Homemade Taco & Burrito Seasoning

In our house everyone loves burrito night, however I do not love the pre-packaged taco seasoning. It is loaded with MSG and whatever else and really is kind of spendy for a little bag of seasoning. Also if you have followed this blog at all you know that if you can make it yourself ,you not only end up with taster product that is not only much better for you but also less money. So here is my super simple and delicious recipe to season burritos, tacos, or tostadas. This recipe can be used for either chicken or beef.

Mexican Food Seasoning


2 tbl olive oil
1 to 2 lbs ground beef or chicken breast that has been cut into bite sized cubes
1 med onion chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbl hot sauce (can be left out if you don't like spicy food)

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium high heat add meat and cook until the meat had started to brown (drain off any excess fat).

 Add onions and garlic and cook until the onion becomes slightly translucent.

Add spices, salt and hot sauce and cook for a few more minutes to give the flavor time to marry.

 Then serve on your tacos, burritos, or tostadas or even nachos have fun!

The How and Why of Making Your Own Laundry Detergent

Let's face it laundry is not only the task that never quite seems to be done but it can also be quite spendy. The companies that make laundry soap never seem to be quite satisfied their soap  it is always 'new and improved' or 'now with even better stain fighters' or 'will wash itself while you get a mani-pedi'. They make laundry soap into this soapalayah that is so great and mystical that you, a layperson, could never dane to make it yourself. They do this so you will shell out major change for, really, a big bottle of soap. Well, let me demystify this. Making laundry soap is exceedingly easy and a 5 gallon bucket of it only costs about $3 to make. I have read that this detergent is perfectly safe for HE machines since the detergent is low sudsing, just use half the recommended amount. As for how it works, I was very impressed, my cloths came out clean and soft. On Thanksgiving Jack spilled cranberry sauce All over his white shirt sleeve. I rubbed a little of this into the stain and then washed the shirt the next day and the stain completely disappeared. I wish I had taken a before and after shot to show you, but you will just have to take my word for it. All of these ingredients can be found in the laundry aisle of your grocery store.

Laundry Soap

1 bar Fels Naptha laundry soap

Hot water

1c. washing soda

1/2 c. Borax

(optional) 25 -30 drops essential oils i.e. tea tree or lavender

5 gallon bucket

• Step one: Grate up your bar of Fels Naptha. I used a box grater but I have been told that you could also use a food processor. You will end up with these cheese-looking soapy curls.

• Step two: Heat some water on the stove in a large sauce pan, drop in the soap curls and cook over medium heat until all of the soap has dissolved. You will end up with a soapy soup. 

• Step three: Fill your 5 gallon bucket half way with hot water then pour in your soap soup. Add the washing soda and borax, stir. 

• Step four: Fill the bucket up the rest of the way. 
• Step five: Cover bucket and let sit for 24 hours (I just stashed mine away in the laundry room). 
• Step six: The next day you should find a gelatinous soap mass floating in some watery stuff, this is good. Just stir to break up the glops and you are ready to go. At this point, if you desired, you could add 25 -30 drops of essential oil for smell. detergent will remain gloppy just make sure to use some for the glop and watery stuff. Use 1 cup of detergent per load, about half of that if you have a HE machine.

Day Seven: Pumpkin Pie

With my pumpkin supply exhausted and my nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and clove stores depleted, our Great Pumpkin Challenge draws to a close with Pumpkin Pie. This is a simple traditional pumpkin pie recipe and it is just perfect. For the crust I recommend this  Pie Crust Recipe I have tried several crust recipes but this one has the best flavor and the most predictable results. Or if you want to make things easier for yourself you can just go and purchase a Pillsbury pie crust instead. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Pumpkin Pie:
Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 large eggs
• 1 c. pumpkin
• 1 can (12 fl. oz.) evaporated milk
• 1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell
• Whipped cream (optional)

Directions:

MIX sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

POUR into pie shell.

BAKE in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving. 

Day Six: Pumpkin Cake Roll

When I mentioned this series to my mom there was one recipe that she said I absolutely had to include, and that was my Grammy's recipe for Pumpkin Cake Roll. It is a spiced cake with nuts on the outside and a cream cheese filling on the inside, what could be better.

Pumpkin Cake Roll
Cake:
3 eggs
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. pumpkin
1 tsp lemon juice
3/4 c. flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. chopped walnuts (feel free to omit if you are not a nut fan)

Filling:
1 c. powdered sugar
8 oz softened cream cheese
4 tsp shortening
1/2 tsp vanilla

Cake: Beat eggs 5 minutes adding sugar slowly. Stir in pumpkin and lemon juice. Mix flour, spices, salt, and baking powder. Fold in with eggs, spread on greased floured, wax papered cookie sheet (with sides). Spread chopped nuts on top. Bake 15 min at 375 degrees. Let cool 10-15 minutes. Turn out on dish towel and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Starting at narrow end, roll towel and cake together slowly. Cool and unroll.

Filling: Mix all ingredients together and beat until smooth. Spread evenly over unrolled cake. Roll back up and refrigerate (It will hold together better if it sets all night in the fridge). To serve, slice in approx. 1" slices and dollop a little whipped cream on top.

Day Five: Pumpkin Soup

Day Five of our

Day Four: Pumpkin Apple Muffins

Day Four of our Great Pumpkin Challenge and we are half way there. This recipe I got a little while ago from my friend Allison and they are a wonderful combination of two classic fall flavors.

Pumpkin Apple Muffins 

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup canned or cooked pumpkin
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups finely chopped peeled apples
• STREUSEL:
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 teaspoons cold butter or margarine

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine the first five ingredients. In another bowl, combine the eggs, pumpkin and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in apples. Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. In a small bowl, combine sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter.
2. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Day Three: Pumpkin Bread

Day Three of our Great Pumpkin Challenge brings us to Pumpkin Bread. I would be remiss to write a series on pumpkin recipes and not include this spiced childhood favorite. It is another great treat for the  lunch boxes, and it also pairs well with a cup of tea, a novel, and cozy blanket.

Pumpkin Bread

1 3/4 c pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup water

3 cups white sugar

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.

  

2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Day Two: Pumpkin Pancakes

For the Second day of our Great Pumpkin Challenge I give you, Pumpkin Pancakes. If you are looking for a hearty pancake that is healthy without your kids being the wiser then these are the pancakes for you. I have been making these for my kids for years and they have quickly become a family favorite. I have even been known to make them for dinner. I'm posting this now so that you will be ready for Saturday morning breakfast.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1.   In a large bowl, whisk together ¾ cup whole-wheat flour, ¾ cup all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, 3 ½ teaspoons baking powder, ¾ teaspoons salt, 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.

2.   In a medium bowl, mix 1 ¼ cups pumpkin puree (canned or fresh), 1 2/3 cups 1% low-fat milk, 2 large eggs and 3 tablespoons canola oil.

3.   Add pumpkin mixture to dry ingredients and stir until moistened.

4.   Preheat griddle or skillet and grease with cooking spray. Drop batter by 1/3-cup portions onto hot griddle/ skillet and cook until bubbles form on the surface. Flip pancakes until dark golden brown on each side. Serve with a sprinkling of cinnamon-sugar or maple syrup. 

Day One: Iced Pumpkin Cookies

 

These spiced cakey cookies are a great treat for day one of our Great Pumpkin Challenge. They are great for entertaining and equally great as a sweet treat in your husbands and kids lunch boxes.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 1/2 cups white sugar  1 cup pumpkin puree

 1 egg

 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar

 3 tablespoons milk

 1 tablespoon melted butter

 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork or flip cookie upside down in bowl of glaze the drizzle off the excess then flip back over on place on cooling rack.
4. To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.

The Great Pumpkin Challenge

The benefits of pumpkin to your diet are obvious by its bright orange color which is an indicator of a food rich in beta-carotene which is a very important antioxidant. Beta-Carotene coverts to vitamin A in your body which may prevent certain types of cancer and heart disease.

Here is the breakdown:


Pumpkin Nutrition Facts
(1 cup cooked, boiled, drained, without salt)

Calories 49 Protein 2 grams Carbohydrate 12 grams Dietary Fiber 3 grams Calcium 37 mg Iron 1.4 mg Magnesium 22 mg Potassium 564 mg

Zinc 1 mg Selenium .50 mg Vitamin C 12 mg Niacin 1 mg Folate 21 mcg Vitamin A 2650 IU Vitamin E 3 mg

So you may ask why make home made puree. The first reason is also evident in its bright orange color. Home made puree is loaded with this powerful antioxidant. Also once you have tasted home made puree you will never go back to canned. It has a rich much deeper pumpkiny flavor then the canned does. Also it is way cheaper.

You also might object with, there is no way that I can use that much pumpkin puree. One average sugar pie pumpkin yields about 5 to 6 cups of puree and the ways that you can cook with that are really limitless. So what I am going to do is to challenge you, dear readers, to puree a pumpkin tonight and I will post one recipe per day between now and Thanksgiving. I guarantee that your kids will be delighted with all this pumkiny goodness and you will use up your puree before I exhaust my supply of recipes. Please comment if you accept my challenge.

How to Puree a Pumpkin:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Choose one Sugar Pie Pumpkin (usually available at any grocery store this time of year)
Cut off the stem and the bottom of your pumpkin
Halve pumpkin
Scoop out seeds (can be roasted and salted later)
Place pumpkin halves in a 9 x13 cut side down in about an inch of water
Place in preheated oven and roast for about an hour or until soft
Take halves our of the water and let cool
Peel skin off (this should just peel away easily with your fingers or a pairing knife)
Puree meat in a food processor or blender
Then I like to measure out the puree into zip lock bags. One bag with two cups (hint pie) and the rest with  one cup, then freeze or refrigerate until you are ready to use.

The Skinny on Cloth Diapers

Let's face it one of our largest expenses for babies are diapers. The average case of diapers is around $40 for 200 diapers, over the life of your baby that adds up to some serious money. Approximately $2000 over the period your baby is in diapers. Many of us have considered switching but get waylaid by questions such as: are they difficult to care for? Is it gross to wash them? Isn't just much more trouble then it is worth? I had many of the same questions and I didn't take the leap until my fourth, and now I am completely converted, so much so that I have switched my 2 year old over to cloth as well. So let me try to demystify cloth diapers.

With any large decision as a parent one has to weigh the costs and benefits, and cost is not just monetary but also how much bother something is. I have to say that the benefits of cloth diapers way outweighs any bother. In fact the care for them is very easy. I am getting ahead of myself though let me first stipulate that the only kind I can truly speak to are bum Genius because that is the only brand I use, although I have also heard excellent things about bummis, econobum, and thirsties.

The first and most obvious benefit to cloth diapering is the environment. The Real Diaper Association reports:

• Disposable diapers are the third most common consumer product in landfills today.
• A disposable diaper may take up to 500 years to decompose.
• One baby in disposable diapers will contribute at least 1 ton of waste to your local landfill.

I have to admit though that the deciding factor for me was the economics. According to a recent report about Disposable Diapers from Consumer Reports, "You can expect to spend $1,500 to $2,000 or more on disposables by the time your baby is out of them." The cost for a cloth diapering system is all across the board. I spent about $14 dollars per diaper on mine. Estimate that you need about 20 diapers to start out with so the original investment is about $280, but then that's it. The bum Genius diapers are one size. They have snaps so they are adjustable from 8lbs to 35lbs. That is from about newborn to the time they are potty trained. So they are all the diapers you will ever need to buy. When you compare the investment of $280 to the $2000 spent on disposables the value is clear. Also I have known many people who have reused their diapers for subsequent children, they are that durable and well made.

The next most common objections I hear are "aren't they hard to care for", "isn't washing dirty diapers icky", "doesn't mean you have tons more laundry". To answer all three questions in one word, no.

The washing schedule works like this. Every other evening I wash my diapers. If there is any solid matter I dispose of it in the toilet immediately after I change the diaper (a nifty gadget called a diaper sprayer is handy for this) then I just stick the dirty diaper in the diaper pail like normal. On diaper washing night I collect the dirty diapers from both of my kids and take them to the laundry room where I take the inserts out of the liners and throw them in the wash (you hardly have to handle them to do this). Then the diapers are washed once on cold then again on hot with an extra rinse. Perfume and dye free detergent is recommended and you will need to use half of the recommended amount. Then your throw the inserts in the dryer and hang the liners up the dry. They are dry the next morning and I stuff them and put them away. Total active time investment is about 30 min, not bad at all.

So now that I have sold you on switching to cloth diapers you may be wondering, "Well where can I find this magnificent product?" The website is www.cottonbabies.com Also Vancouver residents are in luck because there are only three Cotton Babies stores in the whole nation and one of them is right here in town at 104 Grand Blvd. It is off of Hwy 14 near the new Freddies. So go in and check them out. If you have any more questions that I didn't cover please ask me and I will do my best to answer them.

The Alternative French Fry

Let's face it, every now and then we would like some fries with our homemade burgers. The only problem is that prepackaged fries at the store are loaded with who-knows-what and for what they are (a bag of potatoes) are quite spendy. My philosophy is, if you can make it from scratch you not only get a tastier product but you save on your pocketbook and your waistline. However, the idea of frying your own fries is a bit daunting. Well, I say, why fry? These baked fries are the tasty solution.

Recipe:

2lbs potatoes (russets work well but Yukon golds are a tasty alternative)

4 tbls Olive Oil

Seasoning (salt, old bay, fresh herbs , etc.)

Step One:

Wash and scrub your potatoes then cut into wedges.

Step Two:

Dry potatoes with paper towels. This is a very important step, if they are not thoroughly dried they will be soggy fries instead of golden brown and crispy.

Step Three:

Toss potatoes in a mixing bowl with olive oil until they are completely coated.

Step Four:

Place in a single layer on a baking sheet.

Step Five:

Bake in pre-heated 400 degree oven until golden brown and delicious.

Step Six:

Season fries with salt, fresh herbs, old bay seasoning or whatever else sounds good. Be creative and have fun!

Baked Mac & Cheese

So we know how virtually impossible it is to make something that not only the kids will like to eat but will also be nutritious and cost effective at the same time. This is a herculean task that I myself battle daily. This recipe for Baked Macaroni and Cheese satisfies all of the above requirements.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound pasta shells (I prefer whole wheat)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon powdered mustard (this can be left out if you have picky eaters but really you can hardly taste it)
• 3 cups milk
• 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 large egg
• 12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• Fresh black pepper

Topping:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs (found in the asian food aisle, trust me it is worth it)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf.

Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.

Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.