Happy Healthy Halloween

Typically, any sort of bread (pumpkin bread, apple bread, zucchini bread, etc.) will instantly mean that my scale registers an extra 5 pounds (hmm, I wonder why?).  I've basically banned myself from making bread, but in this case I found a TOTAL WINNER OF A RECIPE.  And as you know from my earlier blogs, pumpkin is super healthy for you  and in this case bananas sweeten the bread and the Greek yogurt replaces the oil.  Before you judge, you should try it - YUM!!

HEALTHY BANANA PUMPKIN BREAD

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin glop
• 2 large over-ripe bananas
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 cup pecans (optional)

Directions

1. Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves in a large bowl.
2. Mix brown sugar, pumpkin puree, bananas, eggs and yogurt in another large bowl.
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients followed by the pecans.
4. Pour the mixture into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan.
5. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until golden brown and a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean, about 60 minutes.

This recipe was inspired from a blog I follow called Closet Cooking.  This blog is fun because he highlights some really unique recipes.

Healthy Pumpkin Banana Bread

Our "I Spy" pumpkin turned out absolutely great.  The kids in Gus and Greta's class had a BLAST trying to find everything glued to the pumpkin.  Darcy, thanks again for the idea.

"I Spy" Pumpkin

And, if you missed the Easy Halloween Treats from my last blog, click here:  Kid Friendly Halloween Treats


And finally, we had fun Trick or Treating tonight despite the fact that I'm limping around like I'm 95 (my varicose vein surgery was a success, but I'm still recovering).     Graham handed out candy at one of the Trunk or Treats in town, but Gus and Greta and I went around collecting candy.  Believe it or not, they trick or treated for 3 hours and didn't ask for one single piece of candy.  I'm wondering if they are sick?  At their age I would've had a serious stomach ache from candy overload. 

Trick or Treat

What a great night - Happy Halloween!  What did you do?

Thanks for reading,

Kristin

 

 

Simple Halloween Treats

As I'm recovering from my surgery, my mom came up to help with the kids (oh, I'm so grateful).  Right now she is assisting the kids with three simple Halloween projects as I supervise from the couch.  My kids love any sort of project, and since I can't be at Lambeau (boo!), the next best thing is crafting with my kids.

Every single year we make these witches hats because they are so super simple (3 ingredients) and  anyone can put them together.  I do not have the best attention to detail and even I can manage to pull these off.

1.   WITCHES HATS

Turn the stripped cookie upside down, frost, add a Kiss and you have witches hats - adorable!!!


Witches Hats with Pumpkin Seeds in the middle
Featured on my Grandma's platter

 

 

2.  BURGERS AND FRIES COOKIES:

 

Next we made these burgers and fries that my Aunt Paula made for us when we visited her in Manitowish Waters.  These are a little putsy, but the kids LOVE making them (and eating them).

INGREDIENTS:

1 box vanilla wafers
1 box Keebler grasshopper cookies
Coconut (mix with green food coloring)
Egg White - whipped
Sesame Seeds
White frosting colored orange (Red and Yellow make orange)
Shoestring potatoes (one large container)
Cup Cake Papers

Assembly:

1 wafer flat side down, frost top.   1 grasshopper cookie place on top.  Frost top of grasshopper cookie and put vanilla wafer on top.   Dip assembled cookie into green coconut.  Lightly brush top of vanilla wafer with egg white and add sesame seeds.  Add to cupcake papers and add shoestring potatoes - looks just like burger and fries.  Adorable!!!

Burger and Fries Cookies

 

 

Burger and Fries Cookies - on my Grandma's serving platter (I have a few)

 

3.  PUMPKIN SEEDS:

My mom carved pumpkins with the kids and later we made delicious and healthy pumpkin seeds.

Remove seeds from pumpkin and allow to air dry for 24 hours (this part if important).  Liberally drizzle with olive and oil and salt and cook for 1/2 hour turning every 15 minutes.  Yum!!!!




Pumpkin Seeds

4. HALLOWEEN FINGERS

I also saw these adorable Halloween Finger Cookies, but I'm running out of time and energy and we have enough junk in our house to last a month.  Here's a picture:

Halloween Finger Cookies - picture and recipe from All Recipes

 

I wish I could tell you I have some awesome Halloween costume ideas this year, but I haven't given it much energy so the kids have some store-bought costumes.  The boys really do not like to dress-up, but hopefully I can do it up big for Greta next year. 

What are you doing for Halloween this year?  Happy Halloween - thanks for reading,

Kristin

All Hummus!!!

If you ask me, hummus is the B-E-S-T snack on the planet.  Healthy, a good source of protein, a great dip for veggies and chips, and ooooooh so yummy, you will always find this snack in the Frane fridge.

One thing I've learned this year is that hummus is always made with chick peas, cumin and tahini, but you can throw in ANY in-season vegetable to change it up.  My friend Susan Buchman gave me this delicious pumpkin hummus recipe at our Ski and Tea workout this morning, and it's super GOOD!

Pumpkin Hummus

Susan Buchman's Pumpkin Hummus

2 T Tahini (ground sesame seeds, most stores carry)
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tsp olive oi
salt and red pepper
1 1/2 cup pumpkin
1 garlic clove
2 tsp. parsley

Add to a blender and walllaaaah, you have an awesome, healthy snack!!


And, this week I made some broccoli hummus with some late season broccoli.

Broccoli Hummus

And, I still dream of the happy days of the purple cauliflower and zucchini hummus from this summer.Mmmmmmmm, good.




Zucchini Hummus

Click on the colored link for the recipe

What a busy week.  In the first 3 days of the week, I worked 45 hours and top if off with Trick or Treating and the play Hairspray at Chanhassan, and I'm still spinning.  But, I have lots of ideas buzzing for my next blog (in fact I was dreaming of ideas).  So, more to come......

Happy Halloween

Happy Cooking,

Kristin :)

Happy Halloween - Pumpkin Seeds

Surprise, surprise - we all LOVE pumpkin seeds!  We carved nine pumpkins, yes nine, so we had plenty of seeds.  Here's Gus and Greta carving away:

Harvesting the Seeds

We made three types of seeds:  cinnamon, regular, and spicy.

Here's a picture of regular roasted pumpkin seeds, with the picture taken on my Grandma's platter:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin Seeds

2 cups pumpkin seeds rinsed and blotted dry
3 T of vegetable oil
1 T of garlic salt

Toss the pumpkin seeds to coat and spread on a cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for an hour or until crunchy.
Stir about 1/2 way through and add garlic salt if needed.

Next we made the most delicious dessert:  Cinnamon Pumpkin Seeds!  We all LOVED these.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Seeds

Here's the recipe:  Cinnamon Pumpkin Seeds


And last but not least, I made a few SPICY pumpkin seeds for the adults in the house and they were also good.  Here they are in my Grandma's bubble dish:

Mix 1 cup of dried pumpkin seeds with 2 tsp. of chili powder and 3 shakes of Tabasco.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.  Enjoy!

It seems you can't go wrong with pumpkin seeds.  Happy Halloween!  I'm looking forward to trick or treating with the kids.

Kristin :)

American Club, Craisins and Aunt Paula's Famous Flapjacks!

Even though it's 7 hours away, the American Club is like a home away from home for me.  During this visit, I experienced periods of deep inner peace.  Granted, this was my first quiet period away from the kids since my trip to Utah last October (my trip to NYC this summer was awesome, but not exactly quiet), so that could explain the blissful feeling.  I've had a headache for about a month and when I was there I was "headache free."  Twelve hours of being home, and my headache is back, but it was nice to have a breather.

American Club, picture taken with my phone

And, I didn't leave the campus much, so instead enjoyed many of their different restaurants on site.  Here's just a little sample of the grounds (taken with my phone).  Keep in mind, we haven't had live plants or leaves on the trees since early September, so what a treat to see some live vegetation again.

American Club Grounds

 



My room-service meal was out of this world, but my outing to the Immigrant Room was by far the most amazing meal of the week (possibly best of my life).    Here's a sample of the what the table looked like:

First Round at the Immigrant Room

And, the food:

Course 2 - Sushi!

I could go on and on about this place.  If you know me, and see me, ask me for the details because I love to talk about this place.  The only other place that runs a close second (IMO), is Sundara in the Dells. 

But, onto my cooking in the moment!  When I got home Graham helped me make craisins with my remaining cranberries.

Craisin Making Graham

SUGAR-FREE CRAISINS

I boiled 2 cups of cranberries with 1 cup of sweetener (I used agave nectar, steevia and honey).  Barely cover the cranberries and sweetener with water and boil for about 7 minutes until the cranberries "pop".  You'll hear it / see it happen, it's kinda' cool.  After I popped them, I baked them for 8 hours on 170 degrees.  Yes that's right, 8 hours.  Easy - yes, takes a long time - yes, but we have wonderful CRAISINS.

With the craisins we made my Aunt Paula's famous pancakes and famous syrup.

Aunt Paula's Famous Cakes and Syrup

BUTTERMILK PANCAKES

2 Eggs

2 Cups Buttermilk

4 Tbsp Vegetable Oil

2 Cups Flour

2 Tbsp Sugar

2 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Soda

1 Tsp Salt

Mix all together. May need to add more buttermilk. Makes 8 large

pancakes. I add cranraisins or blueberries

And, here's the yummy syrup recipe:

SPECIAL SYRUP

1 Cup Butter

3 Cups Brown Sugar

1 Cup Maple Syrup

1 Cup Whipping Cream

Melt butter in saucepan over low heat, blend brown sugar until syrupy.

Simmer over low heat 5 minutes. Stir in maple syrup. Blend in whipping

cream until smooth. Best served warm.

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Eeek, this next picture even scares me - and it was taken of me at the American Club.  Spooky......

Happy Spooking,

Kristin