Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Mini-Muffins

Posted on October 21, 2012 by admin

I love pumpkin and during the fall I cook and bake with pumpkin at least once a week! Here are the Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Mini-Muffins I whipped up this morning! They are delicious and all of us at the HoB agree! Here is the recipe, a printable version is available at the end! Happy Fall Y’all!!

Ingredients:

3 c Bisquick (either store bought or homemade, here is a great homemade recipe, way better & cheaper!! )

2/3 c Brown Sugar

1 can (15oz) Pumpkin Puree

1 egg

1/2 c Milk

1-2 tsp Pumpkin Spice (either store bought or homemade, here is a great homemade recipe, I use the Pumpkin Pie Spice#2)

1/2 c Cinnamon Chips (if you don’t care for the cinnamon chips, just add an extra tsp of Pumpkin Pie Spice)

Mix all ingredients together, spoon into a greased mini-muffin tin

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 mins or until done, makes approx. 48 mini muffins

Printable Recipe

Green Smoothie (And it is truly delicious!)

Posted on June 21, 2012 by admin

There are a ton of green smoothie recipes going around on Pinterset lately. So we decided to try our own here at The HoB! And WOW!! All of us are really liking it, so much that we all have had one yesterday and today!

This is so simple, I put 2 cups chopped fresh pineapple, 2 small bananas, 1 cup water and enough fresh baby spinach to fill the rest of my blender. Blend, pour and serve! Yes that simple!!! The spinach has little taste so all that is tasted is the pineapple and banana. We are now on a quest to try many different variations. Today we add some strawberries to the pineapple and banana, very yummy, though the color was not as pretty.

That is right, both my boys could not get enough of our green smoothie, both asking for another one tomorrow!!

Have you made green smoothies, if so what is your favorite ingredients to add?

Healthy Chicken Salad

Posted on June 20, 2012 by admin

Yes a healthy and delicious chicken salad! I am forever trying to find new, healthy, and yummy summer recipes. Living in Texas, hot foods are just not appealing in the summer, it is just way too hot! Plus who wants to stand in front of a hot stove to cook! One of our family’s go to summer recipes has always been chicken salad, in the past I have always used mayo but in trying to be healthier we tried an alternative this time around, Plain Greek Yogurt! And we were all very pleased with the results!

The mayo, and I was using a reduced fat olive oil version, had 360 calories and 32g Fat for the 1/2 cup I added to the chicken salad. But the plain non fat greek yogurt only added an additional 130 calories and no fat and I used an entire cup! And to tell you the truth I liked the salad made with the greek yogurt better!

Here is my recipe:

approx. 3 cups shredded or diced cooled cooked chicken (I used chicken we had smoked)
1 cup halved red seedless grapes
1 bunch green onions chopped
1 cup Fage Total 0% Plain Greek Yogurt
Mix together, salt & pepper to taste and chill

Approx: 8 servings (about 1 cup)

Nutritional Info:

Calories		125.1

Total Fat		1.2 g

	Saturated Fat	0.3 g

	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.3 g

	Monounsaturated Fat	0.3 g

Cholesterol		49.3 mg

Sodium		66.9 mg

Potassium		270.2 mg

Total Carbohydrate		4.9 g

	Dietary Fiber	0.5 g

	Sugars	3.0 g

Protein		22.8 g

**The nutritional info came from Spark People – Recipe Calculator**

***FAGE nor Spark People know who I am, I received no compensation for use of any products, all opinions are my own***

Sharing at these awesome link parties!

the Grant Life

Easy Homemade Salsa – Two Ways

Posted on June 7, 2012 by admin

I love fresh homemade salsa!! Here are two super easy homemade salsa recipes!

The salsa on the left if a simple tomato salsa, I coarsely chopped a quarter of a very large sweet yellow onion, quartered 7 medium tomatoes (they were from my garden, even better!!), chopped 1 large jalapeno and added a bunch of cilantro added everything to my blender and blend! Homemade salsa!! Add more or less jalapeno for your taste, our jalapeno was a hotter one so the salsa was hotter, also this makes a thinner salsa but that is how we like it!! Our batch made 1 quart jar!

This last weekend I was visiting my mom and dad, my mom had made this salsa and all of us could not stop eating, so I decided to try making it myself! The salsa on the right is a tomatillos avocado salsa that is very yummy!! I put into my blender 1 seedless cucumber (the long skinny ones that are usually wrapped in plastic, they are worth every penny) quartered, 7 tomatillos quartered, bunch of cilantro, juice of one lime. Blend together then added 1 larger avocado. The salsa will be very thin until you add the avocado, then it will be thicker. This salsa is good on all kinds of food! We had it on shrimp tacos for dinner and eggs for breakfast! Enjoy!! Our batch made 2 quart jars!

What are your favorite foods for summer?

Check out these great link parties I shared at:

Jello Cookies

Posted on June 5, 2012 by admin

Recently, I was on Pinterest collecting ideas to keep my boys busy this summer. I found this recipe for Jello cookies. The colors just looked so fun I thought it would be a good baking activity for us!

I let my boys each pick 2 flavors, my younger boy picked lemon and strawberry, YUM! My older boy picked Lime and Tropical Fusion, YUM!!

Here are our cookies

They are not as pretty as Jamielyn’s but that is ok, the boys helped roll the balls of dough and smoosh the cookies down with the bowl. The cookies did taste good and they were fun to make!!

What are you doing to keep your kids busy this summer?

Strawberry Pineapple Coconut Delight

Posted on January 12, 2012 by admin

In case you missed me last week on The Grant Life, here is my post from there!

I have a quick and easy recipe for you today! I saw this recipe for Orange Fluff Jello Salad over at Six Sisters’ Stuff and I thought it looked really yummy. But when I went to my cabinet I had no orange jello, I had strawberry jello and that was when my creative recipe skills took over!

This is a super simple recipe and very quick!

Ingredidents:

1 Large Box Vanilla Instant pudding (I used sugar-free)

1 small Box Strawberry Jello (I used sugar-free)

15oz can crushed pinapple

1/2 c shredded coconut

1 container cool whip or homemade whip topping (16oz Heavy Whipping Cream, 1/4 c sugar beat in mixer until stiff)

Dump the pudding and jello packets into large bowl, added the can of pinapple (DO NOT DRAIN) and mix well. Add in coconut and mix. Fold in the cool whip or homemade whip topping. Refrigerate for 1 hour and then serve.

I made mine with the homemade whip topping as I had no cool whip on hand. Enjoy!

Chicken Caprese Sandwich

Posted on December 28, 2011 by admin

Here is a lighter very flavorful sandwich! Enjoy!!!

Chicken Caprese Sandwich

I flattened a boneless skinless chicken breast and cooked in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil, salt & pepper. Then I sliced a ciabatta roll open and toasted in the oven. Next I took a little bit of mayo and mixed in diced up fresh basil and smeared onto the toasted ciabatta rolls. Then I sliced some fresh mozzarella and tomato. Finally to assemble the sandwich, place the chicken on the bottom ciabatta roll, placed two tomato slices on top, added two slices of fresh mozzarella and finally placed the top of the ciabatta roll with the basil mayo on top! ENJOY!!!

I am linking to these great link parties! Check them out for some amazing inspiration!!

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies

Posted on November 23, 2011 by admin

The other day I was grocery shopping with the Hubs when I asked him if there was anything else he needed or wanted and he replied “yum, oatmeal cream pies, but NO I do not need them!” Inspiration struck, how wonderful would homemade oatmeal cream pies be!! And yes not the best for you but better than store-bought, at least I know what ingredients I am using!!

Fast forward a few hours and I was in the kitchen making my very own homemade oatmeal cream pies and they are so very yummy and so much better than anything store bought!!

This is a fairly easy recipe just a really yummy oatmeal cookie and homemade whipped cream! Here is the recipe, a downloadable, printer-friendly version in at the bottom!

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Ingredients – Oatmeal Cookies

1c Butter, softened
1c Sugar
1c Brown Sugar
2t Vanilla
2 Eggs
1t Baking Soda
1t Salt
2t Pumpkin Pie Spice
2c Flour
3c Quick Oats

Ingredients – Whipped Cream

16oz Heavy Whipping Cream
1c Sugar
2t Vanilla

1.Preheat Oven to 325 degrees
2.Line baking sheet with parchment paper
3.Cream butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs together
4.In separate bowl mix baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice and flour
5.Gradual stir in dry ingredient mixture
6.Add oats in 1c at a time
7.Spoon on to cookie sheet, leaving 1-2” between each cookie
8.For small cookies, cook 9-11 mins
9.For large cookies, cook 14-16 mins
10.Let cookies cool for 5-10 mins then remove from cookie sheet
11.In mixer or with hand-mixer whip heavy whipping cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff
12.Once cookies are cool spoon whipped topping on to flat side of cookie and sandwich a second cookie on top to make oatmeal cream pie. I put my oatmeal cream pies in the freezer so as to keep the cookies together in the sandwich

ENJOY!!

Here is a downloadable and printer-friendly version: HERE

I am thankful to have the knowledge to cook and bake! Thank you Mom, Dad and GG!!

Crockpot Chicken and Stuffing

Posted on November 17, 2011 by admin

I love to cook in my crockpot! So easy put all the food in set and walk away! Today I made Chicken and Stuffing, so easy and so yummy!!

I put 4 frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot, added 1/2 a diced onion, covered the chicken with some poultry seasoning and about 1 inch of chicken broth. Now my crockpot cooks very hot so I set it for 4 hours on low and the chicken was done. When the chicken was done I added a box of stuffing mixed and let it cook on low for another 30 minutes. I fluffed the stuffing a few times and it was ready to eat! YUM! Like a mini pre-Thanksgiving dinner!! We also had yummy pumpkin cheesecake muffins!!!

I am thankful to have a kitchen and food to be able to cook wonderful meals for my family!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins

Posted on November 17, 2011 by admin

I am participating in Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker‘s Improv Challenge. This month’s challenge is to use pumpkin and cream cheese in a new recipe. I made Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins!

The great thing about these muffins is they are yummy, easy and just sweet enough but not too sweet!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins

Yeild: 3 dozen muffins

Ingredients – Pumpkin Muffins

3 ½ cups pureed pumpkin (the big can)

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups brown sugar

3 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp salt

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 ½ tsp baking powder

3 cups flour

Ingredients – Cheesecake topping

2 – 8oz Cream Cheese

2/3 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 300 degrees
Place muffin cups in muffin tin or spray tin with PAM
Mix pumpkin puree, vanilla, brown sugar and pumpkin spice together
Add eggs and mix well
Add salt, baking soda, baking powder, 1 cup flour and mix well
Slow mix in the other 2 cups flour
Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full and set aside
Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until fairly smooth
Using the back of a spoon create a crater in the middle of each scoop of pumpkin muffin
Add 2 Tablespoons of cheesecake mixture to each muffin
Bake 20-25 mins, until the muffins are cooked through
Cool, remove from muffin tin and ENJOY!!

And here is a PDF version you can download and print! Printable Recipe

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