Pumpkin Smash Clone

We LOVE smoothies.  We love pumpkin and we love Jamba Juice’s Pumpkin Smash Smoothie.  The problem is, it’s only available in the fall and smoothies are often best on a nice hot summer day.  We love pumpkin so much we eat it pretty much year round.  Now we can enjoy a Pumpkin Smash Smoothie anytime we want!  YAY!  Here’s how we do it our Ninja Blender shown below.

You will need ice, pumpkin pie mix (use the mix don’t do it your own with fresh pumpkin or any of that), soy milk and frozen  yogurt.  Jamba Juice uses plain vanilla fro you.  We prefer caramel macadamia nut.

Now…empty and entire ice-cube tray into the blender, next a couple scoops of frozen yogurt, then half a large can of pumpkin pie mix and finally a little soy milk and blend.  Here’s what the ones we just made look like:

It’s important to note that you MUST use pumpkin pie mix.  We have tried it with canned pumpkin and our own spices and it didn’t taste good at all.  We’ve tried it with fresh pumpkin and all our own spices too and it’s better but still not great.  Today’s batch was a little thin and we used 2% milk instead of soy milk.  I don’t think there’s any real taste difference so will probably just use regular milk going forward.  Enjoy!

Crockery Pot Taco Casserole

Sunday’s in my home is what we call mystery meal night.  This is better than it sounds actually…it’s an opportunity for us to try a new recipe.  Usually I plan a new recipe and do the cooking, but sometimes the girls take that over.  For me, I try to make these meals crock pot meals since I can have it on and cooking while we’re getting our praise on and then when we get home from Church, dinner is pretty much done.  Today though nothing has gone according to planned.  I have had a migraine for 3 days and skipped church as a result.  My loving and faithful Home Teachers took my kids though and report that they were incredibly well-behaved and did a great job.  I love getting that feedback.  Anyway…so I should have gone to the store last night to put this together earlier today, but I didn’t.  We will wind up having a very late dinner tonight as a result, but it is what it is.  Here’s what we’re trying:

 

From the Kitchen of:  Pepper

 1 lb ground beef or turkey (I used turkey)

1 med onion chopped (I used half a large onion)

1 clove garlic minced

1/2 cup green pepper, chopped (I used one whole bell pepper)

2 drops Tabasco sauce (I just shook the bottle two or three times over the meat mixture)

1 can tomato sauce

1 tsp chili powder

1 cup frozen corn

2 cans chili with beans

3/4 lb grated cheese

1 and 1/2 cups nacho cheese tortilla chips (I used Doritos)

Brown ground meat and drain. Add onion, garlic and pepper and cook until transparent. Add remaining Tabasco, tomato sauce, and chili powder. Grease Crockery Pot and layer in 5 layers, beginning with meat mixture and Nacho cheese tortilla chips, then the corn, chili, and grated cheese. Cover and cook 6 to 8 hours on low.

I of course didn’t quite do things the way the directions say.  In addition to the differences noted above, I didn’t have any cloves or minced garlic around so I just shook some garlic powder into the mix.  We like garlic so I probably used a couple of teaspoons of garlic powder.  I also doubled the recipe because I have a big crock pot.  In doing this blog post though, I realized I should have used 4 cans of chili instead of just the two that I used.  That’s probably a good thing because I’m not sure I could have squeezed two more cans in the crock pot.  I used more corn too, 1 entire large bag of frozen corn.  Finally, I used extra cheese because well in this house cheese is kinda like chocolate…it makes just about everything better.  I forgot to take pictures of the layering process, but here’s what it looks like after I finished layering it:

Due to the lateness of the hour, I’ll be cooking it on high for half the time and we still have a few hours before it’s due to be done so I’ll get back to you on what it takes like.  This much I DO know though…it smells divine!!!

Crockpot Lasagna

1lb. ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

29 oz. can tomato sauce

1 c. water

6 oz. can tomato paste

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. dried oregano

8 oz. package lasagna noodles, uncooked

4 c.(16oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese

1 1/2c. (12oz) small curd cottage cheese

1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese

Cook beef, onion, and garlic together in a pan until browned. Drain off excess liquid.  Stir in Tomato sauce, water, paste, salt, and oregano. Mix well.  Spread 1/4 of meat sauce in an un-greased crock pot. Arrange 1/3 of noodles over the sauce.  Combine the cheeses. Spoon 1/3 of mixture over noodles. Repeat the layers twice. Top with remaining meat sauce.  Cover. Cook on low for 4-5 hours.

Some Changes I made:

Ground turkey instead of beef

Handful of dried minced onion instead of one whole onion

2 heaping tablespoons minced garlic (the wet kind you get in the produce department)

Shook oregano over mixture generously…we like food with more bite

We are serving this with bruschetta and salad. I’ve sampled it to make sure it wasn’t poisonous and it’s SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good!!!! Total prep time less than 30 minutes.  This recipe came from the Facebook Group The Crock Pot Recipe Exchange.

Bierochs/Runza

Before I get into the ingredients and stuff for this dish I have to tell you a little story about it.  While visiting a friend of mine in Nebraska, her husband the Wookie (no really he is almost as hairy as Chewbacca) treated me to this yummy goodness called a Runza.  And, as luck would have it, there aren’t ANY Runza stores where I live.  I’ve Googled recipes for them a few times and then I came across this recipe I’m going to share with you all now and realized…DUH!  Bierochs = RUNZA!!!! YUM!

The official recipe comes from the same cookbook I featured before…Worldwide Ward Cookbook (available from Deseret Book) and is found on page 149.  I will confess.  I used most of the ingredients the recipe calls for but didn’t use the measurements.  I winged it…yeah that’s how I roll when I cook.

1 small head cabbage, chopped

1/4 tsp garlic

1 onion, chopped

1 lb ground beef (I used ground turkey)

2 C. cheese, shredded, divided

Pepper

Beau Monde seasoning (this is a fancy name for Seasoning Salt lol)

Bread dough or frozen roll dough, thawed (now if you are REAL ambitious you could make your own bread…I am lazy)

 

In a large saucepan, cook cabbage, garlic and onion until soft and transparent.  In a skillet, brown ground beef.  In a large bowl, combine cabbage mixture, browned beef, and 1 C. cheese.  Season with pepper and Beau Monde seasoning to taste.  Pinch dough into pieces about the size of a very small roll.  Flatten dough with your hand.  Place about 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp. cabbage and beef filling onto dough.  Place more shredded cheese on top.  Fold dough up around filling, forming a stuffed roll.  Place on greased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until light brown. Makes 18-24 rolls.

NOW….let’s get real about what I did…

I broke out my Ninja chopper for the first time and used it to chop about half a medium sized yellow onion and dumped that into a frying pan.  Next I cut about 3/4 of a small cabbage into “Ninja” sized chunks and let the Ninja mince them up, then added that to the onion.  To that I added 2 heaping tablespoons of minced garlic.  I DID cook that till tender like the recipe said though.  When done, I then added about 1/3rd of a 5 lb roll of ground turkey to the pan and cooked it all together.  I added pepper and regular old seasoning salt (because I couldn’t find Beau Monde at the store) to taste.  I used 3 loaves of white bread from ummmm something famous but I can’t remember.  Rowe’s I think…something like that.  Anyway…I rolled the dough out till it was about half or maybe 3/4 the size of a saucer and filled the “center line” with the meat mixture (with no cheese).  From there I rolled up all the sides and pinched it all together real good to seal (some sealed better than others).  These stuffed “buns” were placed on a foil lined cookie sheet (so easy to clean up) and baked till done.  Probably longer than 20 minutes cuz they were HUGE, but I’m not sure how long the total cook time was.  Just before serving them, I pulled them out of the oven and coated them in cheese then returned them to the oven long enough for the cheese to melt.  Here’s what our finished mystery meal looked like:

Chicken South of the Border

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

12 flower tortillas

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 C milk

1/4 onion, finely chopped

3.5 oz. mild taco sauce

1 lb medium cheddar cheese shredded

Boil chick and break into pieces.  Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.  Cut tortillas into 1 inch strips and line bottom of pan.  Put broken chicken pieces over tortillas.  Combine remaining ingredients except cheese.  Pour the soup mixture over the chicken.  Top with shredded cheese.  Repeat for 3 layers.  Refrigerate for 24 hours if possible.  Bake at 300 for 1 to 1.5 hours or until it bubbles.  Makes 10-12 servings.

This is what mine looked like before cooking.

After cooking

Some changes I made…I used jack cheese instead of cheddar and I doubled the recipe because I used more chicken than it calls for.  My girls and I liked it…my son not so much.  If I make this dish again in the future, I will put the sauce and chicken over rice instead of tortillas.  Recipe comes from Worldwide Ward Cookbook:  Secret Recipes and was found on page 133.

Easy Ravioli Bake

1 jar (26 to 28 ounces) tomato pasta sauce (any variety)
1 package (25 to 27 1/2 ounces) frozen cheese-filled ravioli
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 TBS. grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom and sides of rectangular baking dish 13x9x2-inches, with cooking spray.  Spread 3/4 cup of the pasta sauce in baking dish. Arrange half of the frozen ravioli in single layer over sauce; top with half of the remaining pasta sauce and 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers once, starting with ravioli. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake 40 minutes. Remove foil; bake uncovered 15 to 20 minutes longer or until bubbly and hot in center. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

This was another recipe I tried from Just Simply Cook, but I don’t have any pictures of mine.  I used more cheese than the recipe calls for because around here cheese is a family favorite.

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

6 TBS. honey (I actually use a little more than this. Use as you think.)
5 TBS. fresh lime juice
1 TBS. chili powder (less if you don’t want it spicy)
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
4 boneless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
8- 10 flour torillas
shredded Monterey Jack cheese
2- 16oz green enchilada sauce
1 cup of heavy cream

Mix the first four ingredients and toss with cooked chicken. Let it marinate for at least 1/2 hour. The longer the better. Pour green enchilada sauce to cover the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Fill tortillas with chicken and shredded cheese. Mix the remaining enchilada sauce with the cream and leftover marinade. Pour sauce on top of the enchiladas and sprinkle with the cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes until brown and crispy. Serve with sour cream.

We’ve had this twice now.  The first time I followed the recipe exact and it was yum!  When I made it last night, I just winged it and it was also  yum!  We didn’t serve with sour cream (it’s really not necessary) and probably didn’t bake ours brown enough but here’s a picture of our “little” pan (in our house we have to make a big 9 x 13 pan and a little pan in order to ensure leftovers…yeah you read that right…this is so good I actually eat the leftovers):

This was the little pan…I ate some for lunch today right after photographing it.

(recipe from Peacocks on my Porch and found originally at Just Simply Cook.)