Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Our new favorite breakfast is pumpkin pie oatmeal.  The boys and I were hanging out with my parents a couple Saturdays ago and looking in their pantry I saw a dozen cans of pureed pumpkin, so I had to ask what they were for.  They had started adding a can of pumpkin to their morning oatmeal to add some more vegetables to their diet.  I thought that was a great idea to get some more in my boys since they already eat oatmeal and pumpkin is not an overwhelming flavor.

The Big Man was even enthusiastic about it and when we tried the oatmeal that "was like Pumpkin Pie" he was a little disappointed that it did not have whipped cream on top.  However, he and The Bear both gobbled it down and now ask for this type of oatmeal when it is an oatmeal morning.

I did not just add pumpkin though, I always put cinnamon in our oatmeal and left that.  Then I tried a little nutmeg, cloves and some vanilla to make it taste like pumpkin pie.  I supposed you could just use the pumpkin pie spice, but we prefer the taste of freshly grated nutmeg and do not have the spice mix.

So, for a warm breakfast pick me up that tastes like dessert I would recommend this, and you can feel good about it yourself, or for your kids.

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

4 cups water
2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1/2 can pureed pumpkin (not pie filling)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
pinch cloves
1 tsp vanilla

Put everything except the nutmeg in a saucepan and bring to a boil.   Cook until the oatmeal is creamy while stirring, so it does not stick to the pan.  After it reaches your desired consistency take it off the heat and stir in the nutmeg.  We found the nutmeg got a little burned flavor if you added it with everything else.

Pour into bowls and serve.  We like to top ours with a little milk, drizzle of honey, raisins and maybe some granola for crunch.

This amount will make breakfast for myself, The Big Man and The Bear for two mornings.  Enjoy!

Sunday Dinner

Okay, so I usually do not make a dinner like this for Sunday nights.  I  am wanting to make big changes to our diets and start eating organic local meats as much as possible.  So we are trying to slowly get rid of the meat we have had in our deep freeze, and of course we had purchased three turkey breasts when they were on sale at Thanksgiving. 

Right now we buy very few organic items, mostly because we try and stick to a budget.  We shop at Aldi and Hy-Vee for the things that just do not taste the same from Aldi, but we are able to get groceries for our family of four for $500 a month.  This has been $100 each week plus one time a month we have been making a trip to Sam's Club to stock up on meat, yogurt, olive oil and some spices.  I am not sure we will be going to Sam's Club any more after watching Food, Inc.  We are barely able to stomach eating the food we have and are already up to about three vegetarian meals a week instead of just one.

I made these items from scratch and they mostly fit in the 100 Days of Real Food challenge rules except for the meat being local and I did use some sugar in the cranberries, but you have to sweeten them with something.  It was Morena Pure Cane sugar (that I found at Aldi), so I felt better about that.

I roasted the turkey in the oven like I normally do, but I tried a Porcini Gravy from Cooking Light that I was interested in from their November issue.  I am terrible at making gravy, but I thought a recipe might help.  I was right, it turned out well, but the taste was just eh.  So, we will probably not do that again.

The Oatmeal Knots and Sweet Potato Casserole I have made before, from Cooking Light as well.  I did put pure maple syrup in place of the sugar in the casserole, but I am thinking in the future I will substitute a couple over ripe bananas instead of that.  I also left the marshmallows off the top.

The Green Bean Casserole is a recipe from the 100 Days of Real Food website that I wanted to try and they were fabulous and easy.  I will never buy cream of mushroom soup again. 

My family gobbled up everything, well we had plenty of leftovers for lunch today, but they ate well.  I am so glad my husband is on board with this and that he let me have some time yesterday to cook.  Vegetarian Baked Cavatelli tonight and making some bread so we can have leftover turkey paninis tomorrow night.

Gotta run!

Running

I feel like I am constantly running, and sometimes I really am.  I do run for exercise several times a week, and even then I do not always go anywhere because on these below zero days I stay inside on the treadmill.  I am a mom to three little boys, four years old and under.  I have read several different blogs in the last four years as I have been home with them and it feels like every time I read one there is something new I should be doing to be the best mom I can.

I have read MoneySavingMom and decided that I should be couponing and saving money as much as possible.  We also like Dave Ramsey and have worked at paying off our home mortgage, so I know what it is like to live frugally.

I have read IHeartOrganizing and decided I need to reorganize my entire house from top to bottom.  Not only that, but I need to organize my cleaning schedule and my family schedule.  Also, my cleaning needs to be chemical free as much as possible.

I am now reading 100daysofrealfood and am deciding that my family needs to eat as few processed foods as possible and what we do eat needs to be less processed.

Sometimes all this with being a mom and trying to teach my oldest to read, help my middle through his terrible two temper tantrums and potty training, and being sleep deprived with my three month old makes me feel like I am insane.  What am I thinking?  Of course I just want the best for my family, but who can do it all, and how much is really worth it?

Here is a picture of the cheese crackers I made because I wanted my children to have something home made instead of processed to eat for a snack.  My goal currently seems to be to get rid of processed food from our pantry.  I got the recipe from 100daysofrealfood.  They were easy to make, but hers look much more pretty than mine.  Despite the look my children were glad to try them, and Bear proclaimed them "cookies" upon seeing them.  He ate his share for snack after nap time, but Big Man took one bite and decided he wanted nothing more to do with them.  I guess we will see how they go over the next few days, but they certainly were not Goldfish or anything else my boys would have tried in the past.

So, as a thrifty, housekeeper, hopefully clean eater, runner, scrapbooker, reader, crafter, want-to-be home decorator, Mom and Christ follower, here I am on my little hamster wheel running with nowhere to go.  Hopefully I can make baby steps as I try new things.