What I Ate Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!

I made some really great recipes this week, so I'm going to cut the chit chat short and get right to all my yummy eats.......

Breakie

Greek Yogourt sweetened with honey and topped with Pumpkin Harvest Granola

Lunch

Loaded baked potato soup. This is a crockpot recipe that will be coming very, very soon! We think it tastes even better the second day, so we've had this for a couple of lunches now :-)

Dinner

Honey mustard roasted veggies over quinoa (recipe by Kris). Best veggie recipe I've tried lately!!! If you love honey mustard, you will LOVE this recipe --- I took the leftovers to work the next day and had them in a wrap for lunch. SO. GOOD!

So there you have it! Short and sweet and sooooooo delicious! If you're looking for more meal inspiration, head on over and check out Miss Jenn's What I Ate Wednesday page.




I suspect we might even find some awesome recipes for the holidays over there!!!

What have you been munching on this week?

Have an awesome day,

Andrea

Pumpkin Harvest Oatmeal

Happy Monday Morning.

Did you all have a fabulous weekend? Our weekend didn't go quite the way that I expected, but it still turned out to be pretty darn good. Yesterday we were supposed to put up our Christmas decorations, but sadly it was pouring rain and very muddy and we decided to put if off a few days because all of our decorations are stored in the shed in the backyard. Derek has some down time this coming week, so fingers crossed that our house will be completely "Christmas-fied" by the time next weekend rolls around. Have you decorated your house yet???

Since decorating was delayed, I decided to get busy in the kitchen and make a couple of things that had been brewing in my head. The first thing I did was to get a baked potato soup together in the crockpot for dinner. It  was really yummy and I'll be sharing the recipe with you later this week.

Once the crockpot was ready and simmering away, I got busy making a new granola. It's been a while since I did a batch and I've been dreaming about a pumpkin-flavoured granola since I was at my parents for Thanksgiving. So, I pulled out everything I had that would go great together and got to work.

Pumpkin Harvest Granola

This is a great granola that encompasses all the flavours of Fall. The nice thing about granola is that you can customize it to include anything you have in the cupboards. You also can sweeten it up to your liking and use any add-ins that make your mouth water ;-)

3 c old fashioned rolled oats

1 tbsp chia seeds

2 tbsp dried cranberries

1/4 c pepitas

1/4 c. pecan pieces

1/4 c. unsweetened shredded coconut

1.5 tsp cinnamon

heaping 1/2 c pumpkin pie filling*

1/4 c tbsp maple syrup

3 tbsp canola oil

1 tsp vanilla

*Note - After posting this recipe, I've made a couple of minor changes to make it even better! I increased the amount of wet ingredients because I found that the granola wasn't quite as sweet and sticky as I would have liked. The recipe now reflects my changes.

 

Pre-heat your oven to 325. Line a large baking pan with parchment paper.

Combine your dry ingredients (oats, chia, cranberries, pepitas, pecans, coconut & cinnamon) in a large bowl. Stir to combine.

In a small bowl, whisk together the  wet ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until well combined.

Pour your granola into your baking pan and spread out evenly.

Bake for 25 - 35 minutes. I've had many accidental granola burnings so I bake my granola at a low temperature and I stir every 5 to 7 minutes. It's ready when the granola is baked to a golden brown.

Store unused granola in an airtight container.

*Note - I thought that I bought pure pumpkin, but discovered it was actually pumpkin pie filling. You could easily use pure pumpkin and your own spices, but then you would have to sweeten it up with more maple syrup.

I'm really looking forward to eating this granola on top of some Greek yogourt sweetened with honey. Breakie is going to be goooo-ooood this week!!!

This would also make a great hostess gift if you stored it in a mason jar wrapped up in your fave ribbon.

Don't you love my fabric/ribbon choices???

This is a hint of what my new garland looks like :-D

Have you ever made your own granola before? If you have, what's your fave add-in?

I hope you have a fabulous start to your work week!

Andrea

Around the World on What I Ate Wednesday

Have we arrived at Wednesday again?! You know what that means....you get yet another peek into my good eats!! I can't tell you how much I love sharing some quick and easy meal ideas with you! This WIAW craze has inspired me to step out of my comfort zone and try some new things too! As I planned out this post, I realized that I've been eating all types of different foods. Today, I was in Greece for breakie, India for lunch and Mexico for dinner ...  if only I could give a wiggle of my nose and actually be in those places ....  ah, a girl can dream can't she??

I hate to brag, but I've had some really great eats this week....and my focus on easy meals has helped me to get out of the kitchen at a decent hour. No more washing dishes at 9 p.m. my friends!

Check out my eats.

This morning I didn't get up in time to eat before my workout. I didn't even get in a warm lemon water <insert wrist slap>  I hate when that happens because my body feels like lead and it takes me forever to feel awake! 

I'm trying to cut back on my coffee-a-day habit, but I decided that my level of exhaustion entitled me to just one. Gotta love a large Timmies coffee with one milk. 

Breakfast

First up we have strawberry-flavoured Chobani Greek Yogourt with strawberries and chocolate coconut granola. I've been loving this breakie after an early morning workout. I find that it usually satisfies me until it's time for lunch.

Dear Chobani,

I know we just met, but I think I love you.

Please come to Canada ASAP.

Love, A

xoxo

This yogourt is really, really good. It's so creamy; I absolutely loved it! I only had a strawberry and a blueberry, but I've seen many different and amazing flavours in the blogging world that I'm dying to try. Good thing I'm heading to Kentucky at the end of this month to visit my parents. My plan is to bring my biggest suitcase, so I can fit in lots of groceries to bring back home with me. Will Delta accept a large-sized cooler in checked luggage??

For lunch, I had some leftover Indian-inspired veggies. This was an awesome lunch! I think a bunch of my co-workers will be trying out this recipe because I had tons of compliments on how good my meal smelled. It was just as good today as when I made it fresh!

I forgot to take a picture before I dug in, so you're getting my original photo.

I wanted to keep my calories low, so I skipped the tofu this time.

For dinner, I whipped up Jenn's fiesta quinoa, with a side of guacamole and baked nachos.

Scrumptious! This was an amazing and easy dinner!

These meals were so satisfying that I really didn't have an urge to snack. I did treat myself to 2 squares of dark chocolate after dinner to satisfy my sweet tooth and keep my nighttime cravings in check....they were my last 2 squares and I don't know what happened ~ they were in my mouth and on their way to my belly before the camera had time to click a pic! Oops! Good thing you all know what a good piece of chocolate looks like :-)

Hopefully one of these amazing meals has tickled your taste buds and inspired you to try something new. If you're looking for more ideas, make sure you drop by Jenn's blog, Peas and Crayons, for lots more inspiration!

What flavour of Chobani yogourt is your all-time fave?

What was your best meal today?

Have a happy Hump Day y'all!!

Andrea