Pumpkin Bread

It's Fall and that means Pumpkin Bread!!!

Here is my favorite recipe for pumpkin bread. Not only is it delicious but it is also so moist and SUPER easy.

1 spice cake mix
1 15 oz can pumpkin

Mix together. Put in greased loaf pan (or three small loaf pans). Bake at 350* for 45-60 minutes.

Variations -
*apple pie filling or two cups applesauce and one spice (or yellow) cake mix
*peach pie filling and one spice (or yellow) cake mix
*lemon pie filling and one lemon cake mix (this is a favorite)
*blueberry pie filling and one lemon (or yellow) cake mix

Two cautions -
*raspberry pie filling and lemon cake mix makes a delicious flavor but it's full of raspberry seeds
*cherry pie filling and chocolate cake is delicious but hard to know when it's finished baking because the pie filling is so gooey

Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodle Cookies (Makes 24 servings)

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
---------------
3 Tbs sugar
3 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350*F
2. Mix butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar, eggs and vanilla thoroughly.
3. Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in separate bowl.
4. Blend dry ingredients into butter mixture.
5. Chill dough and ungreased cookie sheet for 15 minutes in fridge.
6. Mix cinnamon and 3 Tbs of sugar.
7. Make 1" balls of dough and roll in sugar/cinnamon mixture.
8. Bake for about 10 minutes, until crackly on top. (If you take them out of the oven when they are still a little short of being done, they will be super-chewy and super-yummy!)

(I didn't chill the cookie sheet and they turned out fine.)

These are seriously the best cookies - EVER!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Sweet and Sour Chicken
5 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 large bottle French dressing
1 can chunked pineapple (and juice)
1 cup brown sugar

Mix all ingredients in a 9x13 pan. Bake in oven at 350* for one hour. Serve with rice.

(You can also make the sauce and pour it over shredded chicken from your freezer. See this post for directions.)

Menu Planning

Direct from the outside of my fridge is this week's homemaking tip.... I know it is important to make menus but I really don't like to do it because I can never decide what to make. Soooo...Here's what I do. I have given each day of the week a category. This helps to focus my efforts and narrow my choices when I am making menus. Most of the recipes I have can fit into more than one category. Now it is easy for me to plan menus. Also, planning menus helps me save money at the grocery store because there is no willy-nilly purchasing. I have a plan and can get all the ingredients when I know in advance what I am going to make. (Here's a bonus tip - my mom told me about a lady she used to visit teach. This lady would always have the dinner made for her family by 10 a.m. Then, when it was late in the afternoon and she really didn't feel like cooking, all she had to do was pop it in the oven. I have tried this several times and I love it. I don't know why I don't do it more often.)

In case you are curious, my categories are:
Sunday - Crockpot
Monday - Pasta
Tuesday - Beef
Wednesday - Miscellaneous
Thursday - Mexican
Friday - Chicken
Saturday - Easy or leftovers

(I have a friend who does something similar but she uses side dishes - potatoes, rice, etc. - as her categories.)

Prepared Chicken

This tip is courtesy of my mom. For years, whenever she cooks chicken breasts in the crockpot she throws in a couple extra to put in the freezer for use in a casserole on another day. I have issues with touching meat, raw or cooked, so cooking more at once works for me (and my issues).


1. Take a bag of chicken (above).
2. Dump it into a crockpot (below). Cook on high for about six hours or low for about 10 hours. I often turn it on before I go to bed and let it cook all night.
3. Take the chicken out of the crockpot and let it cool. Divide it into ziploc bags and freeze. When you need cooked chicken for a casserole, just defrost a bag of chicken and throw it into the bowl!

You can also do this with hamburger. HERE

Browned Hamburger

I really don't like to cook. It takes a really long time and the clean up is a pain, too. In analyzing this a while back I decided that I prefer making recipes that are just "dump and go". That's not possible with recipes that call for browned hamburger or cooked chicken.... or is it????

Today's tip.... Browned hamburger - frozen and ready to go.

1. Buy a lot of hamburger meat. I usually buy at least the 5 lb package.

2. Brown the hamburger meat in a big skillet. I never add any onions or flavoring because it will be used in a variety of recipes. I can always add the flavors when I defrost it later.

3. Rinse the browned hamburger in hot water. I'm very serious - this is the trick so it doesn't go rancid. I put the browned hamburger in my colander and run hot water over it until the water draining out the bottom runs clean. Sometimes I need to stir it a couple of times to make sure I get everything rinsed.
4. Spoon the browned, rinsed hamburger meat into ziploc bags. For most of my dishes, 1 1/4 lbs of hamburger is about the right amount. The five pound package of hamburger meat yields 4 bags of browned hamburger. Now, when I am cooking dinner I don't have to worry about pulling the meat out the night before and putting it in the fridge or browning it in the afternoon so I can have dinner ready on time. I can just grab a bag of cooked meat, throw it in the microwave to defrost for two minutes and put it in my casserole.

I do something similar with chicken. HERE
Happy to post this tip on....

Tip Junkie
Tackle it Tuesdays
Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays

Inaugural Post

What, oh what should I have as my first post? Should it be something profound? witty? creative? Since I am rarely profound, hardly witty and not usually creative, we'll settle for something all can enjoy - food. For my first post, I'll share a recipe that my family loves... Beef and Bean Enchiladas!

Beef and Bean Enchiladas
1 pound browned hamburger
1 pound can refried beans
1 pkg (1/4 cup) taco seasoning
2/3 cup water
8 small tortillas
1 small can mild enchilada sauce
1 can tomato sauce
grated cheese
sliced olives

Mix hamburger, beans, taco seasoning and water in a skillet. Simmer until "most" of the water has boiled off. Spoon into tortillas, roll and place in 9x13 pan. Mix enchilada sauce and tomato sauce and pour over enchiladas. Top with grated cheese and sliced olives. Bake at 350* for 20 minutes or cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 10 minutes.

(Add another can of refried beans and use small tortillas to enlarge the recipe to make 14 enchiladas.)