Pumpkin muffins with craisins and dark chocolate

Do you remember what I was saying about fall?  About the feeling that comes with the flavors, the smells, the colors, the season?!

Well, I certainly haven't forgotten.  My autumn lust remains in full force.

Which is why P.S. Cooper, boyfriend/bestfriend hybrid of the year, received eight (though I made nine) pumpkin muffins this morning.  To make these autumnal breakfast treats, I halved a recipe I found online and made a few small tweaks, reflected below.  

Coffee Roundup! ...with recipes for every special diet

"I think I'm drinking too much coffee!  I think I'm drinking too much coffee!"

I own a mug adorned with an image of a visibly jittery individual rattling off this phrase, over and over again.  Often times, I wonder if I'm becoming the very person on the front of my coffee cup.  

With this round up, I don't have to worry if I'm drinking too much coffee.  The concern, instead, becomes "I think I'm eating too much coffee!"  But then you see how much coffee is actually in each of these recipes and you realize it's NBD.  Consume your coffee with abandon, go wild!

Photo credit: Hell Yeah It's Vegan

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Coffee Buttercream Frosting

Recipe

Roasted and stuffed acorn squash

IRL and in the blogosphere, autumn is my absolute favorite season.  Bloggers fill their pages with seasonally-inspired projects and dishes.  From pumpkin round-ups to easy decoration tutorials, the posts are festive, alluring, fun.  I read them with all of my senses, imagining the warmth of a vegan pumpkin spice latte or the deep chocolate scent of pumpkin swirl brownies in the oven.

During vegan month of food, I began following Julie at My Apologies for the Novel and since then, I've fallen for post after post that she shares.  This fall season is no different; Julie posted about everything from festive sweets to halloween decorations.  Her stuffed acorn squash looked delicious! And luckily, Julie suggested some recipe modifications in her post.  I used her suggestions and recipe to create a very similar dish!  I played with savory and sweet spices in this recipe, using both sage and cinnamon (you could venture into adding some maple syrup, if you want!).  I was worried about how the spices would play off one another, but I was surprised by the result.  Next time, I want to try for a creamy texture with the wild rice filling, maybe pureeing and using some of the roasted squash in the rice.  Over all, though, the squash was not only hearty and filling, it felt like autumn in my mouth. Exactly what I imagined when I read Julie's initial post, and exactly what I crave during the autumn months.

Review: Conscious Box!

I use the phrase "I love" a little too freely. I love anything from food I've just tried, to people I just met, to ideas on a friend's blog, to an animal I have a picture of on my phone.  I love quickly and easily.

It's no exaggeration when I say that I love the premise of Conscious Box.  By virtue of what a subscription box is -- a monthly package filled with small samples of snacks and products, each individually wrapped, each with the potential for the sampler to discard if she's uninterested -- they inevitably create waste.  

Conscious Box creates an earth-friendly, conflict-free alternative to your typical subscription box.  The company also offers a gluten-free and a vegan version of the subscription box but not a gluten-free and vegan option.  At $19.95/month, and slightly less if you pay for multiple months at once, it's pricey for the amount of products you receive.  Still, the peace of mind from conscious consumerism is in the price, and I opine that it's worth it.