Pumpkin Oat Muffins = Rainy Day Goodness

My version of the pumpkin oat muffins I found on this site. The recipe said it made 9 muffins, but big muffins are more fun! Plus I never get to use this muffin pan.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 15 ounces canned pumpkin
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• I also added a few extra dashes of nutmeg and clove.
• 5 tbsp ground flaxseed (just for extra omega 3's)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375*F
• Coat muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray or line muffins cups.
• Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl; blend well.
• Pour batter evenly into muffin tins.
• Bake for 20-22 minutes.
• Allow to cool, and enjoy!

Our Square Foot Garden

These weekend we started a garden...

We decided to get baby plants of whatever we could, instead of starting from seeds

Putting the box together

Zach and his "intermediate" carpentry skills....or are they advanced now?

SOIL!

These plants are going to have the best home :)

Broccoli, butter lettuce, regular lettuce, thyme, cilantro, carrots, onion, arugula, garlic, snow peas, swiss chard... I think that's all of them.

16 square feet of goodness.

Wish us luck.

I forgot to look all the way...

Yes, it's time for another supermarket story, nothing like this every happens to me at Trader Joes...I should just not go to other markets. But the other markets have things that Trader Joe's doesn't seem to have, like baking soda...I found baking powder, but couldn't find baking soda for the life of me. Anyway, I stopped at Vons on my way home from Trader Joe's, "I'll just run in super fast and get these three items" I thought to myself, not wanting the groceries in my trunk to melt. Unfortunately the Carpinteria Vons is the least organized market I've ever been in... of course the yogurt would be next to the diapers! ...why did I even check by the milk?

With my items acquired I hurried to the checkout stand, perfect! Only one person in front of me, and they only have one item! I've really lucked out.

It was only after I put everything on the conveyer belt that I remembered how important it was to look all the way. Because that one person in front of me was about 95 years old and didn't have any teeth, and the one thing she was buying was a giant bottle of chardonnay, and, most importantly what she was clutching between her crooked fingers wasn't a pocketbook, it was a bag full of coins. "I have too many pennies at home!" she exclaimed.

Pennies, I'm not even kidding, $ 4.86 in pennies.

"Help me count these!"....she was talking to me. She smelled like alcohol and I had to count her pennies, and in order to count them I had to touch them...and they were sticky.

And this is why I will forever carry hand sanitizer in my purse... and I will not stop when I have dairy products in the car.

I want to ride my bicycle...

So Zach and I finally got bicycles, we've wanted them since last summer. And since Zach loves to match :) he found this adorable pair on sale in Ventura. They look boring in the picture, but they're so cute up close. The boy one has blue accents and the girl one has pink, and they have adorable retro writing on the sides.

"Coffee"

"Cream"

We rode them to Zach's work yesterday, to see how long it would take. I think it was less than 15 minutes. It's SO much more fun to ride than my $79 childhood bike, I want to go ride it right now! but it's still pouring rain :(

Whatever Sarah

I don't have normal allergies. You'll never see me with hay fever, or itchy eyes, or avoiding nuts or fish. I am however allergic to Neosporin. Well since I'm no longer a 5 year old scraping my knees or breaking fishbowls this usually isn't a problem.

But since November (yes 6 months ago) I've had a cut on my nose. It won't heal! Something is wrong with my skin!

So I saw a Neosporin commercial the other day, the one with two boys and a girl and they all peel off their bandaids and still have cuts, except Sarah's is "all betterl" after three days.

So I thought "well hey if it will heal this cut in three days then it's totally worth the rash that I'll get! At least that's not bleeding!"

Wrong. Now I have a cut AND an awkward looking rash. Lesson learned, stay away from Neosporin. And just for anyone wondering, Polysporin does the same thing.

I still put on lip gloss to go to the market

Let me tell you about yesterday's trip to the market.

It started off normal, a little more crowded than usual, judging from the parking lot at least, but then I went inside... every old person in Denver was in there, and every new mom, and about 500 extra people that aren't usually there. There were no carts, they were mopping the floors, restocking everything, it was like it was the middle of the night, but it was 4:30 in the afternoon.

There was a lady in the seafood department just screaming...I don't know why.

They were completely sold out of broccoli?

There was puke next to the chicken.

The checker wouldn't talk to me, I think he was upset about some blueberries on the floor. He gave me my $3 item for $1 because he couldn't get it to scan....I tried to tell him, but he wasn't talking to me, there were blueberries on the floor.

I tried to help bag up my groceries to escape the madness faster, but I guess I'm not allowed.
Apparently a fun pack of tapioca pudding needed to escape too, it ended up in one of my bags, who buys tapioca? yuck.

tastes like horror

So my job is pretty boring, I have to sit at a desk all day, in a VERY quiet room, if you walked in here you would probably be totally creeped out by it, especially if the hummer was humming her usual ear piercing horrible hum, which is the only noise besides the occasional terrifying mumblings of the smelly bleeder...

Luckily I can listen to music, or books on tape, and thus the silence (and the terror) is blocked out a little. The music gets me through the day, so do my desk snacks. In particular my stash of pumpkin seeds, I buy them when I go marketing on Thursdays and then I carefully ration them so they'll last till I market again. I know it's silly, but the saltiness brings me joy,

Let me quote from scripture (or shcripshure if you're Ethan):

"Salt is good" - Mark 9:50

Yes salt is good, especially at my desk, my desk in the horrible silent room.

So imagine my dismay when I came in Monday morning and over the weekend someone had eaten the whole bag. I don't know why you would sit at someone else's desk, go through their drawers and eat their food. It has to be the same person who used to readjust my chair every night, so thank you Mr. Useless Security Guard who uses my desk and eats my salt.

So tonight I will leave the 8 month old bag of generic brand pumpkin seeds that taste like evil, in place of where my other ones were. Help yourself salt thief.