Pumpkin Pie Smoothies

When we lived in Hawaii, Nick and I would have a smoothie every single morning.  Possibly because we always had fresh delicious fruit on hand, or because they were so darn easy! Seriously, we would make about 10 jars of smoothies every Sunday evening, then stick them in the freezer, take them out before work and by the time we'd get to work and settled in, they were perfect! 

These smoothies are delicious and have the flavors of fall!  Usually when I make a smoothie, I just dig through the cupboards and fridge for whatever I can find and throw it in the blender.  Which is exactly what I did this time.  I knew I had some leftover pumpkin that I wanted to incorporate so I just went from there.  I know they should be bright orange like pumpkin pie, but since I added the oatmeal, they turned a brownish color.  But some of the best things in life are brown... chocolate ice cream, root beer, fudge... it's all good.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pie Smoothies

Makes: 6

Ingredients:

3/4 cup pureed pumpkin

1 cup cooked oatmeal

2 bananas

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup soy vanilla protein (cause Grandma said so)

1/4 cup ground flax seeds

4 tablespoons toasted pecans (this was one of those ingredients that I just dug out of the cupboard)

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg

a shot of pure maple syrup

Directions:

Throw everything in your blender and blend until smooth.  I always freeze afterwards, but if you want to eat right away, just use frozen bananas.  :)

Pumpkin Donut Holes

Nick and I don't really eat donuts.  They are deep fried and packed with chemicals (depending on where you get them).  However, we do remember the days when eating a fresh donut dripping with grease was heaven.  So, I made this baked pumpkin donut to bring us back.  They are delicious!  I think nutmeg just makes a donut a donut.  Yum! 

I wasn't planning on baking anything today, but I had this open jar of pumpkin from my grandpa's garden that needed to be used before it went bad.  Plus, it's cold out and turning on the oven is a lovely way of making the house cozy and smelling delicious!  Enjoy!

Baked Pumpkin Donut Holes

Makes 24 donut holes (mini muffins)

Ingredients:

For the Donuts:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoons nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/8 teaspoons ground cloves

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

1/2 cup milk

For the Coating: 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray a mini muffin tins with olive oil and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. In a separate large bowl whisk together apple sauce, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin and milk until smooth. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

While the muffins bake, melt butter in one bowl and combine granulated sugar and cinnamon in another bowl. Remove muffins from oven and cool for 2 minutes. Dip each muffin top in melted butter, then dip in cinnamon sugar.  Serve muffins warm or at room temperature.

Vegetable Broth

Nick's sister gave me the idea and I'm so glad she did because "we don't waste in this family."  Even if they are just carrot and onion scraps, we don't waste.  So we eat so many vegetables in a week that we started to save the "scraps." Scraps are carrot peals, the butt of celery, broccoli stems, onion peals, the tops of garlic, stems of herbs... pretty much anything you have.  We now have a zip lock garbage bag in our fridge that we use for our veggie scraps, and on Sundays, we make broth!  It sure beats buying a box of broth for at least $2.99 and a load of sodium.  I don't even add salt to the broth, I just salt whatever it's going in to.  It's great to use for soups, pho, rice, beans, anything that you would use water for, it just adds flavor!  So simple, you just keep your bag of veggie scraps in the fridge, then put them in your slow cooker, fill with water and set on low for 8 hours.  Then strain into jars and keep in the fridge.  Enjoy! :)

Pile of veggie scraps

Place all the veggie scraps into a crock pot and fill with water

The veggies after 8 hours of cooking on low

Strain the broth and place in jars until use

Mushroom Wild Rice Soup!

Nothing like a mug of soup on a cool fall day. My aunt makes the chicken version of this soup and it's so stinking good!  It really makes me feel at home.  Very filling too!  I changed up her recipe a bit because we don't really every have cream soups on hand and I make it with mushrooms and it's just as good.  If you can't stand mushrooms though, you can use chicken... I guess.

Mushroom Wild Rice Soup

Serves: 10

Ingredients: 

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 lb chopped mushrooms (I used baby bella, white, and shitake)

1 medium onion, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups vegetable broth

2 cups whole milk

2 cups chopped carrots

1 cup chopped celery

4-5 cups cooked wild rice

6 oz white wine (optional)

1/2 cup slivered almonds

 

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup whole milk

1 cup veggie broth

Directions:

Cook mushrooms, onion and garlic in olive oil in a large pan over medium heat until mushrooms are tender, add white wine and cook down about 3 minutes. 

Transfer to a large soup pot and add 2 cups veggie broth, carrots and celery. Simmer until veggies are tender.

In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium heat and add flour, whisk until foamy.  Add 1 cup whole milk and 1 cup of veggie broth, turn heat to high just until it boils and turn town to simmer until thick and creamy. Add this to the soup pot.

  dd cooked wild rice and heat to desired temperature adding whole milk until soup reaches desired consistency.

Add slivered almonds before serving.(I toasted mine too, they were delicious!)

Mushroom Ragu

While on our honeymoon, Nick and I had a mushroom pasta dish in Italy that was amazing and I've been trying to figure out how to make it ever since.  It was almost like Bolognese, which had beef and veal... brings a tear to my eye. 

Anyway, I found this recipe for Mushroom Ragu from Giada, which looked similar to what we had in Italy, so I gave it a shot.  It turned out really good, nothing like the one in Italy, I'll have to keep trying, but the fresh ingredients are a nice touch to this dish.  The flat leaf parsley at the grocery store looked nasty, so I used the other kind, which is very pungent, so I'd stick with the flat.  Enjoy!

Mushroom Ragu

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound mixed mushrooms (cremini, oyster, shiitake, baby bella) chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup Marsala

2 cups vegetable broth

1/3 cup heavy cream (I used whole milk)

5 fresh basil leaves, chopped

1/4 cup flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped

1/2 to 3/4 cup grated Parmesan

Directions:

In a large skillet heat the oil. When almost smoking, add the onions and garlic over medium-low heat until the onions have wilted, about 8 minutes. Add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Raise heat to high and saute until mushrooms are tender and all the liquid has evaporated. Remove pan from heat and pour in Marsala. Return pan to stove and allow wine to evaporate, about 3 minutes. Add vegetable broth and simmer for 1/2 hour until the sauce has reduced by half. Add heavy cream and mix well. Take the pan off the heat and add the fresh herbs and Parmesan and mix thoroughly. 

Apple Tea!

Fall is my absolute favorite season of all.  And we haven't experienced fall and the changing of the seasons in years... so I'm extremely excited for fall this year. 

Fall time means apple season, and apple season means apple festivals.  I remember going to the Bayfield Apple Festival in Bayfield, WI when I was younger.  We'd get up early, the mornings were cool, we'd drive for a few hours on country roads surrounded by colorful trees, the drive alone was an amazing experience.  Then we'd arrive in Bayfield and there would be apples everywhere.  They would sell apple bratwurst, apple dumplings, apple pie, apple cobbler, apple sauce, apple butter, apple everything!  I loved going home with loads of apples (and cranberries too!).

Since I loved that festival so much, I found one that we could go to in Cincinnati and it happened to be yesterday.  Nick and I arrived with empty bellies and apples on our mind.  Unfortunately, this festival did not meet our high expectations.  We got there and the only food was deep fried nasty fair food.  They had a few apple dumplings, but they didn't look good at all.  We ended up staying only an hour, but we did get a small load of apples and an apple candle, which kept us happy.  After the festival, we went out for Sushi.  That definitely made things better. 

Today, I woke up raring to make some apple delights with all of the apples we got.  I had planned on making apple pie french toast casserole, but the bread at the grocery store is nasty, so I'll have to make my own and get back to you.  I did make this wonderful Turkish Apple Tea though and it is so yummy!  I like apple cider, but it's so full of sugar and I wanted something more mild.  This tea is supposed to boost your metabolism and help you lose weight.  Not that that was the selling point for me, I think it was the 4 ingredients, though I didn't have whole cloves... oops. Instead of whole cloves, I used about a tablespoon of ground cloves.  I do NOT recommend this.  It's too "clovey" and turned the tea brown.  Next time I'll just skip the cloves and use the cinnamon stick.  Anyway, here is the recipe! Enjoy!

Turkish Apple Tea

Ingredients:

2 Apples (I used McIntosh)

1 medium sized orange

1 cinnamon stick

2 whole cloves

4-5 cups water

Directions:

Cut the apples and orange in 4's, leaving the seeds and skins/peal on.  Place all ingredients into a large sauce pot and bring to a boil.  Turn down to simmer and let simmer until the fruit is tender.  Strain through a fine mesh strainer, pushing the juices out.  Serve hot.  You may add a tsp of honey if you like your tea sweet. 

Eggplant Parmesan Panini (on homemade focaccia bread!)

I love Eggplant Parmesan!  And these sandwiches are awesome.  Nick and I talked about how much we loved these the whole time we were eating them.  Nothing like a good hot sandwich on a cold day.  To top it off, I made them on home made focaccia bread. Click Here for focaccia bread recipe.

Eggplant Parmesan Paninis
Serves: 4

Ingredients:

4 slices of homemade focaccia bread

1 small eggplant cut about 1/2 inch thick circles

2 ounces of creamy goat cheese

2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for frying

1 medium tomato, sliced thin

6 slices of fresh mozzarella

1 cup panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup flour

1 egg, beaten

Directions:

Bread the eggplant by dipping it into the flour, egg, and then panko crumbs. Pour a little olive oil in the bottom of a fry pan and lightly fry over low to medium heat till crispy, about 4-5 minutes each side.

For the goat cheese spread, mix together goat cheese, basil, and olive oil until it becomes a creamy spread. 

To assemble the sandwiches, spread goat cheese on one side, top with eggplant, tomato, and mozzarella cheese.  Spray the bottom of a fry pan with olive oil and head the sandwich on both sides until it becomes toasty.  (If you have a fancy panini pan, you may use that, but for us old fashioned people, we just smash it down with the back of a spatula).

So easy! and the goat cheese just adds so much flavor to these. Enjoy!