October Oatmeal

My love affair with fall flavors continues, as it should for the remainder of this joyous season. It's all this pumpkin butter's fault!

I woke up yesterday (after getting a lot of sleep) and headed right into the kitchen where I got to work on a new recipe. What started as basic oatmeal quickly morphed into a warm, filling, bowl of autumn goodness!

Apples? Check!

Pumpkin? Check!

Cinnamon? Ginger? Allspice? Nutmeg? Check check check check!

All of these flavors have me singing a familiar song:

October Oatmeal

(Makes 2-3 servings)

2 ¼ cups water

¾ cup oats (I use Trader Joe's quick cook steel cut oats)

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ginger

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1 medium-sized apple, chopped into small pieces (Honeycrisp are divine this time of year!)

3-4 tablespoons almond milk

3-4 tablespoons pumpkin butter

½ tablespoon brown sugar

2 tablespoons of walnuts

• Bring the water to a boil in a medium-sized saucepan.
• Add the oats and the spices and bring the water down to simmer.
• Cover the saucepan with a lid but make sure to stir frequently for about 4 minutes.
• At this point the liquid should be mostly absorbed, so mix in the almond milk and the apple and cover again.
• After a few more minutes, when the oatmeal has reached the desired consistency, remove from the stove.
• Stir in the pumpkin butter and the walnuts and top with a thin layer of brown sugar.
• Optional step: curl up in bed with a warm bowl of this and save the dishes for later :)

This oatmeal makes a perfect breakfast in bed or brunch addition. The recipe makes 2 large servings or 3 smaller servings, but if you're having a solo breakfast (embrace that “me” time!) you can refrigerate the leftover amount and reheat the next day like I did. I added a splash of almond milk this morning and zapped it in the microwave for a bit, and it was good to go!  

Warm, gooey, rich flavors. Heaven!

Magic Fall-Inducing Muffins

Guys, I think it's safe to say that it's finally fall, which means that for the next two months (if we're lucky!) I can revel in boots, sweaters, warm beverages, crunchy leaves, and pumpkin flavored everything. While fall is definitely my favorite season, it doesn't mean as much as it once did when I lived in Vermont, where the mountain views and intense reds and oranges of the foliage were right outside my door.

Photo courtesy of Vermont Academy

I miss it, especially now that I'm in New York and walk outside to the smell of garbage and urine instead of that distinct autumn scent.

Ok. That took a gross turn. To distract you I'll just show you these bad boys:

Back to the whole pumpkin flavored everything. Since high school, I've made it my mission to devote the entire month of October to one of my favorite flavors: once upon a time this included pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin donuts, bagels with pumpkin cream cheese, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin whoopie pies (OH MY GOD YUM), and once the month came to a close, the grand finale: a pumpkin birthday cake with cream cheese frosting.

So. Moral of this story is that I love fall, I love October, and I love pumpkin. The problem this past week? I think the weather forgot that it couldn't be summer anymore. So with temps in the 70s and low 80s, it was anticlimactic! Never fear, sometimes you just have to take things into your own hands. That's where these delectable muffins come in...

A visit from my boyfriend this weekend gave me an excuse to bake a new treat, but who am I kidding, I definitely don't need a reason to bake (and you don't either!). I decided it was finally time to kick the pumpkin into high gear and turned to a comforting classic. The spices in this muffin are really key – feel free to play around with the amounts of each, and maybe even throw in some ground cloves for more dimension. And you can obviously omit the chocolate chips, add walnuts or dried fruit, or just leave them plain. But I don't know why you wouldn't want the chocolate chips melting in every bite. It's pretty fantastic.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

(Makes 12-16 muffins)

1 ¾ cups flour

1 ¼ cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ + ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

1 cup pureed pumpkin

½ cup almond milk (This wasn't quite enough, so once you've mixed all of the ingredients together, just add more almond milk, one tablespoon at a time, until your batter is the desired consistency)

½ cup canola oil

2 tablespoons molassses

Chocolate chips (go as wild or as mild as you'd like!)

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line or grease your muffin tins. Blah blah blah.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the the wet ingredients: pumpkin, almond milk, oil, and molasses.
• Pour wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk until combined.
• Throw in as many chocolate chips as your heart desires (Just a tip: the mini chips create the perfect chocolate to pumpkin ratio!)
• Fill the muffin tins about 2/3 full with batter and bake for 18-20 minutes.

Do yourself a favor and eat a ton of this batter with a spoon. Your life will be better for it. 

As fate would have it, today it finally felt like fall! I wore my cute new boots and fall jacket, there was a brisk breeze. Aaaahhhh. I think it was my muffins that did it, right?! So as I walked home from class I stopped into one of my fave places - Peacefood Cafe - and grabbed my favorite warm beverage for the occasion. Their apple ginger soy drink is heaven in a cup - refreshing, crisp, foamy, warm. The perfect alternative to coffee that didn't even make me miss pumpkin spice lattes (RIP), this drink is incredible. I attempted to capture just how frothy this drink is, but not even pictures can do it justice: 

To complete my fall frolic, I stopped into Trader Joe's for some groceries, where I FOUND THIS!!

So now I'm in heaven. If you're in New England, enjoy the foliage for me pleaseeee!