Bye! Bye! Sugar….

October came and went faster than I could say, “Boo!”  We’ve all come out of our sugar-coma from last night…well, almost all of us!  I think I’m still in my coma or at least I’m pretending because of the overwhelming amount of tasks I have to accomplish this week.
 
Today we rid our home of all the sugary garbage treats that haunts me this time of year! The hubs and I decided that we would put the candy to good use and participate in a “candy buy back” in order to help raise money for a little boy in our town who desperately needs a kidney.  For every pound of candy collected $2.00 will get donated to baby Liam.  You can see more details about the cause here.  The princesses couldn’t have been more excited to gather monstrous amounts of candy for baby Liam and I couldn’t have been more excited that they wouldn’t be consuming the massive amounts of candy that overflowed from their buckets. 

Our day of Halloween fun looked something like this (with some school work thrown in the midst of it all…because homeschooling is portable you know!)…

View Full Album

(Harvest Festival)

View Full Album

(Paddle boats, picnicking, and bike riding at Santee Lakes)

Here’s how “Sleeping Beauty” and “Princess Tiana” did on their mission for candy!

And now it’s time to say “Good Bye”….I know, it’s a bittersweet ending!

I know it’s after the fact (just couldn’t get my act together last week), but we did carve pumpkins this year and we sure did make a mess of it.  Despite all the pumpkin “goo” all over my kitchen, we ended up with some pretty yummy roasted pumpkin seeds!

(My hand at carving!) (The hubs’ hand at carving…Arrgh!!!)(Olive-oil and sea salt on the left and cinnamon-sugar on the right)

Speaking of pumpkin,  I was SO VERY disappointed when Costco told me they had sold out of pumpkin puree!  Oh the nerve of them!!

Thankfully I had just enough left in my pantry to whip up some Pumpkin Pie Chocolate Chip Cookies (with some added white chocolate chips this time!), Pumpkin Spice Granola Bars, and some Pumpkin Coffee Cake for breakfast.  There’s no shortage of “sweet” treats in our home, but at least I know what they’re made out of!

(making my own oat flour!) 

Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Crumb Topping
(inspired by Sarah @ Peas and Thank You)
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose gluten free flour (can sub in whole wheat)
1 cup gluten free oat flour (finely ground rolled oats in your food processor or blender)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp xanthum gum
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar
Crumb Topping:
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp organic cane sugar
3 Tbsp brown rice flour (can sub whole wheat)
2 1/2 Tbsp Earth Balance
1/4 cup gluten free rolled oats
2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare an 8x8 inch baking dish by lightly coating with cooking spray.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, xanthum gum, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and salt.  Set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the milk, pumpkin, oil, vanilla, and sugar and mix well.
Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture and combine well, without over-mixing.
In a small bowl, combine the crumb topping ingredients and mix with a fork until the butter is evenly distributed and mixture is crumbly.
Spread the batter into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle evenly with the crumb topping mixture.  Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

(You will not be disappointed with this moist and flavorful breakfast, or anytime, cake!)

I hope and pray that everyone is enjoying their first day of November!  And now I’m off and running…literally, or I’ll be late getting my princess Makenna to her guitar lessons!


Blessings,
J’lene