Pumpkin "Muffins"

Sorry y'all, there are no photos to go with this, but there is a delicious, whole foods muffin recipe, so you should read on anyway.

I made this yesterday to take to brunch with some good friends, and the kids ate 2 each on the way there.  And then another 2 throughout the day.  Do you know why that was okay with me? Because it's basically oatmeal.

It was all gobbled up yesterday, so today I made more, with a couple changes. Here's your recipe:

Pumpkin "Muffins"
Makes about 20 muffins

1 1/4 cup steel cut oats
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup quinoa
1 T coconut oil or butter

2 t pumpkin pie spice
1/2 t sea salt
1 cup hot water

3 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 cups milk
1/3 cup pure maple syrup

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, and grease some muffin tins.

Melt the butter in a small pot, and toast all the grains for about 3 minutes (till they smell toasty).
Add the sea salt and spices and mix well.  Pour hot water over the dry ingredients and set aside.

Whisk eggs, pumpkin, milk and maple syrup together until smooth.  Pour the grains into the wet ingredients, and give a good stir. It will look VERY wet, but it should work.
Ladle into greased muffin cups.  Unless you try very hard, some will have more grains, and others more pumpkin "soup", but they will both come out fine.  The more soupy muffins will have more of a pumpkin pie texture on top.

Bake for 45 minutes or until set.

Here's the true joy (for me) in this recipe: it's super flexible.  Yesterday I made it with half steel cut oats, half rolled oats (no quinoa), and it was great, a little fluffier than today's version. You could replace the maple syrup with sugar, and increase the milk or water by 1/3 cup. You could also scale the sugar back (when I was looking for inspiration, I saw some baked pumpkin oatmeal recipes with no sugar, but I like a little sweetness.  You could try it, and let me know how it went.).  You could probably even reduce the number of eggs.  If you wanted to skip the muffin tins, you could make 2 pumpkin loaves out of this.

Nutritional info (using whole milk):
78 calories, 11g carbs, 3g fat, 3g protein, 6g sugar

A change in perspective

A few weeks ago I got an email from my friends saying they were selling their canoe and car.  Bubba and I usually check in with each other about big purchases, but I wanted that canoe!  I could see big adventures, and I jumped at it.  Bubba was skeptical at first, but over the past few weeks has gotten really excited.

(As an aside, this is one of the reasons we're so good together-I get excited about a new idea, and he is skeptical.  He either talks me out of doing something really off the wall or really big, or we start something really fun or really big.  My excitements are not usually small.  For example, buying a canoe.  Or a business.)

But then we brought the canoe home, and the first thing he does is see if he can haul it with his bike.  And, yes, he can.  Not well, however.  He will no doubt be refining his system.

How is he the sensible one???

And then we had to be patient, since he went back to work, but finally today we tried out our new canoe.  And thank goodness!  We had a crappy night last night, and were in crappy moods this morning, and then we started loading the canoe.  Onto the car.

We drove to a put in at the Fremont Canal literally a 3 minute drive from our house.  We got onto the water, and forgot all about our tired crappiness.  Because how awesome is this?

And how often do you see the Ballard Bridge from down here?

Usually I'm up top trying to relax because there's nothing I can do about being late and stuck in traffic while the bridge is up.  

Taking a running break

Snacktime for these hungry ones

Getting more comfortable

Getting a little too comfortable (at times)

Back on land

I thought we'd be out for an hour or two, but by the time we got back, it was 4 hours, and 4 happy moods later.  And to top it off, on the way home, really, in the 3 minutes we spent in the car, Aspen asked why we drove since we weren't going very far.  I think that might have been the highlight of Bubba's day.

So worth the effort

Something I've thought a lot about recently is life, happiness, effort and children.  Those dang kiddos make everything so much harder!  But they bring whole new levels of emotion and meaning to everything for me.  So this year, we're putting lots more effort into getting outside, and it's been so fun.

We just got back from our first camping trip of the year, and our longest trip so far (3 nights-wootwoot!).  We went to Mineral Park campground, just outside of North Cascades National Park, with 2 really good friends.  They brought the Vanagon, while we slept in tents, which the kids love.

Breakfast in the Westie, with Aspen's baby

We talked about going out for a hike, but decided to play on a toddler-friendly scale.  We hiked around our camps, ate salmonberries and huckleberries, took naps.

River "hopping" around camp.

Hunting and eating berries is serious business to Aspen

berry-finding 

River's hungry face

I'm really glad we kept our goals super small.  This was River's first camping trip since he was 8 months old, and I think just living outside for 3 days was enough for him to acclimate to, without the grown ups having a bigger agenda.

Laura telling River about plants

Bubba and Aspen peeking in a tree cave

The kids found the days exhausting, and needed more food than usual.  Sleep too.  It took a little while to realize that.  I've started keeping notes of our trips outside, hoping to learn from the past.

So we slung up a hammock for resting and a slack line for playing.

At least, that was what we thought.  Aspen had other ideas...

Laura helping Aspen walk on the slack line

Bubba came back from taking Aspen to the bathroom with a story: she had stopped in the middle of the path, and he told her she could go ahead.  Aspen says "Daddy, I can't, because I'm scared of that," pointing to a deer 15 feet away from her.  Aspen's biggest nature experience to date.  The deer hung around our camp quite a bit that night, and we saw him a lot.  He was young, and has a lot to learn, that deer.

River's first marshmallow

Aspen with a "classic" smore

On our way out there, I saw a smoke shop, but it was old, and I thought it said Smore Shop.  And a new dessert fad was born!  After the kids went to bed, we tried out all kinds of smores for my new business venture: classic smore with dark chocolate, dark chocolate with gingersnap, graham cracker with salted caramel peanut butter chocolate truffle-you'd think it would have been too much, but no, it was amazing.  We'll have to work on coming up with different combinations in our future trips.

Napping baby, snuggly forest floor, peach and a book.  How awesome is that?

And then River surprised us by coming out of the tent after his nap.  Apparently he learned how to work the zipper.

It was hard to get out, and we got back the day Bubba had to go back to work, but I'm so glad we went.

38 and all's well...

 Today I got to do whatever I wanted, and didn't do anything I didn't want to do.  Yay for birthdays!  My day started with brunch at The Dish, which is super close to our house, and they know us.  We went there when I was in (early) labor with Aspen, and the day before River was born.  I love it.

My birthday flowers from Aspen

Then we rode our bikes down to Alki beach, where I was suddenly transported out of Seattle, and into Southern California.  We were surrounded by beach volleyball and bikinis.  I think I saw more bikinis today than in my whole 8 years in Seattle.

We met up with two wonderful friends for an afternoon playing in the sand,  rocks and sun.

"And that's the last time you'll be seeing these!"

Playing knock Mama over

Putting shells in between toes tickles

Aspen's crabshell

Osprey with a fish for dinner

"How's it smell?" "Good!"

If you ask River "How's...?" the answer is always good.

We watched 3 osprey catch fish to take back to the nest.  They kept circling back around, looking kind of like sea gulls, but so much bigger.  Then they swoop into the water, and come out with a fish.

My friends asked me what I wished for the next year.  My wishes are simple: to spend more time outside with my family-hiking, biking, backpacking.  I can't wait.

They also asked me what I memories I have from the previous year.  Lots of memories that stand out are related to my children.  In the past year, I:

• watched my oldest growing out of being a toddler
• watched my youngest leaving babyhood behind (ack, is being a parent always so bittersweet??)
• became a (very) small business owner
• started reclaiming a little bit of myself back by riding my bike, taking a fruit-growing class, teaching other small children and their parents about nature in the city

This year we are going to try (at least) our first backpacking trip since our honeymoon backpacking trip.

Today, on my birthday, I:

• rode 30 miles, my longest ride yet
• spent time with great friends
• watched my oldest put her arm around her (not so) baby brother as he slept in the bike trailer next to her, and pull him to her
• heard my youngest say "Happy birfday" for the first time.

It was a great day.

Aspen's Pond and Ocean

We've gotten a little crafty in our house recently.  Bubba made a small world pond for Aspen and River, although it was made during his naps, so Aspen feels it is rightfully hers.  Maybe it is, she gave a lot of input on what it should include.

Pond small world

The pond contains a fish family, dragonflies, lilypads,

rushes, sedges or other wetland grasses, and cattails.

Aspen played with it for hours after it was made, telling stories about the dragonflies and the fish family.  We picked up rocks and sticks to add to it, as well as plastic "salamanders" (lizards actually) and snakes.  When I find frogs, I'll add those too. 

Since this was made, Aspen and I spend a couple of River's naps cutting out pond things in felt and talking. I really enjoyed creating things with her.

Bubba loved it so much that he made an ocean small world too.  

Sand dollar and rocks

Fish, sand dollar, limpet, fuzzy sea cucumber (I think)

Sea anemone

Sea anemone

The fish family