Pumpkin seed makeovers

One of my favorite parts of fall is carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds. Salty, crunchy, the perfect snack. A friend of mine decided to try branching out and putting weird things on the seeds we roasted. Here are our concoctions and my humble opinions thereof.

 This is the batch I made the day before, soaked overnight in salt water. They were simply roasted with olive oil and sea salt. My favorite, the old classic.

Indian spices: turmeric, curry powder & coriander

Brown sugar and cinnamon sweetness

Chili powder and chipotle pepper

Garlic and salt, a classic combo

All four batches of seeds, mixed with oil and a bit of salt each

Step 1: Mix seasonings, 2 tbsp oil and some salt into each batch.
Step 2: Spread the seeds in a single layer over a cookie sheet.
Step 3: Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, mix around so nothing burns, bake another 10 minutes.

 Each batch was put into its own labeled baggie.

The garlic salt was good, like original with garlic. The curry had a strange aftertaste. The spicy ones were nearly too much for me but tolerable. And the sugar ones caramelized and burnt into clumps... so as much fun as it was, I'll stick with the classics. But now you know.

Candied Carrots

Everyone knows how hard it is sometimes to get kids to eat their vegetables. Heck, it's hard to get adults to eat their vegetables! But my mom knew all the tricks and I remember several vegetable side dishes that we all actually enjoyed as kids. Candied carrots was always one of my favorites. Not only to carrots already have a naturally sweet-ish taste, but then you add butter and brown sugar, and it's almost like dessert with dinner! Not exactly the healthiest thing in the world, but at least it will get some vitamin A and beta-carotene into your diet.

Ingredients:
3 large whole carrots, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick?)

 Step 1: Slice all the carrots (peel if you want, sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Always wash them first though) and place in a saucepot.
Step 2: Add the butter and brown sugar. Bring to a simmer, and cook, covered, for about 20 minutes, until the carrots are soft when poked with a fork.

That's really all there is to it! They are soft and sweet and a perfect side dish for just about anything. If you have a favorite side dish from your childhood, or a way to cook vegetables such that kids and family members don't complain, feel free to comment and share!

Fresh-picked raspberry and peach crumble

There is a farm near me where you can pick your own berries. They vary by season and demand from blueberries and strawberries to raspberries and even apples. There is also a small market where they sell farm-grown produce, pastured chicken eggs and meat. Needless to say I've found a little patch of heaven. So I took advantage of a beautiful Saturday morning to go berry picking with my oh so patient boyfriend, and came home with two gorgeous pints of raspberries. I had one more pie crust I'd picked up cheaply last month, so naturally I made a pie with them.

Ingredients:
1 pint rinsed raspberries
1 can peaches
1 pie crust

1 cup flour + 2 tbsp
1 cup sugar + 1 tbsp
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup oats
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

Step 1: Mix the dry ingredients - flour, sugar, oats, baking soda and powder,  and a pinch of salt.

 Step 2: Add the cold butter in chunks, mix well. I'm not cool enough to have a pastry cutter, so I just squished it all together with my hands until well mixed. It should be a crumbly, tasty mess.

Step 3: Drain the peaches, place in a bowl with the raspberries. Sprinkle on 1 tbsp vanilla, 2 tbsp flour and 1 tbsp salt, mix.
Step 4: Pour the fruit mix into the pie crust and cover with the crumble mixture.

This is what it looks like just before going in the oven. Drool.

 Step 5: Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, until crisp is browned and fruits are bubbly.

 YES PLEASE.

 The pie crust cover conveniently doubled as a lid. The day after, the berry juices start to pool. Anyone know how to avoid this, besides cornstarch?

This would be simply amazing served warm over french vanilla ice cream. In fact, I'll be going to the store later today...

Homemade granola bars + Make your own vanilla extract

As a simple on-the-go breakfast, post-workout snack, or get-you-through-the-afternoon munchie, I love granola bars! Endlessly varied in terms of type of nuts, berries, chocolate, flavors in them, they are always in my pantry in multitudes. Usually I buy whatever is on sale, say $1-2 for a box. I have a rotation and favorites, but am not brand loyal by any means. But even at $1 for a box of 6, it can get expensive. So I figured, I already have lots of diferent types of nuts and dried fruits, and oats. It can't be hard to make my own.

After googling a bit, I found this recipe for home made granola bars, which is close to what I had on hand. But I didn't want the chocolate part (shocking, I know!) because I'd be storing them in my book bag and gym bag and don't want to deal with melty chocolate all over my workout shoes or laptop. So as usual, I took the framework of the recipe and made it my own with what was on hand and the pan size I was working with. The results were splendid!

Ingredients:
3 cups oats
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
1/4 cup smashed pistachios (I shelled them, put them in a ziplock baggie and smashed them up with a spoon. For reals.)
1/2 cup smashed up candied peanut halves (also ziplock pulverized)
1/4 cup chia seeds (bought a few months ago and had no idea what to do with them... perfect.)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey
4 tbsp butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Step 1: Mash up the nuts, then mix together oats, dried fruit, nuts, seeds and olive oil. Stir to coat well, then bake in a flat oven safe pan at 350 for about 10 minutes, to make everything brown and toasty.

Step 2: In a pan over medium heat, stir together butter, brown sugar, honey and vanilla. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Pour over the granola mixture, and stir well to coat everything. Bake at 300 for 25-30 minutes, until warm and brown. Remove from the oven and let cool or stick in the refrigerator for a little while. Cut into bars the size you like.

I used a 9x13 pan, and as such I got 16 bars. They are very soft, so I put them in the fridge for about an hour before I cut them up.

I individually wrapped each bar in a plastic baggie, and am storing them in my pantry. They are delicious! The honey makes it so sweet, I don't think you'd need chocolate anyway. Probably could even have done without the extra brown sugar.

I love these because I can use whatever dried fruits or nuts/seeds I have available. The next batch will include dried apricots and plums. You better believe sometime into the fall I will be making some bars with pumpkin seeds in them! I think I'm going to try experimenting with peanut butter in the honey instead of just butter too.These are vegetarian, and could easily be made vegan as well. If you go easy on the oil/honey they are quite healthy and filling. And very inexpensive! Buy whatever fruits/nuts/seeds you like on sale, oats are cheap in bulk. This batch probably cost me $1 total?


Speaking of  inexpensive baking, did you know you can make your own vanilla extract from just vanilla beans and vodka? Seriously, that's it.

A bottle of vodka on sale was about $7, the beans were a bit pricey at $4 for 2. But that's $11 for about a gallon of vanilla that I can use pretty much forever. If I invested a bit more I could even jar it myself and give it as gifts or sell some. When you get low you just add more vodka and maybe after a year another bean or something. Jackpot.

Minty vanilla meringues

I have been thinking about making meringues for a long time, but thought it took a lot of eggs. One day I just started looking up recipes, and found out it takes as few as 2 egg whites! So I decided to give it a whirl. Turns out meringues are ridiculously easy to make, the hardest part is whipping them for 20 minutes... Then you just leave them alone for a long time. They come out airy and crunchy and just delicious! The best part is, they're only 20 calories each!

Ingredients:

2 egg whites

1/4 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 peppermint candy

 

 Step 1: Separate the egg whites from the yolks. I saved the yolks for breakfast the next day. 

Step 2: In a small bowl, beat the egg whites just a minute. Add the lemon juice and slowly add the sugar while beating. Then add the vanilla and salt, and beat for a long long time, until the whites form stiff peaks.

Step 3: Once the whites are well beaten, drop by teaspoons onto a foil-covered pan. If you want minty ones, crush a peppermint candy & sprinkle it on top of the meringues.

Step 4: Bake at 220 for 2 1/2 hours. Don't peek or open the oven, just trust that they are ok.

 Let them totally cool, then remove from the pan. Enjoy!

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 24
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 20.0

• Total Fat: 0.0 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 31.4 mg
• Total Carbs: 4.8 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.0 g
• Protein: 0.4 g