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Things I Loved in October

things-i-loved-in-octoberHello there! It’s time for one of my monthly recap posts. I’m currently getting over being sick, so let’s do this month in bullet points, okay? Because I’m tired, and bullet points sound easier at the moment. 🙂

  • Rain! We are getting rain. I’m in California, home to the long running California drought, so this is huge. We need all the rain we can get, and so far this month we’ve already had a couple of rainstorms. Keep it coming!
  • All that rain has also meant that Keira’s getting to wear her new rain boats (which she insists on calling galoshes, thanks to Sesame Street), which are totally adorable. See photo above. 🙂 I’ve never bought her rain boats before because I could never find zero drop/minimalist rain boots for kids, but this new brand seems great!
  • Pumpkin ice cream! I’ve made one incredible batch so far but need to make more.
  • Organic sweet potatoes are back at Costco! I am very excited about this. $1/lb sweet potatoes are hard to beat. Now I can go back to making my cinnamon sweet potato recipe all the time.
  • And big bulk beets are back at my farmers market, which means more marinated beets. If you haven’t tried that recipe, you should!
  • I also went to my local semi-annual kids consignment sale. I buy nearly all of Keira’s clothes used, and shopping at the big consignment sale is my favorite place to stock up. I found a ton of great stuff this time! You can read my tips on buying used kids clothes here.

Updates from the Blog

In case you missed them, here are the newest posts from the blog:

Peanut butter chocolate chip coconut ice cream: This is like eating a peanut butter cup, except in ice cream form. (And if you’re like me, ice cream form always makes things better. :)) Oh, and it’s a healthy peanut butter cup, so feel free to indulge!

Coconut oil mints: These taste like a fancy mint, but they’re actually a great way to add some extra coconut oil to your diet.

No-bake cinnamon coconut cookies: My no-bake chocolate coconut cookies are always a hit with guests, so I came up with a seasonal cinnamon version. These cinnamon cookies are delicious and super easy to make!

The best gifts for toddlers: This is definitely not real food related, but just for fun I decided to write a gift guide for toddlers. If you’re buying any holiday gifts for toddlers in your life, you should check it out!

Instant Pot Yogurt: Did you know you can make yogurt in the Instant Pot? I’ve made yogurt several different ways over the last few years, and Instant Pot yogurt is by far my favorite.

Peanut butter coconut oil fat bombs: What can I say, I love coming up with new coconut oil recipes. 🙂 These peanut butter coconut oil fat bombs (or bites, whatever you want to call them) taste like the inside of a peanut butter cup. They’re my current favorite way of getting in my coconut oil.

Posts I Enjoyed from Around the Real Food Blogosphere

Healthy Green Savvy has a huge roundup of healthy pumpkin recipes. If you’re a pumpkin lover, you’ll definitely want to try some of these recipes!

Did you know that you can bake with acorn flour? A Modern Homestead shares a fun tutorial on making your own acorn flour chocolate chip cookies. This would be a great project to do with little kids who like to collect acorns!

Do you eat spaghetti squash? If you’re new to this fall vegetable, you should check out Healthy Green Savvy’s post about spaghetti squash. She has some good info on cooking spaghetti squash (and roasting the seeds), plus some recipes for you to try.

Has it cooled down yet where you live? I know fall is supposed to be all about the cooler weather, but that’s not true for all of us. If it still feels like summer where you live, you’ll enjoy a Modern Homestead’s list of 35 ways to enjoy fall even when it’s hot outside. There are some great tips here!

Learn to Eat Real Food–Stress-free

Processed Free Where are you in your real food journey? Perhaps you’re a seasoned expert–or perhaps you’re just getting started. Maybe you’ve learned a lot, but are feeling overwhelmed because it all just seems too complicated.

I have got a great new resource for you.

Robin Konie (of the great blog Thank Your Body) has just released her newest e-book: Processed Free. Processed Free is a wonderful guide to eating real food–without letting it completely take over your life.

I Wish I’d Read Processed Free at the Beginning of My Real Food Journey

I so wish that Processed Free had been available back when I first started learning about real food back in 2009.…

Holiday Gift Ideas for the Real Foodies/Natural Living Enthusiasts in Your Life

Have you finished your holiday shopping yet? If not, have I got some ideas for you! Here’s a great list of gift ideas for the real foodies and natural living enthusiasts in your life. This is making me wish I had more of these type of people on my shopping list—then I’d actually know what to get everyone this year! Unfortunately, my dad does not go in for things like chocolate molds and glass containers. 🙂

Rösle Garlic Press

I absolutely love my Rösle garlic press. If you’ve used many garlic presses, you’ve probably noticed that most have a serious flaw: after you press the garlic, much of it gets stuck down around the prongs of the press and is nearly impossible to remove.…

Real Food Link Love: October 2012

Welcome to my monthly link love post, in which I share posts from other real food bloggers that I enjoyed over the last month. If you’ve come across any wonderful posts yourself, please do share them in the comments—there’s so much good stuff out there that I just can’t keep up with all of it on my own!

I’m so happy it’s butternut squash season here in Colorado. I usually roast butternut squash in my oven, but this crock pot butternut squash recipe looks like a great alternative for when you’re busy or need to use your oven for something else.…

Two Month Container Garden Update

It’s time for another garden update! Let me start out by showing a few older pictures. Here’s the bulk of our container garden right after we transplanted everything two months ago:

Container garden right after transplanting

Here’s that same setup one month ago:

Container garden after one month

And here’s what it looks like now:

Container garden after two months

We’ve moved most things out of this arrangement recently, to maximize sun exposure, but I moved it back temporarily to give a better comparison with the first two pictures. Even with the rearranging, I had trouble fitting everything into the picture (I couldn’t back up enough on our small balcony!) but you get the general idea.…