Spicy Italian Pumpkin Harvest Soup

If you love pumpkin, and you love a dish with Heat, I am sure you will love this dish! 

Sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words, right? So I will not be writing up story to go along with this dish. :-)

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons of butter
• 1 cup of chopped onion
• 1 15 ounce can of pumpkin (or you can use fresh pureed if you have it on hand)
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced ( your choice, I am sure that sweet potatoes would go well in this dish. we used yukon gold, however next time I will try this recipe with the sweet!)
• 4 cups of chicken broth ( fresh homemade)
• 1/2 cup of Organic Heavy whipping cream ( or your choice of dairy substitute)
• 1/2 teaspoon of Cayenne pepper
• salt/ and pepper
• 1 to 2 tablespoons of chopped dry parsley

Directions:

Melt butter in a french oven. Add onion and saute for a two minutes. Add Pumpkin, and potato, cream and chicken broth/ Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat. Cook until potatoes are soft. Add spices, and salt and pepper. Transfer into a bowl, and puree soup. 

Serve and enjoy!

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Almond Butter Chocolate Cups

Portland Oregon does not snow, however this week we had our mix of flurries and sleet. Cold temperatures kept us in, and we did not have much on hand besides dark chocolate chips, and Almond butter. This recipe is pretty straight forward, and is very easy and quick to make.

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of Dark Chocolate chips
• 3 Tablespoons of Almond Butter, or nut butter of choice

Directions:

Melt 1/2 the bag of chocolate chips, and layer in silicon muffin cups. Place on a plate, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze for 15 to 20 minutes.

Once set, arrange about a teaspoon of butter in the middle, and then melt second half bag of the chocolate chips, and layer on top of the Almond nut butter spread. Once again, cover and freeze, for twenty minutes.

Serve and Enjoy!!

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Sun- Dried Tomato and Spinach Spaghetti

Generally, you can tell how much I love a recipe, by how many photos I take of it. Naturally, we are drawn to what we love the most, and want to preserve whatever it may be, for as long as we can. For me, it is this dish!


When I gave up pasta years ago, I found it very hard to substitute pasta with a vegetable, or fruit (spaghetti squash). In my mind there was no substitiution, so we avoided all forms of pasta, or had the occasional cheat. Recently, while in Denver visiting friends, I decided to give it a try, and fell in love with spaghetti squash. When cooked correctly, there are so many wonderful flavors and the texture of squash, that can bring out the flavor in any dish, and making the meal not only that much more healthier, but tastier. Squash will also fill you faster, and is not processed, and is a gluten free substitute.

Ingredients:

• 2 cup of sun-dried tomatoes
• 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms
• 1 3/4 cup of chicken broth
• 1/2 cup of Extra virgin Olive Oil
• 2 garlic cloves diced
• 1/2 tsp of Sea Salt
• 1 teaspoon of pepper
• 2 teaspoons of basil
• 9 ounces to 12 ounces of Fresh washed Spinach
• 1 medium Spaghetti Squash
• Goat Cheddar Cheese to garnish or crumbled goat cheese ( 4 ounces)
• Italian Parsley to garnish
• Add sliced chicken, seasoned with basil, pepper, and salt if desired…..

Directions:

Place the tomatoes in a small bowl, and fill with hot water, enough to cover the sun-dried tomatoes. Let sit for 5 minutes to soften. Saute, garlic in olive oil for two minutes and add mushrooms, continue to saute for 4 more minutes. Add tomatoes, and chicken broth, and spices. Heat on a medium- low for 8 more minutes, and then add spinach. Cook until spinach wilts, and remove from heat. 

At this point you can add the cheese of your desire and let it melt into the mixture. Goat crumble cheese would go lovely in this dish, as well.

Add mixture to Spaghetti Squash (recipe here). 

Serve and enjoy!!!

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Cinnamon Fruit Crumb Cake

Teasing me, in my freezer sat 3 bags of fresh picked raspberries, black berries, and blueberries, that had been picked at a local Oregon Farm this summer, by my daughters and I. No longer could I pass these amazing berries, calling me to bake them into something special.

 Although, we did have almond meal on hand, I decided to use Pamela's Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix, which is wheat free and gluten free. After two years of baking with Almond meal, I am opting to find other avenues to bake with, the Almonds are to harsh sometimes on our bellies, and now we are trying to find other baking substitutes. Coconut flour, is great, but it does not provide the texture that I was looking for on this special recipe.

Here is my gluten free crumb cake.

Ingredients:

Cake Filling

• 1 1/2 cup of Pamela's Baking Mix
• 3 Eggs
• 3/4  cup of Brown Sugar
• 2/3 cup of greek yogurt
• 1 tsp of Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 tsp of lemon zest
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon

Middle:

• 1 cup of blueberries ( defrosted, and rinsed)
• 1 cup of raspberries ( defrosted, and rinsed)
• 1 cup of blackberries ( defrosted, and rinsed)
• 2/3 cup of greek yogurt 

For topping

• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 1 stick of butter room temperature 
• 1/4 cup of Pamela's Ultimate Baking mix

Mix listed above ingredients for the Cake filling, in a medium size bowl. Butter a 12 x 9 stoneware baker. Spoon batter into bottom of the baker.

After defrosting berries, rinse and dry with paper towels if needed. Lay on top of the cake mixture, and top with the brown sugar topping. Topping mixture I just used a spoon to place in upon the berry mixture. Don't worry if it does not apply evenly, or look perfect right now, it will all melt beautifully while baking!

Bake at 350 degrees F, for 25 to 40 minutes. You will need to watch closely. Using a cake tester, bake until it comes out clean.

Serve and enjoy!!!

Up coming post!

Simple Bacon in a hurry

I love bacon. Fried bacon is delicious, but sometimes I don't have the time, and I get sick of dishes, and cleaning up the splattered messes of grease. Not to mention I really don't use bacon fat that much, so we are running out of containers to store our grease. So here is my bacon solution, which to me is new, but to most probably an old idea… Bake your bacon. You can pre-bake all your bacon for the week! It is less greasy, more crisp, easier to cut for salads, or omelets. Perfect for those weeks when you are in a hurry, and dont' have time to fry and clean all the mess that bacon grease leaves behind!

How to bake your bacon…

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

• You will need a large baking sheet, lined with foil on top.
• Place as much bacon as you can fit. If your baking sheet is flat, make sure to fold up the edges on all sides, so the bacon grease doesn't drip down onto the bottom of your oven.
• Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, until bacon looks brown, but not to crisp
• Let cool, and place between paper towels to soak up excessive grease, if you wish..

Serve and enjoy!!!!