Fall is finally here, at least according to the calendar.

I remember the days when I used to cluelessly claim that Summer was my favorite season. All I wanted was the beach, no school, no responsibilities, refreshing drinks, and shorts and flip-flops for days. Now that I’m 25, I still have this annoying thing called “work” in the Summer, so it’s lost a lot of its appeal.  My new favorite time of year has definitely become Fall. I can wear boots and leggings, eat pumpkin and apple everything, and be the perfect combination of not-to-hot-not-to-cold at all times. It’s perfect and I’m embracing it, even if its still 80 during the day.

I baked some really yummy gluten-free muffins the other afternoon to bring to work and share with my coworkers. You can find the link from averiecooks at the end of this post. I used her recipe, but next time I will likely add less chocolate chips (about a half cup) and more pumpkin (about 2/3 cup). I will say the cook time is a bit iffy. My oven personally took 27 minutes to bake completely.

Oatmeal Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 large egg
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup milk or coconut almond milk
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup maple or pancake syrup
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
3 cups old-fashioned whole rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

 

Mix the first 9 Ingredients until well blended. Stir in oats and baking powder and then finally, chocolate chips. Fill 11 muffin cups after greasing, mostly all the way full. Then bake at 350F for anywhere from 23-30 minutes. Muffins done when toothpick stuck in center comes out clean!

Original: http://www.averiecooks.com/2014/11/oatmeal-to-go-pumpkin-chocolate-chip-muffins.html

Everyone really seemed to like them and I thought they were a perfect, healthyish fall treat!

Avocados are life

Hey Everybody! Hope you are enjoying your weekend and this amazing weather! Unfortunately for me, I am completely swamped with schoolwork. I have two tests coming up, one Tuesday and one Wednesday, for Ocean and Society and Spanish. Not very fun. But It’s kinda nice to just stay inside and be focused on something for once. Most likely, I will get distracted and write more blog posts because it’s actually very stress-relieving. But before I get to studying, I wanted to tell you all about an easy summer dinner that would be perfect to make over the weekend. I made it on Thursday and it was the perfect thing after a long day of school.

To make this meal even easier, I went ahead and boiled the eggs the night before. To get perfect eggs, simply place them in a pot with just enough water to cover them and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, cover them and turn off the heat, and let them stand for an additional 10 minutes. After that run them under cold water to make them easier to peel. I did this part the next day. In the morning, I took out my crockpot that my grandma gave me for my birthday (THANKS GRANDMA!) and put 5 chicken thighs inside after I coated it with coconut oil cooking spray. I then covered it with about half a bottle of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce in the sweet and spicy and added about a 4th cup of Reds Hot Sauce to give it some kick. I put it on 8 hours and went to school.

 

When I got home, all I had to do was the corn and the deviled eggs. I’m going to assume you don’t need the recipe for those, it’s pretty self-explanatory. But I did make half the deviled eggs a little special by using avocado. I absolutely love avocados and try to incorporate them whenever I can. Here is what I did to make those.

Ingredients
-1/2 Avocado
-4 eggs
-3 heaping teaspoons sour cream
-3 teaspoons goat cheese
-1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
-3 strips bacon

Method
Fry bacon strips and set aside. Mash up the avocado with a spoon until a lightly chunky consistency. Scoop out yolks from eggs. Combine. Add sour cream,mustard, goat cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Put mixture into quart size plastic bag and cut a hole in the corner to make a simple piping bag. Fill eggs and top with bacon bits.

That’s it! So simple and easy. I definitely recommend it when you wanna mix it up a little but still have something classic. Avocados are an amazing superfood that everyone should try and incorporate into their diet. They are full of antioxidants and vitamins, with absolutely no sodium or cholesterol. They have more potassium than bananas, tons of fiber and Vitamin B, and they have been shown to help prevent cancer and arthritis as well as making it easier for your body to absorb the nutrients in veggies. All that and they are absolutely delicious! You will be seeing lots of avocado in other things I make.

Well, that’s it for now. Gotta hit the books!

XoXo Lizzie

A day in the life

Yesterday was the first day that I actually felt like a normal person again, besides the lingering werewolf-esque cough and frequent trips to the bathroom to blow my nose. My boyfriend Jesse and I have been very, extremely, on-the-edge-of-death sick for the past week and a half. It has NOT been easy, let me tell you. We all know men are absolute babies when they are sick and on top of that, I was sick, so I was completely irrational and moody and clingy. But with some homemade chicken and sausage veggie soup (that he whipped up from scratch mind you), we finally got over the worst of it.

I went to school at 9:30am to my Oceans and Society class, which I am extremely enthused about. It’s fascinating. Like for example, yesterday I learned that there are as many molecules in 10 drops of water as there are STARS in the sky. How crazy is that? Needless to say, I don’t mind this class at all. The only frustrating part is having to go directly from there to work a double at work. The only way I can possibly make enough money for bills while juggling my school schedule is to work a double on Wednesday and Friday and then close Saturday night. My schedule is not fun. at all. But I’m dealing. Waiting tables is at least something that gives you a steady flow of cash that you don’t have to wait 2 weeks for.

Anyway, got off work at about 9:30pm…no break at all FYI, and then I went home to figure out what I could quickly make for dinner so I could get on the rest of my homework. A couple weeks ago, before the plague, I had found a recipe online for some Summer Veggie Freezer Packets, which I had made and stuck in the freezer. So I through those in the oven on 375 and made a boxed pasta salad to go with it.  This  https://onceamonthmeals.com/recipes/sausage-summer-vegetable-packets/   is the blog I got the veggie packet idea from. I changed it a little bit, adding in some garlic and red pepper flakes, because my boyfriend and I love a bit of kick. It says on the site that it yields 4…but I personally yielded 8 packs. I only made 2 last night and they were very filling and delicious with the pasta salad. It also doesn’t say anything about thawing it out, but I recommend thawing for at least 20 to 30 minutes because it takes twice as long to cook otherwise, and the carrots still felt a little tough.  Overall, great quick meal that let me continue to balance school and work, while maintaining a health conscious mind-frame.