Turkey Cranberry Wreath

This is my favorite way to use up leftover turkey. Its fairly simple and packs alot of flavor. The cranberries add a unexpected tartness.

2 Cresent Roll tubes
2 Cups turkey, shredded or chopped
1/2 Cup Cranberries, chopped
1/4 Cup chopped Celery
1/2 Cup Mayo
2 Tablespoons Mustard
1 Cup Shredded cheese
2 Tablespoons Parsley
On a baking sheet lay out cresent rolls so that the tips are pointing out. Combine all the other ingredients together and spoon out onto the center of the cresent roll braid. Now over lap the tips of the cresent rolls over the filling so it makes a braid look. Brush with a egg white and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Cinnamon Pretzels

My cousin Abby posted this recipe on facebook and I thought why not try it? It was shockingly good. A very different combination but very good. I tweeked the recipe a bit so its not exactly like the one she had linked to. I plan to use it for christmas gifts for our neighbors this year instead of making a ton of cookies.

1 16oz bag of pretzels
2/3 Cup Oil (I use canola oil but you can use any kind of veggie oil)
1/2 cup Sugar
2 T. Cinnamon
In a large bowl combine oil, sugar and cinnamon. Stir until combined. Pour whole bag of pretzels in the bowl. Stir until all the pretzels are covered. Place in a flat cookie sheet and bake at 300 for 15 minutes. Stir pretzels and bake another 15 minutes. Let cool and store in air tight containers.

Sweet potato fries & Fish

Sweet Potatoes are so much healthier then regular potatoes and they actually make really good fries. The other night I also used them to make baked potatoes and they were yummy!!

Sweet potato Fries
2 medium size sweet potatoes, peeled
2 T. Olive oil
1 teaspoon Seasoning salt
few dashes salt
few dashes pepper

Cut the sweet potatoes into strips fry size. Put in a bowl, pour olive on, put lid on and shake to coat. Put the rest of the seasonings in and shake again. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Turning every 5-8 minutes.

Fish
2 Fish fillets- we used cod cause it was on sale but I usually use tilapia, I think it taste better
1/4 cup orange juice
1 T. Lemon juice
few dashes lemon pepper seasoning
1 garlic clove crushed or 1 teas. garlic powder
In a ziploc bag place fish fillets inside and add all the remaining ingredients. Shake bag to cover all fish pieces well. Place in fridge to marinate at least 30 minutes. We usually cook them on the grill. If you do them on the grill place some aluminum foil down first. Cook them about 15 minutes. Flipping them twice. If you do them in the oven pour fish and marinade in a baking dish and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Fall Menu!!!

Its fall!!! And that means its time for soup and pumpkin!! The first recipe is for Chili soup. This is a new recipe I tried, its a knock off of Wendy's chili recipe. I liked it, its really spicy/zippy so if you dont like spicy I would suggest not adding a few things. . Ill mention them in the recipe
Chili
1/2 # Ground meat (I used ground turkey but you can use ground beef)
1 can Tomato sauce
1 can Green chilis (I would only use 1/2 can of these if you dont like spicy)
1 can Kidney beans
1 can diced tomatoes
3 cups water
1 teaspoon Chili powder
1 teaspoon Garlic powder
1 teaspoon Cumin

Brown meat in a skillet until cooked. Add 1/2 package of taco seasoning mix. In a saucepan combine all the other ingredients and add the meat. Cook on medium low for 2 hours or so. Serve with Shredded cheese.


Fall also means PUMPKIN!! I love pumpkin! I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. Its called
Pumpkin Fluff Dip
8 oz Pumpkin
1/2 carton of Cool whip
1/2 box of vanilla instant pudding mix
Combine together and add some cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice or both. Chill a few hours. Serve with Graham crackers and apple slices.

Another recipe I tried this week was this Pumpkin cake for my moms birthday.
Its a really easy recipe and it taste very good.
Pumpkin Spice Cake
1 box Spice cake mix
12 oz. Pumpkin
3 eggs
Mix together and pour into a greased cake pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean. Cool for 30 minutes. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

And last but not least-
Pumpkin Pie Latte
In a saucepan on the stove add 1/2 cup milk,1 T sugar, few drops vanilla and 1 T pumpkin pie spice. Cook on low until it gets steamy. Meanwhile make 1 very strong cup of coffee using your favorite coffee. When the milk mixture is steaming pour it into a blender and blend on high for 1 minute. Pour coffee into the bottom of a coffee mug and pour blended milk on top. Sprinkle cinnamon on top. Enjoy!

Baby Food

I have been making Kianna's baby food for a while now and Thought I would share a few recipes/combos I use. The main concept to making baby food is to blend the foods to a puree. If they are harder foods like apples, pears, carrots you steam them for a few minutes until they are soft. Chicken is also cooked before blending of course.

BananaCado
1 Banana, cut into 3 chunks
1 Avacado, cut into chunks
Enough water to blend
Blend together til smooth. Freeze in Ice cube trays until solid. Place in freezer safe containers.Freeze.

Kiwi Strawberry
2 Kiwi- Peeled and chunked
6 Strawberries
Enough water to blend.
Blend until smooth. Freeze in Ice cube trays until solid.

Pumpkin Pie
1 Can Pumpkin (I use homemade canned pumpkin but a store bought works too)
1 Cup Vanilla yogurt
Dash or 2 of Cinnamon
Blend together in blender. Freeze in Ice cube trays.

Chicken Applesauce
1 Cup Cooked Chicken
3/4 Cup Applesauce
Blend in Blender with enough water to blend. Freeze.

Pear Raspberry
2 pears, cut into quarters and steamed until soft.
1/2 cup Raspberries, fresh or frozen
Blend together with enough water to blend. Freeze

Sweet Potato Greenbeans
2 Small Sweet potatoes, chunked and cooked until tender
1 Cup Green beans, Cooked
Blend together with water until smooth. Freeze.

Peach Mango
2 Peaches, chunked
1 Mango, Chunked
Blend both together with water til smooth. Freeze.

Pear Peach
2 Pears, Chunked and cooked until tender
2 Peaches, Chunked
Blend together with water until smooth. Freeze.

Strawberry Banana
1 banana, chunked
6 Strawberries
Blend together with a little yogurt and some water. Freeze.

Plum Applesauce
1 Cup Applesauce
2 Plums, cut into chunks
Blend together. Freeze.

Chicken Pumpkin and Carrots
1 Can Pumpkin
6 Baby Carrots, cooked until tender
1/2 Cup Cooked Chicken
Blend together until smooth. Freeze.

Pot Roast
1/2 Cup cooked Roast meat
2 Potatoes, cooked and cubed
8 Baby Carrots, cooked
Blend together with water until smooth. Freeze.


You can also add cleaned Uncooked Spinach to any of these blends while blending it to add extra nutrients to them. You cant taste the spinach at all.

Apple Pancake Fluff

The original recipe for this calls for apples but this time I decided to mix it up a bit and do apples and blueberries. It was amazing!

First Melt 4 Tablespoons of butter in a 9X13 baking pan in a oven at 350. Once melted place 3 medium sizes apples that have been diced up in the pan.(add blueberries here too if you choose to) Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle cinnamon and brown sugar over apples.
In a blender mix together
6 Eggs
1-1/2 Cups milk
1 Cup flour
1 T. Vanilla
Sprinkle Cinnamon
1/4 Cup sugar

Blend together until smooth. Pour over apples. Bake for 30-40 minutes.
Serve with Maple Syrup.

Pizza Crust

I got this pizza crust recipe from a friend at church and its so easy. You can find her original post here but Ill post the recipe on here also for you. I didnt take photos because I didnt bake mine yet. I made a double batch and made them into 3 small pizza's and will freeze them to bake later for a easy meal. This dough freezes well, I have done it a few times now and it always bakes up nice.

Ingredients:
1/2 to 3/4 c. warm water (105-115 degrees F)
1 pkg. (I Tbsp.) dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
2 c. flour
1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:
Combine 1/4 c. of the water with the yeast and sugar. Stir to dissolve the yeast, and let stand until bubbly, about 5 minutes. Put the flour, oil and salt into the bowl and process about 5 seconds with a steel blade. Add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture, and process about 10 seconds, or until blended. Turn on the processor and drizzle just enough of the remaining water(I had to use almost 1 cup of water here for each batch) through the feed tube so the dough forms a ball that cleans the sides of the bowl. Process so the ball turns around about 25 times. Put the dough ball onto a 14-inch greased pizza pan or lg. cookie sheet (we use a pizza stone, so we just put the dough ball in a greased mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap). Let stand 10 minutes. Pat dough out so that it covers the pan, leaving a ridge on the edges. Spread with sauce and add toppings.
(I also add basil and garlic powder in when I am mixing in the processor and it adds some flavor to the crust)