Sunday Night Dinner: Take 35

I'm back with a real quick Sunday Night Dinner post! 

It's been awhile since I've done one of these posts, 

but I'm here now to tell you about this dinner that includes an amazing recipe reminding me of my childhood!

Growing up, I remember having meatloaf on a pretty regular occasion. 

I loved it. I ate it without complaining! That is until I gave up eating beef! 

I don't think I've eaten a bite of meatloaf since then...until today!!!

I made mini turkey meatloaves with a slice of bacon on top. 

I wasn't originally planning on adding the bacon, but I'm real glad I did! 

The meatloaves were super moist and delicious. Very similar to how I remember mom's tasting!

With the meatloaf, I made some carmalized sweet potato rounds. 

They were SO GOOD and I will be blogging about them very soon.

Finally, I finished the meal with a green vegetable - frozen peas. 

Yes folks, I said frozen peas! I actually really like them and think they went with the meal quite well.

All in all, I think tonight's meal was a great Sunday Night Dinner!!!

Pumpkin Carving and Seed Roasting!

It's not Halloween to me if I don't carve a pumpkin and then roast the seeds. I usually do it closer to the holiday, but the I had the opportunity to carve pumpkins and hang out with a great friend this past weekend. 

Our pumpkins and carving tools!

I've always been a fan of carving pumpkins and I am not against using patterns. I purchased a new book and went with the hardest possible pattern! What can I say - I like a lil challenge!

Not bad, right? I think I did a pretty good job if I do say so.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of my friend's pumpkin, but it was interesting to say the least. :) Let's just say they were the first person I've ever seen who carved their pumpkin before scooping out and and cleaning up the goop. 

I dried the seeds overnight and then roasted them with a little melted butter and salt. Once they were crisped to perfection, I took them out and tossed half with cinnamon sugar and half with a spicy mixture. Both turned out great and I think I'll be using this method from not on! I want another pumpkin just for it's seeds now...

MMMmmm Pumpkin Seeds!

Did you carve a pumpkin or still planning to do so? 

Do you do roast the seeds or just throw them out with the other scraps? 

Look for more Halloween related posts to come soon!

Sunday Night Dinner: Take 30

For my 30th Sunday Night Dinner post, I made something SO tasty and it's something I haven't made in a very long time. In fact, I've never made this exact version either! My friend Alison got to be a taste tester and I think she went home full and happy! 

So what did I make? 

LASAGNA!!!

Kale, Spinach and Zucchini Lasagna Roll Ups to be exact! 

And I served them with a spring mix salad and fresh garlic bread. 

I was very happy with the outcome and will absolutely be making these again in the future. And this time I won't wait as long to make them again! In fact - this would make an excellent dish this Fall and I seriously CANNOT wait for it to get here. C'mon Fall!!!

Note: I used this recipe and used Kale, Spinach and Zucchini instead of the Prosciutto. I'm sure either would be fine, but this was all veggie and still incredibly delicious! 

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde

I recently ran across a recipe for a Salsa Verde that sounded amazing and looked super easy to make! I saved the recipe and said to myself I'd make it soon. 

Less than a month later, I was roasting tomatillos, jalapenos and garlic to make this delicious salsa!  As I suspected, it WAS super easy to make and required very little effort! 

Take a look below and give it a try yourself! I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The Goods:

Tomatillos

Jalapenos

Garlic

Lime Juice

Salt

Apple Cider Vinegar

And not pictured...

Cilantro!

(OOPS!)

Before, After,

And all ready for Blending!

All done!

Now time to dig in!

Go make it yourself.

Seriously!!!

Sunday Night Dinner: Take 29

Another Sunday night, and once again...another yummy Sunday night dinner! Tonight, I got to enjoy the company of my girlfriend Alison and catch up on our busy lives. It was a great evening and I look forward to more nights like tonight in the near future!

We started with some fresh watermelon juice and had some tasty olives too! Soon after, she was digging into the Soft Pretzels I made last night! They're so good, even after freezing. And the main course was just as good - salmon with herb garlic butter, roasted brussels sprouts and herbed basmati rice. YUM! We both were stuffed and completely satisfied!!

Sunday Night Dinner: Take 28

Tonight's Sunday Night Dinner was pretty simple, but finding all the pieces to make it a success was far from simple!  One would think that it'd be easy to find pretzel rolls, correct? Especially now that they're pretty trendy. Well...not really! After going to 4 different stores, I was finally able to purchase pretzel slider rolls from a store I'd seen them at MONTHS ago. Why I didn't start there in the first place...that's another story! 

Now that I had pretzel rolls, I could make what I'd picture as an amazing dinner! I made turkey burger pretzel roll sliders with cheddar cheese, mustard, lettuce and pickle slices. They were simply amazing and even better than I thought possible! With them, I enjoyed some grilled zucchini and roasted brussels sprouts. Both were very tasty and oddly enough, a great compliment to the sliders.

Hosting My FIRST Thanksgiving!

I usually travel to see family for Thanksgiving, but this year I invited my parents to come visit me! They accepted and I was more than thrilled. I don't have a HUGE place, so I couldn't host too many people, but I decided to invite my grandma and cousin to come up as well!

The table all set.

In addition to hosting Thanksgiving, I did all the prep work and almost all of the cooking. It was a lot of work, but completely worth it! I have to give my mom the credit for the yummy gravy, and my grandma mashed the potatoes with some butter, milk, sour cream and seasoning.

ALL the yummy food!

Roasted Butternut Squash

French Bread Stuffing with Bacon

I LOVE stuffing...

but now I love it with bacon even more!

Cranberry Orange Sauce

Roasted Turkey Breast

It was SO moist and delicious! 

Green Bean Casserole

No Knead Clover Rolls.

I halved the recipe and STILL had a ton!!!

Potatoes Mashed by Grandma!

And Gravy made by Mom!

A holiday meal isn't complete without a Relish Tray.

My plate - YUM!!!

All in all, it was a VERY tasty meal and I can honestly say I look forward to doing it again!  Besides all the amazing food, I had one of the BEST Thanksgivings I've had in a long time.

My wonderful Thanksgiving guests!

Happy 300th Post: Celebrating With Homemade Pumpkin Puree

Yes, folks - you read that right - this is officially the 300th post and I've had my blog less than 3 years! I am very excited for this milestone, and cannot wait to see what happens in the future with my blog. It's crazy to think about how far I've come since I started, and this recipe is a perfect example of how I've grown as a blogger AND a cook.

When I was first beginning my blog, I wouldn't have thought twice about using canned pumpkin puree. I've done it before and the outcome was great, but I just KNEW that Homemade Pumpkin Puree would be so much better.

Since I love The Pioneer Woman and her recipes so much, I figured trusting her Pumpkin Puree recipe was a no brainer. And sure enough, I was right.

Take a look at how I made this SUPER easy and amazingly tasty Pumpkin Puree!

Oh yeah - I almost forgot to mention...I used a white pumpkin instead of the regular orange. I was told it'd be extra sweet, but to be honest I don't know if I would be able to tell the difference. It tasted like pumpkin to me and that's what matters, right?

The pumpkin.

Kahn was interested in it too. 

Okay time to get to roasting...

Start the preparation process by chopping the top off.

\

Then cut that baby in half.

Scoop out the seeds - but don't get rid of them, 

you've gotta roast 'em!

Cut each half into four pieces and 

lay them out on a baking sheet.

I didn't use ANY oil or seasoning because 

I wanted the puree to be a pure as possible.

I think I baked it for about an hour and a half total. 

It did take awhile...

but it required such little effort, it's so worth it!

Once the roasted pumpkin is cooled, take off the skin and chop it into small cubes.

Throw the cubed pumpkin into the food processor, puree until smooth and add a little water to thin it out if needed.  

The finished product.

I officially LOVE homemade pumpkin puree now and cannot wait to use it more this Fall and Winter. You too should try this out the next time you want to make something that calls for pumpkin puree and you won't be disappointed!

Oh and I cannot forget...

Happy 300th Blog Post!!! 

Homemade Soup: Roasted Butternut Squash Sage Soup

It's been WAY too long since I posted a homemade soup recipe, but now that it's officially Fall and the temperature is getting warmer - I to hope to post many more soup recipes in the months to come. 

I love homemade soup - it's SO much better than canned soup - and this is the most recent soup I've made. Recently I found this recipe and I had a Butternut Squash I needed to use up, so I thought I'd substitute that for the pumpkin. I kind of made it on a whim and it was the first time I'd made it, but it was so tasty I'll definitely make it again. 

Since I used homemade vegetable stock I already had in my freezer, the entire process didn't take that long. The longest part was roasting the squash, but that required very little attention and I was able to roast it while doing other things.  

So before I ramble on and on - let me show you how to make this AMAZING Roasted Butternut Squash Sage Soup.   

The Goods:

Butternut Squash - Roasted and Mashed

Minced Shallot

Minced Garlic

Butter 

Vegetable Stock

Fresh Sage

Salt

Pepper

Melt the butter and sauté the shallots a few minutes.

Add the garlic and sauté one more minute. 

Add the mashed squash...

And the stock too!

Stir it just a little...

And add the sage, salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Puree the soup in a blender.

And you'll get something like this!

YUM!!!

I thought I'd have mini grilled cheese with my soup tonight.

The soup and sandwiches. 

It was SOOOOO good and I cannot wait to enjoy the rest of the soup. I only made half a batch and I still ended up with quite a bit. I love leftovers and I'm really looking forward to eating these! 

Candied and Toasted Fresh Coconut

One of my friends recently made some Coconut Candy to recreate something her and her husband found and fell in love with in Hawaii on their honeymoon last Fall. I saw her making it and was lucky enough that I got a little bag to enjoy once it was all done. I fell in love with it too and knew it was something I wanted to make and blog about.

I searched and searched and searched for a recipe online, but couldn't find anything that really looked like it'd end up like my friend's so I decided to combine two recipes into one. I first did this to the coconut and then I did this to get it nice and toasted. Mmmmm!

Now let me show you how to make this tasty treat yourself. 

The Goods:

Fresh Coconut

Sugar

Water

 Poke the soft part of thecoconut out with a screwdriver.  

Drain the coconut.

 Smash the coconut in half with a hammer.

Remove the meat of the coconut and discard the shell.

Remove the brown area and slice VERY thin!

 Boil the fresh coconut in water to remove some of the fat.

After 5 minutes, drain and return to the pot.

 Add the sugar and water and bring to a boil. 

Simmer until water/sugar mixture has reduced completely and coconut is sticky. 

 Lay the candied coconut out in a single layer on the baking sheet.

Toast according to recipe.

This is about halfway done.

And done!!

It's carmely, and nutty, and a little chewy and simply delicious! 

I managed to burn myself while toasted the coconut, but man it was so worth the burn because the end result was simply amazing!