Pumpkin Gingerbread

Pumpkin Gingerbread

I am loving my bread pans and was eager to try a pumpkin bread especially when I found the big cans of E.D. Smith on for 0.99 cents a can at the grocery store! I think pumpkin is great all year round and you can never go wrong with gingerbread. Here is the recipe!

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree ( or 2 cups of pumpkin) 
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large mixing, combine sugar, oil and eggs; beat until smooth. Add water and beat until well blended. Stir in pumpkin, ginger, allspice cinnamon, and clove.
3. In medium bowl, combine flour, soda, salt, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and blend just until all ingredients are mixed. Divide batter between prepared pans.
4. Bake in preheated oven until toothpick comes out clean, about 1 hour.

Stuffed Shells

This is an easy meal you can pull together with all the right ingredients. You'll need some cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese, pasta sauce, pasta shells, and you can use lean ground beef or totally omit meat and make it a vegan meal! Mix up some cottage cheese (I used 1%) with some Parmesan cheese and parsley (fresh or dried works) and put it in the fridge. Brown up your beef and add some seasonings (Italian seasonings, onion powder, garlic, and any other seasonings you like to use to flavor your beef. Then add some pasta sauce. Boil your pasta shells then once they are done, stuff them!

Leeland enjoying his shells! 

Easter Peeps & Strawberry Cake Pops!

Making cake pops really is an art! You can do so many neat things with them. My friend Karen and I had a great evening doing up these cake pops. We started with a strawberry cake mix which I purchased in the states (it's made by Pillsbury). Once the cake was made, it was crumbled up and then put in the fridge to cool completely. Once it was cooled, we added a tub of Duncan Hines Cream Cheese frosting and formed them into tablespoon balls then put in the fridge to set settled (about a half hour).

 Melt your chocolate and dip the end of the stick in the chocolate and then put in the ball and back down on some wax paper on a baking sheet. Once done, put back in the fridge for about 10 minutes then you can start the dipping process!

The Peeps were a cute touch sitting on some green shredded coconut and the strawberries were made from a mold with pink chocolate wafers! 

Modeling a cute apron my friend Somer made me! 

Easter Cupcakes

Simple and easy Easter cupcakes! I used a Duncan Hines Confetti Cupcake mix and vanilla icing to start these little guys off. To make green shredded coconut just put some in a Ziplock bag and add a few squirts of green food coloring and shake it up. Found these cute cupcake papers and toppers at the Great Canadian Dollar Store for... yup you guessed it... a dollar! Have fun decorating some Easter cupcakes this week!

Easter Egg Haystacks

Some people call these little guys 'haystacks' and some people call them 'frogs'. I grew up calling them frogs and this is my mother's recipe which she made for my sister and I growing up. They are an easy little treat to whip up and with some jelly beans or little crunchy eggs as a garnish on top, they are perfect for Easter!

Here is the recipe:

2 cups of brown sugar (or one cup of white and one cup of brown)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
Combine these ingredients in a pot over medium heat until the butter and sugar mixture is melted together. 


In another bowl, combine these ingredients:


2 1/2 cups oatmeal 
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup coconut
pinch of salt


Pour warm mixture over dry mix and drop spoon fulls onto wax paper on a baking sheet and put in the fridge for about an hour. 

Blogger Awards

I love the food blog community! It's all about sharing ideas, recipes, and really getting inspired by other people and their creations. I don't have a ton of time to sit and really get involved in ready up lots of blogs, but there are a few I really enjoy looking at. Elisabeth from Food and Thrift Finds has a wonderful food blog with great recipes and amazing pictures to boot! Thank you for sharing your awards with me Elisabeth! So to pay it forward, I am also sharing these awards with my fellow food bloggers so that you can pay it forward too! Copy and paste these awards to your blog and enjoy... from Meals with Michelle!

This week coming up keep your eyes peeled for some creative homemade Easter treats! Looking forward to having some fun in the kitchen with beautiful pastel colors, sprinkles, and of course chocolate! Happy baking!

Peanut Butter Ball Pops!

I really enjoyed making the cake pops and thought this would be a fun project to try as well! Take your favorite peanut butter ball recipe, dip it into some melted chocolate, and add your toppings! I used crunchy peanut butter and instead of rice cereal I used sweetened shredded coconut. For the chocolate, I melted pure Belgian milk chocolate wafers. These are a real sweet tasting treat!

Peanut Butter Balls

Ingredients

• 2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 cups crisp rice cereal
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Melt peanut butter and butter in saucepan, over low heat. In large bowl, mix crispy rice cereal and confectioners' sugar well. Pour melted peanut butter and butter over cereal and sugar and blend together thoroughly.
2. Form into 1 inch or smaller balls, spread on cookie sheets, chill till firm in refrigerator (over night is okay).
3. Melt chocolate in double boiler and keep melted while working with balls. A teaspoon is best to use in dipping the balls in chocolate. Dip good and place on cookie sheet. As you dip them place them back on cookie sheet and keep chilled till firm.

Easy Meatloaf

Making meatloaf is another easy and quick meal that taste great paired up with some whipped potatoes and veggies. I found this Easy Meatloaf recipe on allrecipes.com and it turned out great! For my garlic whipped potatoes you can visit http://mwmichelle.blogspot.com/2011/03/garlic-potatoes.html.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1 egg
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup dried bread crumbs
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons prepared mustard
• 1/3 cup ketchup

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine the beef, egg, onion, milk and bread OR cracker crumbs. Season with salt and pepper to taste and place in a lightly greased 5x9 inch loaf pan, OR form into a loaf and place in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. In a separate small bowl, combine the brown sugar, mustard and ketchup. Mix well and pour over the meatloaf.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour.

Chicken Burger & Rice Pudding

After a nice hiatus, I am back! My youngest, who just turned 8 months old, has been crawling up a storm and keeping us very busy these days. It's awesome to see his new found independence but it means he's starting to 'crawl' out of his baby stage!

Today, I marinated some chicken breasts (cut in half) in Club House's Herb and Garlic packaged marinade which is one of my hubby's favorite chicken flavors. When he got home from work we bbq'd them up and put them on a thin multi grain bun. I drizzled olive oil and seasonings on some cut up sweet potato and fingerling potatoes in the oven for a side dish.

For dessert, we enjoyed some creamy rice pudding which I found the recipe in my Allrecipes cookbook. I made mine with basmati rice and skim milk. It was delicious and such a nice comfort food.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup uncooked white rice
• 2 cups milk, divided
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2/3 cup golden raisins
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. In another saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk, beaten egg and raisins. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm.

Reese Peanut Butter w/ M&Ms Cookies

It's great when you have leftover candy to use up and even better when you can use the same recipe for two different things. I had some mini Reese Peanut Butter Cups and a bag of M&Ms and found a great peanut butter cookie recipe to use for both. I used a muffin tin for the Reese cups and then after I used up what I needed from that dough I just added some M&Ms to the remaining and put them on a cookie sheet. I think these cookies would work great with all sorts of chocolate candy like Hershey's Kisses, Reese's Pieces, etc. Look in your cupboards and see what kind of chocolate candy you have hanging around and then make a great cookie out of them!

Here is the cookie recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Peanut-Butter-Cup-Cookies/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
2. Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture; mix well. Shape into 40 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
3. Bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. Cool and carefully remove from pan.