Recipe Nod: Apple Pie Oatmeal with Maple Candied Pecans

For the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about food blogging a lot, which is not really unusual since I blog about food. However, this time I wasn’t thinking about recipes; I was contemplating the pressure of food blogging. I’ve been trying to post twice a week. Think about it! twice a week for a year means 104 posts. Over a hundred recipes! How sustainable is it?

Some recipes come out perfect the first time I make them and often it’ll be the last time too since there’s this race to post more, create more, And some meals require tweaking to get the taste or texture or flavour or timing or many other things right. Who am I kidding? Sometimes recipes are a flop too. So, with all this the math just doesn’t add up. I am not blogging full time. I actually have a 9 to 5 job (well, 8 to 4 in my case). I am on a maternity leave right now which means that my current job is actually 24 hours and 7 days a week without breaks. 

So, how am I supposed to test recipes, photograph them, edit, post and at the same time cook foods that my husband asks for on occasion and keep up with twice a week schedule? 

I am not sure what other bloggers do and how they survive this marathon, but for me it means taking a step back. I still will post twice a week when I can. But when I can’t, I think it’s ok to only publish one recipe. One recipe that I know will work, that I tested and cooked and loved!

Now, what is today’s post all about? My second post for the week, by the way. What is a #RecipeNod? Back in December a few bloggers got together and decided to do a unique collaboration. We keep trying to come up with new things all the time, modifying existing recipes, adding ingredients, changing techniques, but this collaboration is different. It’s taking a recipe from a fellow food blogger and cooking it. Not trying to put your own spin on it, just making food that someone else made and loved! I was assigned to do a recipe from beautiful Justine of JustineCelina.com who is not an exclusive food blogger, instead she has a fashion and lifestyle site where she posts recipes as well. I’ve been a long time admirer of Justine’s style and eye for details. Her photos are absolutely gorgeous and exquisite!

I chose to make her Apple Pie Steel Cut Oats with Candied Maple Pecans. I actually modified the recipe a tiny bit since I didn’t have Steel Cut Oats and I also didn’t have time to cook them for 30 minutes. I used regular oats which made the breakfast a lot easier but still delicious. I also did not add any milk at the end as I love my porridge to be quite thick. It was a delicious, healthy, and comforting breakfast! The Candied Maple Pecans were amazing! I made half the portion of the oats but full portion of the pecans! I urge you to check out Justine’s site, take a break and cook someone else’s recipe!