Pumpkin Peanut Butter Granola

I apologize for the lack of food and exercise posts lately, but school is severely limiting my free time these days. I don't know who started the rumor that you have all this free time in college, because I am certainly not experiencing said free time. Maybe next semester I'll know what this feels like!

Anyway, I'll try to make up for lost time by sharing a little bit of food and fitness with you guys. Last night some of my roommates and I went out to dinner to celebrate Lindsey's 20th birthday. She is the youngest of the group! We originally wanted to go to The Grove - an Italian restaurant in the Westlake area, but we were told there was an hour and a half wait. We yelped restaurants in the area and settled on Lupe Tortilla  about half a mile away. We waited about 30 minutes there, too, but at 7:30 on a Friday night, some wait time is inevitable.

Lupe Tortilla is one of my favorite restaurants, but one that I tend to forget about in both Houston and Austin. I bet you're not surprised to hear that they have killer tortillas, and I scarfed down a few extra in about ten seconds flat. After much debate, I settled on the Barbacoa tacos - two corn tortillas filled with slow braised brisket, cilantro, and onions. I threw in a little salsa, and gobbled them right up. They were spicy, but so darn tasty. The brisket was so tender and like I said, the tortillas were really what stole the show.

Workout

Today's workout served the purpose of pounding out some stress. Like I said, school is pretty crazy right now, and I started getting a little overwhelmed. The gym seemed like the best place to go to deal with that overwhelmed feeling, so even though I forgot my headphones, I put four quick miles in the books. I ran the first two miles at an 8:00/mile pace before slowing it down and completing 4.05 miles in 34 minutes.

I intended to run a few more miles in preparation for a ten-mile run next weekend, but hey, four is a pretty solid number, right? I think so, especially without headphones!

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Granola 

Now for the fun stuff. This morning I woke up with an itch to bake. And not for brownies or cookies, my usual go-to's, but for something healthy and pumpkin-y. I settled on two batches of pumpkin peanut butter granola. I have seen recipes that call for the use of pumpkin butter, but since I don't have any of that, I made do with what I do have.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups old fashioned oats
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin puree (I used Libby's)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

[makes one batch - I doubled the recipe for two batches]

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees
2. Put the honey, peanut butter, and pumpkin puree in a microwave safe bowl, sticking it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds before mixing it all together

Honey, pumpkin, and peanut butter mixture

3. Add in the oats, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice, and cover the oats completely with the pumpkin peanut butter mixture
4. Put the mixture in a greased baking pan or a foil lined cookie sheet. Bake for eight minutes, take it out and toss the granola if on a cookie sheet or stir the granola if in a baking pan, and put it back in the oven for another four minutes
5. Eat and enjoy! I am already looking forward to breakfast tomorrow and enjoying this fall breakfast. Pumpkin-flavored food is one of my favorite things about fall, so I am anticipating this to be a great way to start my day.

P.S. Go Horns! We snapped our two-game losing streak by beating Baylor tonight 56-50! Hook 'em!