Fall Things

To keep my mind off of things the last couple days, I have been distracting myself with some fall-ish activities. Ideas from Pinterest, of course-my latest addiction.

Yesterday, I made this fall centerpiece using the pumpkin candle idea from above mentioned website. I just cut out the centers of the mini pumpkins (only 3 for a $1) and inserted little tea candles. It was actually a really easy project. I got some pine cones and fake fall leaves from the dollar store to finish it all off.

Today I decided to take the plunge and bake something due to some encouragement from my mom and my husband's aunt. I made Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Pull-apart Bread. I will say, I should have picked a simpler recipe to bake today, but it made the house smell like fall and tastes delish. It reminds me more of a pumpkin monkey bread. Yummo right out of the oven.

30 Day Recipe Book, Recipe 1

I was inspired by Hip2Save to compile a 30 Day Recipe book that contains 30 of our family's favorite dinner recipes. This is in an effort to make meal planning just a little easier.

Chipotle Shredded beef is one to add to the book. We LOVE this recipe and it is so EASY. If you like meals with a little "kick" to them (which we do very much), this one is for you.

Summer Treat

Cool summer dessert I made up over the weekend. Made with a graham cracker crust, cream cheese, whipped cream, strawberry yogurt, and freshly picked strawberries from our garden on top. I chilled it in the freezer over night and it was a refreshing treat. The strawberries on top were so yummy. The best part are the leftovers!

Last Night's Dinner

I'm a pretty picky eater. This whole eating less meat and more legumes thing is a bit of a challenge for me. I'm not a huge fan of beans, but I do like lentils (as of recent). I found a recipe from my More-with-Less cookbook using lentils that looked interesting-Lentil Burgers. Hhhmmm....well I decided to try it out last night. We ate these on whole wheat buns with a side salad, strawberries from the garden, and watermelon.

What I liked: Used little ingredients, quick and easy to make, tasted GREAT, and didn't stick to your gut like a regular burger.
What I didn't like: They didn't seem to actually stay together, very messy.
What I'll do different: Instead of making them into burgers, next time I will make them as a sort of sloppy joe.

More-with-Less

More-with-Less by Doris Janzen Longacre, is much more than your average cookbook. The cover of the book says it best..."Recipes and suggestions by Mennonites on how to eat better and consume less of the world's limited food resources." This book was given to me by a good family friend. What a great gift it has turned out to be.

Using a Christian and Biblical lens, Longacre writes on world shortages of food, overeating, and how to change. She goes through how to build a simpler diet by eating MORE whole grains, legumes, veggies & fruit, and nuts & seeds...and LESS meat & dairy and AVOIDING all together "superprocessed" & "superpackaged" food and things like food that has been shipped refrigerated for long distances.

She also has some great charts on things like "Comparative Costs of Protein Sources" along with writing about how to shorten your shopping list. And of course, most of the book is FULL of great recipes.

This book has been very helpful on my quest to become more frugal with the money God has blessed us with. I recommend everyone having this book close to your kitchen!

I made a Whole Wheat Dinner Roll recipe from this book to go with last nights "Pantry Pot Roast Dinner." Yes, I know it's not quite pot roast weather, but we are trying to eat more from the "pantry" as another money saving tactic and I had one in the freezer. I added a mixture of fresh, canned, and frozen veggies and it was delightful! I'm not a really big fan of the whole eating a big hunk of meat thing. I'd rather eat pasta any day, but I must say that this was the best pot roast I've ever eaten (and I'm not one to brag about my cooking). I'm just really impressed that mixing a bunch of stuff I had laying around turned out to be soooooo tastey. I also made a couple dozen rolls to freeze. I take just few out when we need them. A little time and money saving tip I learned a while ago.

Creamy Pasta Recipe

I recently made a rotisserie chicken in the crock-pot. It was delicious and moist, but the two of us can't eat a whole chicken in one sitting. So, I decided to get a little creative with the leftovers. Here is the recipe as I made it. I just love creamy dishes

Creamy Herb Pasta

Roughly 2 cups of leftover Rotisserie chicken, shredded
About 12 oz Trader Joe's Fusilli w/ Flax Pasta*
2 cups 1% milk
3/4 cups butter
3/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 handfuls of Trader Joe's Frozen Artichoke hearts**
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 Tbsp Italian Herb Mix, dried

Cook noodles as directed on package. In a large skillet add the garlic. Cook for about a minute. Then add milk and butter until mixture had thickened a little. Also add the Artichoke hearts at this time to start their cooking process. Remove the skillet from heat and slowly stir in the cheese until combined. Add the chicken and put skillet back on heat for a few minutes to warm the chicken. Finally, add the noodles and herb mix and mix everything in the skillet well. Make a little garden salad on the side and you have dinner!

*Although, I love making fresh pasta by hand I just love Trader Joe's line of Flax pasta. It's high in Fiber and omega-3 and it only cost .45 cents for a pound of pasta! They have Penne, spaghetti and Fusilli shaped pasta to choose from.

**My mom turned me on to Trader Joe's frozen Artichoke Hearts and now I try to put them in anything I can. They are so yummy and very reasonably priced.

Cheesecake Bites

I only make this dessert one season out of the year. It's a little bit of work, but I love making them and they are delicious. I also like them because they are small. You can eat one or two and be satisfied without the guilt of eating a whole piece of cheesecake.

Just make your favorite cheesecake recipe with a graham cracker crust in a 8 x 8 square pan double lined with aluminum foil. I usually make the cheesecake the day before to make sure it is properly chilled.

The next day, melt a bag of your favorite chocolate chips and 1/4 cup of shortening or butter. Then cut your cheesecake in about 25-36 squares.

Now it is time to drizzle the chocolate (my favorite part).

Let the chocolate harden (about 20 min.)
Then chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Enjoy!

I made a plane cheesecake with milk chocolate coating along with a turtle cheesecake (the ones w/ the pecans on top)

Flax Crackers

Most of you who know me know that I am a big flax seed person. It's just so good for you. I always have flaxseed in the freezer. We freshly grind it in a coffee grinder and sprinkle it on our cereal, mix it in pizza dough, breads, and I put in it in anything else I can think of.

I found this website called healthyflax.com.
It has lots of different recipes using flax. I've made the lentil soup, which was pretty good. I have also made the flax crackers several times including yesterday. My hubby really likes them. It's really simple.

After mixing all the ingredients & chilling the dough for 10min., all you have to do it roll it out.

Cut the dough into the desired size cracker and bake!

Eat them with cheese for a delicious snack. Yuumm...

*

Holy Ravioli!

Going with the theme of food stuffed with cheese, we (my mom, sister Michele & I) made raviolis on Wednesday. We began at 7:00am and finished at about 4:00pm after making 15 lbs of ravioli!

I started the day off right by cutting my finger pretty bad on the food processor blade, but I lived.

Here are some pictures of our day...

Mom stretching out some pasta dough

Making the 'Olis

My Duct-taped finger....yyeeeeeeahhh..

My beautiful sister, Michele! We found a good gluten-free pasta recipe for her, so she was able to make her own ravioli & tortellini. Doesn't it look like she had fun???


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Tortellini

Okay, so I LOVE cheesy noodley foods. Even though I don't look it, I do have Italian blood.

Friday I had a fun day making tortellini. It's actually quite easy. I'm not going to post the recipe, but here is what I did...


I whipped up some egg noodle dough.
(I love my Kitchen Aid mixer!)

After filling with a mix of delicious cheeses,
I formed a traditional tortellini shape.

Many trays of tortellini. I put most of them
in the freezer, but we did eat some fresh for dinner.

Here is a little taste tester snack with olive oil & Parmesan cheese...yummy!
Notice Byron's miniature robot thing in the background.

My Babe enjoying homemade tortellini w/ my homemade meat sauce.

Wednesday I'll be making Raviolis with my mom and sister!

What to do with those pesky leftovers

Today I got to do one of my favorite things-cook the day away! One of the things I like to do with our leftovers is make "hot pockets." I really want to come up with a more original name for them, but I haven't come up with anything creative yet.

I like to use the crust recipe I used to make my pot pie. A recipe of dough makes about 8-12 pockets. I quadrupled this recipe today.

All I do is take about a handful of dough and roll it out into a circle (or something close to it). Then I take my filling in put in on one half of the dough and fold the other half over. I then press the dough all around for a good seal. I cut off the excess dough leaving a little extra dough around the edge. Next, I fold the edge and crimp it with a fork to make a better seal. You can make these as big or as small as you want to.

Today, I filled some with my leftover pot pie filling from the night before and added some cheddar cheese for extra goodness.

I also made breakfast pockets for Byron. I scrambled up some eggs (mostly whites & added low fat milk for more substance). I also add about 2 tablespoons of cheddar cheese. I added some proscuitto in a few pockets for a special treat.

I made pizza pockets as well. I cooked up some ground sausage and filled the pockets with pizza sauce, sausage and mozzarella cheese. So yummy. The picture below is a variation on this.

These are what I like to call
"Pizza 2-Bites"

When you have your pockets filled and crimped, you want to cook them right away. I tried freezing them and cooking them when I wanted to eat them, but that didn't work. Cooking it first works the best. I heat up a pan of about a half cup of olive oil. When the oil is hot, add pockets to pan, but don't crowd. Flip to other side when browned. Try not to cook too fast or the crust won't be done all the way through. I then lay some paper towels on a platter and let the pockets cool on the platter.

At this time you can either (1) Put them in freezer bags and freeze them up to a month (2) Put in freezer bags and into the fridge for up to a week (3) Eat them right away!

If you decide to use methods 1 or 2 here is how you reheat. Byron and I have a toaster oven, so this works out great. We put our toaster oven on "bake" mode and turn it to 400 degrees. We cook for about 10-12 minutes. Byron likes to cook his on "toast" mode for few more minutes for some extra crunch.
*Make sure that all your filling is cooked before using it in your pockets.*

Some other ideas:
Apple Crisp Pies: I had some leftover apple crisp a couple weeks ago and filled my pockets with that. When the pockets were done cooking and sprinkled a cinnamon and sugar mixture on top (you have to do this right away so it will stick). This makes a delightful little dessert.
Chili Pockets: I had some leftover chili and filled the pockets with chili and cheese. Yummy.
Turkey & Cheese: I used deli sliced oven roasted turkey, cheddar cheese and frozen broccoli (uncooked). These are a perfect lunch.

*The possibilities are only limited to your imagination*

Chicken Pot Pie

Today was just the perfect day for chicken pot pie. I got up this morning to make the filling, crust, and put it all together before I went to work.

I'm not really good at sticking by a recipe when it comes to cooking. I usually find a bunch of recipes for a particular thing and then make up my own "recipe."

Here is how I made my chicken pot pie. It is more of a guideline than an actually recipe (oh no, I think I'm turning into my grandmother!).

Racquel's Chicken Pot Pie

1 medium sized yellow onion, finely chopped

About 3-4 cups Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced

About 2 cups carrots, diced

About 1 cup celery, chopped

About 1 1/2 - 2 cups of frozen peas

About 2 lbs of chicken (white or dark meat), diced or shredded and cooked

About 2 cups water (or chicken stock, low sodium)

Chicken Bullion, low sodium (eliminate if using stock)

About 3 cups of low fat milk

2 tablespoons olive oil

Single pie crust recipe (I have searched for a long time for a versatile crust recipe that is quick and easy. I finally found a crust recipe that works for a number of different things!)

Okay, so here is how I do this. I heat the oil in a big stock pot on medium heat and then add the onions. I cook the onions until they are translucent. I then add the potatoes, carrots, celery. I add the water & bullion (or stock) and the milk. I let this mixture cook on low-medium heat for about 20 minutes. I then add the chicken and the peas and let it cook for another 5-10 minutes or so. After it starts to boil and thicken up a little, I add a few tablespoons of flower to give it some extra thickness. You can make it as thick or thin as you want. I usually add a little bit of salt and cracked pepper to taste. At this time, you can take the filling off the heat and let it cool for a little bit. Filling doesn't have to be completely cooled before preparing the pie(s).

While your filling is cooking, you can make your crust. I use a single top crust on my pot pies. I have used a top and bottom crust in the past, but the bottom one always seems be soggy no matter what I do. You can use your favorite pie crust recipe or the recipe I linked to above. If I double the recipe of dough, I can get 3-4 pies out of it. The filling recipe will make about the same. I almost always have a little filling leftover, but that's great. It can make a great second meal over some of your favorite rice.

Grease your pan(s) and scoop the desired amount of filling into your pie pan or any corning ware or other creative ways to do it work as well. Since I always make a big batch when I do this, I have get creative only having one pie pan. If you are planning on freezing, it is nice to purchase some of those aluminum disposable pans from the grocery store, so you don't have all your pans tied up.

After you put your filling in your pan(s) you can roll out your dough to cover your filling. Make sure you make it bigger than your pan. Lay over the top and crimp edge with a fork or your fingers. It doesn't have to be fancy. Make sure before baking you cut slits in the crust for ventilation.

Before baking, brush a little egg wash on the crust to give it a nice golden color. Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30-40 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling. A good rule of thumb is to bake it on a cooking sheet in case of spillage.

The great thing about this recipe is that you can add as much or little of a veggie at your hearts desire. You can different veggies that you like or not use one you don't like. It's all up to you.

You can freeze the extras for up to 1 month or so. I also have some other things I do with the leftover filling and other leftovers that will post in the near future.

I just love all the warm comfort foods that fall and winter brings. Oooooooh, I love cooking!

*This is actually a pretty low fat and healthy meal. I used olive oil instead of butter and low fat milk instead of heavy cream (like a lot of recipes said to use). Just keep the salt to a minimum and you have a warm, healthy fantastic meal.*

Healthy Vegetarian Burritos

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Today I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to cook one of our favorite meals. I love this one because it's super easy and I feel like I ate something really healthy and I am full and satisfied in the end. Yuuuum...

Healthy Vegetarian Burritos

Flour burrito shells
2 cups Brown Rice
1 to 1 1/2 cups black beans
1 cup sweet corn
1 cup shredded lettuce
1/2 cup of grated colby jack or cheddar cheese
Your favorite salsa
1 avocado, pealed and sliced
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the rice, beans and corn. Mix together. Meanwhile warm tortillas in the oven. On the warm tortilla put desired amount of rice mixture, lettuce, cheese, avocado, and salsa. Wrap up burrito-style and enjoy!

This recipe is also easy to double! Byron loves leftover vegetarian burrito in his lunch :)