Pumpkin Doughnuts

Fall is upon us and 'tis the season for PUMPKIN!!!! I was having a strong desire (I shy away from the word craving because of the implications it brings when a woman uses it) for Pumpkin doughnuts, so I said to myself, "SELF?! Why don't we just make some?!"  So Myself found a recipe here and, with a little advice from my friends, I made some!!!

Here is my recipe:

 

3 1/2 c Flour

4 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

2 tsp Pumpkin pie spice

1 c Sugar

2 tbl Butter softend

2 Eggs

2 tsp Vanilla

1/2 c. Buttermilk

1 c Pumpkin Puree (about 1/2 of the small can of pumpkin)
Canola oil for frying (I baked mine)

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, spice, and sugar. Make a well in the center.
In a separate bowl combine Butter, eggs, vanilla, buttermilk and pumpkin.
Dump wet ingredients into the well and stir until mixture is well combined.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, rolling the donut dough to approximately 1/4-1/2" thick.
Cut out with doughnut cutter.

*If you are baking them simply spoon batter into a doughnut pan (which looks like this, and yes; I do need one). If you don't have one of these nifty little contraptions, you can do what I did and put the dough/batter into a gallon sized zip lock bag and pipe them onto a large cookie sheet. I was able to fit 6 onto 1 jelly roll pan. That is how I ended up with my giant, very rustic, doughnuts!!

Heat 2 inches of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, gently slide donuts into the oil, frying on the first side until edges of the donut are lightly browned, flip carefully and allow to cook on the other side until lightly browned.
Remove and dunk immediately into buttermilk glaze. allow to air dry on a cooling rack before serving.

Buttermilk glaze
3 c Powdered sugar
1/2 c. Buttermilk
1/2 tsp Vanilla
Whisk together in a small bowl until smooth.

*I topped mine with cinnamon sugar...because I love cinnamon sugar as much as I love pumpkin!

 

So there you have it!  Homemade, pumpkin muffins, disguised as doughnuts!

 

Oatmeal Banana Cake

This is AMAZING!!! It is my new favorite way to use up banana's that are getting a little too ripe. It is delicious, It's pretty, it's healthy and it's something I don't mind letting my kids eat all they want of!! AWESOME!!!
I started with THIS recipe from A Pinch of Joy
and altered it a bit to make it my own.

Here is what I ended up with.

• 1.5 cups flour 
• 1 C. Oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
• ½ cup applesauce, sugar free or no sugar added
• ¾ cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 3 ripe / overripe bananas, mashed

1. Preheat oven and lightly grease a 9x13 cake pan
2. Mix together applesauce and honey.
3. Mash bananas. Overripe bananas work well for this purpose.
4. Add bananas and eggs to applesauce and honey mixture and mix until well blended.
5. Add flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt at the same time – do NOT stir ingredients in one at a time. Mix just until dry ingredients are moistened.
6. Divide batter evenly between the two prepared pans.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
8. Let cake cool 5-10 minutes in the pan and then cut into squares and enjoy!!

Gary helped me make this and it turned out so delicious!!! Love it!!!

Frozen Banana Pie

This pie is amazing!! Perfect for summer when your last 2 bananas have gotten to that awkward, ripened stage where they are just fine, but also just brown enough that no one wants to eat them.

There is no butter in this pie, requires ZERO baking, and has very few ingredients. It does, however, require some planning and thinking ahead. Not very good for last minute.

Makes 2 pies

You'll need:

1 Can Evaporated milk, chilled in the freezer for at least 2-3 hrs.

2 eggs

1 C. Sugar

2 Bananas, mashed

Juice of 2 lemons, (1 medium lemon yields about 3 tbls juice)

2 pkgs Graham crackers

Whip chilled milk until it will stand in peaks.

Beat egg, add sugar, beat until light and lemon colored, and mashed bananas, add salt and lemon juice. Stir into whipped milk. Crush 1 pkg graham crackers at a time and push dry crumbs into pie dish (NO Butter is added to graham crackers).

Gently pour banana milk mixture into pie crumbs and freeze.  I gave my pies 24 hrs to freeze.

This pie seriously tastes like a frozen banana smoothie! It is SO good! The mashed bananas sink to the bottom and soak the crumbs which is what helps the crumbs stick together! It's like magic!!!!

It does not require any thawing time in order to cut. I took mine out and cut it right away. It does melt quite quickly so it's not a frozen pie that can be left out for any length of time.

This was definitely a hit at our house and will definitely be made again soon!!!!

Tacosanga

So aparently this is also calld layered enchiladas but tacosanga is a lot more fun to say!

It's super easy and pretty quick!

1lb hamburger

Taco seasoning

1 can vegitarian refried beans

1 can corn, drained

1 C salsa

Cheese

Brown Hamburger, add seasoning, beans, corn and salsa

Layer like a lasagna.
A bit of sauce, a taco shell

Sauce, cheese

Taco shell, sauce, cheese,
Top layer is just shell and cheese

Bake at 350 for 20-30 mins the cheese

FALLin for Roast Chicken

My Oh My!! This is AMAZING and SO Super easy!!

1 large sweet potato

3-4 small apples

4 carrots

2-3 stalks of celery

1/2 large onion

Chicken - I used frozen thighs and drumsticks because my kids love the "handle chicken"

Olive Oil, Salt & Pepper

Cut veggies and apples in to chunks and dump into roasting dish. Place chicken on top and coat everything with olive oil salt & pepper.

If you want more flavor you could add poultry seasoning, or herbs. My family tends to prefer the "raw" taste.

Roast in 350 oven for 1 hr or until chicken juices run clear.

After it came out I took the apple skins off and mushed the apples into the juices in the bottom of the pan and it made the best "sauce"

Make this TONIGHT!!! Your family will be warm, happy and ready for November!

Fully loaded Chicken Salad

I made this for a block party and everyone really liked it.

Now as I have mentioned before, I don't measure (except when I bake) I just throw stuff together till it tastes good. So all of these "measurements" are a guess as to how much I used =)

What was in it:

1 pkg Salad noodles, 3 carrots, 1 rib celery, 1 small can olives, 1 small apple, 1 can Mandarin oranges, 1 C. Grapes cut in half. 1/2 Can Pineapple tidbits, 1 Can chicken

Dressing (again...none of this was measured):

1-2 C mayo, 1/4 C Mandarin orange juice, 1 tsp Orange extract (Or substitute Mandarin orange juice and extract for 2-3 tbl frozen orange juice concentrate) 3 Tbl Pineapple juice, 2 tsp ginger, Salt and pepper.

Pour over salad ingredients in big bowl and stir.

Ravisanga

I was really wanting some lasagna yesterday, but didn't have ricotta cheese in my fridge, so I thought, "Hey! I have cheese ravioli....why can't that work?!"  So I tried it, and it does!! It was even something Bubba could help with, which I always Love (and so does he). Here's it goes:

To make a 9x13 pan

1 1/2 pkg cheese Ravioli

1 1/2 jar Spaghetti sauce

3 links turkey sausage (remove case and cook to a crumble)

Shredded cheese to top

Boil ravioli until they just start to pop to the surface. You don't want to boil them for the full 7-10 mins as directed on pkg otherwise you will end up with mushy raviolis and that makes it hard to layer, and wont make for a very good ravisagna

Layer sauce

Ravioli

the reason some are different colors is because my 1/2 pkg was mushroom ravioli.

Crumbled turkey sausage, more sauce,

One more layer of ravioli and sauce, top with cheese

Bake at 350 for 30 mins.

Let it set for 15 mins before cutting



The nice part about this is, it's easy, fast, very kid friendly, and pretty inexpensive. You can cut it like a regular lasagna or scoop it out, depending on how you put the ravioli down they will be on top of each other for optimal scoopage!  It taste just like Lasagna! Enjoy