Nothing Beats Homemade

In an effort to keep using up items on hand I decided to look for recipes that will use up some of the canned pumpkin I have.  I found this recipe I had saved for a cakelike chocolate pumpkin doughnuts.  I altered mine to make them gluten free and for some reason I only ended up with 6 instead of the 8 the recipe said it would make.  However, they were a hit.  

The original recipe is here.

https://www.dashofsanity.com/chocolate-pumpkin-cake-donuts/

Cream of Whatever Soup

Carol, sorry it took so long.  On a good note, I've finished both my classes this week.  I'm slowly working on catching up on the rest of my commitments.


An easy how-to for making any kind of creamy soup you would like for use in casseroles

Freezer Cooking

I found ground beef on mark down this week at almost half off.  I decided to prep it for freezer meals.  Not bad for about 30 to 40 minutes work.  Plus I’m ahead of the game for some future meals.

Chicken Enchiladas Recipe

I finally found an enchilada recipe that got the thumbs up from both my husband and my daughter.  This recipe made enough for two meals for the three of us.  

Pinto Bean Chili Recipe 6 of 12

I know it seems like I have forgotten my 12 Days of Pintos.  I haven’t....life is just nutty around here.  It’s okay.  That is how life is.  My go with the flow is “flowing along.”  Haha — couldn’t resist!

Anyway, I had originally hoped to have leftover pumpkin chili to go on my baked potato, but it didn’t work out that way.  We ate it last week on baked potatoes instead of having pizza. (However, my daughter basically turned her baked potato into a pizza.) 

I simply didn’t get home in time enough to make my crust....sometimes it happens if meetings go over.   Like many disappointments prove to be, this was a blessing in disguise....the perfect opportunity to add my next pinto bean recipe entry.

This recipe is the recipe I decided to use.  Pinto Bean Chili in the IP (using dried beans). It is from Neena over at Paint the Kitchen Red. Of course, I never do things quite as called for.  I also didn’t need a large batch of chili.  Since she gives step by step (extremely detailed instructions) I am not going to do so.  

Sorry about the water spots, but I don’t want to waste paper by printing this out again.

I’ll use it as is.

I did end up using 2 cans of Rotel.

Just to make certain I don’t have any trouble with tomatoes sticking, I leave them on top when I cook chili.

When it was done I gave it a good stir and this is what I ended up with.

Verdict:

This chili is pretty good!

I ate some in a bowl for my lunch.

Then I had some on a baked potato for my supper.

(With me being the only one home to eat it, I’m thinking I may freeze some leftovers.)

     

Saturday Morning Food Prep

We are still working on using things up.

I had Biquick left that I bought to make sausage balls for my husband’s Christmas party.

This used up the last of it.

These are for my daughter’s breakfasts this week.

I cleaned the waffle iron well and made a triple batch of gluten free waffles, too.

This used up a box of mix I had in my cabinet of gluten free items.

I ended up with 22....by the time I took a photo my husband had already swiped a few.

Part of these will go with him this week, we will eat some, and then I will pop any left in the freezer.

We’re continuing to use things up to make sure our stock is rotated.

The bonus is that this gives us a head start on our upcoming week.

Pressure Cooker “Egg Bites” aka “Mini Quiches”

Apparently these things are all the rage amount the IP community.

Starbucks sells some overpriced version.

This is my quick version.

6 eggs, beaten with a dash of milk added

Some crumbled cooked bacon, shredded cheddar, onion powder, etc.

1 cup of water under the trivet in the IP

6 minutes high pressure

5 minutes natural release

Remove from pressure cooker.

Cool for 4 minutes and pop from liners.

You can easily use silicone baking cups.

If you don’t have any or just want this little shape they sell various molds.

Obviously this is a pretty versatile way to use up leftovers.

Pretty much any meat will work, pretty much any cheese, pretty much any form of milk/cream, etc.

 These are perfect to make up on a weekend to grab to go with breakfast throughout the week.

Waste Not Want Not (Using up Produce)

It never fails that I end up with something lingering in the veg bin of the refrigerator.   While I was making out my menus, I did a quick glance to see what was there, and a huge eggplant was staring back at me.  I’ve been craving tomatoes — vitamin C I am guessing.  So I decided to make eggplant lasagna with the self imposed restriction of only being able to use what I had on hand.

A quick pull through and I found I had more than enough ingredients to pull together a decent vegetarian lasagna.  I used:

Garlic (Sam’s Club)

Kalmata Olives (Aldi)

Parmesan (Lidl/Aldi)

Mushrooms (Dollar Tree)

Tomato Powder (food storage)

Canned tomatoes (Walmart purchased on sale and with coupon)

Dried onion (food storage)

Dried bell pepper (food storage)

Ricotta (Lidl?)

Egg (Aldi)

Italian seasoning (Sam’s Club)

Eggplant (Aldi)

I sliced my eggplant and salted it to draw out some moisture and bitterness.

I mixed the ricotta, the powdered parm, and an egg together and set aside.

I put the sauce ingredients (except for tomato powder) in the pressure cooker along with a can of water.

30 minutes (soup function)

Then stirred in tomato powder to thicken it.

Rinsed and drained the eggplant and assembled two lasagnas.

This one I topped with cheese immediately and put in the pressure cooker for 30 minutes.

The one in the glass baking dish is not topped with cheese. 

I’ll top it with cheese when I get ready to cook it, but for now it is going in the freezer.

This was really good!

Lazy Night Pasta (Unrecipe)

This is the ultimate lazy night vegetarian pasta dish.

My recipe is enough for two, but you can double it without changing the cooking time.

In the electric pressure cooker — I use an Instant Pot — layer:

16 ounces of thick pasta sauce 

8 ounces of corn pasta (GF from Aldi — Penne is the perfect thickness)

3/4 of the jar filled with water (about 1 1/2 cups)

Put everything in in that order.

DO NOT STIR!

Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes.

Quick release and stir.

I know it sounds like it should be soupy, but the pasta absorbs the water as it cooks.

If you aren’t feeling as lazy as I was, you can spend a few minutes browning beef first.

You could also just toss in leftover meat from something else.

Since I was the only one eating it, I went with vegetarian and cooked enough for my next day’s lunch.

Food Storage Breakfast (Recipe Included)

For those of you who are comfortable using an electric pressure cooker, a hot breakfast doesn’t get much easier than this.

I use an Instant Pot, but will include the times and pressure for reference.

This is all food storage items that most pantries will have.

This recipe was shared with me.

I’m sharing what I changed and then I’ll share in parentheses what they did.

Pumpkin Oatmeal

1 cup old fashioned oats (steel cut)

3 cups of water

1/2 can of pumpkin —not pie filling

1/3 cup of brown sugar

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon)

1/2 cup dried cranberries (raisins)

1 to 2 teaspoons of butter if desired, but totally optional

Put the items in your pot in that order.  DO NOT STIR.

In the Instant Pot, use the porridge setting and change the pressure to low.

For other pressure cookers, do low on 20 minutes.

Release pressure, stir, and serve.

This makes 4 or so large servings.

My husband and I ate, and I put away that much more in the refrigerator for the next day.

He declared it the best oatmeal he had ever had.

Needless to say I’ll be keeping it in the repeat.

Sometimes You Just Have To

One family tradition that I miss since developing food allergies is having doughnuts on the weekend.

If the crowd was here we would buy a dozen.

If just a few of us were here, we might only buy 2 or 3 doughnuts.

Either way, it was something we did as a family.

For some time now I have sat and watched them eat their doughnuts.  

Not a big deal, but I really wanted one, too.

Today I made these.  

Old fashioned glazed doughnuts

They’re a yeast free, cake type doughnut with just a hint of nutmeg.

Sooooo good!

The recipe is from Nicol Hunn.

It is in the book Gluten Free on a Shoestring Quick and Easy.

She also has it on her site.

I have all of her cookbooks, and can honestly say I’ve never had one of her recipes let me down.

In fact, even those who don’t like/have to eat gluten free seem to like them.

As usual, I did make a few changes to her recipe because for one I am that kind of cook, and for two I am into using what I have on hand.  I did not have plain yogurt, but I did have cottage cheese.  I simply took 3/4 of a cup out and proceeded to mostly mash the lumps out of it.  I also didn’t want mini doughnuts.  I used my regular non stick doughnut pans in a 350F oven.  I started with 12 minutes, but ended up cooking them for 15 total.  The final change I made was to make a simple thin glaze because I really love that Krispy Kreme glazed feel and taste.  

Even my pickiest household member with texture issues really liked these.

3 of 12 — Pinto Bean Brownies

Recipe 3 of the 12 Days of Pintos came about faster than I had planned.

My grandson was helping me research recipes and saw the brownie recipe.

He had to have them “right now.”

Since I had the foresight to cook extra pinto beans, I decided they were destined to go in this recipe.

Pinto Bean Brownies

The original recipe linked above is vegan.

However, I made changes that made it vegetarian and allergy friendly for me.

I replaced the flax seed with one egg.

I used Sunbutter instead of peanut butter.

I used turbinado sugar and went with the 1/2 cup.

I also used corn oil instead of coconut oil.

Please ignore the flash.

I basically tossed it all in the food processor and let it mix until I had a batter consistency.

This shows the color better.  I divided it into 12 portions and baked it for 23 minutes. 

This is the baked results. 

These are quite good!

They have a nice texture and the flavor is good.

They’re not super sweet, but I did not add any chocolate chips or other add ins.

2 of 12 — Chicken, Pinto, and Broccoli Skillet

I know I said we weren’t going to do 12 days of pintos straight.  I promise we haven’t, but when I was searching for meals that I felt like used basic pantry and freezer storage I came across this recipe for Chicken, Broccoli, and Pinto Bean Skillet.  Since I had some fresh broccoli in the refrigerator I decided to give this one a try.  The beauty of using beans to stretch meat appeals to me and the eater always feels like they have had “_______” (whatever meat) and doesn’t really pay much attention to the beans. This is my take on this recipe. I started by cooking 2 cups of pinto beans. I don’t buy canned pintos....not sure why...but they could easily be used in this recipe as called for.  I used the pressure cooker and cooked my beans from dry for 1 hour.  This yielded approximately 5 cups of beans.  I  used two for this meal.

2 cups of beans

1 chicken breast, (I cut strips and then bite sized.)

I omitted the onion and the peanuts.

I had about 3 to 3 1/2 cups of broccoli, that I broke into bite sized pieces.

One red bell pepper cut into chunks

2 carrots in thick “matchsticks” (This was to replace crunch of onions and to bulk this out more.)

I omitted the red pepper flakes because my grandson was eating with us.

I used olive oil instead of bacon grease.

I added onion powder and 1 tablespoon of corn starch to 1/4 cup of liquid aminoes.

(I don’t use soy sauce.)

Cook chicken in a little bit of olive oil.

I used a med/high heat.

When the chicken was done, I added in all the vegetables.

Since I didn’t want a heavy fat content, I let them cook for a few minutes and then added a bit of water.

I covered it and let it briefly steam to finish softening my veggies.

I’m sorry I didn’t record a time.

I just kept checking until they suited me.

I then stirred in the sauce mixture and the beans and let it cook for a couple of minutes.

(While all this was cooking, I cooked rice in the Instant Pot.)

This is my largest frying pan, so don’t be fooled.  

This made a good amount.

This was the finished product all plated up.

The finished yield:

3 adults ate supper

1 toddler ate supper

And I packed two generous lunches with leftovers.

This recipe is a keeper.

Notes:

1.  I think frozen stir fry veggies would work fine.

2.  You could serve this over noodles.

3.  I didn’t add any extra salt or pepper — the sauce was enough.

4.  You could easily use beef, pork, or tofu cubes in this dish.

     

1 of 12 — Mediterranean Pinto Bean and Rice Soup

Meal 1 of 12 for the 12 Days of Pintos

For ease of recipe finding for everyone, I’ve decided to try whenever possible to use recipes I find online.

This recipe is the first in our plan.

Mediterranean Pinto Bean and Rice Soup

I’ve revised the recipe slightly to match both the pressure cooker and my daughter’s food preferences.

The original dish is cooked on the stove top.

However, at the end of this post I will share how I would convert this to a slow cooker meal for those who do not use a pressure cooker.

I used the Instant Pot and several of the settings on it, but I am also listing the times for ease of converting to other pressure cookers.

In the pot combine:

1 2/3 cup of dried pintos

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of onion powder

1/4 cup of dried bell pepper

1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic

4 1/2 cups of water

Hit bean setting and increase time to 50 minutes. 

(Basically high pressure for 50 minutes.)

(I did not soak my beans first, but if you do I would think 30 minutes should work fine.) 

Let pressure drop naturally.

Add:

1 diced potato

3/4 cup of brown rice

1 cup of water

14.5 ounces of diced tomatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

Set pressure cooker for 22 minutes.

Let sit for 10 minutes and then vent.

Serve soup warm.

(My daughter requested no tomatoes, so I heated mine separately and added to my bowl. Also note, our personal preference is a little softer bean.  If you like them less soft, you could decrease the 50 minute cook time because they will be cooking an additional 22 with the rice.)

For my family, with three of us eating this week, this will make at least two meals worth of soup when served with bread.

If there were two of us here, I think I would halve the recipe.

Now for the slowcooker version —

I would put the first ingredient set on in the morning.

Midday add the second half.

I only recommend dividing it because sometimes tomatoes make beans take longer to cook.

Sweet Potato Side Dish (Non-dessert)

/

We tried this recipe from the back of the sweet potato bag.

I didn’t have fresh caulifloweer, so I added a yellow bell pepper and 1/2 of a red onion.

I tossed it all and put it in a cast iron frying pan.

This was fabulous!

(We had baked chicken with it.)

I used Aldi brand pure maple syrup.

I could not detect a difference between it and the Whole Foods brand I bought.

(My wallet could tell a difference though!)

I also just sprinkled some salt and pepper, rather than do either heavily.

I made a pan full expecting to have lots leftover.

Surprisingly I only had a cup left.

Triple Protein Salad — Recipe

I’m supposed to eat a high protein diet and average around 70 to 75 grams of protein a day.  While I do like meat, I find it hard to consume that much.  Not to mention that meat is expensive and I cannot have “steak” for every meal.  I try to find a way to eat a variety of protein sourcess of varying nature and cost.  Since I had a cup of chickpeas left, I thought I would share my “un-recipe” for  what I jokingly call “Three P Salad.”  It includes three protein sources (chicken and chicken eggs, chickpeas, and sour cream).  

These are the ingredients:

2 tablespoons Light mayo

2 tablespoons of Sour cream (I buy FF)

Chicken, cooked and coarsely chopped (I did one decent sized breast.)

Red onion, 1/2 small chopped to desired size

Celery, 1 stalk diced

2 hard boiled eggs, diced

1 dill pickle, diced

1 cup of cooked chickpeas

Salt and pepper to taste

Mash your chickpeas with a fork — I leave them kind of “chunky” for texture.

Add other ingredients.

Stir.

I added salt and pepper to taste.

It is now ready to serve.

However, I usually put it in a bowl and refrigerate it for a while to allow the flavors to meld.

Although your mileage may vary, my yield was approximately 5 cups.

Now for my notes:

1.  You can use any chicken or bits.  Or almost any leftover meat for that matter.

2.  Egg size doesn’t matter and you can add more or less.

3.  Any onion you like works.

4.  In addition to celery you can add carrots, apples, grapes, or whatever you like to bulk it out more.  Dried cranberries are pretty good, too.

5. You could easily drain and rinse a can of chickpeas for this.

6.  I don’t buy relish normally, but you could use pickle relish.

7.  Simply adjust the amount of mayo and sour cream to reflect what you need for your proportions.

8. Frugal note — cook an extra breast when you are cooking for something else for power savings.

As for serving:

On crackers

On a bed of lettuce

Wrapped in lettuce

In a sandwich

In a pita

In flour tortillas 

One final serving tip to stretch this even further.

Cook a batch of your favorite pasta.

Elbow noodles work well.  (GF works fine, too)

Stir noodles in.  Adjust mayo/etc.

Refrigerate and serve as a pasta salad.

(If I am making pasta salad, I will often use a “ranch” type seasoning blend to add some zing.)

Chickpea Patties Recipe

Since I cooked one pound of chickpeas in the pressure cooker yesterday, I thought I would share how I use them in meals.  I find I don’t particularly like to eat them by themselves, but when I use them as an ingredient I am quite fond of them. I’ve always struggled with bean burgers being too wet or too crumbly.  It took me some time of playing around and after years of experimenting I have finally created the recipe that works for me.

The ingredients are pretty simple.

2 cups of cooked chickpeas (drained)

1/2 of a medium red onion, finely diced

2 tsps. Of minced garlic

2 tsps. Of Italian seasoning

2 tbsp. Of olive oil (plus more for frying pan)

Salt/pepper to taste

1 egg

1 cup of gluten free panko bread crumbs 

(If using another “grain” make sure you use dry bread crumbs.)

Lightly cook onion and garlic in a small pan.  

(I added a tiny bit of olive oil.)

The goal is to remove that raw taste.

In food processor, with blade:

Mix chickpeas, cooked onion, garlic, Italian seasonings, salt, and pepper.

(I cooked my beans without any seasonings so I tasted the mixture until I had the salt level right.)

Then add in egg and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Mix again.

Mix in 1 cup of dry bread crumbs.

The mixture is slightly damp, but forms a good patty.

Heat a tiny bit of olive oil in a non stick frying pan.

Fry patties on medium heat until browned well on both sides.

Serve with your choice of sides, in pitas, or in buns with the usual burger fixings.

I opted for sliced bell pepper and sweet potato noodles.

The texture is firm without being too dry.

Vegetable Lo Mein Recipe (with options)

At the end of this post, I’ll share exactly what I did, but this recipe has lots of options.

You can cook your beans from scratch (you’ll need about 2 cups) or you can used canned — just drain and rinse.

You can use zucchini noodle, which I did, or you can use gluten free or wheat pasta of your choice.

You can use fresh veggies or a bag of stir fry blend.

You can use soy sauce or liquid aminoes.

You can use fresh pineapple, grate ginger, etc.  I didn’t.

You get the picture — pretty versatile.

My pithy recipe:

Cook your chickpeas.

I used the Instant Pot and cooked a pound with planned leftover.

If using canned, just drain and rinse.

Set aside.

1 or so cups of sliced cabbage

1/2 of a large red bell pepper

1 cup or so broccoli florettes (I broke them up to bite sized pieces.)

Carrot pieces

1 stalk of celery, sliced

Set aside.

If you are doing a traditional posta, start your pasta cooking.

If not, spiralize a zucchini or two.

Set aside.

In small sauce pan, mix:

8 ounces of pineapple tidbits in juice with 3 tablespoons of soy sauce (I use aminoes).

Stir in 1/4 teaspoon of ginger powder.

Stir in 1 teaspoon of diced garlic.

I added a tiny bit of black pepper.

Bring to a boil, turn down and let simmer a few minutes.

Meanwhile, stir fry your veggies.

I use olive oil, but you can use an oil of your choice.

I add the zucchini noodles last.

When the desired “softness” is almost reached stir in the sauce and let cook another minute or two.

Serve with your choice of sides.

I didn’t eat one.

Pumpkin Cheesecake (Recipe Link included)

A week or so ago, Mama brought me two small pumpkins that she was not going to use.  They had been given to her, but she does not eat pumpkin and she thought I might like to have them.  I put them both in the XL presssure cooker — still whole.  I cooked them and then saved the flesh.  I ended up with between 5 and 6 cups of pumpkin from them.  

 I love pumpkin cheesecake and since Thanksgiving was coming up it seemed a good way to use up some of the pumpkin.

 I made this recipe — RECIPE — with a few changes. 

 I wanted a deep dish pie with a gluten free crust, so I started by making 1 1/2 times the filling.  I used reduced fat cream cheese, turbinado sugar, fresh eggs, and my home cooked pumpkin.  I added pumpkin pie spice blend instead of worrying about separates.  For the crust, I used gluten free graham crackers that I pulverized in the food processor along.  (I added a bit of melted butter.). I did not take the crust all the way up the pie because I wasn’t sure how it would handle the baking time.  I ended up baking for 45 minutes, turning the oven off, and then letting sit in a hot oven for about 10 more minutes.

I ordered the “graham” crackers from Vitacost.

While this wasn’t the most beautiful cheesecake in the world, it was delicious.

We served it with whipped cream.

Despite the cost of the crust, which is higher for gluten free products...I consider this to be a pretty frugal make this time.

Cream cheese was on sale for the holidays.

The eggs and pumpkin were free.

The spices were on hand.

If I had gone crustless it would have all but been a free dessert.