Fun with Pumpkin Pie

My four-year-old decided we should make pumpkin pie.  Good idea.  The kids had fun scooping out the seeds and then we baked our pumpkin.  I wasn't too concerned about making a delicious pie, it was just a fun family activity.  Of course I didn't have any evaporated milk on hand, so I googled a recipe for pumpkin pie without evaporated milk (thanks to my husband for explaining to me how to search with a negative symbol.)  Guess what.  The pie was delicious!  So, I thought I'd share the recipe, because next time I make pumpkin pie, I'm going to use this recipe!

I didn't bother to fuss with the crust; I just let the kids make a pat-in-the-pan crust.  Our pumpkin made 2+ cups of pumpkin puree and I just used it all, even though it was a bit more than the recipe called for.  Also, the baking time was significantly increased from the recipes instructions, by perhaps 20 minutes.

Monkey Bread

AnnMarie inspired me to make monkey bread.  I haven't made it in the past because it "requires" so much artificial stuff.  Per AnnMarie's inspiration, I made my own bread dough in the bread machine and let the kids roll it into balls and dip it in cinnamon-sugar.  This kept them busy for awhile!  Then we poured the butter-sugar on it baked it.  Yum!  Whole wheat dough was a much better option that store-bought refrigerator dough, in my opinion.

AnnMarie suggests that this is a delicious "breakfast, snack, dessert or potluck dish", but I'm sure that if you make it 100% whole wheat, you can serve it for dinner too.

Freezer Beans

In the coming weeks months, I hope to share some of my freezer friendly recipes.  So here's the beginning.  Well, actually the beginning was the Freezer Fries recipe a couple posts ago.  Those are fabulous.  Next up, beans.

I was inspired by Once a Month Mom's refried black bean recipe.  So I made it.  But, of course, I changed a few things, well, most things.  Here's my version....

One pound of black beans
1/2 to 1 medium onion, finely chopped
Garlic, a bunch, maybe half of a bulb or so
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper


1.  Rinse and soak beans overnight.  In the morning, drain and rinse.
2.  Put beans in crockpot with onion, garlic, salt and pepper.
3.  Cover with about 3 3/4 cups water.  Add more water if needed during cooking.
4.  Cook on low for several hours until beans are easily mashed.  Mash to desired consistency with your preferred kitchen gadget.  If the consistency is too liquid, cook on high, uncovered for a bit more time.
5.  Divide into two quart-sized freezer bags and freeze.
6.  To serve, thaw and reheat on the stove

I like to serve these with Lynn's Mexican Rice.  I follow that recipe, mostly.

Notes on Breadmaking

Many things affect the outcome of homemade bread.  A great recipe is a good start.

A mountain is also helpful.  Bread grows well at high altitude.  I happen to be blessed to live at high altitude.  If you have the choice between baking bread on the beach or the mountain, choose the mountain.  But, you probably don't have a choice.

Another useful ingredient is high protein wheat flour.  The protein in wheat, called gluten, is what forms the unique structure of bread, the matrix filled with millions of tiny air pockets.  Simply look at the ingredient label to learn the grams of protein per serving.  I use whole wheat flour that has 6 grams of protein per 1/4 cup serving.  Your bread flour may be labeled "red" or "white."  Red equals higher protein.  My favorite flour is called Bronze Chief by Wheat Montana, available inexpensively at Wal-Mart.

Recipe. Mountain. Flour.



Disclaimer:  Free advertising for both Wheat Montana and Wal-Mart.

Freezer Fries

Recently, my mom came to visit and we always try to get some productive tasks accomplished when she's here.  One of our tasks was to fill our freezer with prepared food.  She volunteered to wash, peel, and chop 20# of potatoes!  Here's our recipe for homemade french fries right out of the freezer.

Wash and peel potatoes.  Dice and slice into desired sizes.

If you are dealing with a large amount of potatoes, keep your dices and slices in a bowl of water to prevent browning.

Blanch potatoes in boiling water until tender enough to pierce with a fork but not mushy.  Do not overcook!  We simmered dices for about 7 minutes and fries for about 5 minutes.  Depends on how big you cut your potatoes.

Next, submerge blanched potatoes in cold water to prevent further cooking.
Pat potatoes dry or lay on a towel.

Line baking sheets with wax paper (or maybe parchment paper?) and place potatoes on in a single layer.

After potatoes are frozen, place in freezer safe container of choice.

To cook, preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Take potatoes directly from freezer and toss with oil and seasoning, if desired.  Place oiled potatoes on baking pan and bake until desired crispness.  We use 20-25 minutes.

100% Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls

I needed a new recipe for 100% whole wheat dinner rolls.

Here's what I found. (I omit the 1 tsp gluten.)

Fabulous.

Works every time.

Makes great loaves of bread too.

Love it!

Filling the Freezer

One of the thing I love about OAMC cooking, is at the end of the day, something productive got done!  You know, instead of those days when everything is falling apart at the end of the day and you can't even name one productive thing that was physically accomplished.  None of that with cooking day!  You can lay out all your goods at the end of the day and see with your own eyes what was accomplished.  Love it!

Recently, my mom came to visit, so we took advantage of the extra pair of hands and spent a day filling the freezer.  We even got just a bit of prep time the day before.  Mom watched the kids and my husband and I worked in the kitchen.  He makes fabulous muffins!  The baby enjoyed some time in my sling and other times sat with Grandma.  Of course, I took breaks to nurse him too.

So, here's what we got done:  one pan of homemade granola, a double batch of oatmeal pancakes, two meals of enchilada bake, two meals of vegetarian crustless pot pie (this was an experiment), three meals of refried black beans and Spanish rice (to put in tortillas or whatever), a quadruple batch of "Balls," 6 batches of waffles, 8 meals worth of vegan burgers, 8 meals worth of soup, and almost a gross of muffins!

The freezer is FULL!

Cooking Day Success!

7:55am: French toast casserole goes in the oven.

Then I had to finish cleaning up the kitchen from last night.  :)

8:20am: Put the pizza crust in the bread maker.

8:30am: Get chicken and red beans cooking on the stove.  Chop vegetables.

9:00am: Mix dry ingredients for waffles and muffins.

9:25am: Cut up cooked chicken.

9:35am: Make pizza rolls ups (oops--forgot the cheese in the BBQ chicken roll up!) and wild rice soup.  Discover that my largest pot does not hold a double batch of wild rice soup.  Oh well, I make do.

10:30am: 1 Large bowl of wild rice soup cooling; 2 pizza roll ups in the freezer, 2 French toast casseroles in the freezer and 2 cooling; the red beans are still cooking as they ought to be.  Time to put dinner in the crock pot!

10:35am: Time for a break, that blueberry French toast casserole looks so yummy!

11:00am: Start making red bean and quinoa chili and muffins.

11:45am:  Do a few dishes while waiting for the chili to finish.

12:15pm: Chili is cooking, muffins are in the oven (need to keep the muffins going!) and time for some lunch.

After lunch: Make bean burritos.  Not sure how these will appear when they come out of the freezer as the tortillas fell apart while I was rolling them.  I think they'll taste good; just might be a mess!

2:05pm: Burritos done.  Last of the muffins are in the oven.  Time to start on the spaghetti and waffles.

4:05pm: Food is done!  Dishes are done!  The only thing left is to sweep and mop the floor!

In about 8 hours....4 pans of French toast casserole, 5 dozen muffins, 2 batches of waffles, 3 meals of wild rice soup, 2 meals of red bean and quinoa chili, 1 meal of pizza roll ups, 3 meals of spaghetti, 10 burritos, and dinner in the crock pot!


Overall, the day went far better than I expected!  What I expected was to be scrambling at dinner time and then have about two hours of dishes to clean up after it was all done!  I mostly stuck with my written plan for the day, making just a few changes as I went.  I was surprised that I really didn't generate too many dishes!  And, I was able to wash a few here and there, so they weren't piled high at the end of cooking day!

I feel good about what got done today and I have to brag on my honey a little bit too.  Do you know what he did today?  In addition to caring for our two littles, he....

• Worked on next month's budget.
• Figured out that we still have a warranty on our breaking blender and sent an email to the company.
• Replaced the broken belt in our vacuum cleaner.
• Scrubbed the shower and the toilets.
• Did a couple loads of laundry.

Seriously impressive.

OAMC--Cooking Day Menu

My family will need some food while I spend the day in the kitchen, so here's my plan for them. 

Breakfast: Cold cereal
Snack: Crackers and cheese
Lunch: PBJ, baby carrots, bananas
Snack: whatever granola bars/crackers are on sale when I go to the store
Dinner: Crockpot Creamy Italian Chicken with broccoli over quinoa, salad or green smoothies

The kids can eat at their play table in the living room or we can all sit on the floor.  I'm trying to keep the kitchen off limits to everyone except me!  Oh yes, and we'll be using paper/plastic ware, although maybe I'll allow real silverware for dinner.

OAMC--Recipe List

I've decided to give once-a-month-cooking a try.  It will be an adventure, I'm sure!  I've read lots of planning tips from Once a Month Mom.  I've also enjoyed reading some recipes from Freeze Happy.  So, here is my recipe list for cooking day.  It includes vegan, vegetarian, and omni recipes.  I'm okay with that.  It includes new recipes and tried and true recipes.  This won't suffice for the whole month, but I'm a newbie, so this is what I'm going to start with and we'll see how much time it takes and how long our meals last.

Breakfast/Snacks
Apple French Toast Casserole
Blueberry French Toast Casserole
Banana Brownie Waffles
Banana Pumpkin Muffins
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Main Dishes
Red Bean and Quinoa Chili
Wild Rice Soup
Bean Burritos
Baked Spaghetti
Pizza Roll Ups