I woke up in a crabby mood this morning. My “ow ow ow” run didn’t particularly help things. I think I just needed some good food to resolve the cranky pants issue at hand.

In my wildest dreams we could have the fresh fruit of summer with the fall weather and traditions, plus the goodies of holiday baking. I scored two out of three of those today. Fall weather has decided to go AWOL for the time being.

Now that the temperatures have soared back up in the 90s I want the fresh, sweetness of summer fruits. I sadly know things like fresh berries and peaches will soon form a distant memory in my mind, so I have decided to do my dang best at eating them in mass quantity before I let that happen.

I find fresh peaches so finicky. They stay hard as a rock and not nearly juicy enough for what seems like for-ev-er and then suddenly turn into rotten mush. I thought my last of three peaches from my groceries this week would have bit the dust by this morning. Imagine my delight when I discovered the perfect juicy peach. Half of that sucker went right atop my oats along with some berries.

The other half went right into my belly, of course. I needed something to occupy my mouth while my breakfast cooked nuked.

The perfect breakfast. I shall miss you, fruit, in the coming fall and winter months! Thank goodness for Honeycrisp apples to ease my woes.

And for holiday/seasonal baking. It makes me smile. So, I will bust open a can of pumpkin (pumpkin pie mix fail has been resolved!) and bake up a pumpkin good even with things still teetering between summer and fall. Fall themed baking and fresh summer produce all in one day? Yes, it’s what dreams are made of.

Just like this Pumpkin Carrot Cake Bread.

Oh, ho ho. You read that right. I had mad cravings for carrot cake muffins…and then for pumpkin bread. Let’s allow the two to meet, get a little frisky, and craft this love baby. It may have ruined dinner because I couldn't stop "taste-testing", but it was sooo worth it.

Click For The Recipe

Moral of the story: Good food can definitely mend a sour attitude. Especially when it features the best of both worlds.

• What would the season of your dreams look like? Activities, foods, etc?
• After the reader request topic of more details on blogging money, I thought there might be other topics of interest out there. Any topics you would like me to cover?

Dare I tell you the crazy thing that happened to me last night? The thing that I find so hard to fathom and still cannot understand. The thing that left my stomach in knots and made me question the very essence of my being?

I forgot to do something of utmost importance. Somehow…someway…I forgot to eat dinner!!!

THE HORROR!!!!

Okay. I know I’m acting totally over the top, but it’s Friday. Have a sense of humor!

I did seriously forget to eat dinner, though. Peter had some prior obligations, so I had to go dinner and kid bedtime routines solo. I frantically got the kids bathed, fed, and settled with the million step process of bedtime…then immediately came downstairs and plopped on my comfy chair with some NASM study materials out of habit.

We usually eat dinner as a family, but I went the easy route and prepped some Annie’s Mac N Cheese for M with plans to make an egg, spinach, and mushroom scramble with a sweet potato on the side for me after the kiddos went to bed. An easy, filling, and delicious dinner in solitude. But I honestly forgot as I got sucked into studying…and then Bachelor Pad.

I had a pretty filling snack in the afternoon (a large green smoothie and a mint chocolate Luna Protein bar). I also have been adjusting to my much lessened hunger levels after stopping nursing. It’s insane! I used to have a bottomless pit for a stomach while nursing and suddenly I find myself needing to remind myself to eat. It’s not that I don’t get hungry – I just don’t get as noticeably hungry as I did while nursing. Unless it’s a long run day, of course.  

I will just have to get used to my new hunger signals. Don’t worry. If there is one thing I don’t do…it’s skimp on food. I love eating too much!

Which is why when my stomach woke me up growling (duh!) at 5:30 am and I realized the error of my ways, I obliged and gave it breakfast much earlier than normal.

Oats with peanut butter, banana, raisins, and NuNaturals vanilla stevia liquid drops. Fill me up with happiness. I will likely be having lots of “fill me up” moments today. My hunger usually skyrockets if I don’t eat enough one day. I’m down with that!

• Have you ever forgotten to eat a meal?
• Be sure to enter the NuNaturals giveaway if you haven’t yet!