Oatmeal Pumpkin Muffins

Will left for a somewhat long TDY yesterday morning, so I'm just going to be over here drowning my loneliness and sorrows in pumpkin puree. I first tried looking on Pinterest for a suitable oatmeal pumpkin recipe, but they all called for ingredients I didn't seem to have on hand. Instead, I decided to take Kate's recipe (that I make all the time) and substitute pumpkin for water and VOILA! Same delicious muffin, with just a hint of pumpkin flavor, to mix it up when I'm not making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. 

Speaking of Pinterest, every time I'd click on the recipe, I'd be all BLAH BLAH BLAH - GET TO THE RECIPE WOMAN!!!!! So without further ado . . . 

Ingredients: 

• 3 C oats
• 1 C pumpkin puree
• 1/2 C milk (of any kind!) 
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C coconut oil
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 1/2 C sugar
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 1 t cinnamon (or pumpkin spice)
• [Somewhat] OPTIONAL: 3/4 C chocolate chips

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350. Oil a muffin tin (I just used canola oil spray). Mix the oats, pumpkin puree, milk, eggs, vanilla, and oil. In a separate bowl mix the sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Combine. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake for 20ish minutes or until the tops begin to brown. Let cool a little in the pan (otherwise they do fall apart easily when hot).

Notables:

// I sometimes substitute maple syrup (+ 1/4 C flour) for the refined sugar.

// Make sure the coconut oil is soft, if not in liquid form. Otherwise it doesn't blend evenly into the muffins and you get weird chunks in your muffins. Ask me how I know.

// Toddlers go nuts for this jam (ooohh, I'm totally gonna try and add nuts next time…).

// I always set aside a few muffins without chocolate chips for little Will. (See below.)

The end.

If you need me, I'll be eating pumpkin pastries, pregnant-sobbing, binging on Call the Midwife while the hubs is away. :D

Fall Recipe Roundup

There's just something about Fall that makes me want to spend all day in the kitchen. Part of it is probably that Will can happily occupy himself while I am either cooking or doing dishes. Sadly, he mysteriously does not behave this way when I am sitting at a computer.

PicMonkey had mustache graphics and I just could not resist.

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite fall recipes that keep the oven toasty during the cooler months.

Tyler Florence's Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

First off, I'm always roasting chicken. I use the meat for various recipes throughout the week and then make my own chicken stock. It's THE BEST.

Then, I use the Tyler Florence recipe, only I use about 12 cups of chicken stock, the whole bag of noodles (12 oz.) and about 4 stalks each of carrot and celery.

You can never make too much chicken noodle soup.

Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pot Roast

When I was pregnant with Will, I would buy the little individual serving bottles of wine just for this recipe, and then finish off the last bit of it as a treat to myself. Nowadays, I'm sure the big bottles will do just fine.

Cream Cheese Chicken Chili via To the Heights

We had this last night because I dropped the ball and forgot to take chicken out of the freezer to thaw. I cut her recipe in half and we still have enough leftovers for Will to have lunch the next day. Her double-sized recipe is just a little too much creamy goodness for our Crockpot.

Easy Bread via Romancing Reilly

I make this bread all the time. I break down the recipe into thirds to make an individual loaf fresh each time we want some. The triple batch is just TOO MUCH bread and since there are no preservatives, the mold typically gets to it before we do. 

1 C lukewarm water

1.5 t yeast

1.5 t coarse salt

2+ C flour

Combine and let rise for a few hours. Knead in quarter turns and let rise on pan for 40 minutes. Bake at 450 for 30 minutes.

Ain't nothing like fresh-baked bread.

(We also use this recipe for chicken pesto pizza and other homemade pizzas.)

World Market Spicy Tortilla Soup

This is another recipe that I make when I don't want to think too hard about what to make. Add extra veggies to feel better about yourself!

Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies

Originally taken from this recipe and then adapted by the wonderful Kallah in such a way that makes you feel healthier about your life, and then adapted again by me.

1 C canned pumpkin
1 C pure maple syrup
1 stick melted butter
1 egg
2 C whole wheat flour
1/4 C all-purpose flour (optional)
2 t baking powder
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t pumpkin spice
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 T vanilla extract
2 C semisweet chocolate chips

Combine pumpkin, syrup, butter, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together dry ingredients and slowly add to pumpkin mixture. Here, I typically add about 1/4 C of all-purpose flour to thicken it up a little more. (When you're working with syrup rather than sugar, things have a tendency to be a little more gooey.)  Stir in vanilla and chocolate chips. (I take a couple scoops out without chocolate chip to feed to the beast known as my son.) Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes.

Whirley Pop Kettle Corn

Yes, I've blogged about the kettle corn obsession before, BUT! BUT! there is a life-changing update here. USE COCONUT OIL. The flavor is perfection.

Whirley Pop on the stove at medium.
Add 2 T of coconut oil. (omgomgomgsogood)
Put in 3-4 kernels and wait for the pops.
Add 1/2 C kernels.
Wait for more pops and add 1/4 C sugar.
Crank until popping slows.
Add salt to taste.
EAT THEM ALL AT ONCE!!!

Any recipes you totally forget about during the summer and just LOVE once cooler weather hits? Do share!

Whirley Poppin', Lockin', & Droppin'

Reporting live from my first true day of funemployment. Am I bored out of my mind yet? Not quite, but time will tell. I already made the terrible mistake of visiting LinkedIn over the weekend to update my (un)employment history. Seeing everyone else's employment accomplishments brings out the competitive beast in me that few things ever can, for example: (1) collegiate lacrosse, (2) someone running next to me on the treadmill, but worst of all (3) law school. It really made me wish I could start pursuing my next career opportunity. Luckily, one of my best law school friends/big law associates reminded me that the grass is always greener on the other treadmill. I'm back to counting my blessings.

And so, in an effort to truly bore you to death, I come forth with an ode to kettle corn. I know I never post recipes, but kettle corn has a special place in my heart. It is a relatively health-conscious way to qualm the salty/sugary cravings and it helps me consume tons of water in the process. In other hackneyed sayings, it's a win-win-win. I find myself consuming large amounts when I'm either training for a marathon or building a human. Both are times when I am ravenously hungry and need a lot of extra water in my diet. 

I love ya, KC. 

Do you own a Whirley Pop? If not, go buy yourself one. For $25 it pays for itself eventually because kernels are so dang cheap. At the University of Miami, there was a Farmer's Market every Wednesday that would charge $5 a bag for kettle corn and $8 for two bags. You could smell it all throughout the halls of the library. It was intoxicating. With a Whirley Pop, with $5 I can make thirty bags of the same dang thang. So, this is a PSA for Whirley Pops everywhere. Also, I like saying Whirley Pop. 

All you need is a Whirley Pop, a little bit of oil (any type, really), 1/2 C of kernels, 1/4 C of sugar, and salt for one full batch. I highly prefer that fancy-type sea salt, but that's just me watching too much Barefoot Contessa.

The elaborate instructions:

• Put your Whirley Pop on the stove at a low medium-high. 
• Add a bit of oil. Twice around the bottom.
• Put in 3-4 kernels. They will pop when it gets hot enough to add the rest. Then add the rest.
• Crank the Whirley Pop a few times to coat the kernels.
• When you hear more pops, add your sugar.
• Keep crankin' away until the pops start to slow. This is important. When they start to slow and it gets hard to crank, take the Whirley Pop off the heat. 
• Add salt to taste.
• EAT THEM ALL AT ONCE!!!!

And some pictures for the visually needy: 

I want to eat my computer screen right now.

This batch was conquered in about fifteen minutes.

Chicken Pesto Pizza

Will conjured up this recipe a couple years ago and has since perfected it. Now that I think about it, none of our friends or family have ever tried this pizza! I guess we'd share if we had any leftovers, but we don't. That's right. We keep it all to ourselves and that's how we like it. Make your own, moochers! 

The Dough:

Usually we just buy pre-made pizza dough at our local grocery store's bakery, but I had an extra packet of active dry yeast lying around since my last (failed) jaunt at bread-baking. I am afraid of yeast and my bread usually comes out as hard as a rock. I mostly followed this Food Network recipe for whole wheat pizza dough, with some slight variations because I don't have a large food processor. I also read this pep talk on proofing yeast to get me in the zone. I won't bore you with the details, but I will bore you with these photos. Why? Because I took them, that's why. But this crust actually turned out to be really good. This may never happen again, which is also why I choose to memorialize the event with photos.

Mokiki the Tiki Man guards the rising dough. 

The Pizza:

Will graciously agreed to type out these instructions so these are straight from the expert himself!

Ingredients:

• Pizza stone
• Flour
• Corn meal
• Pizza dough
• About 1/3 cup pesto (or enough to evenly cover the surface of the dough)
• About two cups of picked/chopped chicken
• About 10oz. mozzarella or Italian blend cheese
• 1 large tomato, sliced thin.
• 1 Jalapeno, sliced thin (optional)
• Grated Parmesan (for taste)

Note: these amounts are in no way scientific, I still like to use trial and error to see what I like the most!

1. Preheat oven to 405.

2. Cook chicken. I use either rotisserie style chicken and pick it apart, or boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The rotisserie usually has better flavor.

3. On the pizza stone, spread a generous amount of flour and corn meal. If you use a dough roller, place a generous enough amount of flour on the roller so the dough doesn’t stick to it. Place the dough on the pizza stone and knead/toss until evenly spread out. Sprinkle corn meal on top of the dough and aerate the dough evenly with a fork (so it doesn’t inflate once in the oven).

4. Once heated, place the dough in for about 4 minutes. At that time, take it out and flip it over. Aerate again. Doing this will make sure that the bottom of the pizza dough has a little crisp to it. Place the dough back in the oven for about 4 more minutes. At the end of this second 4-minute time, take the dough out to prepare with toppings.

5. Spread the pesto evenly over the top of the dough. Don’t be afraid to use a generous amount of pesto.

6. Sprinkle your chicken evenly over the pesto, followed by the cheese, then the tomatoes, and/or jalapenos (I cover half the pizza with jalapenos because I like a little spice, unlike Theresa)

7. Place back in oven for about 10-13 minutes. At about 10 minutes you should check on it. I like the cheese to bubble a little so around this time I’ll turn the oven to broil for about 60 seconds.

8. Take out, let cool, slice and serve with parmesan sprinkled on top. Enjoy!

And now, the photographs!

Some leftover baked chicken.

Roasting the pine nuts for pesto.

Pesto.

My dough. I'm so proud of it!

Will Brez has skillz. (Wish they paid the billz....)

Lazy Daisy in the background.

Ready for toppings.

Very dense layer of pesto. 

Ready for the oven!

YUM. And posted just in time for lunch.