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Enter the American Spoon GIVEAWAY!

Longest. Week. Ever.

Anyone else feel that way, or was it just me?

My breakfasts kept getting more interesting each day, so I wanted to share a few favorites.

First up: plain oats, elevated.

oats
organic skim milk
banana
cinnamon
vanilla extract
dark chocolate dreams peanut butter

After a few days of the same thing, I decided to get a little wild.

To the disbelief of Miss Yum Yucky, I added ice cream to my oats, inspired by friends who do the same.

This is exactly as dreamy as it looks: warm oats with a scoop of ice cream melting right in. No description does it justice.

oats
organic skim milk
banana
cinnamon
vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Coconut Bliss coconut ice cream

After oats lost their novelty, I moved on to protein pancakes—pumpkin protein pancakes, to be exact.

My pancake batter included:

1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup cottage cheese
2 egg whites
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
vanilla
cinnamon
pumpkin pie spice

I blend the oats in my mini food processor, then mix in the remaining ingredients before cooking.

One morning I went a little further and stirred a tablespoon of chocolate/peanut butter swirl chips into the batter. Pure bliss.

Same recipe as above with the addition of:

1 tablespoon chocolate/peanut butter swirl chips

One of my new favorite snacks came together one afternoon—simple, crunchy and satisfying.

In the bowl:

2 Honeycrisp apples, chopped and microwaved
cinnamon
2 teaspoons peanut butter
1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt
3/4 cup Trader Joe’s Twigs, Flakes, and Clusters

I always gush about how thoughtful my husband is, and Wednesday night proved no different. He texted that he’d “taken care of dessert” for the evening—unusual for a weekday.

We typically don’t do dessert during the week. He rarely has dessert at all, and I tend to snack on chocolate and leftover candy and call it a meal. So I expected something indulgent, like a slice from Cheesecake Factory (yes, the thighs would hate me for it).

Imagine my surprise when he walked in with this:

He said, “I thought this would be a great kickoff to your birthday.” I got excited thinking we’d celebrate for a few days.

He looked confused and told me he had it on his Outlook calendar as the 5th. My birthday is the 7th. Cue the laughter and a little husbandly embarrassment.

He was disappointed but tried to make light of it, saying he planned to wrap gifts quickly that night and that they’d look terrible—then maybe he’d write a guest post about his terrible wrapping skills. If my gifts end up looking like a three-year-old wrapped them, perhaps someone will get that guest post after all.

We devoured the treats he brought—chocolate-covered strawberries and peanut butter cups—and it was sweetly perfect.

After dessert he fell asleep on the couch, snoring loudly, and I spent about 45 minutes trying to coax him to bed. Waking him up was like imagining how a toddler reacts to being roused from a nap.

Thankfully it wasn’t actually my birthday yet.

Trivia Friday #3!

If you missed week 1 and week 2, catch up to see how the game works. Here are the guidelines:

Three questions are posted each Friday morning.
You have until midnight (EST) Friday to qualify—leave your answer in the comments.
Comments are held and won’t appear publicly until Saturday, so please limit yourself to one comment each.
Everyone who answers correctly will be entered into a monthly drawing for a prize. Answer four times in a month and you have four chances to win.
The prize will vary each month and is announced on the 15th. It could be small or large, tangible or not.
The winner is randomly chosen and announced on the last day of the month. If the last day is a Friday, the winner will be chosen Saturday.

You have four chances to win each month. Thanks to my brother for the fun idea.

Questions:

What actor was originally cast as Indiana Jones before being replaced by Harrison Ford?
Paris Hilton starred in a 2006 commercial wearing a black bikini washing a black Bentley, promoting what product for which company that reportedly increased Google searches by 800%?
“In this temple – as in the hearts of the people – for whom he saved the union…” is inscribed on the wall of which national monument?

Update: As of 8:25am EST the second question changed, so feel free to enter again if you answered before 8:25am EST.

Thanks for playing!

Don’t miss out!

You have until midnight on Saturday, November 7th to enter the American Spoon giveaway mentioned above.

Missed some recipes from this week? Here are a few highlights:

Smoky Cheddar Bacon Mac
Godiva White Chocolate Cheesecake
Roasted Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sauce
Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting

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Are you going to Good Taste Pittsburgh on Saturday? Come visit me—I’ll have a booth!