Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies are one of my kids' favorites!

Here's a recipe that I like to use:

1 cup butter (softened)
1 cup brown sugar
1.5 cups sugar
1 15-ounce can of 100% pumpkin (around 1.5 cups)
2-3 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1-2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg (optional)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
1/4 tsp. cardamom (optional)
4 cups chocolate chips

Mix butter and sugars together.  Add in pumpkin, vanilla and eggs and mix well.  Add in flour, baking soda, salt and spices and mix.  Add chocolate chips and mix using a large spoon until chips are distributed fairly evenly.  I use a small cookie scooper and put them on a ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees for around 10 minutes.  After removing cookies from oven, let them cool on the cookie sheet a few more minutes.

Chocolate Mint Brownies

These are SOOO yummy and also make a fancy looking dessert.  I got the brownie recipe from my college friend and the toppings from Our Best Bites.

Brownies:

1 cup butter, softened

5 Tbsp. cocoa

2 cups sugar

4 beaten eggs

2 cups flour

Mix butter and cocoa.  Add sugar and eggs and beat.  Add flour and mix well.  Spread into 9x12 greased pan. Bake at 350 degrees for around 18-22 minutes.  If you double the recipe, you can bake it on a jelly-roll pan (bake that one for around 20-28 minutes). That's what I usually do. Don’t overbake.  Add the toppings below or for a less sweet dessert just serve the brownies without toppings. These freeze well (cut and then put in ziplock bags in the freezer).

Toppings (double frosting if you doubled the brownie recipe):

Green Frosting:

1-2 Tbsp. milk

2 cups powdered sugar

¼ cup butter, softened

2-3 drops peppermint essential oil, food grade (or 1 ½ tsp. peppermint extract)

Green food coloring

Mix the powdered sugar and butter.  Add milk little by little until you get desired consistency. Add flavoring and food coloring. After brownies have cooled, spread the green frosting over the brownies.  Put it in the fridge for a few minutes to chill. 

Chocolate Topping:

1 cup chocolate chips

6 Tbsp. butter

Melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl. Cook for 30 second intervals and stir in between until it is melted and smooth.  Let it cool for 10-15 minutes and then spread the chocolate over the green frosting layer.

Chill finished dessert in the fridge. About 10 minutes before serving, take dessert out of the fridge and cut into serving-sized pieces. I like the cut the edges off the brownies so they look even on all sides (then my husband eats all the leftover edge pieces). These brownies do not need to be kept in the fridge but it makes it a lot easier to cut them nicely and they stay fresh longer.

Funeral Potatoes

Funeral Potatoes

1 (30-32 ounce) package frozen shredded potatoes

1 cup sour cream

1 cup diced onion (I sometimes use a frozen blend that has onions and bell peppers)

2 1/2 cups grated cheese (cheddar or I use the blend from Costco)

4 T melted butter, divided

2 (10 ounce) cans cream of chicken soup

Pepper

2/3 sleeve of Club Crackers

Put the shredded potatoes in a mixing bowl and defrost in the microwave for 3 minutes. 

Place 2 T butter in a pan and saute the diced onions.  

Add the sour cream, cheddar cheese, onions (including buttery liquid), soup, and pepper to the potatoes and mix thoroughly.  

Pour mixture into 9x13 glass pan that has been sprayed with Pam.  

Melt 2 T butter in a small mixing bowl in the microwave.  

Crush up the crackers with your fingers and use a spoon to mix with the butter.  

Place the cracker mixture on top of the casserole.  Use more crackers and butter if you like a lot of topping.  

Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for around an hour (or until cooked through and golden on top).  

Serves 12-15 people.

Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Soup

Ingredients:
2 diced yellow onions
4-6 minced garlic cloves garlic
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup flour
16 cups of broth (I use water with bouillon cubes)
2 cans of chicken breasts or chop up a roasted chicken if in a hurry (optional)
1 large bag of frozen broccoli pieces (or fresh is fine - about 4 heads of broccoli)
salt & pepper to taste
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 cups milk
1 16 oz block of sharp cheddar cheese chopped into little chunks
1 cup grated mixed cheese

Directions:
Saute onion and garlic until tender. Set aside.  Mix flour and butter and cook over low heat (to make a roux).  It will be ready when it bubbles and starts to turn brown.  Mix together.

In separate pot, mix water and bouillon to make a broth.  After it is warm, add the roux mixture stirring the whole time so it doesn't clump up.  Add the chicken, broccoli, and spices and cook for around 30 minutes.  Add cheese and milk and stir.  When cheese is melted in, the soup is ready to serve.  Top with grated cheese.

This makes A LOT of soup (serves 16-20?).  We eat some fresh and freeze some for another day.  Warning, this has a kick to it so use less cayenne pepper if you'd like it more mild.

Lemon Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
4 tbsp butter (1/2 stick)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp lemon extract (or I used 5-6 drops lemon essential oil instead)
2/3 cup of fresh lemon juice
1 cup oil (I used canola)
6 eggs
zest of two lemons

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
Sugar Sprinkles (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix sugar, butter, vanilla, lemon extract, lemon juice, oil, eggs and lemon zest. Add in and mix flour, baking powder, baking soda.  Put cupcake liners in muffin tin.  Fill to about 2/3 full.  I sprinkled sugar sprinkles on top of the muffins before baking.  Bake until cupcakes are done (don't overbake).  I think I baked them for 11-15 minutes but time will vary based on your oven.  You can also make this in a bread pan but you'd need to cook it longer and grease the pan first.  I did it both ways and like the muffins a lot more.  This recipe was originally supposed to be a copycat recipe for the Starbucks Lemon Loaf but I altered it a little and didn't use the glaze they suggested.  If you want to try the glaze, it is 2 cups powdered sugar, 4 tbsp skim milk, and 1 tsp lemon extract (or a few drops of lemon essential oil).  Combine those ingredients and pour over the cooled muffins or loaf.

Lemon Curd

1 cup of sugar

3 eggs

1 cup of lemon juice freshly squeezed (or frozen)

1/2 cup of butter (melted but cooled)

Zest from 2 lemons

Directions: Whisk eggs and sugar together, stir in juice, lemon zest and butter ... place in microwave for 2 mins then continue to stir after cooking another minute to 5 minutes until it thickens homemade lemon curd. CAN BE FROZEN UP TO A YEAR !!!!!

From my British friend, Maxine Arrington

Hot Fudge Sauce

My friend served this with ice cream and brownies earlier this week and it was delicious!  She was gracious enough to share the recipe with me.  Enjoy!

Mix together in a sauce pan:

2 cups of sugar

1/3 cup of cocoa

Add:

1 can of evaporated milk

Bring to a slow boil, as mixture starts to thicken stir often to keep from burning.

Add:

1/2 cube of butter

Stir until butter melts and bring back to a slow boil until mixture gets a little thicker.  Take off heat and let stand until cool enough to eat.

Store in an air tight container and it will reheat in micro several more  times before it goes sugary.

Crepe Inspired Waffles

Here's a recipe that seems to be crepe-ish (okay I know that's not a real word).  It uses more eggs and butter than the average waffle.  I found something similar on Pinterest and altered it to suit our family's needs.

1 3/4 cups oat flour (I ground about 2 1/4 cups of whole oats into the flour)
1 T baking powder
1 T sugar
Mix in a bowl.

3 eggs
1/2 to 1 cube of butter
1 1/2 cup almond milk
Mix these in a separate bowl.

Combine all ingredients.  Cook in a waffle iron sprayed with Pam until desired crispness.  Spray waffle iron before you put more batter in each time or it might stick.  Makes around 5 large waffles.  They are very fluffy and not dense at all (due to the eggs).

Next time I will try using some coconut oil instead of part of the butter perhaps.

By the way, the original recipe had white flour instead of oats, regular milk instead of almond milk, and more butter than I used.

Quinoa Spuffins

You may be asking yourself, "What the heck is a SPUFFIN?"  Well, I made up that term.  Since my son and I can't eat normal wheat/white flour, we have to use alternative ones.  Even though I have a wheat intolerance, spelt is fine in moderate amounts for some reason.  But when you bake with spelt, the texture is thicker and more dense.  Thus, I call spelt muffins, "spuffins!"  They also go with my old nickname which is Spam-a-lama-ding-dong :)

Ingredients:

 1 Cup of uncooked Quinoa, rinsed (will use 2 cups of the cooked quinoa & have some leftover)

1/4 Cup of unsweetened applesauce (I just dumped in a single serving applesauce container that I put in my kids’ lunches)

1-3/4 Cup of gluten free all-purpose flour (spelt, rice flour, GF flour, ground oats, or whatever you like)

1/4 Cup of ground flax

1/8 Cup Chia seeds

1/2 Cup of brown sugar (maybe honey or raw sugar instead?)

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

¼ to ½ teaspoon cardamom

¼ to ½ teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 Cup of almond milk (could use coconut, soy, or cow’s milk)

1 Large Egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Directions:

1.                  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray and set aside. 

2.                  Bring 2 cups of water to a boil.  Add one cup of quinoa and cook on medium for about 12 minutes or until water is absorbed.  Turn off stove.  Stir and then leave it covered for 15 minutes away from stove.

3.                  In a medium size bowl, mix together sugar, egg, almond milk, flax, chia, applesauce, and spices. Mix in only 2 cups of the cooked quinoa (save any extra for another use or meal). 

4.                  Add flour(s), baking powder, baking soda and vanilla.

5.                  Divide batter evenly into a 12 muffin greased tin. Bake until toothpick comes out clean and tops are firm to touch. Approximately 20 minutes. Don’t overcook.

6.                  Depending on what flour(s) you use, the muffins will be pretty thick and heavy but delicious.  Served warm smothered with butter (or at least that is how my teenage boys and hubby like them).  These will spoil quickly due to the very fresh ingredients to eat within a day or two or store in the freezer.  I used 1 cup of spelt flour and 3/4 cup of brown rice flour because we're not allergic to those.

7.                  You can add nuts, raisins, diced fruit, chocolate chips, etc. if desired.  Probably about ½ cup if you do that.  They taste good plain though.

Nutritional Information for 1 muffin: (12 muffins per recipe)
Calories - 185
Carbs - 25
Fats - 5 (healthy fat though)
Protein - 6
Sugars - 6

Cake Balls

Here's a link to my friends blog post about making Cake Balls.

Pretty Healthy Oat Bars (no white flour)

WARNING - These are a work in progress.  They didn't stick together well.  I am going to try using spelt instead of the ground oats and see if that works better.

2 cubes butter, softened

1 cup canola oil

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

¼ cup honey

2 T milled flax seed

1 T chia seeds

9 T water

1 T dehydrated peanut butter

Orange essential oil

3 cups ground oats (or other flour)

3 1/2 cups oats

2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup shredded coconut

1-1½ cups chocolate chips

½ cup chopped pecans

Mix the butter, canola, honey and sugars.  In a little bowl, mix the flax and chia seeds with the water and mix well.  Add to the big bowl.  Add peanut butter, essential oil, ground oats, oats and baking soda and mix well.  Add coconut, chocolate chips and pecans.  Bake at 375 degrees in greased pan until done if you want thicker bars.  I had a hard time making sure they were completely done without getting too crusty so the next time I tried putting a thin layer of batter on a cookie sheet and made really, really thin cookie type bars.  If you make these as cookies, they are pretty dang flat and run together but you can sort of re-form them with the spatula and they still taste good.  But they are delicious though!

Could be used for a on-the-go breakfast if you take out the chocolate chips and use dried fruit or more nuts instead.  You can't really taste the peanut butter much but I wanted to add more protein.  Also, if you didn't have the milled flax seed and chia seeds, you could use 3 eggs instead and eliminate the flax and chia seeds and the water.

Spelt Muffins

1 1/4 cup almond milk
3 Tbsp. milled flax seed
9 Tbsp. water
(note, you can use 3 eggs instead of the flax seed and water)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. coconut oil (or other oil of choice)
Cinnamon to taste
Cardamom to taste
1 Tbsp. baking powder
2 1/4 cups spelt flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray Pam on muffin tin.  Mix all ingredient together except for spelt flour and baking powder.  Add dry ingredients and mix just until moistened.  Put evenly in 12 muffins tins and bake for around 12 minutes or until done.

3 Weight Watchers PointsPlus Points per muffin

Healthy Oat Banana Cookies

There is no added sugar in these cookies.  Also no eggs, fat or flour.  For missing all those key ingredients, they are still yummy cookies.  Jonah's quote:  "They're not bad.  They're good."

3 ripe bananas
1/3 cup applesauce
2 cups oats
1/4 cup almond milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Bake at 350 degrees until done.  It took 9 minutes in my convection oven.

I may try adding the following items in the future:  nuts, coconut, chocolate chips, cocoa, etc.  I also may try subbing out greek yogurt for some of the banana to add protein and lessen natural sugars.

Cheesy Mexican Rice

This is a delicious side dish that a gal from our elementary school (Tara Phelps) makes every year for our Teacher Appreciation luncheon.  The recipe is so popular that we actually make copies of the recipe to distribute and the teachers would be so sad if we stopped serving it.

2 cups cooked rice
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies
1 cup shredded cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. cumin

Mix.  Put in square baking dish.  Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes.  Top with cheese and bake until melted.  Double recipe for a 9x13 pan.

I imagine you could add chicken to it and turn it into a casserole.  I'll try that out sometime.

Chicken Enchiladas

(original recipe from my dear friend and previous neighbor Raquel Larsen)

Flour Tortillas
Enchilada Sauce (red or green)
Green Chilies if you use green sauce, green onions if you use red sauce
Cilantro (optional)
Chicken
Sour Cream
Grated Cheese

I never measure amounts on this recipe. I simply add whatever quantities I feel like at the time. Cook chicken and shred. I like to boil the chicken so that it is really moist and shreds easily. Mix chicken, some enchilada sauce, green chilies (or green onions), grated cheese and sour cream to taste (should be fairly thick, not too runny). Pour a little sauce to coat the bottom of a 9x13 glass pan. Put mixture into tortillas and roll. Place formed enchiladas into glass pan and line them up tightly. Pour more enchilada sauce on top and then sprinkle cheese on top. Cover with foil and heat at 350 degrees until heated through (usually around 35-45 minutes).

Cucumber Salsa

Crisp Cucumber Salsa:
Note: 1/4 cup is only 16 calories

2 cups finely chopped seeded peeled cucumber
1/2 cup finely chopped seeded tomato
1/4 cup chopped red onion
2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
1 jalepeno pepper, seeded and chopped
4-1/2 tsp minced fresh cilantro
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
1/4 c reduced-fat sour cream (or greek yogurt if you like that)
1-1/2 tsp lemon juice
1-1/2 tsp lime juice
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp seasoned salt
Tortilla chips

In a small bowl, combine the first seven ingredients. In another bowl, combine the sour cream, lemon juice, lime juice, cumin and seasoned salt. Pour over cucumber mixture and toss gently to coat. Serve immediately with chips.  Could also serve in a lettuce wrap.

Pineapple Coconut Oil Banana Bread

2 large eggs

1/3 cups coconut oil, melted (or can use canola oil instead

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 to 1 1/4 cups mashed ripe bananas (2 large or 3 small ripe bananas)

handful of shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray two 8-by-4-inch loaf pans with Pam spray; set aside. 

In a large bowl combine the eggs, coconut oil, greek yogurt, sugars, vanilla, bananas, pineapple and whisk to combine. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and stir to just incorporate; don't overmix.  Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for about 45 minutes, or until top is golden and set, a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean (banana bread is gooey and it may not come out perfectly clean). My bread was browning too fast on the top, so I covered it with foil and lowered oven temperature to 325F in last 15 minutes of cooking. Allow bread to cool in pan for about 15 minutes before removing and transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Bread will keep for up to 1 week in an airtight container or large Ziplock at room temperatureMmay be frozen for up to 3 months.

I based my recipe off of this one I found on Pinterest.

Strawberry Bread

2 cups chopped strawberries (washed and hulled)

3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 cup sugar

4 1/2 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

2/3 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

8-10 drops of Lemon Essential Oil

Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.   In one bowl add your flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Whisk to mix well.  In another bowl whisk together the eggs, canola oil, vanilla extract and lemon zest.  Gently add the strawberries.  Don’t over mix.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.  Place batter in two greased 4 X 8 baking pans in the oven for 45 minutes or until done.  Makes 2 fabulous loaves.

Lemon Zucchini Pineapple Bread

3 c. all purpose flour

1 1/4 c. sugar
4 1/2 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs
2/3 c. canola oil
1 8 oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained well (I chopped up pineapple chunks since I was out of crushed)
2 c. zucchini grated
8-10 drops of Lemon Essential Oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grab 2- 4″ X 8″ baking pans and grease well.  In a medium sized bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix well.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, pineapple, zucchini and lemon.  Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.  Mix until moistened.  Do not over mix.  This will look like a thick cake batter, and that is okay, it’s supposed to be that way.  Add the mixture to the two baking pans and bake for 45 minutes.  Makes two fabulous loaves.  Enjoy!

Potato Casserole

2 lbs. Frozen Hash Brown Potatoes
1/2 Diced Spanish onion
1 can Cream of mushroom soup
1 lb carton Sour cream
1/2 stick butter
8 oz. package grated cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Corn flakes or potato chips

Directions:
Put all the ingredients except corn flakes (or potato chips) together in a 9 x 13 baking dish.  Top with 1 C crushed corn flakes or crushed potato chips.  Bake uncovered at 375 for about 1 hour.  Bake at 350 degrees if using a glass dish.

From Janet Garrick (Pam's mom)