Sep 26, 2010

Fall Treats and Football Beats

Saturday morning one of my firsts thoughts was "Today is football day!!" Wow. Weird. Who am I? Saturday was also designated "Shopping Day" and "Baking Day." When I picked up a can of pumpkin at Whole Foods the other day, I noticed a can of sweet potato puree. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do with it, but I bought it anyway. One way I like to find recipes is by going to the manufacturer's site. The Farmer's Market site listed a few options including one for Apple Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffins. Anytime I see cinnamon on a menu or in a recipe, I want it. Cinnamon is one of my things. You know, like Chick-fil-A, Mustard Seed, and lime green things. I scanned the recipe, altered a couple things, then made muffins!

The Wet:
  • 1 15 oz can of sweet potato puree
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 large egg whites
  • 1 tbsp canola oil
  • 2/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
The Dry:

  • 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 3/4 cup quick-cooking oats
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup apples, finely chopped
Preheat oven to 350*. Combine wet ingredients in one bowl, and dry ingredients into another. Incorporate dry mixture into wet until smooth. 
Pour evenly into a greased or lined muffin pan. Add chocolate chips to a few for good measure.
Bake for 20-25 minutes. Then, use your mouth to destroy...
Make these!! They are incredibly moist and the addition of cinnamon + apple makes them a perfect fall treat. Plus, they contain tons of Vitamin A! 

Here's the best part of being a food blogger: you will get down and dirty for some natural light for your photography. 
At any moment my neighbors could have come out of their apartment. Oh boy, would they have judged!

Then it was time to go shopping. We stopped in Palmetto Moon so Boding could get a new Clemson koozie. We were pretty excited to find Clemson silly bandz! Omg are we 5?
I stole a C (for Christina?) and a tiger paw.
We shopped some more and I bought some skinny jeans from Ann Taylor Loft, a sweater from Banana Republic, and new powder and mascara from MAC. Shopping always works up an appetite, so we drove over to Village Bakery for lunch.
I got the Turkey and Provolone with cranberry on multi-grain bread with a side of Asian Salad.
This is my favorite sandwich from Village Bakery. The cranberries are the best part so I always ask for extra. The Asian salad was linguine tossed with edamame, bell peppers, carrots, peanuts, and cilantro. 


Village Bakery Cafe on Urbanspoon

After lunch we stopped by Pitt St. Pharmacy for some CANDY! Look at all this crack!
We found ring pops!! Boding spent 50 cents on me. This is probably the closest I'll come to getting a fancy ring from a guy for a while. Ha.
 Silly bandz AND ring pops? YES we are definitely children.
Saturday evening we went over to Margaret's for a cookout and to watch the Auburn vs. South Carolina game. This was a great excuse to bake another fall treat, so I made pumpkin cookies!! When I made them last year, I used milk chocolate chips, but since Margaret is allergic to chocolate, I swapped them out for white chocolate. 
They are even better with white chocolate chips. I also used half as much oil because I thought they were too wet last year. This time they came out more cake like and very tender. They were quite a hit at the party. See the recipe here

More orange & navy for Auburn!
While we were at the party, Matt showed up with coconut water because he heard it was a hangover cure. Has anyone heard this? 
The cookout was lots of fun, except for the part where I had to attack Matt for stealing my phone and sending dirty text messages. He is a bad boy!
Hope you all had a wonderful (football-filled) weekend!!

41 comments:

  1. Great baking. I am super excited to have pumpkin and sweet potatoes back in stores and cheap again. Hoooray for sure. The muffins look especially tasty- I totally want to try that. I still haven't been to village bakery but it is ON the list. Great side noodle salad. Hope your Sunday nigh is treating you well ;)

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  2. Your little muffins are making me hungry! I gotta try them :)

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  3. Those muffins looks so yummy! I love making baked goods :)

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  4. i love that you went to pitt street! i grew up spending summer afternoons there!

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  5. Yesterday was just a bad day for my football team. I even fell asleep during the game (in my defense it was after midnight but still)

    Your wknd looks so much fun and I am kinda converned about you turning orange from all this pumpkin loving you got going on. I love that went into your hallyway and with your neighbors would have walked out to see you working with the natural light! I like the randomness of the asian salad with your sandwich, they book look delish.

    Sooooo...inquiring minds want to know, did he say if the coconut water worked or not for the hangover? Hope he sent some nice sexting messages from you!

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  6. Love that idea for muffins! I might swap in canned pumpkin to make them even more like fall.

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  7. haha love the attack mode! Those muffins look awesome and i'm hearting the Auburn all over this post - yay!!

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  8. Haha I love the pics of you on the floor. You're so cute. :)

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  9. Your turkey sandwich looks so legit! And I love sweet potato muffins.. I tried one this weekend at the farmer's market!! I might have to try making my own when I go home and actually have access to an oven :)

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  10. Those muffins look yummy and perfect for fall!

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  11. Look at the dedication with you on the floor taking pictures! They look delicious too! I am so happy that turkey and cranberry season is upon us...bring on fall flavors! Have a great week lady!

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  12. The muffins look great and I might give them a try! As for the cookies, I cannot find canned pumpkin anywhere. On an added note, I recently found out that when you remove the fat from the cookies it will cause more of a cake like consistency and less of a flattened cookie shape. But that may not be such a bad thing unless you also remove too much sugar like I did with my experimenting of cookie making recently.

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  13. I did have a football-filled weekend! Four hours at the Ohio State game, in fact..... we stayed the entire time and it was a looong 4th quarter. Also: I want those muffins. Mmm. Lol-ing at the food blogger dedication, I'm pretty sure my boyfriend and family think I'm crazy for taking pictures all the time, especially of my food. I have definitely put stuff on the floor to get a better picture though. Sometimes that's where the best light is!

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  14. If only everyone would show the crazy things we do to get a good foodie picture lol. It can get quite insane, I know. It's always good to stay a kid at heart..it truly keeps you young! :o)

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  15. I SO remember ring pops. Those are the besttt! That sandwich looks delicious!

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  16. I have never heard of sweet potato puree but I am going to hit Trader Joes in search!

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  17. I've never seen sweet potato puree before. It would make baking with sweet potatoes so much easier. And I definitely want to try making those muffins! Maybe I could just use sweet potato baby food? :P

    LOL my family/neighbours have definitely seen me in some weird poses trying to get a good picture.

    Hmm I'm gonna have to try coconut water as a hangover cure. I've been having way too many of those lately! ;)

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  18. Haha, I take pictures at my window and I'm pretty sure the people across the courtyard think I'm on crack.

    Looks like such a great weekend!! Your posts are always so fun :)

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  19. Looks sooooo good! The cookies and the Muffins are putting me in the mood to bake something.....

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  20. BAHAHA, I totally search my apt for good natural lighting, too, and need to take more pics on our beautiful balcony. I wonder if our Indian neighbors find it odd when I snap pics outside, but then again, I don't care...;)

    That sandwich with the cranberries looks nummy nummy! Gosh, I can't wait for Turkey Day!!!

    Looks like you had a F-U-N weekend and I'm glad you're enjoying "foosball" more! ;)

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  21. Auburn has been so much fun to watch this season! Way more so than my poor UGA bulldogs... :(

    Love the ring pops! They're so much fun :)

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  22. yummy baking and great photography skills!! haha

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  23. You are too stinking cute for words. I would do that recipe with pumpkin, no offense sweet potato.

    I got my dad UGA silly bandz for the start of the season, hilarious!

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  24. you are quite the baker! I love the shots of you finding the natural light and those muffins do look incredible. So do the cookies - those are my favorite to make come fall time.

    I also rock the silly bandz. I have ones that are fruit. sooo funny.

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  25. sounds like you had an awesome weekend! and those pumpkin muffins look DELISH!

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  26. Ahh! My dad brought me 12 cans of pumpkin when he came over the weekend. Oh yes..there is some baking on the horizon and your cookies will be included in the chaos. I never made it to the Village Bakery, but I've totally hit the pharmacy for some candy. XOXO

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  27. That turkey sand looks awesome!! Love the pic of you attacking I have too many of them in other people's cameras. I'm still scared of this past new year's eve pics to leak haha.

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  28. omg first the clemson silly bands and THEN cheering for Auburn?!? who are you???

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  29. How cool they have sports team silly bands! And I haven't seen Ring Pops in forever! Clearly I am a child as well. ;)

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  30. What a fun weekend! I love all your pictures! They are hilarious and the food pictures look awesome!

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  31. This post makes me want to whip up some muffins! Looks so good! =)

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  32. haha...gotta love the ring pops:) purple was my absolute fave. only problem is - they're like the never-ending candy! you keep lickin' and it never get's smaller. :p

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  33. The muffins look so yummy! I can tell it's starting to be fall weather because all I want to do is bake!

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  34. You are so funny, I love Palmetto Moon, I always look at it online!

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  35. Ring pops!!!! Awwe I remember those. :D

    The muffins look awesome. I'd imagine they'd be great with pumpkin, too..I can't really find SP puree around here.

    Oh, and War Eagle ;)

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  36. Love this post! It's so much fun! The muffins look amazing and football season is my favorite! Cute bracelets!

    xo

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  37. Mmmm....muffins AND cookies! Mouth watering. Sounds like you've been having a great time!!! :)

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  38. Clemson Silly Bandz?! I need some!!! And wow, all of your eats look SO good...muffins, sandwich, cookies OH MY!

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  39. I just made sweet potato oats... so I think I know what I will me making next!

    It is funny that people think it is so odd when you take pictures of your food. It was so hard for our family/friends to get used to it at first, but now it is perfectly normal. They are like "Hey aren't you going to get a picture of this wonderful meal I made!" lol I love it :)

    -Court

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