Roasted Vegetable Pasta

This was seriously good. The veggies are awesome. It's really hard not to just eat them straight off the pan, which of course I was doing and actually so was John. If just veggies would have filled us all up then I would have eaten them alone, but we all still would have been hungry. Also I am upping the amounts of veggies because it wasn't enough. So this would be a great side with no pasta.

I cut all the veggies to be roughly the same size so they cooked evenly - I'll do my best to explain.

1 head cauliflower, chopped into smaller florets
3 sweet potatoes, about 1-inch dice
1 onion - halved, then each half cut into 6 and pulled apart
4 carrots, peeled, cut on the bias into disks about 1/2"-inch thick(carrots take the longest to cook, so make sure they are not too thick)
2 yellow squash (or zucchini), cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 box pasta (I used whole grain rotini)
parmesan cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 425* (400* convection)
Cut up all your veggies and mix together on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 25-30 minutes.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to time on box. Drain and reserve of the pasta water.

Return pasta to pot; add roasted veggies, parmesan cheese and a little pasta water.

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

These are the cookies I made for the pumpkin party. It is the same recipe I put in the cookbook, but I did half butter-half shortening this time and added the icing.

makes 3 dozen

1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips

Cream butter/shortening and sugar. In a separate bowl whisk together dry ingredients. Add to the sugar mixture. Add egg, pumpkin, and vanilla; mix to combine.
Using a medium scoop, drop onto cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes at 375*.

Brown Butter Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
5 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 1/2 Tbsp evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter in a small saucepan, swirling occasionally to brown evenly, about 3 minutes. Immediately add sugar, milk and vanilla; stir until smooth.

You can spread the icing on your cookies or you can thin it down a little with a bit more evaporated milk and just dip the tops of your cookies into the icing then place on a rack to let set.

Sloppy Joes

I am putting this recipe up here at Lindsay's request. This is the one I use for sloppy joes every time. It is an Ellie Krieger recipe (the nutritionist on food network). The only change I make is that I don't use ground beef, I use venison because I have it and it's super lean. Oh and I leave out the jalapeno.

1 pound lean or extra-lean (90% or higher) ground beef
1 medium onion, dices (about 1 1/2 cups)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced - use gloves :)
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 can (15.5 oz) low-sodium pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups no-salt-added tomato sauce (which is about one 15oz can, so i use the whole thing)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp unsulfured molasses
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dry mustard
3/4 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Brown the meat and onion in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, breaking up the meat into crumbles as it cooks. Pour the drippings out of the pan and discard. Add the garlic, jalapeno and red pepper and cook 5 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for another 5 minutes. Serve with buns.

If you care to know the nutrition facts:
I sandwich with a whole-wheat bun: 265 calories

Butternut Squash Risotto

I got this recipe from Martha's people. I decided I am no longer going to give her sole credit for recipes/ideas that were actually developed by her creative staff and not her. Ina has a butternut squash risotto that I also want to try and I think that I will probably do a combination of the 2 recipes to get it the way I want it. I 'll post that when I do it. But for now here's the one from Martha's people. I made it for dinner last night and it was good, but could be better. Also as usual I made a few changes to go with what I had.

Serves 4

1 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2" chunks
(that is about 1/2 of the standard sized squash you get in the store)
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine (subbed chicken stock)
2 cans (14.5 oz each) chicken stock
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp chopped fresh sage (I used thyme)

1. In a medium heavy-bottom saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add squash; season with salt and pepper. Cook stirring often, until edges soften, 6-8 minutes.
2. In a separate pot heat 2 cans of the stock and 1/2 cup water together and bring to a simmer
3. Add rice to squash; stir to coat. Add wine, cook until almost all liquid has evaporated, 1-2 minutes.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low; add 1/2 cup of the hot broth mixture. Cook, stirring until almost all liquid is absorbed. Add remaining broth mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until liquid is absorbed before adding more, 35-40 minutes total.
5. stir in parmesan, sage, and 1 1/2 tsp salt. Serve immediately.

Chicken Roll-ups

Super easy, super good and people are impressed by it. It's the triple threat dinner. And you can make it in 15 minutes. Love it. Also you can switch up what you put in it.

4 chicken breasts, pounded thin
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
1-2 handfuls fresh spinach
4 oz roasted garlic cheese, sliced thin
salt and pepper

Pound chicken to even thickness between 2 paper towels. Salt and pepper each side and spread one side of each breast with mustard. Top mustard with spinach leaves and slices of cheese.
Starting at short end, roll up chicken tightly, and arrange, seam side down on a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Season tops with salt and pepper.
Broil, without turning, until tops are lightly browned and chicken is cooked through, about 8-10 minutes.

Jane's Blonde Brownies

This is Jane Dunlap's recipe for Blondies. She always makes them and they are so good and every time I made them they were crap. It was very frustrating, then I figured out why. She always doubles the original recipe she gave me and bakes it in an 8x8 pan for less time than she told me. So I was essentially using a halved recipe as the whole and baking it in a bigger pan for a longer amount of time - this = not good blondies. Here's the goods:

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup flour
2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Melt butter over low heat. Remove from heat and add brown sugar, stir until well blended. Cool. Add eggs and mix well. Stir in dry ingredients. Add vanilla and nuts. Bake at 350* for 18-20 minutes.

Pumpkin Pancakes

I made these up Sunday morning to use up the pumpkin I had. They were yummy. I use a pancake mix that I mix up myself and store in an airtight container in my pantry.

Pancake Mix:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup milk
1 egg

Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. In a small bowl whisk together milk and eggs. (I use a 2 cup liquid measuring cup and pour the milk in first to the 1 cup line then crack the egg straight into it and whisk them together.) Add the wet ingredients to the dry and gently combine. Let sit while your pan heats up.

Note: I add flax seed or wheat germ to the dry mix and mix it all up and you can't taste it and no one notices.

I times the basic resipe by six and store it. Here it is all figured out for you:
3 cups AP flour
3 cups WW flour
4 Tbsp or 1/4 cup baking powder
3 Tbsp salt
6 Tbsp or 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar

Pumpkin Pancakes:
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
1/2 cup pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp oil
1 1/2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice

Add the pumpkin pie spice to the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. In a medium bowl beat eggs. Add milk, pumpkin and vanilla and whisk together. Add wet ingredients to the dry and gently mix together. Let sit while the pan heats up.

Note: If you have buttermilk you want to use up or you just like buttermilk pancakes you can use it in replace of the milk, just add 1/2 tsp baking soda.