Oct. menu

Mon. - Well Breakfast was a fail. My son had to make his own.   Cereal
            Lunch - I honestly don't remember what I made for lunch
            Dinner - roasted chicken, asparaus, homemade mac'n'cheese
Tues. - Breakfast - Berry Crumb cake
            Lunch - a frozen pizza (I'm working on a recipe)
            Dinner - ham and bean soup, corn bread, fried green tomato's
Wend. - Breakfast - cheesy rice
             Lunch - PB and J
             Dinner - chicken/bacon/ranch flat bread pizzas
Thur. - Breakfast - Bagels with cream cheese
            Lunch - Leftovers
            Dinner - Breakfast casserole

Fri. - Breakfast - Cinnamon/Sugar toast
         Lunch -Spaghetti with meat balls
         Dinner - Chicken soup in bread bowls

I've already bought most of the things I'll need for this week. Soccer is pretty much over for the season, so, hopefully this week will be pretty easy. Maybe I can get caught up on my crafting. . . . .

Black Bottom Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

There is a slight trick to this recipe. I made no bake cheese cake cupcakes first and left a little of the cheese cake batter in the mixing bowl. Mixing it up with the cake mixes adds a lot of moister to the finished cupcakes.

Ingredients:
1 devil's food chocolate cake mix
1 dark chocolate fudge cake mix
1 large box instant chocolate pudding mix
6 eggs
3 Cups water (you may need more)
1 Cup oil

Preheat your oven to 350*. I mixed all of the ingredients together in a stand mixer, adding water until it reached the consistency of thick brownie batter. I overfilled my cups, so I got 36 cupcakes. If you filled them correctly (2/3 of the way full) you could get a lot more. Some of them I've decorated as pumpkins, the rest I will decorate as soccer balls. (For my son's soccer game Sat.)

Icing:
The pumpkin spice comes in when you mix up your icing. I added a little pumpkin pie spice to it, as well as neon orange gel food coloring. Set that aside.

If you don't have orange sugar sprinkles, you can make your own. Take 1 jar yellow sugar, a dash of red sugar, a dash of pink sugar and 2 drops orange gel food coloring. Mix thoroughly, set aside.

*These cupcakes can be top heavy so be careful.*

First spread about a teaspoon of icing onto the top of each cupcake. It doesn't have to be perfect, its going to act like glue.

Cut one mini cruler or twist doughnut in two. Place one half, cut side down, onto each cupcake.

Cover with each with orange frosting. Remember the center should have a small divot from the doughnut.

Coat with orange sugar.

The leaves are just really stiff green icing, piped from a sandwich bag. They did not turn out the way I wanted them to. . . .

Now as far as taste; these were super yummy!! They are really moist and the pumpkin pie spice in the icing adds and extra dimension of flavor without being overpowering.  I will definitely make these again!!

Lamb Goulash

This recipe is a lot like my Ratatouille, but the taste is very different. 

Its easy, quick and definitely comfort food without the calories. Serves 6 

3 adults and 2 kids. (one of the adults had seconds)

Aprox. 175 cal per serving (not including the mashed potato's)

The Ingredients:

• 1lb ground lamb (we used Romney which has a more delicate flavor but you could use whatever you have)

• 2 Cups baby carrots - cut in half

• 1 small yellow squash - diced into bite sized pieces

• 2 small zucchini - also diced into bite sized piece

• 1 can of diced tomato's 14.5oz (you could use 1.5 Cups of fresh)

• 1 packet of onion mushroom soup mix

Directions:

Brown lamb in medium pot 3-5 min. 

While the lamb is browning, start your mashed potato's. 

Drain the fat, add the soup packet and carrots to the lamb. 

Continue cooking until the carrots are just barley fork tender, then add the rest of the diced vegetables and the can of tomato's. 

Cook 3-5 min. until the veggies are soft but not mushy. Serve in bowls with mashed potato's on top.

Sorry there's no picture of this with the mash potato's. This was so good we inhaled it. There was no talking, no how was your day, just shoveling it in as fast as we could.

Raspberry Brownie Cupcakes with Homemade White Chocolate Buttercream Icing

This is kind of a semi-homemade recipe.  I used prepackaged brownie mix but you could use your favorite brownie recipe. To save time, you could also make your own brownie mix. Just mix the dry ingredients together, put the recipe on the outside of the container and keep it in your pantry.

Raspberry Brownie Cupcakes

Ingredients:
2  packages brownie mix - I used Hershey's Ultimate Chocolate Brownie mix, I buy it at Sam's club
4  large eggs
1/2 c  water - You'll need 1/2c because of the extra dry ingredients
1c  oil
2 Tablespoons of raspberry jam - I used some I canned last year but you can use your favorite
1 large package of instant chocolate pudding

Preheat oven to 350*. Mix all the ingredients together. Divide into greased or lined cupcake tins. Bake at 350* for 35 min. Makes 24 cupcakes.

(Sorry for the crummy photo. I didn't realize it was so bad when I took it last night. This was before they were baked.)

White Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

6oz white bakers chocolate (roughly chopped)
2 sticks of butter (room temp)
1c powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Slowly melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 sec intervals. Cream butter, chocolate, and vanilla together. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Resist the urge to ice your cupcakes while warm. (like I did) and ENJOY!!

I really liked this recipe, but it just wasn't what I was craving last night. The icing was great, not too sweet and it really tasted like white chocolate. But I didn't want brownies I wanted something a little more cupcakey.

One of the best parts was they only took maybe 10-15 min to throw together! I was able to make these during the commercials for one of my favorite shows. 

Regardless they are delicious I couldn't wait for them to cool so I frosted them while they were still warm and I ate 2!! YUMMY!!

Sept. Monthly Menu

Tues. 7th - Hot dogs, Cheddar worsts, potato chips and corn

Wed. 8th - Carnita's (slow cooker), sweet potato fries

Thur. 9th - garlic chicken (slow cooker), butter noodles 

Fri. 10th - steaks, baked potato's, squash

Sat.       

Sun. 

               (generally I don't cook dinner on the weekends)


I'll add more as I go. I'm out of ideas for today. :)