Taste of Fall...

Pumpkin Spice 

Pull-Apart Bread 

YAY, it's almost the weekend!  
I love weekends...
 I love having time with my family
(but I don't like having 1:00 church...
can't wait until January 2012 to start having 9:00 church again).

Since Sunday mornings are pretty laid back
as we don't have church until 1:00 it means we can take our time with getting up and we can go on a morning walk around the block and then lounge around and write in journals or read a book  
AND there is plenty of time in our morning to make this yummy bread recipe to enjoy for breakfast.

This reminds me of "Monkey Bread"  
that mom used to make for us when we were kids
(with canned biscuits rolled in cinnamon and sugar and sprinkled with brown sugar and butter).

It's absolutely delicious and another FUN way 
to use our abundance of cooked squash and pumpkin.

Don't let the steps fool you...
it is VERY easy to make.
Plan on about 2-1/2 to 3 hours from start to finish
(with most of it being RISING time)
(if you started making this at 7:00 am
you could plan on eating BRUNCH around 10:00)

Pumpkin Spice Pull-Apart Bread

(ingredients for bread dough)
2 Tbsp. REAL butter
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp. yeast
1/4 cup white sugar
1 cup pumpkin or squash puree 
1 tsp. salt
2-1/2 cups unbleached flour

(ingredients for sugar filling)
2 Tbsp REAL butter 

2/3 cup brown sugar (recipe originally called for 1 cup...feel free to use that amount if you like it more sweet)
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

(ingredients for glaze)
2 Tbsp. REAL butter
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 capfuls Rum flavored extract (if you don't have this, use vanilla)

Melt butter in saucepan until lightly browned.  Add in milk slowly until heated through.
Put milk/butter mixture in mixing bowl and let cool 6 minutes
Add in yeast and sugar and let stand until bubbly (about 6-8 minutes)
Then add in salt, pumpkin/squash puree and 1 cup flour and stir.
Add in rest of flour and mix with dough hook for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.
Put dough in oiled bowl and coat well with oil, cover and let rise one hour 

 (while dough is rising, melt butter and then add in sugar and spices and mix well)

After one hour of rising, punch down dough and roll out on floured board into a 20x12 inch rectangle.
Sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture onto dough and press it into the dough with your palms.
Cut rectangle into 6 strips 
Lay strips on top of each other and then cut each strip into 6 squares (cut in half and then in half again)
Stack strips vertically in either a greased bread pan, OR, Bundt pan.
Cover with towel and let rise 30 minutes.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes until top is golden brown. 

While bread is baking make glaze by heating butter, milk and brown sugar. 

Bring to boil and then add in powdered sugar and extract. 

Turn to low and make sure not to burn.
After pulling bread from oven, drizzle with however much glaze you would like... 

I just put the tiniest amount as I didn't want that much sugar

 Dump out bread onto a clean plate, 

dig in, pull apart and enjoy!

The perfect accompaniment to boiled or poached eggs 

and some kind of yummy beverage 

whether it be Herbal Tea, Warm Cider, or a COLD glass of milk!

Enjoy some Taste of Fall today 

and have a wonderful weekend!

Adding Fun to Dinner! (just in time for Halloween!)

Spaghetti Squids (and Monster Mouths)

make Happy Kids!

SO, with Tracy's new love for Pinterest, we were browsing through photos and our kids spied a FUN photo and begged us to try making it up.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a little bit of a "health nut"
and I am not a hot dog lover at all!  

Thank goodness  

that Tracy balances me out and he always tells me that

"eating a hot dog once or twice a year isn't going to hurt you".

SO, since I can't handle cheap hot dogs, we at least eat Nathan's ALL beef dogs.

We still had a package of  Nathan's left in our freezer 

 and so this is what we did to make what our kids call

"Spaghetti Squids". 
  
AND I do have to tell you that after eating 

this, it was REALLY tasty and yummy  

(and that says a lot, coming from someone who is not a fan of hot dogs).

(BTW... we only used 5 of the hot dogs 

and saved the rest for Tracy to take on a campout)   

 Try adding a little bit of FUN to dinner-time 

and watch the faces of your kids light up with excitement!
(it would be fun to surprise them and not see you prepare it and have them wondering 

"How did you do that"!) 

This would be SO much fun 

to make as a meal for Halloween!

OH, and don't forget about
"Monster Mouths" for dessert!!  

Apples, Peanut Butter and Candy Corn 

come together to make a tasty, holiday treat

(original post about Monster Mouths here)

Life is about balance 

and it's okay to splurge on a

not so perfect, not so healthy meal  
every once in awhile. 

Enjoy the taste and fun of the season!

20 Weeks...No Major Shopping...Wrap up!

 WOW...we made it and what's even better, 
is I'm finally getting this blogged about!  


For those not familiar with this challenge...
 our challenge allotted us $20.00 each week to spend on produce
and a gallon of milk every other week... 
the rest of the things we ate, came from our food storage.
 If you would like to see 
what meals we ate for 5 months and what produce we bought,
click HERE and scroll through the posts...
there are LINKS in each post to the recipes I used
and HELPFUL TIPS for what we did to make things stretch.

While I initially wanted to be done with this Challenge 
the first part of September, here 
  I still had another months worth of the staples such as butter, sugar, flour, yeast, cheese, etc... and so I decided to go until I ran out of butter.

This took us a little under 20 weeks from start to finish with no major shopping and you know what, we didn’t really feel deprived at all!
Other than the fact that I was down to the last cube of butter and roll of paper towels and I had ran out of BLEACH, raisins and gallon sized freezer bags, we survived going 20 weeks with no major shopping.

  (here are links to click on to to see 

what we ate/did week by week)
week 1  week 2   week 3

  week 4    week 5   week 6 

week 7   week 8    week 9

weeks 10-11   week 12   week 13

weeks 14-15    week 16  week 17 

weeks 18-19

Call me strange, but, I really do enjoying challenging and “stretching” myself…
it’s something that is in my blood and something that is SO enjoyable to me!
Preparedness truly does bring peace!

Here are the things I learned this year...

The CASES of canned beans, canned tomatoes and canned chilies we don't go through that much for how many cans we have in our food storage.
I will never again buy a case of 48 of anything, unless it is tomato sauce, OR, Tuna Fish.  We realistically can't go through them before the expiration date.

You go through A LOT of dish towels cooking every meal from scratch.  While I have a large supply of kitchen towels and dishcloths, 

I did laundry twice a week just for washing dish towels!! (usually go through 5-7 a day and sometimes more), depending upon what I'm cooking.

I realized that it would be REALLY nice to have a few cans of cooked chicken on hand, for those hectic afternoons when all of a sudden it's dinner-time and I am scrambling to throw something together!
(excited to pressure cook up some chicken breasts this week after I get my Zaycon Chicken order)

POWDERED MILK makes wonderful summer-time treats (here)
I used this to make homemade Fudge Pops, Chocolate peanut butter milk shakes and peanut butter energy balls. (here)

We also enjoyed a few batches of HOMEMADE yogurt made from powdered milk as well.  (here)
Love this recipe and LOVE that it uses things I always have on hand.

Artisan bread is one of our new favorite breads (here)
AND it is the perfect thing to make up if you don’t have any crackers on hand.
Bake it, toast it and it is perfect

 Homemade Hoagies are now officially a staple at our house!  (here)

We use them for everything and the versatile thing about my French Bread recipe, is you can make up a loaf of French Bread AND 6-8 Hoagie buns, so you can make the most use out of the dough, if you don’t wall all hoagies or all bread loaves.

Homemade Tortillas are also a staple at our house as well! (here) I haven’t bought store bought tortillas since the first of the year (when we purchased some for Tracy’s scout campout breakfast burritos).     
They were wonderful to make up and use our garden veggies and make wraps/roll ups.  They were perfect to line a bowl and fill with taco salad.  They were wonderful to fill with yummy things to take hiking and they were wonderful made into Enchiladas, Quesadillas or Breakfast Burritos.

 It truly is the best feeling in the world to be able to make 95% of the things your family eats from scratch all by yourself! 
Everyone is happy when the food they are eating, 
was made with love by YOU!!
 

We also realize the more we hike that my basic Oatmeal Cookie recipe (here) with LOTS of raisins, dried cherries and walnuts make PERFECT energy bars to take hiking and it is SO much cheaper than purchasing CLIF or ODWALLA bars.

Here is a list of the major things we went through 
in our 5 months of no shopping.
With cooking every meal from scratch, we went through A LOT of the staples...

(BTW...we have chickens that we get eggs from, so we didn't have to use egg powder)

(staples)
150 pounds unbleached flour
50 pounds sugar
18 pounds brown sugar
5 pounds powdered sugar
12 pounds RAW cane sugar
18 pounds honey
20 pounds raisins
4 pounds dried cherries
22 pounds wheat
2 pounds corn meal
2 pounds SAF yeast
1 pound baking powder
3 pounds baking soda
4 pounds salt
8 pounds rock salt
35 pounds steel cut oats (this is our mainstay for breakfast Mon-Fri…here )
12 pounds rolled oats
16 pounds powdered milk (4 #10 cans) (here's how I make our milk stretch here)
10 cans Evaporated Milk
5 cans Sweetened Condensed Milk
9 pounds dried beans/legumes
8 pounds rice
1/2 pound wild rice (made this yummy soup here)
12 pounds pasta
4 pounds popcorn kernels
7 pounds raw almonds
3 pounds walnuts
1/2 pound pecans
3 pounds Almond Cluster Nut Mix (here)
1 large bag of DARK Chocolate Peanut M&M's
1-1/2 pounds sunflower seeds
1/2 pound flax seeds
1/2 pound cashews
1 pound coconut
1 large jar lightly salted peanuts, 1 package of mini marshmallows and 1 pkg. peanut butter chips (these combined together to make Salted Nut Rolls here)
34 ounces unsweetened cocoa powder
4 pounds Stephen’s Hot Cocoa powder
25 boxes of STASH brand Peppermint Blend tea
48 oz. REAL maple syrup
½ bottle of Mapleiene Extract (made homemade syrup here)
12 ounces molasses
12 ounces corn syrup
3 packages marshmallows
1 pound coconut
3 quarts applesauce (this along with whole wheat flour turned into muffins here)
3 boxes of pectin (made homemade preserves)
1(4 pack) box of Gelatine (used to make homemade yogurt here)
1/2 pound Citric Acid
4 bottles Lemon Extract
(6) 8.2 ounce bottles REAL vanilla
3 liters Olive Oil
72 ounces Canola Oil
4 pounds cornstarch
72 ounces Nestle Semi-Sweet chocolate chips
3 pounds Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Bitter-Sweet chips
10 ounces white chocolate chips
(5) 40 ounce jars peanut butter (we went through so much of this as we made a few batches of granola bars (here) and peanut butter energy balls (here)
4 cans non-stick baking spray
5 pounds cottage cheese (we ran out the last 6 weeks…we need to try making HOMEMADE cottage cheese for times like this)
2 pounds sour cream
(5) 8 ounce packages Neufchatel Cream Cheese
.5 ounces of freeze dried mushrooms
(we also used quite a bit of Cajun seasoning, lemon pepper, taco seasoning, cumin, chili powder, granulated garlic, beef and chicken bouillon, buttered flavored salt, dried parsley oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and poppy seeds, sesame seeds)

(cheese/butter)
12 pounds Monterey Jack Cheese
5 pounds sharp cheese
1 pound Mozzarella Cheese
48 pieces of string cheese
32 pounds butter
2 pounds lard

(meat)
4 pounds chicken breasts
2 whole chickens
2 pounds chicken thighs
6 pounds hamburger
2 beef roasts
1 pound stew meat
2 pounds bacon
2 pounds sausage
(7) ½ cup packages of ham and one ham bone (that we had cut up in our freezer from our Easter ham here for how I do this)
1 pound Tilapia
6 pounds Salmon
1 pound crab meat
1 package Chicken/Spinach sausages (here for how we put them to use)
2 packages Nathans ALL beef hot dogs (had these in our freezer…we stock up on these in the spring to have on hand for summer barbeques...here for 2011 fun)
30 cans tuna
2 packages of Smoked Salmon and 2 large bottles of artichoke hearts
(we made 2 different batches of  Salmon and Artichoke dip here)

(misc.)
(many limes, citric acid and Lemon extract turned into this here)
6 packages Pink Lemonade Kool-Aid
1 box of Tangerine Emergen-C (Kids take this in their lunches to drink)
(3) 46 ounce jars pickles
(2) 24 ounce bottles ketchup
(3) 30 ounce jars Mayonnaise
(3) 30 ounce jars Miracle Whip
4 jars Ragu Spaghetti Sauce
10 cans stewed tomatoes/tomato sauce
1 pound frozen peas
2 bottles salsa
2 boxes Sunbelt brand Fruit & Nut Granola Cereal
2 boxes ZOOM cereal (this is what we used for breakfast when we went backpacking)
4 packages dry Ranch Dressing Mix (used to make Ranch Popcorn here)
31 packages Doublemint Gum
2 bags of 200 Menthol cough drops
4 bags Tortilla chips (we ran out the last 8 weeks…wish we had a way to make homemade tortilla chips
(1) 28 package individual chips
50 pounds of onions
25 pounds of potatoes
1/2 bag charcoal briquettes

(we also went through a few cans each of pineapple tidbits, olives, diced green chilies, canned beans, Tomato and Cream of Chicken Soup, bean sprouts, water chestnuts and chow mein noodles...ALSO, a few packages of Ramen for our backpacker meals).

(I lost track of how many pounds of frozen fruits/berries we used for our smoothies,)

(cleaning/toiletries)
(6) 56 ounce containers Soft Soap
(1) 56 ounce container Soft Soap for our bathroom dispenser in our shower (here)
66 ounces shampoo
66 ounces conditioner
52 ounces hair gel
99 ounces hair spray
1 box of hair highlighting kit (here how we use this)
6 bottles of deodorant
10 tubes of Chap stick
(2) 20 ounce bottles Curel lotion
40 rolls paper towels
76 rolls toilet paper
5 boxes PUFFS tissues
72 count box of tampons/(1) 18 count box maxi-pads
2 boxes of each sandwich and snack sized bags
4 boxes of each gallon and quart sized bags
(1) 100 count box of bread bags
(1) 75 ft. box aluminum foil
(1) 75 ft box waxed paper
½ box Plastic Wrap
1 box Q-tips
1 large bag cotton balls
1 package small Dixie Cups for the bathroom
32 oz. mouth wash
3 tubes toothpaste
(3) 100 ounce jugs laundry soap
1 gallon bleach
30 ounces Spray and Wash
2 boxes Borax
165 dishwasher soap drops
46 oz. Jet Dri
64 ounces Glass Plus
1 large can AJAX
18 ounces 409 cleaner
22 ounces hardwood floor cleaner
60 ounces Bathroom/Toilet cleaner
60 ounces Shower Cleaner
72 ounces Hydrogen Peroxide
10 gallons vinegar (we went through so much as I use it in my dishwasher since we have hard water)
1 box Bounce sheets
120 kitchen garbage bags
45 outside garbage bags
2 gallons CAR oil
Oil filters (for changing car oil)
2 gallons windshield washer cleaner

YES, you can eat REALLY well on your food storage...

YES, you can live on your food storage and LOVE it! 

So grateful to have had another opportunity to “Stretch” and to put this wonderful quote by Percy Cerutty to the test once again…

"You only ever grow as a human being

if you're outside your comfort zone”.

Taste of Fall...

Pumpkin Muffins!

 Autumn Time wouldn't be complete without making up a few batches of Pumpkin Muffins!
SO yummy and if you like the Pumpkin Bread that you can get a Great Harvest, these are the closest thing I have been able to make that resemble that yummy bread.

 

I'm always AMAZED at how far one large squash will stretch...

We ate it for dinner 2 times, shared a large chunk with Tracy's parents,

made up 4 batches of Pumpkin Cookies, 2 batches of Pumpkin Muffins

a batch of Pumpkin Pull Apart bread and a batch of Pumpkin Pie Bars.

I bake my muffins in TEXAS sized muffin tins 

 so they are larger and feel a little more "Gourmet"  

I usually make up a batch of muffins and put them in Cellophane Bags tied with festive ribbon and deliver these to the ladies I go Visiting Teaching to in one of the Autumn Months.

I also have a tradition of making these up along with Spiced Cider for  
Halloween Morning breakfast and you can guarantee they will be embellished with a SPIDER ring in the middle of the muffin.

Kids just LOVE this!

 These freeze well and if you have any leftovers, they are wonderful to freeze and have to pull out when you need a quick lunch, snack, or yummy treat! 

Pumpkin Muffins
½ cup REAL butter
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cloves
1 cup pumpkin (OR leftover squash)
¾ cup raisins OR chocolate chips
Mix all ingredients together and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes (or until toothpick inserted in comes out clean.   

After pulling out of the oven, I always put them in a Rubber-Maid type of container to keep them moist).

These are really good and freeze well and are great for breakfast, lunch or snacks! 

Enjoy! 

 Make up some Autumn Goodness and

go and spread a little JOY and sunshine 

to someone in need today!

(whether it be bringing smiles to the faces of your family members,

elderly women/men in your area that need a little cheer, 

OR, friends/family that could use some yummy-ness 
added to their day).

Taste of Fall... (and a secret!)

Pumpkin Cookies!

 These truly are one of our family's 

VERY favorite cookies, just as Sugar Cookies are a tradition at Valentines day, Pumpkin Cookies are a tradition to make up in October

and it is a good thing we only make them up during the Fall Time, because we can pretty much eat a whole batch (which makes 24 cookies) in one whole day.   

They are just SO amazingly yummy!

They are the perfect texture, 

have a hint of cinnamon flavor 

and the semi-sweet chocolate chips and
cream cheese frosting make them irresistible!
WOW, 

every event that we bring these to they are always the biggest hit!
Absolutely DELICIOUS! 

 *************************

I have to  make this next step known 
 as it is something I do out of habit and don't even really realize I do it... 
it's that perfectionist in me that wants to make each cookie I pull off the cookie sheet, perfectly round and uniform looking,
But my sister-in-law Cheryl was baking with me a month ago and as I was 
pulling cookies off the cookie sheet, she said something to the effect...
"THAT is why my cookies don't  
look or taste exactly like yours"! 

Who would have known 
that such a simple thing of "smashing" a cookie after you pull it off the cookie sheet, could make that big of a difference.  Sorry!!
So something to remember when you make the majority of the cookie recipes on my blog...
"The Secret's in the SMASH"!!
(someday when I get more free time I need to add that to all of my cookie recipes) 

Pumpkin Cookies
(these are an “egg-less” cookie)
1 cup sugar
½ cup REAL butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup leftover squash/pumpkin
2-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Cream together sugar and butter and vanilla.
Then add squash/pumpkin, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
Then mix in flour (to make a nice consistency) and last chocolate chips.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 15-18 minutes (or until lightly browned).
When you remove cookies from the cookie sheet, "smash" them with your spatula to flatten them slightly.This makes a really nice, dense cookie. 

 Frost with Cream Cheese frosting 

and you will have the yummiest cookie ever to enjoy!

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz. cream cheese (1/2 a package)
¼ cup REAL butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
In a mixer bowl beat together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla till light and fluffy. 

Gradually add the powdered sugar beating until smooth.

PS...I keep mine in a cool place until we eat them...either in our cool basement, OR, in the fridge.

Enjoy!

 SO happy that we have this yummy recipe 

to make up and enjoy during this 

wonderful Fall-time of the year!
I hope it becomes a favorite 

of your family as well!

This is what 3 months looks like!

 Okay, as I am trying to take care of the last bit of garden abundance from all of the YUMMY things we have from our garden and neighbors gardens with  

canning, drying and preserving, 
I thought, I would post the list of everything 
that we went through in our 
"3 Months of No Shopping" from 2010.

Tracy and I are always amazed at this list and marvel 
that we really do go through those amounts of things in 3 months worth of time.

I LOVE that we do this challenge 
to ramp up our skills and to grow and learn. 
It is a passion of mine and I think that I will definitely do this each year, to keep "honing" our skills and to keeping "stretching" ourselves and  
seeing even more what we are truly made of!

This year, my meal plans were a little different than last summer as we didn't cook as much with our Dutch Ovens, but come the weekend, I will finally have time to go through all of my lists and add everything up that we went through these past 
19 weeks of no major shopping...
(can't wait to compare this year to last year)

until then, here is last years challenge list.

(originally posted September 7, 2010) 

Here is a list of the major things we went through.

With cooking every meal from scratch,

we went through A LOT of the staples.

This has been very helpful to help us in planning for LONG term storage.

(BTW...we have chickens that we get eggs from, so we didn't have to use egg powder)

(staples)

100 pounds unbleached flour
25 pounds sugar
10 pounds brown sugar
2 pounds powdered sugar
10 pounds honey
10 pounds raisins
1 pound dried cherries
13 pounds wheat
2 pounds corn meal
1-1/2 pounds SAF yeast
3/4 pound baking powder
2 pounds baking soda
3 pounds salt
6 pounds rock salt
25 pounds steel cut oats
8 pounds rolled oats
8 pounds powdered milk
9 pounds dried beans/legumes
9 pounds rice
12 pounds pasta
3 pounds popcorn kernels
5 pounds raw almonds
1 pound walnuts
1/2 pound pecans
1 pound sunflower seeds
1 pound cashews
(1) 23 ounce container unsweetened cocoa powder
32 oz. bottle REAL maple syrup
12 ounces molasses
16 ounces corn syrup
2 packages marshmallows
1 pound Citric Acid
2 bottles Lemon Extract
(3) 8.2 ounce bottles REAL vanilla
2 liters Olive Oil
72 ounces Canola Oil
2-1/2 pounds cornstarch
72 ounces chocolate chips
6 ounces white chocolate chips
(2) 40 ounce jars peanut butter
(we also used quite a bit of Cajun seasoning, lemon pepper, taco seasoning, cumin, chili powder, granulated garlic, beef and chicken bouillon, dried parsley oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and All-Spice)

(cheese/butter)

10 pounds Monterey Jack Cheese
1-1/2 pounds sharp cheese
2 pounds Mozzarella Cheese
24 pounds butter

(meat)

4 pounds chicken
8 pounds hamburger
5 pounds pork
10 pounds salmon
22 cans tuna
2 packages Pepperoni & Canadian Bacon (from freezer)

(misc.)

40 limes (limes, citric acid and sugar turned into this)
6 packages Pink Lemonade Kool-Aid
25 pound bale carrots
(2) 46 ounce jars pickles
(2) 24 ounce bottles ketchup
(2) 30 ounce jars Mayonnaise
10 cans stewed tomatoes/tomato sauce
2 bottles salsa
2 packages dry Ranch Dressing Mix
20 packages Doublemint Gum
bag of 200 Menthol cough drops

(we also went through a few cans each of pineapple tidbits, olives, diced green chilies, canned beans, evaporated milk, bean sprouts, water chestnuts and chow mein noodles...ALSO, a few packages of Ramen for our backpacker meals)
1 large bag charcoal briquettes

(I lost track of how many pounds of frozen fruits/berries we used for our smoothies, (here) but I had pineapple in my freezer from 2007 and 2008 and it is all used up and we are on this years pineapple chunks..click here for how I freeze pineapple)

(cleaning/toiletries)

(4) 56 ounce containers Soft Soap
48 ounces shampoo
48 ounces conditioner
30 ounces hair gel
33 ounces hair spray
(1) 13 ounce bottle Curel lotion
18 rolls paper towels
60 rolls toilet paper
(1) 36 count box tampons/(1) 18 count box maxi-pads
1 box of each sandwich and snack sized bags
2 boxes of each gallon and quart sized bags
1/2 box Q-tips
20 oz. mouth wash
(2) 100 ounce jugs laundry soap
1 box Borax
90 ounces dishwasher soap
32 ounces Glass Plus
12 ounces 409 cleaner
16 ounces Armstrong floor cleaner
40 ounces Bathroom cleaner
40 ounces Shower Cleaner
64 ounces Hydrogen Peroxide
3 gallons vinegar
1/2 box Bounce sheets
1 gallon CAR oil
1 gallon windshield washer cleaner

As you can tell, the past 2 weeks, 
have been full of YUMMYNESS,

FUN meals and meals celebrating the veggies of the season.

Stay tuned this weekend 
 for the results of this years challenge 
of going 19 weeks with NO major shopping.

Have a wonderful, happy, 

frugal & joyful day!

Taste of Fall...

Pumpkin Pancakes!

So, since Fall is one of my favorite times of the year, 

and along with Fall comes lots of yummy recipes,

those of my favorite being made with pumpkin or squash,

I thought I would do some 

"Taste of Fall" posts 

where I share my favorite Fall Time recipes, most of which are a wonderful way 

to use up the pumpkin and squash that we have in abundance this time of the year!

Today's featured recipe is Pumpkin Pancakes...

I really don't think I have had a more tasty breakfast pancake than this yummy recipe.

My kids and hubby were WOWed  

over by them and we can't seem to get enough of these

light, fluffy, full of flavor, perfect and delicious pancakes.

(I just wish we had LOTS more pumpkin/squash than what we do,

so we could enjoy these ALL throughout the year, they are that good!)

Pumpkin Pancakes 

(Mix all dry ingredients together)

1-1/4 cups unbleached flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

pinch of ground cloves

(Mix all wet ingredients together in another bowl)

1 cup milk 

2 Tablespoons melted butter

2 eggs

1 cup pumpkin OR squash puree

1 teaspoon vanilla

Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients.  

Melt butter on a non-stick skillet. 

Pour batter on skillet (1/4 cup per pancake).  

Cook 2-3 minutes per side.

Serve with REAL butter and REAL maple syrup!

Make up some yummy-ness for your family today that is sure to make your house smell SO good and bring many smiles to faces and "OOHs and AAHs" from your family as they eat them!

Enjoy!