pumpkin week

This week entailed a lot of pumpkins and fall pretties in general. After a rough day on Monday, Zack made it all better with lots of surprises, including picking out pumpkins. We took our parents a few tiny pumpkins and chose two similar larger pumpkins to carve with our friends. 

We learned a bit about carving pumpkins with children. A child may spend 90% of the time meticulously cleaning out the inside of the pumpkin and 10% drawing a face for you to carve. He may spend 99% of the time drawing tiny black marker lines all over the pumpkin then 1% of the time asking you to cut out a beard (where even is the face?). Each child has his own personality, and they are never boring. How much richer of an experience than just carving my own *perfect* pumpkin at home! I love that my small group includes children. 

Oh yes, these flowers! Hydrangeas are not in season this time of year, but I suppose any flower can be bought for a price, and they are my favorite. I am spoiled, and they made my Monday afternoon so much better. 

Sometime in the last few weeks, Zack found this paleo pumpkin pie recipe and brought over the ingredients for us to make together. I finally got around to making it on Wednesday. It was fairly simple and a decent substitute for the real thing. (Check out the pumpkin muffins that I made last year here.)

I whipped up some cream and sweetened it with honey to make a paleo topping for our paleo pie. My pup sure enjoyed licking the whisk. 

What pumpkin treats have you made this year? How are you celebrating fall? 

paleo supper

I'm reading The Paleo Manifesto by John Durant, which is convincing me to change my diet a little from the low carb/clean way I have been eating for a few months. Sweet potatoes used to be an absolute staple in my diet until I started eating low carb and cut them out. So far, I've still felt great after re-introducing sweet potatoes. 

The salad includes organic spinach, cucumbers I grew, and tomatoes that friends grew. I bought the whole free range chicken and organic sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's. The potatoes are locally grown. 

I rinsed the chicken, patted it dry, and stuffed it with thyme from my garden and Kerrygold butter. I seasoned it with salt and pepper and baked at 425 for an hour and a half. 

The whole meal is what I would consider paleo, healthy, easy, and delicious!