Pumpkin Spice Latte

With the weather changing and the reminder that the holidays will soon be upon us, I have been craving Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. I do love Starbucks, but at $4 per latte (for something that probably costs $0.15 to make) just isn't friendly on my desire to drink it multiple times a week. So I searched for a recipe I could make while at home. I looked at roughly 8 recipes before deciding on one that would work with the limited resources I had. This recipe is from a blog http://vanillaandlace.blogspot.com/2009/11/pumpkin-spice-latte.html

"Pumpkin spice latte
1 cup milk
2-2.5 tablespoons pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/8 cup espresso or 1/4 cup REALLY strong coffee 

In a glass jar with lid, combine milk, pumpkin puree, and sugar. Shake vigorously until slightly foamy, and microwave for one minute. Shake again, and microwave again. Repeat until foamy and hot. Add vanilla extract. Pour into mug, with a spoon holding back the foam. add espresso. Then top with the foam."
"
The first time I made this, I added a tsp of pumpkin pie spice and it came out way too spiced. I decided to nix that idea, but I did start adding cinnamon and that made it much better. On a cold rainy day such as this, I think I just make one today!

Fondue Night!

After being married for a year, Rex and I decided that we needed to implement a date night once a week so that we could make sure we spend quality time together. It’s been great. Instead of scheduling ourselves so tight on weekends, we managed to give ourselves a break from the busy week to just enjoy time together. The only issue is that date night can get expensive quickly :) Thus, we’ve had some fun doing creative dates. I love utilizing Groupon and LivingSocial, but there are definitely “dry” weeks with a lot of coupons that won’t work for our dates. This past week I decided to do a “date night in”. I had a lot of fun planning it and not telling Rex anything about it! I received a fondue pot for our wedding and decided to put it to use for more than just a chocolate dessert. So what else should I make with a fondue pot other than cheese! I made a couple of things to dip into the cheese: meatballs, granny smith apples, carrots, celery, and French bread. I also made stuffed mushrooms in the oven (DELICIOUS!). We ate probably less than half of each item on the table and took a break to watch a redbox movie. After the movie we made a chocolate, peanut butter fondue and dipped strawberries, bananas, and marshmallows into it. It was a great date night and I think the meal turned out wonderfully. Although it was probably more than I would have spent on a normal dinner, it was much less than we would have spent on a date night out. 

Cheese Fondue:

INGREDIENTS

·        1 cup dry white wine

·         1/2 pound shredded Swiss cheese

·         1/2 pound shredded Gruyere cheese

·         2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

·         1/4 teaspoon salt

·         1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

·         1 (1 pound) loaf French bread, cut into 1 inch cubes

DIRECTIONS:

1. Simmer wine in fondue pot. Add Swiss cheese and Gruyere cheese 1/4 lb at a time. Stir after each addition of cheese until melted. Stir in flour. When all cheese has melted, stir in salt and nutmeg.

Stuffed Mushrooms

INGREDIENTS

·       1 pound lean ground beef

·         2 pounds fresh mushrooms-stems removed, chopped and reserved

·         1/4 cup margarine

·         1/2 cup chopped green bell peppers

·         2 teaspoons minced garlic

·         3 teaspoons dried parsley

·         1 teaspoon dried basil leaves, crushed

·         2/3 cup dry bread crumbs

·         1/3 cup soft bread crumbs

·         2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

1.     Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

2.     Place ground beef in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside.

3.     In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the margarine and stir in the mushroom stems, green bell peppers, garlic, parsley and basil.

4.     In a large bowl, mix the ground beef, mushroom stem mixture, dry bread crumbs, soft bread crumbs and Cheddar cheese.

5.     Place the mushroom caps, upside down, on a large baking pan. Generously stuff each cap with the mixture.

6.     Bake in the preheated oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until the filling is golden brown.

Meatballs

INGREDIENTS

1/2-1 lb ground beef

1 c Panko dried bread crumbs

1 tsp thyme

1 tbsp basil

1/2 c dried Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

DIRECTIONS

1. Crack 2 eggs into shallow dish (I like using pie plates).

2. In a separate dish, mix bread crumbs, thyme, basil, and Parmesan until well combined.

3. Roll ground beef into separate meatballs, dip in egg wash, and then roll in bread crumb mixture.

4. Place meatballs in skillet and cook until no longer pink inside (8 or so minutes).

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Fondue

INGREDIENTS

1 c semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c milk

1/2 c creamy peanut butter

DIRECTIONS

1. Set up a double-boiler. My set-up is to place a metal bowl in a saucepan. Place 1-1.5 c water in sauce pan and bring to a boil. Place metal bowl over water.

2. Place chocolate chips into saucepan and melt. Add sugar, milk, and peanut butter and heat until smooth. Transfer into fondue pot.

Meal Planning

This post is a bit different as it will not be including any recipes, but I will give insight into my meal planning. Meal planning a perfect way to make my grocery shopping trips less stressful and more budget friendly. Although I love to cook and try new recipes, I strongly dislike meal planning. Meal planning can be a tricky and time-consuming, but the benefits of meal planning far outweigh the torture it seems to put me through. Most of the time I have a really hard time planning what to make and I have to turn to the internet and cookbooks to give me inspiration. I do admit that if I am lucky that week, I may have some cravings for particular foods and that makes the whole planning process easier.

The first thing I do when meal planning is log onto allrecipes.com as that is the site I store most of my recipes. I also utilize http://crockpotgirls.com/about-us/ for some crock pot inspiration and pinterest. I typically scan my folder in allrecipes to see if I can cook up an old favorite or a recipe I archived in months past. When I find a recipe I want, I add it to Word doc to keep my weekly menu organized. I then look at my crock pot website for more inspiration and typically pick something simple to make so as to make at least one of my meals per week is effortless and easy :) Then if I haven't filled up my Word doc with a full weeks worth of meals, its usually time to look through my cookbooks and browse pinterest for meals worth making. Sometimes meal planning takes me 10 minutes and sometimes it takes me an hour. Yes- an hour! Can you hear/feel my agony of sitting for an hour to make just 7 days worth of food and then repeat the following week. Ok, I'm a bit dramatic.

Once I have a plan, I open a text document to make a list of things I need to buy for each recipe that is not already in my pantry. Here is where I probably get too technical, but I absolutely hate making multiple trips to the same aisle to get everything off my list SO I divide my list into grocery departments according the store layout and that way I don't waste time in the store and I don't miss anything off my list. I print my list and I'm ready to shop!

The torture is over, I can grocery shop, and soon be making delicious meals w/o that inevitable question creeping into my mind: "Oh no, what should I make for dinner?"