I’m partnering with Bob’s Red Mill® to bring you today’s recipe! I absolutely love all of their products, especially their flours and oats. I use Bob’s Red Mill products every day — they’re so perfect for baking!
A few months after I turned 11, I told my dad that I wanted to visit all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums with him. Despite my young age, he still took me seriously, and we came up with a handful of rules: we would stay for the entire game (not just a couple of innings!), keep our ticket stubs (for a scrapbook!), cheer for the home team (unless they played our favorite team, the Oakland A’s!), and I would keep score in a souvenir scorecard that we bought at the ballpark (all of those magazines are still sitting on a special bookshelf in my childhood bedroom!).
Living in Northern California, we quickly checked the two Bay Area teams off of our list, along with the Padres, Dodgers, and Angels during a summer road trip where we drove to San Diego to see my grandparents. With more family in Phoenix and Denver, we also watched the Diamondbacks and Rockies play, all before I finished middle school.
Towards the end of my freshman year of high school, we planned our first “baseball only” trip, one where we scheduled the trip solely to see a baseball stadium, rather than tacking on a game during a previously planned family vacation. As a short and easy flight, we picked the Seattle Mariners for our 48-hour whirlwind adventure.
We arrived on Friday evening, and after a full night of sleep, we walked all around Seattle before the Saturday night game. We wandered through the Pike Place Market, where I fell in love with the plethora of flower stalls selling beautiful bouquets, and rode to the top of the Space Needle, where we could see for miles on that miraculously clear day.
We had a blast at the game (including tons of laughter when we discovered that the concession stand included a few apple slices with their boxes of French fries, which Dad didn’t realize and generously salted the fruit by accident!), but because we arrived back at the hotel fairly late, we decided to eat breakfast at their restaurant in the lobby on Sunday morning before our flight. We both ordered fairly standard breakfasts — eggs, bacon, orange juice — which came with complimentary scones.
I had never eaten — or even seen — a scone before (our usual breakfast restaurants back home only offered toast as a side!), so Dad explained a little about its taste and texture while we waited for our plates to arrive. As a baking obsessed girl even back then, I reached straight for the pastry as soon as the waiter delivered our breakfasts, and…
I nearly squealed with joy. Moist on the inside, a hint of a crust on the outside, and absolutely full of bright citrusy orange flavor… Which paired perfectly with the tangy cranberries.
I nearly forgot about the rest of my breakfast, and after eating half of his scone and watching my excitement over mine, Dad offered me the rest of his… Which I eagerly and gratefully accepted!
Since then, towards the end of almost every baseball season, Dad and I start talking about the stadiums we want to visit during the following year. With the World Series ending in October, ideas for our next stadium adventure have been rolling around in my mind… Along with that extra special first adventure we took in Seattle — and those incredible scones!
So while I brainstorm and plan our next trip (and impatiently wait for Spring Training!), I baked these Healthy Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Scones! They have the same fruity flavors as the very first scones I ever ate back at that Seattle hotel, along with the same irresistible texture.
However, you know me… I like to put a healthier spin on just about everything, and these scones were no exception! This recipe contains no eggs, heavy cream, refined flour or sugar, and I also added oats for another little health and nutrition boost. Even so… Nobody could believe these scones were 129 calories!
Continue reading & see the rest! ›› Healthy Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Scones
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