No surprise I love baking and cooking for my family. This Maple Baked N’Oatmeal is the current family favorite. I make a batch and Super Hubby takes it to work for breakfast every day with fresh fruit. This morning we woke up to snow ice and negative temperatures- my summer loving heart needed a cozy family breakfast before we started our day of house projects. Fresh squeezed OJ and fresh fruit from the year round farm Market Willey Farms , a perfect match for this Maple Baked N’Oatmeal.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. Almonds
• 3/4 c. Walnuts
• 1/2 c. Coconut Shred
• 1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 3 Tbsp Almond Flour
• 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
• 1/2 C. Maple Syrup
• 1 1/2 C. Almond Milk
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Banana, Sliced

Process:

1. Preheat Oven to 375 degrees
2. Place Almonds and Walnuts in a chopper, chop until finely ground (should be oat sized)
3. Combine nuts and all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl (except bananas)
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the wet ingredients
5. Add wet ingredients to the dry and stir
6. Add the sliced Bananas last and gently mix (batter will be very runny)
7. Pour mixture into a greased 8×8 pan and bake for 30- 35 minutes (edges should be slightly browned and center should come out clean with a toothpick)
8. Remove and let the Baked Oatmeal sit for 5-10 minutes to cool and firm
9. Serve with Fresh Berries or a little syrup drizzle
10. Makes 6 large servings or 12 small

Today we got up, finished our chores and then walked around the local farmers market. I was thrilled when I saw a few of the vendors were selling pumpkins. Hooray for Fall! I’ve always wanted to make my own pumpkin puree so I decided that this was the day to experiment. It was so simple!

Ingredients:   1 Medium cooking Pumpkin

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Cut the pumpkin stem off and cut the pumpkin in half.
3. Use an ice cream scoop to remove seeds and pulp. (set aside for later)
4. Slice pumpkin into manageable chunks.
5. Place pumpkin in a baking pan and cover with tin foil.
6. Bake for 90minutes.
7. Scoop pumpkin out of the shell (should be very soft and easy to scoop out with a spoon.)
8. Put pumpkin into a mixing bowl, mix until pureed. (You could also use a blender or puree tool.)
9. One Medium pumpkin gave me 7 cups of pumpkin puree.
10. Store pumpkin in freezer bags for later use. I measured 2 cups per bag.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Process:

1. While your pumpkin is cooking. Rinse and clean pumpkin seeds.
2. Lay seeds out to dry.
3. Coat baking sheet with coconut oil.
4. Place seeds on sheet and sprinkle with sea salt.
5. Bake at 325F for 25 min, half way through stir seeds so they are fully coated in oil and sea salt.

I used some of the pumpkin puree today to make these delicious Pumpkin swirl muffins.