It’s hard to believe that October is over already! It feels like I just flipped that Calendar page and here we are flipping another! Soon we will be celebrating Thanksgiving and then Christmas. It feels like the older I get the faster the years fly by!
There were so many things that I loved about this month. I really enjoy October because it’s a wonderful time of mild weather, changing leaves and great food. I love putting on my warm boots and sipping on a mug of hot bone broth, dreaming of all the fun fall things we get to do.
Here are a few (ok, more than a few) of my favorite things about October.
ALL ABOUT FOOD – OCTOBER
October was a fabulous month, especially for recipes! My favorite foods are in season: apples, pumpkin, squash, and the things you can make with them is endless.
We had a plethora of pumpkin with pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, paleo pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin bars, pumpkin caramel chocolates, curry pumpkin fries, soaked gluten-free pumpkin bars, pumpkin fudge, pumpkin pie bars, pumpkin cheesecake, paleo pumpkin pie, and pumpkin pie crock pot oatmeal. We even learned how to process pumpkins!
The apples were not to be overlooked and we had them covered with this lovely butternut squash and apple soup, paleo apple crisp, homemade apple cider, apple peel cider, apple butter, apple pecan cobbler, and apple butter pumpkin pie.
A few lovely carrot and sweet potato side dishes dropped by to tempt our tastebuds: Baked Sweet Potatoes with Spicy Maple Creme Fraiche and Creamy Carrot Tomato Soup, along with some take-me-back-to-my-childhood Whipped Carrots.
There’s nothing like a hot beverage on a chilly fall evening so we’ve got Real Food Pumpkin Creamer, 4 Ingredient Hot Cocoa and Chai Spiced Hot Chocolate. Yum!
We needed some quick breakfasts to these 16 quick and nutritious breakfasts for busy mornings was perfect! We also needed snacks for on-the-go or just for fun so these Chocolate Almond Date Bars, homemade almond butter, Triple Fat Fudge, spicy sweet walnuts, the best granola bars, like ever…and Homemade Gummy Worms were our top picks!
How about some warm vanilla orange blossom rice pudding with honey cardamom syrup? Fancy schmancy! These gluten-free pear muffins sound like an awesome breakfast, AND I love mushrooms and these garlic and caper roasted autumn mushrooms look AMAZING!! Speaking of mushrooms, I want to try this spicy mushroom swiss meatloaf ASAP!
A weekend night wouldn’t be complete without pizza! We loved this homemade frozen pizza…very convenient! Want to try a cauliflower crust pizza? How about some extra homemade pizza sauce to freeze for later?
Last but not least, what October would be complete without some creepy foods?!?
THINGS I LEARNED
No matter how smart you think you are, you never stop learning and you should be learning new things every day! This months was no exception! I learned how to make my own taco seasoning, pie crust with lard, some Top Uses for Cranberries, how to wash my hair with only water, at home microdermabrasion, things I didn’t know about high fructose corn syrup, how it’s possible to get cavities even on a Weston A. Price diet (some of my kids have been there, done that!).
Did you know that there’s plane de-icer in many salad dressings (say what?!?)? Do you know what carrageenan is? Here are 4 steps to manage emotional eating, 7 ways to detox naturally, plus a detox salad and 5 reasons to ditch low-fat dairy. I also learned how to cure and smoke my own ham! How cool is that!?!
Wait! There’s more! I learned how to eat sustainably, how to cook the perfect steak in a cast iron skillet, how to prepare and cook dried beans, what to give the real foodie in my life, why eating everything on your plate won’t solve the world’s food wastage problem or save a starving child in Africa, 21 ways to reduce food waste, why I need to invest in a non-toxic couch, and what in the world a Low-FODMAP Paleo-Autoimmune Protocol was! I even delved into finding out if gluten was making me fat? I think it was!
HEALTH & WELLNESS
You know I’m big on natural remedies and there were quite a few talked about this month. I love these homemade vitamin C gummies and these healthy gummies for cold, flu and sleep! Speaking of sleep, I haven’t been, so I really needed this nighty-night lavender sleepy-time tonic! I’m getting old(er) so I was interested in reading about this homemade anti-aging serum and how to whiten my teeth naturally. I’ve been very busy!
Cold season is upon us so honey and cinnamon is a quick and easy remedy. Natural cough remedies are a must-have! Homemade vapor rub for coughs and sore muscles needs to be prepped and ready too! Chicken broth is my lunch pretty much every day and this bone broth recipe has a secret ingredient!
Keep your fermented foods going this fall with this delicious fermented pineapple ginger soda, fermented coconut yogurt, and keep ear infections at bay with this homemade garlic oil.
My skin has been acting up recently with the change in season so I was very interested to read these posts on the 10 best remedies for acne and 10 DIY natural skincare remedies! Maybe I should take grains out of my diet altogether!
You know that old saying, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”? Well, here are 20 reasons why that’s true! I’m not even joking about the no sleep thing and I know my adrenals have been taking a hit! Here’s some must-read info on adrenal fatigue and autoimmune disorders that I’ll be bookmarking. I also need to remember to take magnesium at night (don’t take melatonin, btw)!
HOME & BUDGET
I don’t know about you, but I can’t feed my family of 6 on $100 a month and neither can Suzi Homemaker! Maybe if I learned how to keep an organized fridge I would be able to cut back my grocery bill, or I could follow these tips on eating paleo without going broke! I think I need to read these top 10 decluttering and minimalism books to help me out!
That’s it! October is over and it was awesome! I hope you bookmark this post and are able to glean as much knowledge from everything here as I did!
Enjoy!
What are some of your favorite things from October?