Welcome to Dana's blog!

homemade pumpkin latte/coffee and pumpkin rolls (not what you are thinking!LOL)

Pumpkin Spice Coffee/Latte

Ingredients

3 tablespoons canned pumpkin
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla syrup or creamer
3 ounces espresso or a half cup of strong coffee (I made coffee by using 2 tablespoons of grounds per 1 cup of coffee)
2 teaspoons sugar but this depends on preference
pumpkin pie spice
whipped cream
Directions


Heat milk and pumpkin puree in a small saucepan on the stove. Put on medium heat.
Add vanilla and a dash of pumpkin pie spice.
Once steaming and a little frothy, pour into a mug and add espresso or strong coffee.
Add sugar to taste.
Top with whipped cream and pumpkin pie spice.

I also made sweet dough and instead of the normal butter/cinnamon filling (like a normal cinnamon roll), I used pumpkin (w/pie spice). It smells HEAVENLY! Hopefully they taste as good! I just mixed up a can of pumpkin (it needed used!LOL) w/pie spices and used 1/3c-1/2c (a thin layer) for the rolls. The rest is in the frig to make the 1st recipe!

cantaloupe bread

This is an excellent bread, nice and moist, similar in texture to pumpkin or zucchini bread. Melon flavor ends up to be very delicate, nearly masked by the spices. Great way to use up extra homegrown cantaloupe in summer. Puree and freeze extra in 2 cup containers for use throughout the year.

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup nuts, chopped

3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups granulated sugar
3 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cantaloupe

1. Preheat oven to 325*F (160*C).
2. Grease a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan; set aside.
3. In large bowl combine flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and nuts; set aside.
4. In another large mixing bowl beat eggs until light and frothy. Add oil, sugar and vanilla, mixing well.
5. Cut rind from cantaloupe; cut melon into 2-inch chunks and puree in blender or food processor until smooth. Measure 2 cups puree and add to egg/oil mixture.
6. Add the flour mixture to the cantaloupe mixture and stir just to combine. Do not over mix.
7. Spoon into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour, or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Cool on wire rack. Wrap tightly to store.

Makes 1 loaf.

chocolate zucchini bars

Chocolate Zucchini Bars

Ingredients:

1 cup shortening

1/2 cup oil

1 3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup sour milk (sour milk is 1 cup of milk w/1T vinegar or lemon juice)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups grated zucchini

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 T cocoa

Chocolate chips as desired

Cream shortening, oil, and sugar. Add sour milk, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in zucchini. Mix in dry ingredients. Pour into 10x16 inch jelly roll pan. Sprinke chocolate chips over top of batter. Bake 30 minutes in 50 degree oven.

Kombucha

FINALLY!!!!!!!! I've got it going! The water is boiled, sugar added and the tea bags are steeping. I'll add the komucha in the morning.

What is kombucha? Well it's this.  And that's the easiest site that I have found (it was given to me).

Chewy granola bar recipe

Chewy Granola Bars

3 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 cup Rice Krispies

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

2/3 cup butter, melted

1 cup honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-2 cups miniature semisweet chocolate chips, Craisins, raisins, nuts, or a combination

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease 9x13- inch pan.

In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, Rice Krispies, wheat flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add melted butter, honey and vanilla. Stir in 1-2 cups chocolate chips, raisins, etc.

Firmly press mixture into the pan. Bake at 325 degrees F for about 18 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes then cut into 18 bars. Let bars cool completely in pan before removing or serving.

Now, what I did was put all that in while I melted the butter. So I had all these chips on top. Needless to say, when I poured the melted butter over them, THEY MELTED!LOL I think that's why it didn't set up--too much liquid. the other lady who made these added the chips/nuts/fruit LAST, which is what I"ll do next time.

I also used 7 grain flour (vs. whole wheat) and added flaxmeal. And I wanted to use craisins and had no mini chips so I just used big ones.;)

***Update: I now only use 1 stick of butter and roll them on top w/my Pampered Chef pizza/pie roller and I am having GREAT results.

Oreo truffle recipe

Cheesy potato soup........w/extras!LOL

Mat's soup

Mat's soup by mat

ingredients

1. boil 6cups and 6boullion cubes in muidium pot

2.put the following in,a 6 oz. can of chickin,2/3 a cup of noodles,2 cans of mixed vegetables, 1can of chick peas,1 can of black pinto beans.

3.cook for 40 minutes

just double for more people



some ingredients are not needed

Can I tell you how hard I am laughing at hte last 2 lines??????LOL

Thankfully it's quite tasty. And there is alot of turkey in it (we didn't have a can of chicken--we used a sandwich baggie of frozen turkey from the last of our 'local turkey'!LOL) so DH might not even gripe when I serve it tomorrow night as supper. I'm not thinking I"ll be walking for a while........

Cheesy Manicotti

 

Sausage Pumpkin Soup Recipe

colon cleanse

I thought I posted here, but I guess not. I DO NOT TAKE ANY MEDICAL RESPONSILITY FOR THIS!

This is a do it yourself.

1. Psyllium husk This can be generic or the name brand Metamucil …read the labels, it’s all the same stuff.

2. Digestive Enzymes The pharmacists told me there are only a handful of digestive enzymes that exists. If you get the multi-enzyme bottle, you should cover them all.

3. Laxative Herbal Tea (with Senna) A tea called “Smooth Move” is a popular one. It doesn’t really matter what name brand you get, just make sure it has “senna” in it.

4. Water You will need to drink lots of water.

How it works

Fall Dinner in a Pumpkin

sinus remedy/help

Someone suggested this to me a few years ago and it's AWESOME! Get about  1/4-1/3 cup warm water (NOT hot from the tap), mix in maybe a tsp of salt (to make a saline solution), a tsp of baking soda and a few drops of tea tree oil (I measure none of this). Swirl in container. Find something (I use the aspirator that the hospital sent home from Joey) to suck up the solution and be able to release it into your nostril. The trick here is holding your head just so so. You want it tilted forward, but also sideways so that (in theory) the solution runs from one nostril thru to the other. This does take some mastering so don't get discouraged when the most disgusting tasting stuff runs down the back of your throat because you didn't have your head far enuf forward.  Do this 3-4 times a day.

This is so amazing that you will want to do it more. I don't know how safe that is!LOL(really I don't!). The tea tree oil kills the bacteria and the saline solution (and presumably the baking soda) help to dry things up. Even if you are so clogged up that you can't get it to run from one nostril to the other, it will make a HUGE difference. I've never seen a doc for a sinus infection and don't plan on starting now. Typically after 3-4 days, it's gone.

Make your own pumpkin pie spice

I'm sure that many of you already know this but with the pumpkin pie season coming on in full force, I thought I'd give a reminder.

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 ground ginger

1/8 tsp allspice

1/8 nutmeg

Some recipes also include 1/8 tsp of clove so that's an option if you like that. Personally I make enuf to fill my pumpkin pie spice container (which I rememered today when I was making holds 6x that recipe!LOL) so that I"m not dragging out bottles each time I need it.

pumpkin bread & custard!

Seminole style hominy

Santa Fe Potato Salad

SOUPER recipe!

I sort of modified one that I found, but here goes:

Cream of Broccoli Soup

6-7 cups of broccoli flowerettes

4 cups of chicken stock/broth

2 cups of half and half

1 bay leaf

some salt

some pepper

1 onion (chopped)

16 oz diced ham

1/3 cup flour

1 stick of butter

Put broccoli, stock, butter, salt, pepper, onion and bay leaf in pan to simmer for 30 min. Pull out bay leaf. Purree half of the soup and flour and put back in pan and add half and half and ham. Simmer 15 more minutes and serve.

I put the half and half in before purreeing, but oh well. You get the idea.;) Also, I started this in 2 pans. DH claims to hate onions and this way I put all the onions in the pan that I pureed and it was easier to do the purreeing like this anyway. JMO.

grocery bill........

May's bill was higher than most, but that's cuz we bought the 2 feeder pigs. So the yearly total is at $780, which is $39/wk. Higher than the previous $36, but that number will go down adn I"ll feel better!LOL

I'm just drooling for the garden to hurry up. So far we have harvested lettuce--YUMMY! The peas are blooming and the potatoes are getting ready to bloom. The radishes will be done soon, but Mat is really the only one who likes those!LOL It will be late July before most of the other stuff is ready.........

Detox diet--one that I can abide by!