Cold and lonely weather down south!

I can't believe it's already been so long since my last post! I know because today is the next Siesta verse posting day. If you're interested in Beth Moore's Bible Memory verse challenge, you can check it out here. My verse for today is Ephesians 3:20-21
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
I love this verse because it always reminds me that when we are seeking God's will for our lives, he WILL deliver more than we can ask for or imagine. So amazing, so reassuring, and a little scary!

This last week, I was a little lonely as hubs went off to Naval Air Station Pensacola for Water Survival Training. He was really looking forward to it, but ended up not enjoying it as much as he had hoped. It wasn't because it was too difficult, but because the South had a terrible cold stretch last week. One of the days he was out on the ocean, the air temperature was on 35 degrees! That is chilly! I was very happy to drive up to San Antonio on Friday to pick WM up at the airport. Hopefully he'll have a start date for his 3rd phase of training sometime next week!

I wanted to welcome hubs home with an exciting and delicious meal. Since it was still pretty chilly in Corpus Christi (A note to all my CO friends and family. I know that my upper 30's and low 40's weather  is not cold in comparison to your cold. Unfortunately for me, my body has acclimated to warm weather after almost two years in Texas. With 8 months of the year in my border town in the 100's, you start to get chilly pretty easy...) I opted for a luxurious soup. I made Pumpkin, Cheddar, and Chipotle Soup. It was delicious! The recipe is from the Rachael Ray Website and can be found here. I used canned pumpkin for my soup since our local grocery stores are no longer carrying fresh pumpkins. It was perfect soup to help warm WM up!

Warm Soup on a Cold Day

For dessert, I made a decadent Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake. That recipe can be found here.

Who says no to this kind of chocolatey goodness?

My first Run for the Bling of It  run is this coming Saturday. It's a pretty informal 5k put on by the Corpus Christi Roadrunners. I'm pretty excited to be kicking this 12 month challenge off!

My running buddy Alli is rocking out running (like usual) and I am hanging on. Right now it looks like we're both on the way to getting our January presents (exciting!)!

One of the best new parts of Corpus Christi we've discovered is the farmer's market. It's every Saturday at 9 am in the morning. It's definitely small, but there is a ton of great produce. Hubs and I have decided to choose a random veggie every time we go and figure out how to use it when we get home. Today  we bought:

Kale and Cilantro

The cilantro is easy to use. It actually went into a soup tonight. The kale is its own challenge. We found a recipe for kale chips and a kale in pasta recipe. We're giving both a try this week. It's almost sad to eat such a pretty veggie.

Look at those pretty ruffles!

This is post is going on forever, so I think I'll wrap it up here!

How To Roast a Pumpkin - A Pictorial Guide

Happy Halloween!! 

Halloween is fun, but it's not a huge holiday around our house. As you've probably guessed from my previous posts I'm a fan of fall in general. So, in honor of fall and kind of Halloween, I'm going to post an easy guide to how to roast a pumpkin. You might wonder why anyone would want to know how to roast a pumpkin. There are easy answers to this question, #1 It's fancy to roast a pumpkin. Who doesn't want to be fancy? #2 If you've ever found a recipe asking you to peel a pumpkin or winter squash and laughed/cried after trying it, you'll want to read this #3 Roasting the pumpkin can add delightful flavor to any recipe. This method also works for almost any other kind of winter squash. The only one that I wouldn't use this method for is a spaghetti squash. Also, just know if you roast a pumpkin before using it in a recipe, it won't be as firm as the recipe calls for. I normally don't mind because I HATE peeling raw pumpkins.

Step #1

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover a baking sheet in aluminum foil and spray it with Pam.

Step #2

Select a wonderful pie pumpkin

Step #3 

Carefully cut said pumpkin in half

Step #4

Scrape all the seeds out of the center of the pumpkin. If you husband or significant other likes roasted pumpkin seeds as much as mine, put them aside to bake later.

Step #5

Place both halves face down on the prepared baking sheet

Step #6

Bake pumpkin for 30-40 minutes until it looks roasted and the skin is EASILY pierced with a fork

Step #7

Wait until pumpkin is cool to use in your recipe!

Use lots of pumpkin, it is super healthy with lots of Vitamin A!!!!

This year's Jack O Lantern

Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Crisps

It's fall, so here's yet another wonderful pumpkin recipe!

Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Crisps

Ingredients
1 c. Brown Sugar
3/4 c. Granulated Sugar
1 c. Unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c. Canned unsweetened pumpkin
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 c. unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamon (If you don't have any, just add a little extra cinnamon)
3 c. rolled oats
1 1/2 c. semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips

Method


Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or foil with cooking spray.

Beat the sugars and butter together with a hand mixer until well blended and fluffy. Add the pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Add the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cardamon into the mixture and continue beating at a low speed until well blended. Stir in the oats an chocolate chips.

Drop by tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Cool on a wire rack completely before storing in an air tight container.

Enjoy!!!

These cookies are delicious and can be enjoyed with nice hot coffee, room temperature red wine, or ice cold milk!

Savory Pumpkin...Mealoaf with Pumpkin Glaze

So, over the last few weeks there have been many new and delicious meals! I think I may be a professional recipe picker or something like that. I have also been meeting my goal of staying at under $100 a week in groceries and household items! This recipe was a chance taken that turned out like food heaven in my mouth! So, even if you are weirded out by this combo, I would give it a try!

Meatloaf with Pumpkin Glaze

Ingredients
1 slice of whole wheat bread
2 tbsp low-fat milk
2 tbsp minced garlic
3/4 c canned unsweetened pumpkin
1/4 c. fresh parsley (If you forget to buy this, I just use a couple tbsp of dried parsley)
1 egg
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
1 lb ground lean hamburger
1 lb reduced fat sausage
2 tbsp dark brown sugar

Method

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Tear the bread into small pieces and place in a large bowl with the milk. Let it sit for 1-2 minutes, until the bread absorbs the milk.

Add the garlic, 1/2 cup of pumpkin, parsley, egg, oregano, salt, and pepper to taste (I think I used some extra salt), and whisk everything together.

Add the meat, stir with a wooden spoon, then mix thoroughly with your hands. Pat the mixture into a loaf shape and place in a shallow 2 quart foil lined casserole dish.

Whisk remaining 1/4 cup of pumpkin wit the brown sugar and spread on top.

Bake for 1 hour. Let the loaf sit in pan for 10 minutes before slicing.

Then enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!!

Meatloaf and Broccoli!!! Yum!

If you are interested in more savory pumpkin recipes, my friend Allie over at her blog has a great recipe up. Check it out here.

Just a friendly picture of Mack and his duck

New and Exciting Things!

Since I last blogged, life has been even more crazy. The constant onslaught of school has remained the same. I am longing for the end of semester, yet dreading it all at the same time. I just took a class on Images of the American West. It was crazy. 6 days of lecture in a row about Turner's Thesis, Custer, and Sitting Bull have a way of completely numbing your brain.

Since I've been back in sunny border town, there have been two exciting developments. The first is my garden. Yes, I plant killer extraordinaire have managed with the help of my hubby to keep lots of plants that I grew from the seeds alive. I have a whole array of kitchen herbs in little pots and a giant plot of Big Max pumpkins, sugar pumpkins, and spaghetti squash. There is lots of green so far! I am excited to see the pumpkins/squashes grow!

The other exciting news is that WM and I adopted a dog. He's really cute. Mack is a 97 lb golden retriever mix. He has a sunny disposition and his favorite activity is trying to lay on our guest bed. His second favorite activity is laying on our old couch.

Well, that's all for today - time to get back to the hw!