Fall Colors Tree Project 2014 (or something like that)

The tree in our front yard is beautiful! It's an oak tree (I'm pretty sure, I'm no botanist). In the fall it turns the most beautiful shades of yellow, orange and red. Then it starts to shed it's leaves. I'm not sure if that is the correct term for when a tree loses it's leaves. I guess it would be better to say, "the leaves start to fall". Whatever. You get my point. The leaves come off the branches and end up on the ground. Ok? Lots and lots of them. I've raked 2 times this year. Some of you may have raked more, but at my parents house we had a sweeper that we could pull behind the riding John Deere mower. Easy. When I moved out I always rented so it wasn't my problem. At the house in Zimmerman we were in the country so nobody cared if we raked, and most of the trees shed their leaves in the woods and not on my lawn. So raking 2 times is more then I'm used too, alright?

Now we live in a neighborhood. And the neighbor directly next door to us has the most perfectly manicured lawn. He is literally outside everyday from spring to fall doing something to his grass. Mowing it, raking it, watering it, feeding it, reading it stories. (Just kidding, he probably doesn't do the last one.) When we moved to our teeny tiny lot we sold our riding John Deere to a friend and bought a push mower and with Corey working as many hours and days as he does the grass probably wouldn't even get cut if we didn't pay the neighbor boys to cut. 

When the leaves start to fall I begin to feel the silent judgmental pressure of our cul de sac neighbors to get out there and rake them up. Last year, when I was out raking the neighbor with the perfect lawn came over and was shocked we were raking because the previous owner never did so he and his boys would end up doing it. (I was secretly kicking myself for doing it and not waiting until he did it for us.) Last year Corey helped me. This year I've done it all myself. Which includes bagging the leaves, carrying them up the hill (through the neighbors with the perfect lawns back yard) and dumping them behind our property. Uffda. 
There aren't many leaves left on the tree so I'm holding off on round three until they are all shed. 

Now that I'm done whining (for now) I will bring you to the point of this post. My fall colors tree project, or something like that. I'm not sure if that's the "official" name I want attached to it but that's all I got so I'm going with it.

I decided to try to take a picture of the beautiful/annoying tree everyday to show in dramatic fashion how the colors go from green to pretty fall colors. I missed a day or two here and there but it still turned out awesome. Once they start turning it really goes fast. So here is a GIF off all the pictures.

And here is a side by side of Day 1 and Day 19. In my GIF there is a day 22 but the leaves had started to shed pretty rapidly at that point so I used day 19 because that is before the tree started looking bare.

Do you have a favorite tree that you like to watch change colors every fall?

Our Favorite Oatmeal Muffin Recipe

Recently I've been looking for ways to change up breakfast for me and Stella. Seems like we always have eggs and toast. Or Cheerios and yogurt. And I wanted to incorporate oatmeal somehow. Why? I don't know, because I felt like it sounds healthy. And she doesn't quite know how to use a spoon, aside from banging it on her tray, so she uses her hands to eat oatmeal and turns into a hot mess.

Ok, technically she's eating eggs in this picture but you get the idea. 

So Googled "oatmeal muffins" and found this recipe, it was super easy and turned out delicious. It makes a good base recipe that you can add different fruit or nuts to. I've made several different batches and Stella LOVES them! She literally devours them.

Here is the recipe with pictures the first time I made it. And just so you know I took the pictures with my phone so the quality is not the greatest. You'll also notice that my kitchen is not clean. If I waited until my kitchen was clean and took the time to stage the food as I made it, let's be honest, it would never happen. This is real life people! I'm no Pioneer Woman. I'm a mom to a toddler so I'm lucky if my kitchen is clean once a week.  

So here we go!

First, add 1 cup of almond milk to 1 cup of oatmeal and let soak while getting the rest of the ingredients ready. (I used almond but you can use regular milk too.)

Then, because I didn't have any eggs I used 1 tablespoon ground flax seed and 2-3 tablespoons of water and let that soak for a few minutes. It kinda turns sticky and paste-y. Add 1/4 cup canola oil. I should have taken a picture of that because it seemed like the flax seed mixture and oil would never mix. (Oil and water, weird.) But eventually it did mix together nicely.

In my awesome Pampered Chef bowl (that I don't know the name of) I mixed the dry ingredients; 1/4 cup white flour, 3/4 cup wheat flour (I use a mixture of white and wheat because I like the texture better if there is a little white flour added, that's just my personal preference. It's also something my mom does so I think I got that from her. It's probably just in my head. Who knows.), 1/4 cup white sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. (When I made these with apple chunks I added a smidge more cinnamon. Why? I donno, it sounded good.) Mix together well. I used a whisk to try to get rid of any clumps because I'm too lazy to dig out my sifter. 

At this point I realized I forgot to preheat my oven, so I did that. 425 degrees.

  
Then I mixed my oatmeal/milk mixture into the flax seed mixture and poured that mixture into my dry ingredient mixture and mixed until just combined. (Ever say a word so much it loses meaning. Yup, just happened.) 

Next is the part where you can get creative and add whatever goodies you like. The first time I did it I added a few handfuls of Craisins. The second time I added an apple I peeled and cut into small chucks. The third time I added Craisins and apple chucks. Whoa... getting crazy up in here!

Spoon the batter into lined muffin tins (makes about 12 muffins, depending on your goodies) and bake for 15-25 mins until a tooth pick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Mine are usually good after about 18-20 mins.

I should have taken a picture of a single muffin on a pretty plate but I was too anxious and hungry so I just dug in after patiently waiting for them too cool down.

I hope you enjoy making and eating these muffins as much as Stella and I do! I'd love to hear about your go to muffin recipe or different goodies you add to this muffin recipe.