In Training and a Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal Recipe

In training. The past 4ish months I've been dedicating my oh-so-valuable free time to working out and getting my groove back. It's working. I hear people throughout my day talk about diet this, diet that. Plain and simple it is two things; what you eat- how much of it and exercise. Vigorous exercise. I'm not talking about walking on the treadmill or riding the stationary bike while reading a magazine. I'm talking about sweat pouring down your face stinging your eyes, feeling like you might puke if you push any harder yet still pushing yourself during every moment, further and stronger at each workout - kind of exercise. It works and it feels oh-so-good; so, that's why I haven't posted any recipes as of late - I've been kicking my own ass.

I have a list of stuff that I want to post up here to keep for easy reference and to share of course.. Cauliflower Mash, a new hummus recipe, Mexican Veggie Bake and a few others. For now, I'm sharing a great make ahead of time breakfast given to me by a great friend.

Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

It's amazing, taste like pumpkin pie (I don't think it's a coincidence that she also gave me the crock pot apple steal oats recipe either). It's  easy, great to make ahead of time and best severed warm with a topping of Greek yogurt and a drizzle of maple syrup or berries (or all three!)

1 can of pumpkin

1/2 cup brown sugar (or whatever sug sub you use)

2 eggs

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (i used a bit more, about 1.5)

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla

1.5 cups milk (I used almond milk)

2.5 cups oats

Mix in order. Bake at 350 covered with foil for 30 mins and uncovered for another 15 - 20. Not sure on the pan size I used but it was a smaller glass brownie dish. This will make it thicker and need a longer cook time, go about 10 mins over and check from there. The kids went nuts over this too - Enjoy!

Bug Spray: not to be eaten.



Structural Formula for DEET

Get this...

“The EPA says that if used as directed, bug sprays containing DEET are not harmful to us, although long-term exposure is. When you spray it on your skin, it gets absorbed and eventually enters the bloodstream. It pumps through your nervous system and has been proven to kill brain cells, causing neurological damage. If you have heavy exposure to DEET, you may experience memory loss, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, and shortness of breath.”

“DEET could be considered a poison, but the EPA feels that small doses are OK for us.” – uh really?

I read stuff like this and think, you’ve got to be kidding me. Help me to understand why on this earth I would expose my children to Deet or anyone for that matter.

Let’s take a page from history, before consumerism and a chemically charged world started replacing what worked and didn’t alter our DNA in the process.

Make your own bug spray recipe

I’ve tested this on our family along with our neighbor who gardens and really gets eaten up if she’s not wearing anything and it works great. The only difference is that I have to be mindful and reapply about every 3 – 4 hours (oh yeah, and it doesn't cause brain cell death).

I used the 50/50 witch hazel distilled h2o combo along with Citronella (about 30 drops), Cinnamon (about 10 drops), Lavender (about 20 drops), Peppermint (about 5 drops) and a good teaspoon of Jojoba Oil. Whole Foods sells 8oz bottles and spray tops along with the oils which I’m sure you can find at a coop too.

Now, go smell good and repel some bugs while keeping a healthy neurological system! :)

Apple Cinnamon Raisin Steal Cut Oats - Slow Cooker Style

A new friend of mine (who is awesome btw) and I had just gotten our butts handed to us in a yoga sculpt class and decide to walk over to Trader Joe's to grab a few groceries. As we walked over she was telling me how she was somewhere and people were talking and she was zoning.. the next thing she hears is "it tastes like pie", this immediately grabbed her attention (see why I like her) and she quickly listened in and wrote down the recipe that was being shared. Who doesn't love something that's healthy and tastes like pie?!

I made this today and yes, it taste like apple pie but better. It's not too sweet and if you add some yogurt it gets a luscious creamy consistency. The original recipe calls for sugar which we both agree is unnecessary.

This recipe makes a TON. Cut in half if you're not sure you can live on steal cut oats for a couple of weeks or, freeze half the batch and leave the other half in the fridge for breakfast each morning. Thanks go Hayley and her "things that taste like pie radar".

2 cups uncooked steal cut oats
6 cups water
2 granny smith apples, diced
1 cup raisins
1 T cinnamon and a few shakes more
1T vanilla
Couple of shakes of nutmeg (optional)

Place all ingredients into slow cooker and cook about 4 - 6 hours; stir every once in awhile.

Low Fat Homemade Hummus

I've screwed around with my hummus recipe for a couple of years and finally decided to post it.

I recently modified the recipe to make it low fat; although the olive oil and sesame oil is a good fat, I feel the quantity in most recipes is a bit excessive and not needed to make a great hummus.

The key to smooth hummus - heat your chickpeas and blend in food processor while still warm.

3 cloves garlic
3 cups of cooked Chickpeas, or 2 cans - rinsed, drained and heated
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 T Tahini
1 T Olive Oil
1/4 cup cooking liquid
1/4 warm water - give or take, add slowly
1 T Cumin - I like cumin, add slowly and taste if you're not sure
1 tsp Sea Salt - add more little by little if needed

Heat chickpeas in liquid, peel garlic and whiz in food processor until minced. Drain chickpeas and save liquid. Add chickpeas to processor and blend, add all ingredients and blend until smooth. Add warm water little by little to thin out hummus - Enjoy.

3 Ingredient Healthy "Chocolate" Covered Raisins

I don't bake mainly for one reason, if it's in the house, I'll eat it. I'll manage to find reasons to cruise past the kitchen, grab a small bite and go on my way. Last night, I was craving something sweet after dinner and came across this recipe from Oh She Glows.

Since I don't have chocolate chips in the house (another reason I'd cruise the kitchen) I used Carob Chips. I buy mine at the coop and opt for the grain sweetened ones which make a great alternative to chocolate with less fat and sugar.

Only change was to use carob chips instead of chocolate and I left the raisins in the freezer until we were ready to eat. Was a perfect treat for family movie night.

Quick and Easy - Red Lentil Soup

I've recently returned back to work and it has been such a bittersweet week for us all. In preperation I wrote a list of quick weeknight meals that I could pull together as soon as I got home and have dinner on the table in a snap. This soup made it to the list, I love quick soups and love them even more for lunch the next day.

Heidi of 101 Cookbooks is amazing and lists her recipe here.

I made a few changes: skipped the shallots since I didn't have, added about 3 - 4 cloves of garlic, used 1/4 - 1/2 tsp of caynee instead of red pepper flakes, and skipped the salt since using a vegetable bullion.

I added a poached egg to each bowl and served. If you've never added an egg to your soup, now is the time for you to try this. I can not tell you how incredible this is, take my word on this and try it!

Great poaching instructions here.

The soup turned out wonderful and was the perfect comfort to a stressful (but great) first day.

For the Love of all thing Coconut and a Raw Macaroon Recipe

I'm obsessed with coconut.

Coconut water - incredibly rehydrating and has a zillion benefits. I do have to say, if you try it the first time you may not like it. Keep at it. It gets better and you'll be grateful that you did.

Coconut Oil - it has to be unrefined, organic, extra virgin. I currently use Nutiva (love it) and buy in the mega jar from vitacost.com for the best price. I recently learned of a brand of oil that is made using coconut water instead of regular filtered water (holy holy I must get some asap).

A Few Random Uses:
My favorite morning energizer is a tablespoon of oil in oatmeal Quinoa Flakes (I buy ours at the coop) with banana and a bit of pure maple syrup
I've thrown it into tea before
Use it for any sweet or dessert cooking, good in stir-frys too
Used it to cure Lu's thrush
Have given it to Mars for her skin issues
Use it on my face and body instead of lotion (love) on baby's skin too
Use it as a chapstick and the list goes on

Raw Coconut Shreds - they are like melt in your mouth shreds of candy goodness, throw this stuff into anything and everything for a little pizazz. Examples: peanut butter balls, granola bars, protein smoothies, roll a banana in some, mix with dates in the food processor and make a quick "Laura" bar

Coconut Milk - both the milk traditionally used in cooking and the beverage (made by So Delicious). My next adventure is to make my own.

Now for what started this post, Coconut Macaroons, made this recipe and loved them. If you don't have a dehydrator then I'm sure you can throw them in the oven to toast em up a bit. If you don't care about them being raw then cook at whatever temp until the outside seems to firm or brown up a bit.

I did modify the recipe, the original amount of honey made them way, way to sweet for me so I double the recipe and only used half the amount of honey. I also added carob chips to half the batch for a "chocolate" version - enjoy!