One of my favorite bloggers, Jen @ Daily Mish Mash, just started a fun new blogging feature called Monday Mentions which is basically a chance to mention any fun things you’ve discovered recently, online or otherwise. Any blog posts or articles you’ve loved, songs you’ve discovered, books you’ve finished, whatever. For more information read this. This sounded like a great idea to me, so I’m joining in on the fun (you know I love me a good bandwagon). Here are some of the great things I’ve stumbled across in the past week…

• I finally finished using up all the apples from our trip to the local apple orchard. The last thing we made was a small batch of homemade apple sauce using this recipe. It came out terrific and we definitely plan to make more again, the next time we go apple picking. I also loved how the apple sauce looked in the mason jars that we bought a few months ago when we saw them on sale at our grocery store. Mason jars make everything look classier, more delicious and just plain better.
• I’ve been reading about calorie counting everywhere lately. I know sometimes the stuff has already been there and you are just more aware of it when it matters to you (like how many Buicks we see around town now that we own one) but with so many fad diets out there, it’s really great to see mention to the one diet that simply works – the simple mathematical equation of: less calories in, more calories out.
• This morning one of the first things I saw on my RSS feed was a cute recipe at Bakerella for pumpkin pie bites using refrigerated pie dough and pumpkin filling, a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter and some muffin tins. So adorable – I am planning to try this one for sure. Another fall recipe I’m planning that I mostly came up with on my own – cookies made with chocolate cake mix and instead of white chocolate chips like I normally use, I picked up a bag of Reeses Pieces – which gives me the brown, orange and yellow colors of autumn leaves. I’m hoping to avoid bringing too much candy into our apartment this Halloween season but cookies and pie? You can’t have too much of that!
• I don’t think I can squeal about this enough – The Host by Stephenie Meyer is headed for the big screen! It’s a shame the odds of Dan and I going to a movie in the theatre is so slim these days because there are a lot of movies I’d love to see that I’ll have to wait for DVD releases on Netflix. Other movies that I’d love to see: New Moon, The Invention of Lying, Whip It, and Where The Wild Things Are. How about you?
• Hmm speaking of media, how about tv? I finally got around the watching The Forgotten last night and I actually really liked it (hubby is per usual on the fence). I think the whole idea of tracking down John Does and Jane Does is so cool, like In My Imagination Dream Job worthy. The premise alone will have me coming back next week for more. Other new shows I’m loving: Glee, The Good Wife, Modern Family, Eastwick, and god more that I can’t remember now that I’m trying to type this. What new shows are you loving this Fall?

Lastly, I want to mention one blog for shout out purposes – my desert island pick as Jen coined it. This week I choose: Simple Mom – I love so many of her posts and learn from her so often. I consider her an absolute must read and if you haven’t checked out her blog yet, please do yourself a favor and do it now!

Want to play along? If you write up a Monday Mentions post, be sure to link up at Daily Mish Mash!