Monday Monday

Happy Monday Bloggers! Day off of work today! yay!

The weather here is gorgeous fall weather!! Sunny and very chilly :) I love it.

I had an awesome weekend. Went to a friends going away party..my best friend Ashley is moving away for 6 months, she's going to be living in Spain. I'm so happy for her but sad at the same time :( I took a few silly pics, which I will post at the end :)

I got new glasses on Friday because wearing my contacts have been bothering me a lot lately. So without further adieu, here is a pic of me in my new glasses, please be honest, cause I can return them! Keep in mind I look somewhat hideous in this pic, as it was taken 10 minutes ago, and I only just woke up half an hour ago!



Ha ha, could I have posed any dorkier? Keep in mind, these are mainly only going to be worn at home and out when my contacts are bothering me :)

So what to do on my day off? BAKE! I haven't baked in quite awhile, but today I am going to attempt this




Honey and Walnut Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

Canola oil cooking spray
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup oat bran or wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons cane sugar
1/3 cup canola or sunflower oil
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup milk
1 1/4 cups fresh or canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts
Method

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch loaf pan with canola oil cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, oat bran, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda. In a second large bowl, combine sugar, oil, honey, milk, pumpkin, egg and vanilla then add to flour mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in walnuts.

Transfer batter to prepared loaf pan and bake until cooked through and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack then remove from pan and set aside to let cool completely.


I'm going to change a few of the ingredients, I'm not a fan of walnuts so maybe I'll replace then with almonds or maybe even pumpkin seeds :)

Then more roasted butternut squash for dinner..I love it so much. I even made my boyfriend a fan of it!

I am also going to try to attempt to make homemade pumpkin spice latte, my addiction at Starbucks is becoming very expensive! I ran out of my Pumpkin Pie spice coffee creamer and now I can't find it anywhere! So I have to improvise.

My mom bought me TONS of honey crisp apples yesterday at the farmers market! So I have to figure out a way to use all of them...there are probably 15 of them :)

I had dinner at my parents last night, which was so nice, my mom made veggie lasagna. It was delicious. Here is a pic of me with our family dog from last night :)




She's such a sweetie! She followed me around everywhere last night because she doesn't get to see me too often. I love when I get to be at home with my parents, it's very comforting :) I kind of miss living at home, but at the same time I also love being independent.

I hope everyone else is as excited for Halloween as I am !!



I almost have my costume ready (which I will take pics of Halloween night!). Cannot wait!

So now I am off to one of my fave places in the world..Whole Foods..need to get baking ingredients and a few other groceries. I'm also going to get A LOT of pumpkins, just for decorations :) I leave you with some pics from Saturday nights going away party! Very silly pics :) ha ha. Have a great Monday!!!

xoxoxooxoxo