwind of a weekend.  And it’s not over yet!

First thing first, Sunday morning breakfast!

I usually eat oats or yogurt but today was an eggs day.

With leftover black beans and quinoa.  It was exactly what I needed on this wet morning.

My mom arrived in town Friday evening.  She and I had a really nice and tasty dinner at Milan Indian Restaurant, the service was attentive, the presentation was lovely, but the “medium” was NOT hot at all.  Next time I will order hot and tell them that I am serious about my spice!

Yesterday was my mom’s birthday and we hit up the Farmer’s Market and the Vegetarian Festival, both in downtown C’ville.  I did something very unusual for me and didn’t eat a real lunch, just snacked.  It was HOT and my appetite was not super high anyway.  There were loads of take home samples from Nature’s Path and Mary’s Gone Crackers and the representatives kept saying “take as many as you want”.  I took them seriously.


My momma got a plate of food from the Whole Foods stand that included this little chocolate tofu pudding thang.

Check out this creepy pumpkin from the Farmer’s Market

So anyway, after sampling crackers, granola bars, chocolate (Equal Exchange chocolate=AMAZING), coffee, tofu, cheese, and bread my mom hit the road back to West Virginia and I hit the workout.

After a quick exercise dvd full it was time to get ready for the next round of mom, Tate’s mom this time!

Tate’s brother, Gavin, lives in C’ville too so he came over for dinner and brought me flowers!

The sunflower is from my mom and the yellows in the back are from Gav-o

I love having fresh flowers in the house!  It livens everything up.

Gavin also got into my weights and did a very creative 2 minute workout 😉

My mother-in-law brought us this awesome pumpkin from her garden.  Apparently the seeds are “hull-less” and great for roasting.  Yummy.

Mission Get Moving went great this week.  Zumba and Pilates classes didn’t happen for these reasons but I feel like I more than made up for it with 7 days of great workouts (well, number 7, today, WILL be a great workout).

The weather prediction for the first half of the week is rain. Yay!  It’s been so flipping hot and dry that a few rainy days sounds lovely.  Enjoy your Sunday!

Pumpkin, 4 ways

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That would be breakfast.  More specifically oats with chopped apple and flax seeds.

Then things got a little crazy.  I took an inspiration from Kath and my leftover pumpkin.

Boiled, mashed, and tossed into the mix.

I admit, I was a bit skeptical, even as a pumpkin lover but this girl seems to know her stuff.  Especially when it comes to pumpkins!

I also added lots of cinnamon, ground ginger, a touch of stevia, a pinch of salt, and vanilla.

Sprinkled with chopped walnuts and doused in soy-milk this was a delicious and super filling breakfast.  This pumpkin is pretty mild in the flavor department but it added a LOT of bulk (I am all about the volume eating), fiber, and vitamins.  Definitely a breakfast to repeat.

I decided to start the week in the kitchen and set about making yogurt.

You pour the milk into a double boiler.  I used Horizons fat free organic.  Set 2 tablespoons of yogurt per quart of milk out on the counter to come to room temperature.

Wait for it to reach 185 degrees while stirring occasionally.  When it reaches temperature set the pot into a sink full of cold water.  Stir occasionally as the temp comes down to 110

When the milk reaches 110 degrees add the room temp yogurt and stir well.  Pour into containers.

Set containers into a warm water bath. I use my sink but have heard that a cooler works well.  The water needs to stay as close to 100 degrees as possible.  When the temp dips I drain a bit of water out the bottom and add hot from the faucet, this is every 1-2 hours.

After 6-7 hours it’s ready to ready to put in the fridge for a few hours and then EATEN!

I also baked off the pumpkin seeds from yesterday.

I sprinkled them with cayenne, curry powder, smoked salt, and liquid aminos and popped them in the oven.

They are delicious!  I had to stop myself from eating the whole pan because I am still full from those pumpkin oats.

I still had a bit of kitchen energy left in me so it was applesauce time.  After lots of chopping I cooked the apples until they were nice and soft and into the blender they went.  I also added a bit of pumpkin, cinnamon, and ground ginger.

This will be perfect for my next batch of brownies!

And then it was lunch time. Leftover chili of course!  With toasted pumpkin seeds, greek yogurt, and chili flakes.

I am really looking forward to taking a Pilates class and a Zumba class at Gold’s this evening.  I neglected Pilates last week in favor of checking out all the classes while on my week free pass and Zumba is just so fun.