Chocolate Pumpkin Pudding

Here is another fun fall recipe. This is the easiest and quickest fall dessert recipe I have found! It seriously only takes minutes and won't disappoint!

Chocolate Pumpkin Pudding

Ingredients:

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 large package instant chocolate pudding mix
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups prepared whipped cream

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, beat together pumpkin, puddings, milk, and cinnamon until blended.

2. Gently fold in the whipped cream and chill until serving.

Helpful Hints:

* I decided to use instant devil's food chocolate pudding since I had it in the cupboard and it was good but it was really rich and I think almost too chocolaty for me! Crazy...I know. Next time I will definitely go with regular chocolate or the chocolate fudge.

*I did mix a little of the whip cream into the pudding mixture but I reserved some to top it off with

*Be creative! I am thinking this would be really good using the white chocolate pudding too.

Pumpkin Soup

It has been too long! But I have been busy trying out lots of recipes, just really behind on getting them posted. I figured I would start with a yummy fall soup!

1-2-3 PUMPKIN SOUP

What you need:

1 tablespoon butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 can of pure, plain pumpkin

3 cups chicken broth

1 tablespoon tomato paste

grated parmesan cheese

salt

pepper

Directions:

1) melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until translucent, 3-4 min, stirring.

2)Add pumpkin, chicken broth and tomato paste and stir to mix well. Bring to a boil over high heat, lower to a simmer and cover. Cook 20 minutes.

3)Transfer to a food processor (or blender) and puree until smooth. Add cheese, salt and peper and enjoy!

Helpful Hints:

* as you can see in my picture of ingredients I used the pre-chopped frozen onions. My new favorite item! I HATE chopping onions because my eyes are super sensitive and water for hours after.

*I used my blender to puree the soup and it worked great. I served it immediately so it was still hot. If it is going to be awhile before you serve it just pour it back into your pan and keep it covered over low heat.

*Delish served with cheesy breadsticks or Asiago bread

Baked Brown Rice

Lately my attempts at preparing the perfect brown rice have not been successful! I have tried several different methods and bought several different types of rice and still haven't gotten the results I was hoping for. One thing I did learn is nothing will work on the cheap Walmart brand brown rice! After a couple of failed attempts I turned to the internet for help. The winning advice comes from Alton Brown of the Food Network. I followed his recipe for Baked Brown Rice using rice I purchased at Winco from their bulk food bin. I have made it using this recipe a few times and each time had good results!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups brown rice, medium or short grain
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Place the rice into an 8-inch square glass baking dish.

Bring the water, butter, and salt just to a boil in a kettle or covered saucepan. Once the water boils, pour it over the rice, stir to combine, and cover the dish tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, remove cover and fluff the rice with a fork. Serve immediately.

What is your favorite way to prepare Brown Rice?

Baked Brown Rice recipe from foodnetwork.com

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

Ever wondered how to make Teriyaki Sauce? The other day I was at the store looking to purchase a bottle of Teriyaki Sauce, while reading the labels I noticed the store I was at didn't have any available that didn't contain high fructose corn syrup. Which got me thinking, "what would it take to make my own?" Thanks to todays technology I was able to pull up some recipes for Teriyaki Sauce right there in the store and I was shocked at how easy it sounded and how many of the items I already had at home. So I picked up a couple of things I needed and headed home to try it out. So so easy and delish! And my favorite thing about it.....it is so much thicker than the stuff you buy.

Teriyaki Sauce

from: Food.com

*1/4 cup Soy sauce

*1 cup water

*1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

*1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

* 5 tablespoons brown sugar

*1-2 tablespoons honey

*2 tablespoons cornstarch

*1/4 cup cold water

Directions:

Mix all but cornstarch and 1/4 cup water in a sauce pan and begin to heat over medium/high heat. Mix cornstarch and cold water in a cup and dissolve. Add to the sauce in the pan stirring occasionally. Heat until the sauce thickens to desired thickness. If it become too thick you can add a little bit of water to thin.

Helpful Hint

* I had quite a bit left over so I put it in a container in the fridge and a couple of days later I reheated it in a sauce pan on the stove and it worked great. I am not really sure exactly how long it would keep in the fridge but I recommend using it within 5 days.

Hawaiian Chicken Patties

Remember those Tyson Chicken Patties I raved about a while ago? Well, here is another reason why I love them! I am always trying to find new ways to use them and this time my idea turned into one delish entree if I may say so myself! Here it is:

Hawaiian Chicken Patties

by: Lindsey Mosbarger

What you need:

Tyson brand frozen chicken patties

Canned pineapple rings

Teriyaki Sauce

Slices of Swiss cheese

Cook how ever many chicken patties you need according to the directions on the package. You may want to take them out of the oven about 3 minutes early. After removing from the oven brush on a generous amount of Teriyaki sauce to the top of each chicken patty, place a pineapple ring on top of each patty (you can brush on a little more Teriyaki sauce if you want, I did) and then lay a slice of swiss cheese over the pineapple ring and place back in the oven just long enough to melt the cheese. About 2-3 minutes. Serve immediately!

Helpful Hints:

*You can use store bought Teriyaki sauce or easily make your own. See recipe above for homemade Teriyaki Sauce.

*These would be good on a bun if you wanted to make it into a chicken sandwich

*Great served with a side of brown rice

Enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

WARNING: Spicy! May cause your nose to run and make your eyes water. If you like a little kick of flavor every now and again you will lOvE this pizza! It is quick and easy to make and full of flavor.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza:

by Lindsey

What you need:

Pizza crust of your choice

1 bottle of Blue Cheese Salad dressing

1 bottle of wing sauce

3-4 chicken breasts cooked and shredded

2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare your pizza crust according to directions. Spread Blue Cheese dressing over the pizza crust as you would pizza sauce. Mix cooked and shredded chicken with wing sauce. You want just enough sauce to coat the chicken unless you really like things spicy then add more. Next, spread the chicken over the pizza crust and top with mozzarella cheese. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the cheese bubbles approximately 10-15 min.

Helpful Hints

*I cooked my chicken in the crock pot and then shredded it. You can cook the chicken however you normally do and then cube it instead of shredding it if you prefer.

*Feel free to add any other toppings. I am still debating whether or not to add anything next time. I am thinking diced tomatoes and maybe some green/red bell peppers might be good.

*If you aren't a fan of Blue Cheese you could substitute Ranch dressing.

Vanilla Beans

I have had a few people ask me about the vanilla beans for the Whipped Vanilla Bean Cheesecakes. So here are a few pictures of what to expect when working with vanilla beans:

First, incase you don't know what they look like this is what you are looking for

When cutting into a vanilla bean you want to lay it flat on a cutting board, holding one end against the cutting board slice it right down the middle lengthwise. This next picture shows what you will see when you pull it apart

You can use the tip of your knife, a spoon or whatever else you can think of to scrape out the tiny little seeds.

I hope that helps! It really is easy and it adds such good flavor. There are several other ways to use vanilla beans too. You can make your own vanilla extract & give your sugar a vanilla flavor. I have also heard that you can use the vanilla beans to add flavor to drinks such as lemonade, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, etc.... The possibilities are endless...... have fun with it!