It's All About The Pumpkin!

I can't leave my other friend out who shared the pumpkin cake recipe with me!  I used to work with Cindy and she made every day a happy one!  She retired at the end of the last school year and now she is living the lifestyle many wish to live.  She lives at the beach and does things at her own pace when she wants to!  I am so happy for her, but I miss her immensely!!!  Work will never be the same without her.  She is what made each day glorious.  I MISS YOU CINDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pumpkin Cake

1 pkg yellow cake mix

1 pkg (3.4 oz) instant butterscotch pudding

4 eggs

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup veg oil

1 cup of canned 100% pure pumpkin

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

½ can cream cheese icing

In large mixing bowl, combine ingredients. Beat on low for 30 sec, then on medium for 4 minutes. Pour into a greased and floured 10 in bundt tube pan.  Bake at 350 for 50-55 min or until wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 15 min.  Remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Microwave icing for 30 seconds.  Spoon over the top of the cake.

Tis The Season!

Pumpkin season that is!  If you go to the store, everywhere you look, you'll see something pumpkiny.  I used to not be a fan of pumpkin, but I can't say that any more.  Last year a friend make a pumpkin spice cake.  It was really good.  Last weekend I made pumpkin spice cookies.  They were good too.  I don't have a recipe for that one because I bought the mix in the bag from the grocery store.  A week or so ago, I had a meeting at school and a friend made the best pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes!  She shared the recipe with me and I'm going to share it with you!  You are going to love how EASY it is!  Let's say this all together ... THANK YOU, KACEY!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

1 15 oz can of pumpkin
1 yellow cake mix
1 egg
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 bag of pumpkin chips
1/2 cup  chocolate chips

Mix first 4 ingredients until blended.  Add in chips. Spoon into a cupcake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  Frost with cream cheese icing, if desired.

                              

Welcome Fall!

I admit it.  I'm addicted to Facebook.  Sometimes you learn great things.  Sometimes, it's hours of your life you never get back.  I found this recipe on Facebook.  SCORE!  I did make a few changes to it.  I took out the salt because I figured the sausage had enough salt in it.  I also used a vegetable peeler on the celery.  It takes off most of the strings and makes it more tender.  I cut the onion in half and used essential oil instead of fresh Rosemary.  Besides Rachel Ray, who keeps fresh Rosemary around anyway.  Other changes I made were I peeled the apple, used reduced fat sausage and cooked it separately in order to remove more fat, and changed the kind of cheese it called for.  It turned out GREAT!  Hubby didn't care for it, but he's not much of a squash person.  He did like the stuffing though.  I thought it was a nice recipe to welcome the Fall.

 *If you are doing food prep for the freezer, scrape out the Acorn Squash and mix all the ingredients together at the end.  You can put these in aluminum pans from Dollar Tree and store them in the freezer until you are ready to use them.  This makes for a quick, complete, and easy dinner!

Sausage and Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash

 2 medium acorn squash
1/2 chopped onion
2 chopped stalks of celery
1 Tbsp. olive oil
Pepper, to taste
1 drop Rosemary doTERRA essential oil or you can use a Rosemary from your garden
1-2 tsp. chopped garlic
1 lb sausage, cooked – I used lower fat sausage.
1 chopped apple, peeled
3/4 cup of plain breadcrumbs
1/2 cup shredded Italian pizza cheese

Using a sharp knife, cut off the top and bottom of each squash to create a flat base on each side. Slice the squash in half, scrape out seeds to create individual bowls for the stuffing. Drizzle each squash half with olive oil and sprinkle pepper on top.  Bake in a preheated oven at 400˚F for 40 minutes.

While squash is roasting, cook sausage and chop up.  In a large pan over medium heat - heat oil and add onion, celery, garlic, and doTERRA Rosemary essential oil. Cook until onions and celery are soft. Add sausage and apple. Mix in bread crumbs and Italian pizza cheese. Remove from heat.

Once squash has finished roasting, remove from oven and fill each with the prepared stuffing mixture. Return to oven for 20 minutes - adding a little Italian pizza cheese to the top when it comes out of the oven.
                         
                          

I'm in a Pickle and It's So GOOD!

When I was a kid, my mother would serve pickled peaches at dinner sometimes.  They were so good!  I bought a jar from the grocery store a number of years back, but they tasted terrible!  A couple of weeks ago, a friend brought me a jar of pickled peaches using the recipe her mother-in-law used.  I had an instant flashback to family dinners when I was young.  In my mind, I could see all of us sitting around the kitchen table having Sunday dinner.  The peaches were amazing!  I ate half the jar in one sitting!  I begged her for the recipe and she shared it with me.  She gave me permission to share it with you!  Her name is Jackie and she has started her own business called Cricket's Cupcakes & Sweets in Lawrenceville, Ga.  If you ever need cupcakes or some other dessert, you need to call Jackie.  Everything she makes is delicious!  She has some major skills!  She's also on Facebook, so check out her page and like it!  I'm so lucky to have her as a friend!




Pickled Peaches

4 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cup distilled white vinegar
3 whole cloves or 1 tsp. ground cloves or 3 drops of doTERRA Clove essential oil
3 cinnamon sticks
5-6 large peaches or 10-12 medium sized peaches
3 qt sized sterilized jars

Peel and slice the peaches to the desired size. Pack the peaches in the jars.  Boil all the remaining ingredients (no peaches) with the spices for at least 5 minutes to form a syrup.  Pour the hot syrup (pickling liquid) over the packed peaches in the sterilized jars.  If you have left over syrup. you can process them as well in the hot bath.  Don't throw away the spices. Pack them with the peaches in the jars.

HOT BATH:

Sterilize your jars first. Pack the peaches in the sterilized jars and pour the hot pickling liquid in the jars of peaches. Close and clean the rims with wet cloth. I put water in a stock pot and place a steamer basket in the bottom to lift the jars off the pot.  I also removed the stem from the basket.  Cover the jars with water.  Bring the water to a boil with the jars in the pot. Boil for 15 minutes for small jars (1 pt) and 25 minutes for large (1qt) jars.

                        

Sad, But True

It's sad, but it's true.  I have to return to work in less than 2 weeks.  (Insert huge frowny face here.)  I love being on a laid back schedule ... sleeping late, staying up late, eating whenever, going to the bathroom whenever.  Yes, I enjoy going to the bathroom when I need to.  During the school year, our time is so regimented that we have scheduled bathroom times. If I have to go to the bathroom at an unscheduled time, I have to find another teacher to watch over my class.  It's a pain in the behind to have to interrupt another class for coverage when nature calls.  Nature does not always have the same schedule we follow in the plan book.

Lunch is also on a tight schedule.  Two classes arrive every 3 minutes.  If you are early or late, it throws a kink into the serving line, other teacher's lunch time, and the table you are scheduled to sit at.  If you are late picking your kids, you have a million people mad at you because you just messed up the lunch time of the class that follows you and the teacher of that class is losing precious time from eating her lunch.  By the time a teacher gets her class through the line, gets them seated, gets her lunch, heats it up, and goes to the bathroom, she has 12-15 minutes to actually eat.  That is why teachers don't want to have a mini conference with parents during lunch.  I have been known to completely miss my lunch because of this.  This is not good for me, my co-workers, or my students because if I don't eat, I get grouchy ...  very grouchy!  So parents, if you come to have lunch with your child, have lunch with your child.  A friendly wave and a smile will suffice.  If you need to talk to me, simply ask me to call you or send a note about your concern.

With that off my chest, I can get back to what this post is about.  Since school will be starting back soon, I have begun my annual cook-a-thon.  I decided to take the leftovers from the Braised Chicken and Mushrooms and put that in the freezer.  Yesterday I was on a chicken cooking frenzy.  I cooked and froze 4 bags of shredded chicken, 3 bags of cubed chicken, and 3 batches of chicken pot pie filling.  In the midst of all of that, I put a whole chicken on the smoker and had part of that for dinner.  Then I saved the chicken broth from the shredded and cubed chicken and froze it to use when I cook other things.  Next, I cooked squash, zucchini, and brussel sprouts and put them in the freezer.  I also roasted cauliflower, but we ate that with dinner.  I don't think cauliflower would freeze very well.  I used some of the chicken broth in the brussel sprouts.  It made such a difference in the flavor!  Today I made a HUGE batch of Three Cheese Chicken Penne Pasta Bake and separated it into 3 freezer pans.  I added a pound of fresh mushrooms to it this time!  I also filled a smaller pan to take to my mother.  She'll like that.  Next on my agenda is to make Chicken Crescents, but first I have to go to the grocery store for crescent rolls.  That will make 2 more meals.  After that, I will be making a pot of White Chicken Chili and regular Chili.  We won't eat all of this next month, but it will be nice to have it ready and waiting.  In total, this will make about 20 dinners.  Plus I will have a number of lunches from it.  All of these recipes are already on the blog so I won't post them again, but here's a picture of my menu.  I made the menu before I started my cook-a-thon.  You might be able to pick up a few ideas from it.

Braised Chicken and Mushrooms

I've had a little extra time this summer with school being out.  I have been able to kick back and relax, explore new interests (essential oils), enjoy time with my grandbabies, and start to clean things out of my house.  The hubby and I have a plan to downsize in the next few years.  We have a lot of things to get rid of to do this, but I must admit, it feels good to get rid of things we haven't used in a long time.  Goodwill is probably wondering where to put everything now, but that's their problem!  Since I have some free time right now, I was on Pinterest the other day and saw a recipe that looked interesting.  Of course, I had to make a few changes to it!  It's like they say on American Idol, "You have to make it your own!" and that I did.  The mushrooms came out with the best flavor I have ever tasted in a mushroom.  The meal was so good, I can't wait to have the leftovers tomorrow night.  This recipe takes a little more time to make, but hey, it's summer!

Braised Chicken And Mushrooms

• 3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken (breasts or thighs)
• 1 pound fresh whole mushrooms
• 2 ¼  cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp. minced garlic from a jar
• 1 yellow onion, sliced into thin strips
• 1 bay leaf, crumbled
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose Gluten Free flour
• salt and pepper, to taste

Remove fat from chicken.  Lightly salt and pepper chicken.  Heat olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat and brown chicken. Place the chicken on a separate plate and set aside.  You may have to cook the chicken in 2 batches.  Sauté mushrooms, garlic, and onions until tender (about 10 minutes).  Remove veggies from pot.  Sprinkle flour into the pot with the juices that are left and cook for 1-2 minutes.  The flour will start to clump up.  Pour in the vinegars and chicken broth and whisk continuously until it’s smooth for about 3 minutes.  Add in crushed bay leaf.  Return chicken and veggies to the pot and bring the mixture to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover your pot, and let simmer for 20-25 minutes until the chicken is cooked completely.

Burritos

I had a busy afternoon today and needed something easy to fix for dinner.  I looked in the freezer and saw I had a bag of precooked, cubed chicken breasts that I had cooked one day.  I checked inside the refrigerator and pantry and came up with a plan.  We were going to have burritos.

Burritos

Tortillas - regular or Gluten Free
2-3 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
1 can of black beans, rinsed well
1 red pepper, sliced in strips
1 onion, sliced in strips
2 Tb. water
1 package taco seasoning
1 cup shredded Monterrey cheese
olive oil
1 large or 2 medium tomatoes, diced
Lettuce
Sour cream - I used fat free
Sliced black olives, optional
Salsa or hot sauce, optional
Cooked brown or white rice, optional

Put a little olive oil in a large pot with pepper and onions.  Heat until they get soft.  Use a large pot because it makes stirring everything up much easier.  Add water and cover so the water can steam the onion and pepper a bit.  Add chicken, beans, tomatoes, cheese, and taco seasoning.  Stir well and heat mixture.  Warm tortilla shells in the microwave.  In the tortilla shell, spread sour cream, lettuce, meat mixture, lettuce, olives, rice, and hot sauce.  Roll up and eat.