monday meals: pumpkin spice granola

i love pumpkin. y'all know that by now. i've also been on a kick lately of having granola for breakfast, so i decided to make my own and to make it pumpkiny. this is so easy and so tasty.

ingredients:
2 cups oats
2 tablespoons pumpkin butter
2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup raisins

preheat oven to 350*. in a medium sized bowl, mix the oats, cinnamon, allspice, and salt. in a small saucepan, mix together the pumpkin butter, pumpkin puree, honey, and brown sugar over low heat until warm. pour the pumpkin/honey/sugar mixture over the oats and mix well. spread the mixture into a 9x13 baking pan (lining it with aluminum foil & cooking spray makes it super easy to clean up). bake for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes and adding the almonds and raisins in for the last 5 minutes. cool before serving/storing.

friday photos: week 2

i forgot to take a picture on friday 10.8.10, but i'm getting better at remembering :)

saturday, 10.9.10

todd carey, seth philpott, & nathan angelo at 3rd & lindsley.

sunday, 10.10.10

despite the 86* weather, it's definitely autumn which means pumpkin granola! (stay tuned for the recipe, coming on monday)

monday, 10.11.10

my roommate stole my phone and put a password on it. i had to sing "kumbaya" (with emotion) before she told me what it was.

tuesday, 10.12.10

gracie reached this milestone on my way home from work on the 65 north ramp off 440 west.

wednesday, 10.13.10

taken earlier in the year at radnor lake, this was edited using new apps i downloaded today.

thursday, 10.14.10

this silly photo and horrible photoshoping is brought to you by boredom at hotel indigo while waiting for our friends to play a writer's round. we were playing with the cinnamon, and my roommate sent me a text saying, "oh my gosh where's lumier and cogsworth? i can't believe it's real!"

ipod playlists, revisted

back in august i mentioned that i needed more playlists on my ipod. and i'm getting there. here's what i have:

8th & walnut - songs that remind me of the summer of 2005. a very life-changing summer. this list pretty much consists of coldplay, ben folds, and gorillaz.
falling for autumn - songs that mention or remind me of my favorite season.
favorites - self-explanatory.
flashback to younger days - self-explanatory.
get off your butt and do something with your life - songs that inspire me.
i dare you to just sit there - songs that demand to be danced to.
nashville artists - self-explanatory.
new music - an ever-changing playlist, where i stick new music until i learn it well.*
praise be to jeevus - songs about god, whether that was their intention or not. "jeevus" is a joke with my small group.
say no to miss kitty cause kitty go to dabbs house - the name is based off a joke with some friends, but this is a playlist of cheesy love songs.
slow jams for slow days - self-explanatory.
sometimes you have to move a little bit - songs that make you move, but not quite as much as the "i dare you to just sit there" playlist.
sometimes you need a little kick - songs that are a bit "crunchier" than what i normally listen to.
sunny happy driving with the windows down - self-explanatory
the evolution of a band - all of the songs by my favorite band, in chronological order.
the sky is falling - rainy day tunes.
there is no good category for songs like this - completely random, some of which just make you go "what just happened?"
this playlist is full of all kinds of awesome - a more picky version of my favorites
welcome to the south, y'all - i don't typically listen to country, but i have a few songs i like, or a few that are borderline country, and they all go in here.

*new music playlist currently consists of: grant terry, jon troast, and matt haeck. what new music have you been listening to? what playlists do you have?

wednesday wisdom: #2

"real religion, the kind that passes muster before god the father, is this: reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world."

james 1:27, the message

childhood memories.

i have a few memories of my grandpa (mom's dad). he passed away when i was three, so these are some of my earliest memories. i remember eating ice cream with him, and getting it all over my nose. i remember i would sit in his lap, and i would lean backwards and point my foot up, and he would lift me up so my foot touched the bottom of the lamp that hung from the ceiling over the chair. and i remember the one time he cut my fingernails, and nipped the corner of my pinky and it bled... after that, i was terrified to get my fingernails trimmed.

do you ever wonder why certain memories are the ones that stick with you for forever? what was so special about those moments?

monday meals: pumpkin turkey chili

yeah. kind of weird. that's what i thought when i first saw this recipe over at allrecipes.com but i love everything about fall, including both pumpkin and chili, and i'm pretty brave when it comes to trying food, so i figured worst case scenario, it would be disgusting and i'd make something else for dinner. well, it was far from disgusting. the first thing you taste is sweet, and then the heat from the spices. a very interesting combination indeed, i was pleasantly surprised. i will be making this again. i also made some jiffy cornbread in the cast iron skillet - another fall favorite, and i paired it with some winzerwald schweizer spice wine, or as they refer to it, "liquid pumpkin pie". unfortunately for me, this wine is not available in nashville. i have one bottle to last me through the fall, and i will treasure it.

i adapted the original recipe (linked above). this is my version:

ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 pound ground turkey
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 large can of libby's pumpkin pie mix

seasonings (i didn't measure these, but let's just say that i like it hot) :
chili powder
salt
ground black pepper
cayenne pepper
ground cumin
allspice

directions:
heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat and saute onions and peppers until onions are near-translucent. add the ground turkey and brown evenly. drain the excess grease. add the tomatoes (drained) and pumpkin, as well as the seasonings. stir and let simmer for about 20 minutes.

easy, quick, delicious, and definitely unique. and all things autumn. :)

friday photos: week 1

last week i mentioned that i'm trying to start taking at least one picture, every day, for a year. well, i already forgot two days, but that's okay. here's what i have from this past week:

friday 10.1.10

friday after work i traveled up to indiana to attend my college homecoming. one of my favorite parts of the drive up north is the massive amount of rock face in kentucky. as a kid (living in michigan), we often traveled south for vacation. i remember fighting to have the backseat with my brother - the backseat was easier to nap in. i remember at one point i wised up and realized if i got the backseat first, i could nap through the corn and soybean fields of indiana, and then be awake in the middle seats for the pretty rocky hills of kentucky.

saturday 10.2.10

saturday was homecoming. this is the on-campus coffee shop. i basically lived here my senior year, and it was in this room i decided to move to nashville. many haikus were written here, as well as crosswords completed, and i consumed many free lattes courtesy of my good friend sara.

sunday 10.3.10

this is the mercy house, which i blogged about tuesday. they meet in an old elementary school building. and that's my friend matt speaking.

tuesday 10.5.10

i joined some friends at fido for some coffee and journal-making. a simple moment. those are my favorites.

thursday 10.7.10

my roommates, karissa lacour and stacy lantz, sang some songs while i sold journals at the hillsboro village art walk. thanks to cori at social graces for the opportunity!