Sunday Maple Pecan Oatmeal

Yesterday we were invited to our neighbors' house for a little potluck playdate party. Our neighbors have a lot of friends with kids, so it was fun to get together with them to watch the kids play (or in Riker's case, watch the other kids play) and chat over drinks and good food with the parents.

For dinner, I had a small spoonful of spinach-artichoke dip (and only one chip, I was pretty proud of my self-control on these guys!), a little baked ziti, and of course a helping of my tomato and mushroom mac & cheese. I also ended up going back for some baby carrots, broccoli and celery sticks to make sure I got some veggies in. Everything was delicious!

I had about a quarter of a glass of white wine with dinner, but then switched over to some brews Matt and I brought to share - 21st Amendment Back in Black black IPA. I'd never had this before and really enjoyed it; it wasn't overwhelmingly hoppy and had a smooth caramel flavor.

Pairing it with a chocholate chip cookie wasn't a bad idea either.

Someone brought Rita's Italian ice for everyone, so of course I also had to have a little cup of that. Lemon and mango - yum!

Riker passed out hard when I was eating my ice. Love this pic!

The nice thing about going to a party at the neighbors' is that we can just walk across the street when it's time to go home. We walked back to our little pad around 8:00, so still had time to curl up and watch a movie before calling it a night. It was a great Saturday.

Breakfast

I often choose my breakfasts based on what the weather is doing. Today it's raining and dreary outside, so a steaming bowl of oatmeal sounded perfect. I wanted to jazz it up a bit though, so I combined a few things we had on hand to make Maple Pecan Apple Oatmeal.

To make the oats, I simply cooked them with water and a little Truvia, cinnamon and nutmeg. While they were cooking, I chopped up two apples and sauteed them in a pan with cooking spray and all the same seasonings. Then I kept adding water to the apples little by little until they were nice and soft.



Then I just mixed everything together, drizzled it all with Vermont maple syrup and topped it with toasted pecans. This was such a good Sunday morning breakfast, and filled with fiber, protein and fruit. Great start to the day!

Hope you're enjoying the weekend!