Pumpkin Muffins

It's 53° this morning, so I decided to heat up the kitchen for breakfast.  Time for some fall spice! 

Pumpkin Muffins

1 28-oz can of pumpkin

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. allspice

1 ½ C. white sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup melted margarine or butter

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 C. flour

1 C. whole wheat flour

1 C. raisins

Mix pumpkin, spices, sugar, eggs, and butter.  Mix dry ingredients, and combine with wet. Pour into 24+ muffin tins, and bake at 350°F for 25 - 30 min.

Chili Cornbread

I make this all the time, and I can't remember where I got the idea so I'm not sure it's really an original recipe.  But it's really tasty, and very simple.  I used to put onions in it, of course, but haven't really missed them since taking them out of our diets.  The flavor varies every time I make it, since I use all different variations of canned beans and tomatoes, and even used half hamburger and half chorizo which was super tasty also.  So, you can't go wrong, really!

Chili Cornbread

1 lb. ground beef

1 green pepper, diced

1 can chili beans or black beans

1 can diced tomatoes (w/chilies, opt.)

Chili powder and cumin, to taste

Salt and pepper

1 box Jiffy cornbread mix

1/3 C. milk

1 egg

Cheddar cheese, for serving

Brown the ground beef in the skillet.  Add the diced green pepper, beans, and tomatoes.  Season to taste (depending if you use chili beans or not, or unsalted tomatoes, etc.).  Prepare the cornbread mix with milk and egg.  Transfer the beef mixture to ramekins, for individual servings, or leave in an oven-safe skillet to serve family style.  Pour the cornbread mix overtop, and bake 15 – 20 min at 400°F.  Top with cheese for serving.

Zucchini Rice Casserole

It's zucchini season! Yummmm.

This is a recipe I wrote down quite a while ago, before I had kids.  If I were to do it now, I would probably take some shortcuts, but it's definitely good this way.  And I think I was using storebought zucchini, so my definition of "large zucchini" is much smaller (as in, not a baseball bat). 

Zucchini Rice Casserole

1 cup cooked rice

2 large zucchini, sliced 2” wide, ¼” thick

1 lb. hamburger

½ onion, diced

salt & pepper

½ tsp. oregano,1 tsp. basil

½ tsp. red pepper flakes

mushrooms, sliced and sautéed (optional)

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

2 cups shredded mozzarella

Lay zucchini on a cookie sheet and brush with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Broil until slightly tender, flip until they start to brown (maybe 5 min./side?)  Saute hamburger, onion, and seasonings together.  Add tomatoes and sauce.   Layer ½ zucchini, ½ rice, ½ meat sauce, ½ cheese, repeat.  Bake until heated through.    

Leftover Lunch

This probably only came together because I had the right kind of leftovers, but it was so good that i'm writing it down anyway. 

1 T. butter
1 small sweet potato, peeled and diced (1/8" to 1/4" cubes)
1 large apple, diced slightly larger than the sweet potato
~1 C. leftover pork roast, in bite size pieces
2 T. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 T. apple juice, or more

Saute the sweet potato in the butter until it's starting to get soft, then add the apples.  Once everything is getting soft, add the pork, sugar, and cinnamon, and season with salt and pepper.  Use the apple juice to deglaze the pan.

I'm not sure on the amount of juice, because I just used a splash straight from the bottle.  If it seems dry, add more.  And if the potatoes need a little more time to soften, you can stick a lid on it and simmer on low for a few minutes.  (This is the incentive to cut them up small).

Served 1 hungry nursing mom and 2 little girls, so that's probably 2 regular adults.  I should've taken a picture of it, because it was actually a really yummy-looking dish!

Zucchini Risotto

We had this the other night with beer can chicken, which we had on the side instead of adding in to the dish.  Easy way to get my girls to eat something green!  There's enough parmesan cheese and it's creamy enough that the girls think that the stringy-ness is due to all the cheese, instead of from the squash, which you really can't taste at all.  mua ha ha!

Zucchini Risotto

6 C. water

2 chicken bouillon cubes

1 T. olive oil

2 C. medium-grain rice or Arborio

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

1/8 tsp. oregano

Salt and pepper

1 small to medium zucchini, finely grated

½ C. grated parmesan cheese

2 C. cooked, diced chicken

Add bouillon cubes to the water and bring to a boil.  Saute the rice in olive oil, and add the liquid to the rice one ladleful at a time, stirring frequently in between for about 15 minutes.  Add seasonings, and when the rice is fully cooked, add the zucchini, chicken and parmesan.  Bring back to a simmer before serving.

Spiced Pecan Pie Bars

I served these as my "southern" component of our Mexibikentucky party last night (Cinco de Mayo, and a Kentucky Derby-inspired 1.25 mile bike race around the neighborhood).  I originally found this recipe in a Taste of Home cookbook, but I added the spices, based on a nut-mix recipe that I've made, I think from a Food Network website.  I also messed with the nut:goo:crust ratio a bit, since the original was more like pecan pie with a thick, pointless goo layer and not enough pecans.  You can spice these up more than the amount that I have here, because these weren't noticeably spicey, just tasty.  And most people agree - they're better than pecan pie, and a whole lot easier!  You can't really do a half-recipe, but a 1/3 recipe might work well in a 8" square pan.

Spiced Pecan Pie Bars

3 C. flour (can substitute 1 C. whole wheat flour)

½ C. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 C. butter

3 eggs

1 C. sugar

¾ C. dark corn syrup

½ C. light corn syrup

3 T. butter, melted

1 tsp. vanilla

3 C. chopped pecans (10 oz.)

1/8 tsp. each cumin, cayenne, and cinnamon

Combine flour, sugar, and salt, then cut in butter until crumbly.  Press onto the bottom of a greased 15 x 10 pan.  Bake at 350° for 20 min.

For filling, combine eggs, sugar, syrups, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl; mix well.  Stir in pecans.  Pour over crust.  Bake 25 – 30 min longer or until edges are firm and center is almost set.  Cool on wire racks.  Cut into bars, and refrigerate until serving.  Yields 3-4 dozen.

Taco-ish meat

Travis has a knack for picking up something random at the store (HyVee in this case), and then it turns out to be awesome and becomes a family favorite.  He did it with the 12-grain bread that he subsists on, and also with this chorizo.  You should look at the link because the distinctive packaging is almost more helpful than the brand name (Purnell's Old Folks).  It really is SO good.  It's not hot-spicy, just a really good balance of flavors.  I believe it's mostly or entirely pork, and not the leanest of meats but not nearly as greasy as some ground beef I've used, which is pretty good considering it IS sausage. It browns up nicely and is easy to add to all kinds of things because the seasoning balance is so nice.  Really - you start frying it and suddenly the kitchen is full of people saying, "It smells good in here! What's for supper??"

Last week, I did this:
1/2 lb. chorizo
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/2 can of plain diced tomatoes
Brown the meat, add the veggies, and serve over fried potatoes and top with a fried egg.

The other night, I added the peppers and tomatoes in and also a bunch of chopped asparagus, and served it over leftover rice.  I suppose either version would be good topped off with cheese, but I didn't think of it and they were super tasty anyway.

My next plan is to mix it half-and-half with ground beef, adding a can of tomato sauce for a really easy taco meat, maybe to put in enchiladas?  I get tired of the taste of the taco seasoning packets, and annoyed with them being primarily salt and food coloring, so lately I've been just adding my own chili powder, cumin, oregano, S&P, and flour to plain ground beef.  But, relying on this chorizo for flavor is way easier and a nice change of pace.