Pumpkin Yogurt

Ok, here is a little extra recipe for you all that will come in handy if you pureed your own pumpkin this year. Each fall I look forward to the day that I make this recipe for the simple fact that it is delicious, mouth watering, and perfect in every way.


Pumpkin Yogurt, also called pumpkin spread or pumpkin butter, can be used for a variety of things. My son eats it as a side dish or snack. I slather it onto hearty toasted bread and have my middle of the day tea break with it.
Peace. Pumpkin. Perfection.

Here is what you need:
One cup of pureed pumpkin
One cup of vanilla yogurt
One cup of powdered sugar
A sprinkle of pumpkin seasoning

All that you do is mix the above together until creamy and blended. Serve it plain as a yogurt or on toast.

MMMMM...I think I need some right now!

Wednesday: Super Grilled Cheese

This is a fun meal for our family because it provides options that give everyone a feeling of culinary creativity while being simple for us to make.

We use a variety of ingredients which I will list below, but you choose what sounds good to you.

Start with a really good bread.
We used Herb Cheese Bread from Great Harvest. YUM!

Load the bread with the following:
A Meat
A Cheese
A Spread
Veggies

Then, go ahead and grill until the bread is toasted and the cheese melted.


Here were our two best concoctions:

1. Turkey, Avocado, Tomato, Swiss Cheese with Raspberry Jam
2. Ham, Cheddar, Apple Slices, with apple butter and a smear of Dijon mustard

We served our sandwiches with cantaloupe and cottage cheese.

Bolga Baskets

Hello friends and readers,

I am taking a moment to give you a Christmas Gift idea!

Our family was blessed several years ago through the miracle of adoption when we brought home our first child, Samuel. We are going to be giving birth to our second child in the coming weeks and once again are feeling so fortunate as parents. We are also adopting again and although we began the process about a year ago, put it on a temporary hold until after Finn is born and we can find our equilibrium. We are still preparing and planning for this next adoption, which we hope will be continuing in the near future.

One of the adoption fundraisers that we have come to enjoy doing is the selling of fair trade Bolga Baskets from a cooperative in Ghana. They are beautiful and so fun!
You actually mold them yourself and they can be used for a variety of purposes in addition to being decorative. They are sustainable, made from elephant grass, natural plant dye, and goat hide by women and men in Ghana, Africa.

They make great Christmas gifts! To learn more about our basket sale please click here. And, as always if anyone has questions about international adoption please feel free to ask!

Thanks to all,

Katie (Tasty Green)

Chicken Shepards Pie

What you will need for this comfort food:

Chicken
Carrots
Peas
Corn
Various other veggies if you like: green beans, lima beans, etc
Half-n-Half (probably could use whole milk, but then would it be so sinfully creamy?)
Pie crust
Potatoes
Onion
Seasoning: Salt and Pepper, Paprika

What to do:

1. Slice up your carrots and begin to boil them.


2. Meanwhile, cut up your chicken bite sized. Place it into a pan with a little bit of olive oil, paprika, salt and pepper. Dice up an onion and cook it with the chicken.


3. Add the rest of your veggies to the same pot as the carrots. I used a bag of mixed veggies that I got for near free at the grocery this week. If you are using fresh they will take a bit longer to cook.


4. Peel and slice your potatoes, boil them and make some good old fashioned mashed potatoes. Set aside. (Tip: I used mashed potatos that I had frozen from a previous batch. They worked beautifully for this meal and alleviated an entire step!)

5. Get your pie crust ready (Mine is home made and frozen, nobody laugh at my terrible pie crust shaping!). I believe that store bought crust would be just fine. I know Sarah has used store bought before and made delicious meals with it. Bake it empty for about 20 minutes, until it is almost baked.




6. When your chicken is cooked through, add the half and half and a tablespoon of flour to it. You are making a gravy. Keeping adding the milk and flour until you have a creamy (not too thick!) gravy.




7. Add your DRAINED veggies to the gravy/chicken and mix all together. Taste it and see if it needs more seasoning. If so, add to taste.


8. Place your filling into the pie crust.


9. Take the mashed potatoes and put them on top rather than having a pie crust on top.


10. Bake for 10-15 more minutes to finish up that pie crust and warm through. Serve hot!


TIP~ when I make this I double the amount that I am going to need, which is very easy to do. I then place the leftover filling into a ziplock and freeze it. This makes an incredibly easy meal to throw together at a later date especially if you already have the crust and mashed potatoes ready too!

Meal Plan: November 9-13

Hi Friends,

I don't know if we have mentioned this, but both Sarah (Frugal Table) and Alisha (Out of the Box) have had their babies. Now, they both have three darlings each. For a little while it will be just me posting but they will be back soon. Yea!
I am nine months along and still waddling around the kitchen just fine, so for now I will keep posting.

Here is the meal plan for our house this week.

Monday: Chicken Shepard Pie
Grocery List~ Chicken breast
Half-n-Half
Peas, Carrots, Corn, Onion
Potatoes
Pie Crust

Tuesday: Fancy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Grocery List~ Whole Wheat Bread
Lunch Meat
Cheese
Spread of choice
Veggies/Fruit of choice: tomato, avocado, onion, apples,etc
For example: if we use ham then we use apple butter, if we use turkey then we use raspberry jam. This takes a basic grilled sandwich and pumps it up!


Wednesday: Orange Soy Pork Chops, Roasted Potatoes, Green Beans, and Apple Sauce
Grocery List~ Pork Chops
Orange Juice or Fresh Orange
Soy Sauce
Potatoes
Green Beans (fresh is best!)
Apples

Thursday: Meatball Sandwiches and Salad
Grocery List~ French bread
Marinara Sauce
Meatballs (I am using leftover meatballs from a previous posted dish)
Mozzarella cheese

Friday: Out to Eat, the weekend is here!!!


Extra: Rethinking Deserts

Pumpkin Seeds (Pepitas!)

Now that you have baked, skinned,and pureed your pumpkin AND it is tucked away in your freezer for awaiting to be made into something delicious what can you do with those leftover seeds and goop?

Well, take the goop and gross out your kids for a moment. :)
Then, compost it so that it can help make rich soil for your garden.

Here is a simple treat you can make with the seeds: Pepitas!


Step One: Rinse the seeds and get as much goop off of them as you can. I use a strainer, my fingers and some water. It is pretty easy to do.

Step Two: Lay the seeds out on a baking sheet and let them dry OVERNIGHT. They need to be dried out.

Step Three: Sprinkle them with olive oil and some seasoning. I use a bit of salt and pepper, but people use all sorts of things. I have a friend that makes them spicy with cayanne pepper.

Step Four: Bake the seasoned seeds at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes, or until crispy and beautifully tanned.


If you don't want to make pepitas you can always plant your pumpkin. Last year my mother planted her pumpkin and it began to grow as it should come spring time. My sister (a full grown adult!) came running into the house announcing that she had just picked a watermelon from the garden. She was proud, ecstatic, eager to dig into her freshly harvested watermelon. Yea~ it was the pumpkin. :)

Making Pumpkin Puree

Here in our community there is a shortage of canned pumpkin. I think that this may be the case in a lot of places as I have seen articles on the subject recently. I don't know if anyone is actually in a panic and raising havoc on local grocery stores, but I find the whole idea of a canned pumpkin crisis a little funny. Mostly, because it is incredibly easy to make your own and frankly it tastes way better than canned.

Here is what you need:

PUMPKINS (smaller ones tend to be less watery, although you can use larger ones too).
Ziploc bags

Here is what to do:

1. Cut your pumpkin in half.
2. Scoop the goop out of both halves. (Save the seeds for pepitas!)
3. Using your knife cut the pumpkin into smaller pieces. It matters not how small or what shape. My pieces usually look a bit like big pie slices.
4. Place them onto a baking pan and plop them skin side down into the oven at 375 for about 45 minutes.
5. Let them cool.
6. Peel the skin right off with your fingers or use a spoon to scoop out the tender cooked pumpkin.
7. Place into a food processor and turn on. When the pumpkin is puree a few seconds later it is finished. It if is really dry you may want to add just a hint of water.
If it is really watery you may want to drain some out.
8. Place into ziplocks bags and store in your freezer for when you need pumpkin.
9. Now, pat yourself on the back because those signs announcing a pumpkin puree shortage will mean nothing to you for you are self-sufficient!!


And, you ask....What can you do with pumpkin puree?

Oh my word~

There is pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, pumpkin butter, a whole world of orange deliciousness awaits.