Stuffed Pumpkins

This is an old family favorite. Many of you may have it, but I was typing it up for a friend and thought I'd just put it on here too.

Ingredients:
1 - 3to4 lb. sugar pumpkin
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1 lb. beef
1 medium chopped onion
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup cooked rice
1/2 tsp. pepper (or less)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dry mustard

Directions:
De-seed pumpkin and prick inside all over with a fork. Rub 1 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. dry mustard on inside of pumpkin. Brown beef and onion. Mix in eggs, rice, pepper, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. dry mustard. Put beef and rice mixture into pumpkin and put the lid on. Place pumpkin in shallow 8X8 pan with 1/2 cup of water in the bottom of the pan. Bake 350 for 1 1/2 hours. Add more water if necessary. Eat the stuffing and pumpkin.

Rachel's Famous 7 Layer Bean Dip

Please keep in mind, this is a recipe I don't measure things on, I just add stuff until it tastes good. However, the sour cream and the guacamole is what makes this the best. (This is my husband's absolute favorite and he asks me to make it for everything!)

Ingredients:
2-3 cans of refried beans
1 cup (or so) or sour cream
1/2 pkg. taco seasoning (or more to taste)
2-3 ripe avocados
3/4 cup (or so) mayo
garlic powder
1/2 tsp. salt
dash of pepper
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. lemon juice
salsa
cheese
chopped tomatoes
chopped green onions
olives
tortilla chips

Preparation:
Spread out the beans in a 9X13 pan. Mix the sour cream and taco seasoning together and spread over the top of the beans. For the guacamole, mash the avocados. Add mayo, garlic powder, salt, pepper, onion powder, lemon juice and mix. (Just add what you like until it tastes good or you can follow a guacamole recipe but the mayo is key to making it taste so good!) Layer the guacamole, salsa, cheese, tomatoes, and green onions. Add olives if you like, but I never do because I don't like them. Eat!!! And keep refrigerated.

Tangy Chicken Nuggets

I thought I might share a recipe that my family loves! The girls love to help out with this and they are so tasty. I always get compliments when I make them. (This is the same recipie I posted on my blog several months ago but thought I'd log it in here too.)

Ingredients:
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 cups crushed crackers (I use Saltines)
1 tsp. oregano
1 egg white
1 Tblsp. water
3 Tblsp. BBQ sauce
2 Tblsp. peach or apricot jam

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut chicken into 1-inch chunks. Place flour, salt, and pepper in resealable plastic food storage bag. Combine cracker crumbs and oregano in another bag. Whisk egg white together with water in a small bowl.

Place 6 or 8 chicken pieces in bag with flour mixture; seal bag and shake until coated. Remove chicken from bag and dip chicken pieces into egg white mixture, coating all sides. Place in cracker crumbs until coated. Place on shallow baking pan. Repeat with remaining chicken pieces. Bake until nuggets are golden brown, about 10-13 min.

To make dippinng sauce, stir together the BBQ sauce and jam in a small saucepan. Cook and stir over low heat until heated through. Serving chicken nuggets with dipping sauce (or I like ranch). If freezing nuggets for use at another time, do not prepare dipping sauce at this time.

Note: If you don't want to use apricot jam, honey can be used to sweeten the sauce while 1 tsp. cider vinegar and a few drops of hot pepper sauce will give the sauce a tany flavor.

Enchilada Casserole

I saw that Katrina wanted this recipe, so I thought I'd post it. It's pretty easy and the kids like to help do the layering. I'll put down the recipe that I have but I seldom to never use corn. I frequently add refried beans or kidney beans though. Sometimes I'll add a little taco seasoning with the hamburger too. That's good. Enjoy!

Brown:
1lb. hamburger
1 small onion
taco seasoning (opt.)

Sauce:
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1/2 cup salsa

Also needed:
tortilla chips
lots of cheese
1 can corn, drained
refried beans (opt.)
kidney beans (opt.)

Layer in 9X13 pan: 1/4 of sauce, tortilla chips to cover bottom of pan, all of hamburger, some cheese, more sauce, corn (drained), (add your beans here if you want), more tortilla chips to cover, rest of sauce, and more grated cheese. Bake at 350 for 35-40 min. Serve with sour cream, salsa, guacamole, or whatever else suits you.

Homemade Granola Bars

Wow! The girls and I just tried out this recipie and we love it!!! It calls for dried fruit and nuts, but feel free to try other flavors. We omited the cinnamon, fruit, and nuts and added mini marshmallows and chocolate chips. YUMMM!!!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups crisp rice cereal
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup dried fruit bits
1/2 cup sliced almonds

1. Heat the oven to 350° F. Coat a 9- by 13-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. 2. Melt the butter or margarine in a large pot over low heat. Remove the pot from the heat and whisk in the sugar, honey, flour, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
3. Transfer the mixture to the baking pan. Using a sheet or waxed paper and the palms of your hands, press the granola firmly into the pan, packing it to a flat and even thickness.
4. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown. Allow the granola to cool 1 hour in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before cutting into bars. Makes 16 to 24 rectangular bars.

I Should Be on a Tropical Island Granola Breakfast Cereal

Again, this is my own strange variation on something normal. Pre-heat oven to 300. Line a cookie sheet w/ foil -- that no-stick stuff works great! You can use garden variety oatmeal for this, but I like a mixture of weird stuff -- rye flakes, wheat flakes, spelt flakes, etc. You can get the weird stuff from Bob's Red Mill -- or ask me, since I either have a stash or I'm getting ready to order.

Melt together:

• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1/2 a cup of honey

Add:

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 4 cups of flakes

Once all the flakes are coated, spread onto the foil lined cookie sheet. On top of that add:

• 1 - 2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes (Bob's Red Mill again!)

Roast your granola for 30 minutes, stir it around every 10 minutes. The coconut flakes should be lightly browned. Once the mixture cools a little, I spoon mine into a zipper bag (it goes too quickly to bother with a canister). Add:

• 1 - 2 cups macadamia nuts -- lightly chopped

When serving, I add either fresh fruit or dried cherries or cranberries. You could add dried fruit w/ the nuts, but I like to keep my options open! I think you could add some extra honey and form this into bars before baking, but I haven't tried that. I have been known to put 1 cup into zippy bags & put that into a scrapbook bag w/ a tag as part of a goodie basket.

Top Secret Brownie Recipe

This recipe was tested numerous times -- mostly on Sunday afternoons -- see variations........

Pre-heat oven to 350.

In a saucepan, melt:

• 2 sticks of butter
• a couple of handfuls of marshmallows -- it's really impossible to use too many

after marshmallows are mostly melted, add:

• 2/3 cup cocoa powder

remove from heat once cocoa powder is mixed in. Then mix in:

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• if you have chocolate extract, you can add some of that as well

After that is combined, add:

• 1 and 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

bake in a greased/floured METAL pan @ high altitude for 30 - 35 minutes. This recipe doesn't work as well at sea level or in glass pans.

Variations -- the usual nuts, etc work and

PB Option:

Mix together 1 cup of peanut butter, powdered sugar & milk (evaporated milk or cream work really nicely here) until you have a batter consistency. Drop spoonfuls of the PB mixture into the chocolate after it is in the pan -- swirl together and bake as normal.

Coconut option:

Substitute 1/2 cup of coconut flour for 1/2 cup of the normal flour. Add coconut flakes (I like the unsweetened kind) and chopped macadamia nuts.

Alien moon landing version:

Mix in a bunch of big marshmallows at the very end. They float to the top during baking and make really yummy craters.

Funky flours:

If you have hazelnut flour or almond flour -- you can substitute 1/2 a cup of that for the regular flour. I would add a co-ordinating nut. If you don't have funky flours, try Bob's Red Mill. Actually, ask me first -- I either have a stash, or I'm getting ready to place an order.

Don't try this at home version:

One time when I was making this -- I think I was about 13, we were out of vanilla. So, I thought I'd add some almond extract instead. Then I decided that I really didn't like the taste of the almond extract. So I added three times as much peppermint extract to cover up the almond. Well, that was even worse. So I dumped in a bunch of lemon juice and stuck it in the oven. They were hands down the most horrible batch that I ever made. Paul, Johnny & Bryce ate the whole pan.