Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I was flabbergasted when I looked through my recipes to find I didn't have one for pumpkin chocolate chip MUFFINS. I have one for cookies and bread, but now I have one for muffins. (I realize I could've used the bread recipe but I wanted to try something new.) I found this recipe (it's a keeper!) from allrecipes.com

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins 

12 servings, 197 calories each

Ingredients:

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

3/4 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup water

11/2 cup flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2-1 cu semisweet chocolate chips 

Directions: 
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.

2. Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt. Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.

3. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

peanut butter snack bites

I was given this recipe from a close family member. She suggested them as a quick, healthy after-school snack. I whipped them up and they are DELICIOUS!

Peanut Butter Snack Bites

Yield 15-16 goodies

88 calories each (!)

1 cup oats (I used quick oats)

1/3 c honey

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/8 c (or 2 T) ground flax meal, optional

1/3 cup chocolate chips

Mix oats, honey, peanut butter and flax meal, then stir in chocolate chips. Use a small cookie scoop to scoop and place on a cookie sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.  Refrigerate until ready to eat.

favorite meals for the WHOLE family

Sometimes I wish I had a list of the recipes our WHOLE family likes. Now I do. :) I hope this list will continue to grow.

Alice Springs Chicken
Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos
Baked Ravioli
Beef Stroganoff
Braided Pizza Loaf
Cafe Rio Chicken or Pork
Chicken Milan
Creamy Chicken Casserole
Crockpot Chicken Teriyaki
Crockpot Mac & cheese

Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu

French toast, scrambled eggs and bacon
Grilled hot dogs & tangy hamburgers
Guiltless fettuccine Alfredo with chicken
Hard boiled eggs
Honey Mustard & Bacon Smothered Chicken
Lasagne Soup

Lemon Rosemary chicken with sweet potatoes
Mozzarella Ham Stromboli
Paleo chicken tenders

Pap's Baked Chicken Legs
(our best bites) Pizza dough -> Homemade pizza
Pizza Hut pan pizza
Priest Lake Lasagne
Roast Beef, mashed potatoes and gravy
Roasted red potatoes & pearl onions

Skillet Mac & Cheese

Three-cheese Chicken & Penne
Ultimate Spaghetti & Meatballs

This list does NOT include almost all of the cookies, bars and brownies we ALL love, but those aren't MEALS so they're not on this list. ;) 

Low- carb (Paleo/primal) meals

As I "try" and meal plan each month I'm always wishing I had a master list of all of our low-carb meals. I always come us short when I think about which ones we like. So, I sat down and went through all my recipes and made up this list. This is REALLY going to come in handy. Maybe you'll glean some gems from this too.

Most of these recipes can be found on my Recipes page, or they'll be posted there soon.

Snacks-

*Roasted garlic chickpeas

Breakfast-

Baked Ham and egg cups 

Spinach bacon and mushroom crust less quiche 

Ham and cheese quiche 

Boiled or fried eggs 

Lunch-

Broiled chicken with green salad

- pear pomegranate salad

- winter green salad

Berry kiwi salad with mint lime dressing 

Dinner-

Chicken and bacon crockpot chowder

Italian sausage and mushroom bake 

Paleo Maryland crab cakes 

Paleo chicken tenders 

Herb roasted crockpot chicken 

Slow cooker 20 garlic chicken 

Slow cooker roast beef or pot roast

Steak

Roasted Salmon, red onion and fennel

Crockpot chicken teriyaki

Cilantro lime chicken tacos 

Cafe rio chicken 

Cafe rio pork 

Alice springs chicken 

Roasted red potatoes and pearl onions 

Baked sweet potatoes

Roasted asparagus 

Sautéed chicken and mushrooms 

Chicken DaVinci (sans noodles)

Pork & sauerkraut

Stir-fry sesame chicken and asparagus

Chicken tortillas soup

Taco soup

Lemon Rosemary chicken with sweet potatoes

Pioneer woman's beef stew 

Cauli pizza

Grilled taco chicken 

Paps baked chicken legs 

White bean chicken chili 

Italian style shrimp

Sweet potato fries 

Cauli rice

Some carbs-

Easy chicken cordon bleu 

Lighter sesame chicken 

Fiesta fajitas

Peanut Butter Snack Bites

{pioneer woman} beef stew

I was craving a nice Beef Stew. I haven't really ventured out for this much before. I found this recipe in one of my newer cookbooks. The Pioneer Woman always has wonderful recipes. The one is a keeper! Beef Stew recipe? Check!

THE PIONEER WOMAN'S BEEF STEW

Average beef stew is, well, average. But good beef stew is out of this world, as evidenced by the joy you'll experience while chowing down on this dang delicious version.

Ingredients:
3 T olive oil
1 T butter
2 pounds beef stew meat
1 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 can or bottle of beer 14 oz beef broth
4 cups beef broth
1 T Worcestershire sauce
2 T tomato paste
1/2 t paprika
1 1/2 t. sugar
1/2 t. kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
4 new potatoes, quartered
4 carrots, unpeeled, roughly sliced
2 T all-purpose flour
minced parsley, for garnish (optional)
crusty bread, for serving

Directions:

1. Start by heating the olive oil and butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Throw in the stew meat and quickly brown it on all sides, about 5 minutes. Remove the meat to a clean plate and set aside.
2. Throw the onion into the pot, then reduce the heat to low. Stir the onion around to cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Then throw in the garlic and stir it around to cook for a minute. Pour in all the beef broth, add the Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, paprika, sugar, salt and pepper.
3. Finally, return the meat to the pot, cover it, and simmer the stew over very low heat for 1.5 - 2 hours, or until the meat is very tender. If the liquid level gets too low, add 1-2 cups hot water as needed. 
4. Add the potatoes and carrots to the pot. Stir them in and continue simmering for 30 minutes more or until the vegetables are tender.
5. To thicken the stew, remove 1 cup of the cooking liquid and whisk in the flour. Pour the flour mixture into the pot and simmer for an additional 1- minutes, or until the stew is very thick. Add parsley at the end if desired.
6. Dish it up and serve it with crusty bread and a very, very hearty appetite.

Slight short-cut: This was my FIRST time making this stew (and it's a keeper!). I didn't read through the recipe closely enough. I didn't realize the meat had to simmer for 1.5+ hours, BEFORE I add the potatoes. Once I figured that out I finished dicing my potatoes, then put them in a bowl, covered them in cold water and put them in the fridge. I added then in @ Step 4. Magically, they only took about 20 minutes to cook and I didn't have to thicken the stew at all; adding the potatoes took care of it. Pretty nice! I think I'll do that same thing next time too. :) Beef stew may not LOOK very pretty, but MAN is it delicious!

Note: Stew freezes beautifully.

Moose Track Cookies

We were preparing for our summer vacation trip and I was looking for some "countdown to vacation" ideas. I found these Moose Track Cookies and thought they were pretty cute. I gave them a try, but I made my own variation. I combined this recipe and this recipe. Here's what I came up with.

MOOSE TRACK COOKIES
2 recipes combined by Me

TIP: When baking, it's important to lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cups and then level with a knife. It's particularly important in this recipe, directly scooping out the flour with a measuring cup will result in dry, crumbly dough.

Ingredients:
 1 c. real butter, no substitutes!
1 c. sugar
1 egg, extra large
1 1/2 t. almond extract (you could use vanilla instead- which I always use)
3 c. flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 T. cocoa powder
1 t. butter, melted
Caramels, cut into small pieces (I used the Kraft caramel bites, like chocolate chip-sized)

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar until light & fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in egg and the extract and mix to incorporate.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk to combine. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.
3. Divide the cookie dough into 2 parts. Mix the cocoa powder and butter. Add cocoa butter mixture for ONE of the cookie dough parts and mix in. Now chill your dough.
4. To make the chilling and cutting process easier, roll the dough 1/4" thick between 2 sheets of parchment paper. Lay the sheet of dough flat on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes or place in the freezer for 15 minutes.
5. Cut cookies in circles (I use one of my glass cups) and place on parchment-lined baking sheet. The cocoa sugar cookie dough should be cut with a smaller circle than the sugar cookie dough (I use a smaller glass cup). (The cocoa dough will be the hoof mark of the moose track cookie.) Cut the cocoa dough circles in half. Place about 4-5 caramel bits on top of the sugar cookie and press down slightly. Then, place the cocoa halves on top of the caramel bits.
6.  Bake in preheated 350* oven for 8-12 minutes on ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheet. For soft cookies, bake 8-10 minutes or until just set. For lightly crisp cookies, bake 10-13 minutes, or unti the edges are golden brown. If you're making large cookies, or ones with small parts or heavy frosting, you wil want to be careful because they might break when they're super soft,
7. When the desired doneness is reached, allow to cool on the pans for about 5 minutes and then transfer to the cooling racks and let the cookies cool completely. 

Yield: 3 dozen 2-3" cookies

{menu plan} September 2015

School is in session and we're getting back in the groove of things. I've been cooking up a storm! Find these yummy recipes here, or coming soon to this blog!

Cafe Rio chicken atop salad

Alice springs chicken

Zesty green beans

{our best bites} baked fish sticks *

Crockpot Mac and cheese

Paps baked chicken legs

Congo Bars

{our best bites} chicken Caesar salad *

Baked sweet potatoes *

Crockpot chicken teriyaki

Cauli Pizza

Herb roasted chicken

{our best bites} roasted red potatoes and Pearl onions

{our best bites} weeknight chili (found in their Savoring the Seasons cookbook)

{our best bites} pear pomegranate salad

Tangy hamburgers

Grilled chicken

Three cheese chicken and penne

Alice springs chicken

Wet enchiladas

{our best bites} streusel-topped pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (found in their Savoring the Seasons cookbook)

Crockpot chicken teriyaki

Priest Lake Lasagne

Apple Crisp

{our best bites} baked creamy chicken taquitos

Ham & cheese quiche

* new recipe coming soon