Pumpkin Spice Latte

Fall is in full force, which means it is officially pumpkin spice season! Here’s a simple recipe to make yourself at home.

Pumpkin Spice Latte (large batch)

Ingredients

• 1 can pumpkin
• 12 cups strong coffee (see directions)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Brew coffee – 1 cup of grounds for 12 cup water
2. Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl or crockpot. Using a hand blender, blend the pumpkin into the liquid to make a thicker, frothy consistency
3. Serve warm immediately
4. If you decide to store this for later, be sure to shake it well before serving as the spices and pumpkin will settle

 

Homemade bread

We’ve been making homemade bread for years. Typically we would make it in the breadmaker, but since moving to Colorado we’ve noticed the  bread doesn’t turn out nearly as well since were baking at altitude. Jason searched for a number of bread recipes and after about half a dozen trials I think he’s come up with a winner.

Mile High Homemade Bread 

Makes 2 standard loaves

Ingredients:

• 1 package of yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
• 2 1/4 cup warm water (110-115F)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 3 1/4 cups bread flour 

Directions

1. Activate the yeast by adding it and the sugar to the warm water. Stir and let sit 5 minutes. 
2. Add the oil, salt and activated yeast to your stand mixer bowl with a dough blade. Add the flour and mix/knead  for 5 minutes. If you don’t have a stand mixer you can do this the old fashioned way in a bowl with your hands 🙂
3. Remove from bowl and place in a lightly oiled oil. Cover and place in a draft free location for 1 hr
4. Punch down and split in half. Place each half in a lightly oiled bread pan. 
5. Let rise 30-40 min until doubled in size. 
6. Preheat oven to 375F. Bake for 30-35 minutes. 

 

Fresh Asian Salad

Finally a short day! I have been on service for the past 8 weeks. That’s 560 hours of work in 8 weeks – basically what most people work in 16 weeks. Needless to say I wasn’t complaining when I got done at 3pm today. So, I figured I’d celebrate by hanging out with my little man Eli and make some fresh, delicious food. This salad was inspired by a recent post over at NaturallyElla.com.  Enjoy!

Fresh Asian Salad

(Inspired by Naturally Ella’s Carrot Spring Rolls)

 
Ingredients

• 1 small head of purple cabbage, shredded
• 6 medium carrots, shredded
• 1 small bunch of scallions, chopped
• 4 ounces rice noodles
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Tamari Soy Sauce
• 3 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 3 tsp sugar
• 3 tsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup crushed cashews
• 1/8 cup sesame seeds

Directions

1. Shred the cabbage and carrots (I used a food processor and it took a whole 5 minutes). Add chopped scallions.
2. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Turn heat off and add 4 oz rice noodles. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Once finished, drain water and rinse with cold water. 
3. In a small bowl, add vinegar, oils, Tamari, garlic powder, and sugar. Whisk well. Pour over the vegetables and stir well. 
4. Add rice noodles, cashews, and sesame seeds to the vegetable mixture. Stir well. 
5. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Serve cooled. Enjoy!

 

The 50 Healthiest Foods of All Time (With Recipes)

 

CSA Week #15

This week’s box is minimal prep. This is great for J because I won’t be home next until the 27th. While it is  a long stretch, once I am home I get to stay there for 6 months!!!! That is the longest in 2 years, so I am pretty excited 🙂 This will be a brief post and I am may be a little MIA the next few weeks as I prep for my neuro shelf exam. When I’m done, apples will be in full swing and I can’t wait! Fall is by far my favorite time of the year. Here’s what J will be up to this week.

What’s in the box this week:

• Butternut Squash
  • Save for later
• Beets
  • Roast and slice; eat on salads this week
• Bell Peppers
  • Sautee up for tacos this week
• Carrots
  • Cut and eat as a snack (with baba ghanouj from last week)
• Cucumbers
  • Slice and eat as a snack (with baba ghanouj from last week)
• Eggplant
  • Roast and freeze
• Green Beans
  • Roast with leeks; serve with roast, and parsley bread
• Herbs-Parsley & Thyme
  • hang thyme to dry
  • Parsley bread (similiar to this recipe)
• HoneyCrisp Apples
  • Eat as a snack
• Leeks
  • Roast with green beans; serve with roast and parsley bread
• Purple Cabbage
  • Sauerkraut (or at least attempt to make it….)
• Sugarsnap Peas
  • Eat as s snack
• Tomatoes
  • Serve with tacos this week and on salads
• Watermelon
  • Cut up and eat as a snack

Summary

Snacking foods (just wash and cut as needed):

• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Apples
• Watermelon

To roast

• Beets
• Green beans with leeks
• Eggplant

Taco toppings

• Tomatoes
• Bell peppers

To preserve

• Cabbage 

 

A month of grilling

Last year J and I got a new gas grill. We have always used charcoal (a little Smokey Joe actually), but didn’t grill as often as we would like since charcoal takes so long to warm up. We finally had space for a full-size grill at our house, so we decided to splurge and get a nice full-size gas grill.

When the weather starts to warm up it is a great opportunity to get out and grill. Gas grills are ready in a matter of minutes and there is no need to worry about heating up the house anymore than mother nature already has. To save money and get some use out of our new grill, we have decided to grill all of our meat for the month of June. Delish.com had a great slide show with 18 different grilled meat recipes that I went through to decide what we would make for the month. There was also a page with 21 grilled vegetable recipes that you should check out as well. Stay tuned for new recipes all month long!

 

Recipe Update

I am sure you all were pleasantly surprised to find so many new recipes in the last few months. In fact, there were so many that Jason has some catching up to do! Because of this (and the fact that I am wrapping up an extra stressful block in the next week), there might be a little delay in the next few posts. No worries…more recipes to come!

 

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins

These are super easy muffins I found on GreenLiteBites  and they taste delicious fresh out of the oven. They contain no flour, so if you have celiac disease/gluten intolerance, you could make these with gluten-free oats. Since they are so dense and moist, if you don’t eat them within a few days I would put them in the refrigerator. They taste the best warm.

original recipe: http://greenlitebites.com/2010/10/10/pumpkin-oatmeal-cups

Ingredients

• 15 oz can pumpkin
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 3 cups old fashion or rolled oats
• 1 TBSP pumpkin pie spice
• splash of vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup brown sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Mix all ingredients together and let sit while you prepare the muffin pans
3. Spray muffin pan or liners with non-stick spray
4. Divide batter into 16+ muffin tins (they should be pretty full)
5. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until the edges are brown and the top is firm
6. Let cool 5 minutes before removing from pan or they might rip