Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

1 c. Almond milk

1 spoon/serving of protein powder

1 banana

1 c. Pumpkin purée

1 tea. Vanilla

2 tea. Honey

1 tea. Pumpkin pie spice

Blend and chill. Or toss some ice cubes in while blending. Makes 1-2 servings.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Spice Muffins

Stop what you are doing right now and bake yourself up these muffins. For a couple reasons 1) they make the house smell AMAZING while in the oven. and 2) with all the sugar, these are almost cupcakes. But there's OATS. So "healthy." Basically, I used this recipe, but did not do the full streusel type topping. Because really, I had to draw the line SOMEWHERE on the sugar.

Dry bowl:
2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. rolled oats
1/4 c. flaxseed meal
4 t. pumpkin pie spice*
2 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1 t. salt

Wet bowl:
1 1/2 c. pumpkin puree (or one 15 oz. can)
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2/3 c. coconut oil 
1/2 c. applesauce
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract

*I had to make my own using 2 tbl  cinnamon, 1 tbl ginger, 1/2 tbl allspice, 1/2 tbl cloves, 1/2 tbl nutmeg. 

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the wet & dry ingredients separately, then combine. Pour into muffin tins (about 18 muffins) and I sprinkled some of the rolled oats on top (you know, for reasons) bake for 30-35 mins. (my oven runs cool, so the full 35 mins was about right) 

Pinky & The Brain Smoothie

Before you start rolling your eyes, this has nothing to do with pink everything breast cancer awareness. We are already quite aware of it.

This recipe (one of the only ones I made up on my very own!) was inspired by the opening of a Jamba Juice near our house. JJ was a big part of my teenage/college experience, we got smoothies ALL. THE. TIME. Jamba has changed quite a bit since those days. They have kids' meals! (and sandwiches!) The kids meal comes with cheesy whole grain pretzels; It's amazing. The kids picked a smoothie with a beet component, and I really wanted to duplicate it, but only with what I had on hand. 

My kids are WILD about steamed beets. But the stem/stalk (the red part, before the leaf) is edible too! Instead of tossing them in the trash I threw them into the blender and it turned out nicely. I am SO PROUD, y'all. Stuff I would have thrown out- useable once more! Not to mention the vitamins! The brain food that magical beets posses. (notice the excellent first grade math skills in the background?) 

1 c. Pomegranate juice

1 banana

1 large gala apple, sliced

1/4 c. grapefruit juice

1 handful beet stalks

1 c. frozen strawberry/mango/pineapple blend

French Apple Pie

I was looking for my apple pie recipe and made the grave realization that I had not put it on the blog yet. This makes baking with my phone on the counter impossible. So I went and dug out the paper copy. I also forgot to buy apples at the store! So no picture yet. Anyway, this is a recipe I found on the back of a pastry box. I tried it on a whim, and not only is it fool-proof (I am a kitchen fool, you realize) but it is delicious and elicits many compliments. The peeling, coring, & slicing of the apples is the hard part- maybe get someone else to do that part.

1 ready to bake pie crust (rolled up in the refrigerated section of the grocery store)
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c cornstarch
1/2 tea nutmeg
1/4 tea cinnamon
1/4 tea salt
6 c cored, peeled, thinly sliced tart baking apples (I like granny smith, about 4-5 medium sized)
1 c flour
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c butter

Prepare the crust according to instructions in a 9 in pie dish. Preheat the oven to 350.

Mix sugar, starch, nutmeg, cinnamon, & salt. Stir in sliced apples. Spoon apple slices into pie place. To make the crumb topping, mix together flour and brown sugar. Blend in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle atop the pie. Bake pie on a sheet pan for 1 hr 30 mins.

Honey Banana Muffins

You guys! I am sorry for all the banana and muffin recipes. Except that I'm not. I have a lot of bananas that keep going bad. This recipe was especially epic. So much so, that I demand you try it. I may pop in some oats or flaxmeal, just to punch up the nutrition. I froze some of them (the ones I didn't inhale immediately) and really hope they hold up well in the freezer for lunch packing. Update: they were divine thawed.

3 very ripe bananas
1/3 cup honey (creamed or liquid is fine)
1/4 cup  oil
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 375F.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas with the honey, oil, egg and vanilla. Add the flour, soda and salt.

Divide the batter among 10-12 paper-lined muffin cups, filling them almost full, and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden and springy to the touch. 

Banana Pumpkin Muffins

By now you should have gathered that I will put pumpkin into anything. Seriously pumpkin makes everything better. Because I am a tortured desert dweller who gets overly excited about the appearance of all things fall. I also cannot throw away bananas. I had FIVE gone-bad bananas, and I was buying new bananas, and I didn't want the bad ones contaminating the old ones- you know that's a thing, right? It's awful. I made two batches of different banana related muffins. Because I am crazy. In any event, I did modify this recipe heavily. I also HAAAAATE when recipes include "pinch" as a measurement. That is stupid, everyone stop it. 

You can add a few walnuts on the top if that is your pleasure. It would be a nice crunch, but I did not have any nuts on hand. I am nuts, but have no nuts. Go figure. On with the recipe! 

1st bowl:

2 c. flour

1 tbl baking soda

1/2 tea salt

1/4 tea. nutmeg

1/4 tea. cinnamon

1/4 tea. ginger

2nd bowl:

1 c. brown sugar

1/4 c softened butter

2 eggs

1 1/2 c. mashed bananas (2-3 bananas)

1 c. pumpkin puree

2 overflowing tbl plain yogurt

1 tea. vanilla

Combine the stuff in first bowl, then set aside. Cream together the butter & sugar, adding eggs one at a time, then the bananas & pumpkin. Add yogurt and vanilla, beat to smooth. Pour into muffin tins and bake at 375 for 20-25 mins. 

Carrot Oat Muffins

This one is a real winner. Of course I modified the recipe, and in the future, I will add more oats and flour. (After a second try, maybe I overdid the flour) I opted to forego dirtying up my food processor and did a fine shred on the carrots, then just mixed it all up. The texture was just fine. The flavor! It's vegetables that taste delicious! The original suggests that the carrots you can buy prebagged and shredded can be used. In that case, maybe throw it in the food processor for a couple spins.


2 1/2 c. grated carrots
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. applesauce
1/3 c. oil (I used coconut oil)
1 egg- whisked
1 c. flour 
1/2 c. rolled oats 
1/2 tea. baking soda
1/2 tea. salt
1/2 tea. cinnamon
1/2 tea. nutmeg
1/4 tea. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a muffin pan.
Mix together the carrots, brown sugar, applesauce, oil, and egg. In a separate bowl mix the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking powder. Then combine with the carrot mix. Distribute into muffin pans evenly and bake for about 20 mins.