Love Of Oats

A blog dedicated to balancing a healthy and fun life… with oats!

Tag Archives: cinnamon

First Of Fall

Being that both my wedding anniversary and birthday occur in September, I typically don’t really associate the Fall season with September, even though it officially starts on Sept 22… When October hits, however, I completely forget all about summer and go full force with all things Autumn!

To me, October represents…

  • Baseball Playoffs (go Phils!)
  • Pumpkin, Cinnamon, Apples & Squash
  • Fake Uggs, Leggings, & Lightweight Hoodies & Sweaters
  • Leaves Changing, Sunshine & Breezy Weather
  • Halloween Decorations & Costumes

So while I’m still procrastinating with getting my Halloween / Fall decorations out, I decided that today should be about all things Fall… Baseball playoffs do start today for the NL and although I’m not sure if I will be able to get away with putting on my Fake Uggs or a sweater today, I decided to create an awesome smoothie…

I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a juice fast because, well let’s be honest, I’ve been eating like crap lately… Baby E is teething and has been up A LOT lately, work has been crazy, and although I am making excuses, this makes me want to eat junk!  I’ve been researching about “juicing” with a Vita-Mix and learned that you could just toss a whole apple in there and grind away (yes I am probably the last person on Earth to realize this)… so that along with pumpkin sparked my delish new creation…

Pumpkin Meets Apple Smoothie

(makes 1 16 ounce smoothie)
  • 1 C pumpkin puree
  • 1 T cinnamon
  • 1 T ground flax
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 small Gala apple (if not using a Vita-Mix, then core & slice apple into chunks)
  • 4 ounce Chobani Champions Honey-Nana Greek Yogurt
  • 5 ice cubes

Toss 5 ice cubes, pumpkin, spices, apple, ground flaxseed and yogurt into Vita-Mix / blender, and puree.  On the Vita-Mix, I used the variable speed on low for 30 seconds and then went all the way up until 10, until everything was well combined and turning into a thick liquid.

Bucket List – Task One

After a weekend of viewing glorious treats and delish creations, I decided that it was time to create a Bucket List… for baking that is…

There are so many times that I think… “someday, I want to try to bake “xyz”…”, but then I forget about it or loose some of that inspiration and decide its too difficult or intimidating for me to attempt… Well, my hope is that by creating a Baking Bucket List (still in draft form but I will post & share!), I will be constantly reminded of what I want to challenge myself to bake or make and hopefully I will not lose my inspiration for doing so either!

That being said, I came up with this idea on Sunday afternoon and decided that I should try to tackle one of the items on my list:  homemade buttercream icing…

Yeah, I know it is sad that I have never made icing from scratch… So I decided to give it a whirl Sunday after dinner… the funny thing was that I had nothing to icing, so after my icing was made and a few taste tests were done, I whipped together some mini carrot cake cupcakes and frosted those babies up…

Homemade Buttercream Icing

(Frosts 24 mini cupcakes + 6 jumbo cupcakes; or enough for 12 large cupcakes with some leftover for tasting!)

  • 1 stick of butter, at room temperature
  • 3 cups of confectioners sugar, sifted
  • 1 T vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp of cinnamon*

Cream together, with electric mixer, the softened butter and 2 cups of confectioners sugar. 

Add in vanilla extract, cinnamon and sift in the 3rd cup of confectioners sugar.  Mix again well until everything is combined.  If you are adding in food coloring, this would be the time to do it.  Be careful not to overmix; icing should be fluffy.  Let icing sit for an hour in the fridge.  Take out 20 minutes prior to frosting so that the icing can soften at room temperature.  I felt this worked best because it was still cold but not too firm either.

*Note:  I added in the cinnamon for a twist on normal icing, but normally you could omit this.  I just love my cinnamon!  I am going to experiment with different flavors and combinations in the future, but for my first attempt I just wanted to stick to the basics.

 

Lesson Learned:

If you are like me and were intimidated by the thought of making your own icing, don’t be!  Seriously, it was super easy to make, tasted WAY better than from a can, and it’s free of preservatives and full of ingredients that you are familiar with!  And seriously, what’s better than real food… especially in dessert form!!

What are you guys “afraid” of baking or making?  Am I the only one that was scared of icing :)