Glazed Pumpkin Bread

Autumn is here! There's something about the crispness in the air and the beauty of changing leaves that makes autumn one of my favorite seasons. Of course, as the weather changes so do our food cravings. Soups, chilis, and casseroles are the perfect comfort foods for chilly fall days, and pumpkin-themed recipes are a must! This easy recipe makes a moist, dense pumpkin bread, not overly sweet but packed with spice and autumn flavor. The glaze on top adds the perfect kick to make this a recipe you'll definitely want to try this autumn!

Feel free to try adding complementary ingredients, such as chocolate chips or dried cranberries. The glaze is pretty easy, although it can be made easier by simply warming up cream cheese frosting instead. Either way, this bread is best served warm with a little butter...yum!

Bread Ingredients:
1 box spice cake mix
1/2 cup sugar
1 can pumpkin puree
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk

Glaze Ingredients:
4 oz cream cheese, softened or spreadable
1/2 cup powdered (confectioners) sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 and grease 2 loaf pans. Mix the dry cake mix and sugar together. Add pumpkin, spices, eggs, and milk until smooth.

Divide evenly into loaf pans and bake for 50-60 minutes. Bread is done when top is golden and no longer looks liquidy. Let cool 10 minutes then remove from loaf pans.

Combine glaze ingredients and beat till smooth. Spoon or drizzle glaze over pumpkin loaves. Serve warm and enjoy!

Spinach-stuffed, Bacon-wrapped Pork Chops

I don't like cooked spinach - never have, never will. But my hubby does, and it's good for you, and it was a required ingredient in a Chopped Challenge cooking competition this month. So, after a bit of research, I came up with this idea - make a cheesy spinach stuffing, put it inside pork chops, and wrap bacon around the outside. Now if that doesn't make you start drooling a little, I don't know what will!

Ideally these would be made in an oven, but since I am on the road at the moment, I made them in the skillet. They tasted great, though the bacon outside didn't get as crispy/cooked as I'd like. I used the thickest pork chops that I could find so that the pocket wouldn't cut all the way through them.

While they were cooking, I chopped up baby golden potatoes and sautéed them with butter and diced fresh garlic, letting them cook at the same time as the pork chops. After the pork and potatoes were done, I served them onto a plate, put butter, parmesan, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning on hoagie rolls and placed them face down in the hot skillet to toast. The result? Amazingness.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp butter
1 clove fresh garlic, diced
1-1 1/2 cups fresh spinach
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
4 oz cream cheese
2 thick boneless pork chops
4 slices bacon
Wooden toothpicks
Italian seasoning

Start by melting the butter in a skillet and sautéing the garlic for about a minute. Take the stems off the spinach and add to the skillet, sautéing until wilted. Combine the mozzarella and cream cheese in a small bowl and stir in the spinach. Set aside.

Using a sharp knife, very carefully cut a pocket into each pork chop, leaving 3 sides intact. Divide the spinach mixture in half and stuff it down inside the pockets. Wrap each chop in 2 slices of bacon, making sure the widest part of the bacon is over the pocket of stuffing, and using toothpicks to secure the overlapping areas. Sprinkle both sides of the chops with Italian seasoning. Cook in a skillet or oven for about 40 minutes, flipping occasionally, until juices run clear and the center of a chop is only slightly tinted pink. Serve and enjoy!

Strawberry Cucumber Spinach Salad

This salad is relatively easy to make, even on the truck (though preferably not while the truck is moving, since bumpy roads and sharp knives don't play well together). The easiest thing about this salad is that it basically makes its own dressing. Cool, right? Look how bright and springy this salad looks!

Ingredients:
1 small cucumber
8-10 strawberries
Fresh parsley or basil
1/4 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp lime juice
1/2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
Fresh spinach

Peel and dice cucumber and dice strawberries. Place in a plastic zipper baggie and add a few torn leaves of parsley or basil. Add the 4 liquid ingredients, seal the baggie, and gently move the ingredients around to combine them. Prepare two plates of fresh spinach, de-stemmed and torn into bite size pieces, and divide and pour the strawberry mixture over the spinach. Enjoy!

Crockpot Lasagna

One of my favorite sounds to hear is the tone of my hubby's voice when he tries a meal that I've made for the first time and likes it...actually LIKES it - not just okay, but good! I got one of those moments yesterday when I made lasagna in the crockpot, and though it was a little bit of work, it was definitely worth it for a meal that we both really enjoyed!

I used Barilla oven-ready lasagna noodles, which don't require cooking first - they absorb moisture and expand as the meal cooks. However, since they are flat instead of ridged like most lasagna noodles, I used a jar of Prego spaghetti sauce with mini meatballs for the inside layers to give it a more interesting texture. You could always cook a pound of ground beef and mix it with regular spaghetti sauce for the inside layers, but this way was a lot simpler.

Ingredients:
1 15oz container ricotta cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
Dash garlic powder
1 jar meat-based spaghetti sauce
1 jar spaghetti sauce with mini meatballs
1 box Barilla oven-ready lasagne noodles
Mozzarella cheese

In a medium bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and seasonings thoroughly. Set aside.

Pour enough of the meat sauce into the slow cooker to cover the bottom of the pot, about 1/3 of the jar. Lay noodles on top, breaking to fit the shape of the pot. Divide the ricotta mixture in half and smooth half of it evenly over the noodles. Place more noodles on top. Pour half of the jar of mini meatball sauce on top, making sure the meatballs are evenly distributed, and top with a layer of mozzarella cheese. Place more noodles on top, and repeat the ricotta and meatball layers. Place more noodles on top and pour the remaining meat sauce over them, ensuring that all the noodles are covered. Top with another layer of mozzarella.

My Farberware 7-in-1 cooked it in 2 hours on slow cooker setting, so a regular slow cooker could probably cook it in 3 hours on low setting. When noodles are soft, cheese is melted, and sauce is hot and firm, serve warm and enjoy!

Chicken Enchilada Orzo

Yummy!

I am part of a Facebook community called Big Truck Cooking, all about truckers cooking, that has a Chopped Challenge every month. For my entry this month, I'm submitting this easy, oh-so-delicious one-skillet recipe for Chicken Enchilada Orzo.

Since it can be difficult keeping enough fresh or perishable food in the truck to last us 3-5 weeks, I have been developing more recipes using mainly (or exclusively) non-perishable ingredients. The only perishable ingredient in this recipe is cheddar cheese, which can be substituted with shelf-stable cheese like Velveeta or omitted altogether.

Ingredients

Ingredients:
1 can red enchilada sauce
1 can mild Rotel
1 can chicken in water
1 1/2 cup dry orzo
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 small can whole kernel corn, drained
1/2 package taco seasoning
Cheddar cheese

Pour the enchilada sauce, Rotel, and chicken into a skillet without draining. Add the orzo and about a cup of water. Bring to a boil and let simmer until orzo is cooked. Add the drained black beans and corn, stir and continue to simmer. Add half a package of taco seasoning and mix in thoroughly. By now mixture should be thick. Reduce heat, pat mixture firmly down in the skillet, sprinkle cheese on top and let sit to melt cheese. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Serving hot from the skillet

Easy Beefy Noodles

Easy, quick, and delicious!

This is one of those fantastic, super-easy, 3-ingredient meals you can make in 15 minutes, start to finish. I kinda feel like it's cheating, since I use precooked packaged steak strips, but any cooked or leftover beef will work. And if you feel extra creative, feel free to chop some mushrooms or veggies and toss them in.

Ingredients

Ingredients:
8 oz (half of a 1lb bag) egg noodles
1 jar beef gravy
1 cup cooked steak strips

Place egg noodles in skillet and add 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and stir frequently till noodles are soft and water is mostly absorbed. Add the gravy, mix well, and let simmer 2-4 minutes. Add steak strips, stir, and cover. Simmer another 2-3 minutes until steak pieces are warmed through and gravy is hot and bubbly. Serve and enjoy!

Microwave Cakes

Of all the challenges we've faced learning to cook in the semi, probably the most frustrating to me was the apparent inability to bake desserts. Baking has always been one of my favorite forms of relaxation and stress release, and of course we enjoy eating the desserts, but I went nearly a year without being able to bake in the truck. We had a small toaster oven for awhile that was unreliable, and my pressure cooker/crockpot doesn't handle baking cake like some do. However, I finally found the solution: microwave cakes!

Chocolate cakes with chocolate frosting!

It's the same concept as mug cakes, but I usually make them in a disposable bowl made of heavy-duty paper. Styrofoam bowls or the regular ceramic kind would work just as well.  And, of course, the cake and frosting flavors are totally up to you! I buy a few flavors of cake mix and put each in a gallon sized plastic zipper baggie, so I can use them whenever I feel like making one. The topping variations are practically infinite! At the bottom of the post, I've included directions for a fantastically delicious Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup dry cake mix
1 tsp oil
1/3 cup water

Mix all ingredients together in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 90 seconds and check. If still wet-looking, microwave another 10-15 seconds. Let cool and top with frosting and/or fruit. Enjoy!

Strawberry cake, cream cheese frosting, banana, and peaches!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

1 chocolate cake, made according to above directions

2-3 Tbsp creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup chocolate frosting 

2 Reeses cups, crumbled

Bake the chocolate cake according to the directions above. Microwave the peanut butter about 20 seconds or until melted into a smooth, thick liquid. Pour evenly over the cake and let sit 10 minutes. Microwave the frosting 20-30 seconds until also a thick liquid and pour evenly over the cake. Immediately top with crumbled candy pieces and let sit 1-2 hours to cool. Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake