I talked myself out of a morning workout despite the power going out at 5:40am and waking me up. It was like the universe was telling me to GET UP and MOVE. But I ignored and laid in bed until nearly 7am at which point it was a scramble to get out the door on time. Why does winter cause us to make such bad decisions?
I then proceeded to feel guilty all day for skipping my workout so when the girls were totally whipped when I picked them up, I settled them in with YouTube Kids and pounded out a few miles on the treadmill. Up until recently, we’ve avoided tablet screen time completely…but, we all have our moments of weakness, right?
While I was lounging around in bed being completely and totally unproductive, I found the email and Facebook post that alerted me to, yet again, another cancelled day of daycare. That makes the 7th day (to the tune of $600 ADDITIONAL dollars in childcare) over the past few weeks. Just lovely.
If my friend and her at-home daycare didn’t swoop in to save the day on these numerous daycare closure days, I wouldn’t be vacationing until 2035. Like, seriously. That is hardly an exaggeration. WE LIVE IN MICHIGAN, PEOPLE! Snow happens and vacations are therefore warranted.
And because things are dreary and cold and I may have over-purchased canned pumpkin (if that’s even a thing when it comes to pumpkin). I mean, I still have flashbacks to the 2012 pumpkin crop devastation…at which point I did the only rational thing in locating pumpkin in gallon-sized cans from GFS when all the other grocery stores were out.
Being stocked up on 15 ounce cans of pumpkin puree seems like a very wise move on my part. You never know when a pumpkin craving will strike…or when you’ll find a recipe you ripped out of Cooking Light months ago in the depth of your purse. I stopped dead in me tracks to whip it up, burned myself trying to cut it, and proceed to hide the loaf from my husband who feels a loaf makes a mere 4 servings and he prefers to eat at least 2-3 “servings” at a time. Just double it, mmmkay?
- Cooking spray
- ¾ cup low-fat buttermilk
- ½ cup quick-cooking oats
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
- ½ cup pure maple syrup
- ⅓ cup canola oil
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1¼ cups white whole-wheat flour pr whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 2 Tbsp pumpkin seed (pepitas)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9- x 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray; set aside.
- Place buttermilk and oats in a bowl; stir to combine. Let stand 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk together pumpkin, maple syrup, oil, brown sugar, vanilla, and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in oat mixture. Set aside.
- Whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture; whisk just until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan; sprinkle with pumpkin seed kernels.
- Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 55 to 65 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove bread from pan; cool completely.
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