I am not a food blogger. Yet, I still take pictures of most things I eat because I never know when I might want to use something in a post. I snap two or three quick shots and move on my merry way. I like having photos of meals I deem worthy of sharing…but you better believe I’m not letting it get in the way of my eating. No cold food or sparing my precious dining seconds around here, people!

I could just not bother…but more often than not, I find myself thankful for my quick photo snapping. This morning, I appreciated the photo habit because, when uploading my pics, I realized I had quite the delicious day yesterday.

“Delicious” being code word for “my favorite fall foods”. I should be orange by now! Or at least not so ghostly white. When can I expect that beta carotene to kick in?

I bet you think that means I started my day off with some pumpkin oats. Oh ho ho! You are sorely mistaken. I actually didn’t have oats at all!

I had a savory craving…more accurately a hot pepper jelly craving…and I obliged.

I put together a sandwich with an egg, pepperjack cheese, hot pepper jelly, and spinach on whole grain and seed bread.

Does that not look like perfection? It sure does to me! Just as Honeycrisp apples scream perfection to me as well with their perfect crispiness and sweet, yet tart, bite.

When lunchtime rolled around I continued the fall theme unawares, as I pulled out leftovers from our dinner the previous night.

Tonight's dinner features quinoa, butternut squash, and apple goods. Gonna be good!

October 24, 2011 7:05 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@TinaFFF

Tina Reale

It doesn’t look incredibly appetizing (especially straight from the tupperware) but I promise you this combo kicks butt.

The mix:

• regular ole quinoa cooked in vegetable broth for extra flavor
• a Trader Joe’s apple chicken sausage
• cubed, roasted butternut squash
• a dollop of Daisy Spiced Apple Chutney

Such an easy, fast, and FLAVORFUL dinner! With good leftovers too! #drool

Now onto snack…a mix I promise you will want to get your hands on, if you haven’t already that is!

You all already know my undying devotion to this company.

Love Grown granola became the apple of my eye (stomach?) yet again.

I took a plain container of Oikos Greek yogurt and tossed in a whopping spoonful or two of canned pumpkin. I swirled that all up with some Cocoa Bean NuNaturals drops and grabbed my bag of Cocoa Goodness granola.

After a couple greedy handfuls straight to  my mouth, I topped my pumpkin yogurt and had the perfect harmony of flavors.

The only thing missing? A side of my pumpkin hot chocolate. Oh me, oh my…imagine that coupling for a snack. Forget happy hour with a beer…I want snack time with this! Is it 3 o’clock yet?

• What’s the last thing that made you say “yum”?

After all the craziness of last week, I feel good that this week has gone relatively smoothly so far. Nothing too insane. Well, besides this morning’s workout. Ha! I still don’t know how I survived it. <--- There’s that exaggeration we talked about.

Good thing I did survive, though. I had a stellar day today! Once I caught my breath this morning, I dropped Makenzie off at school and came home HANGRY and ready for some breakfast. I made myself shower first, then dug into another bowl of pumpkin oats. This time topped with Justin’s Maple Almond Butter that the lovely Janetha got me hooked on  last year.

For the record, I just bought three more cans of pumpkin. I will have pumpkin oats for breakfast for many days into the foreseeable future. Can’t stop. Won’t stop.

Count your lucky stars I’m not a food blogger. Things would get very old around here fast. Besides having another repeat breakfast of pumpkin oats, I also had a repeat lunch.

More English muffin pizzas!!! Best way to use up leftover crushed tomatoes. And you know Makenzie loves them. She told you so herself in her guest WIAW post!

Makenzie opted for apple slices again, but I was feeling a little spice. I went with half a cucumber sliced up and a couple large handfuls of baby carrots to dip in salsa. I adore salsa.

Both of those meals fueled me right through my prime work times and I knocked out a good bit of things I needed to get done. I hope this productive streak lasts!

After work time came play time. An afternoon play date with my friend Ann and her two kids – a friend for Makenzie and a friend for Braedon.

I love play dates and think it’s so important to connect with other moms. Not only does it give the kids social interaction, but it gives you the chance to “talk shop” with someone who understands. Who else would I turn to to discuss overnight potty training woes? Ann helped me feel better about giving up on trying to overnight train Makenzie. We gave it a shot, but it wasn’t worth the stress.

Don’t worry. We also have lives of our own too. We spent a lot of time chatting away about adult things…including her recent trip to Chicago to support her husband in the Chicago Marathon! It makes me want to run it. Mostly because I really, really want to go to Chicago. Maybe I should just book a trip and scratch that whole running 26.2 miles part? Either way, I loved hearing about her trip!

Thanks for the fun afternoon, Ann!

By this point dinner time quickly approached. We had planned on honoring another meat craving of Peter’s with meatloaf, but I forgot to get the ground beef out of the freezer. Oops! So I went with a baked sweet potato, more roasted green beans, and a Morningstar Farms garden veggie burger.

I stole an idea from Courtney and rubbed the sweet potato with a little bit of butter and some Garlic Gold from my Healthy Living Summit sample.

Ohhhh…what a good idea.

If I wasn’t such a cheapskate I would order some for myself in a heartbeat. But I am a cheapskate, so I just savored tonight’s dinner. Just like I plan to savor an early bed time. T minus 2 hours and counting. Later gators!

• Where do you turn to “talk shop” about things like work, motherhood, etc? I would say Peter and good friends, including you all!
• Do you ever forget key things for dinner prep like taking something out of the freezer or picking up something at the store?