This recipe was posted on My Kitchen Cafe. And, they weren’t joking when they named it the PERFECT Pumpkin Roll!  It is the perfect time of year to start cooking up all sorts of yummy pumpkin treats.  I recommend starting with this one.  It is officially the best fall treat on the planet.  

Cake:
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 eggs
2/3 cup mashed pumpkin
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 15 X 10-inch jelly roll pan. Cut wax paper to fit the bottom of the pan and leave an inch overhang on each of the short ends of the pan. Lightly grease the wax paper and sides of the jelly roll pan.

Mix the sugar, flour, salt, soda, cinnamon, eggs and pumpkin in a large bowl. Once mixed, pour mixture over the waxed paper. Sprinkle the walnuts, if using, on top of the mixture. Bake for 14-15 minutes until edges pull away from the sides of the pan and center is done.

Lay a large dishtowel on the counter top (it is best to use a dishtowel without any texture – a tea towel or similar towel works best). Spread a thick dusting of powdered sugar all over the towel. When the cake comes out of the oven, turn the pan upside down on the powdered sugar-laden towel so the wax paper is on the top. Gently peel off the wax paper, being careful not to tear the roll. Starting at one of the short ends, roll the pumpkin cake up with the towel to cool. While the roll is cooling, mix the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar together until it is light and creamy. Once the roll is cool, unroll and with an offset spatula, carefully spread filling in an even layer over the cake. Roll it up without the towel and place in the refrigerator (covered with plastic wrap or wax paper) for about an hour before serving.

Making a yummy hot breakfast was a snap when I had just H going to school.  There was nothing difficult about pulling out the pancake mix and cooking up a couple of pancakes to start our day off right.  Now I have H and J going to school in the mornings AND we have done away with buying pancake mix to help cut costs. My life instantly became a little more difficult.  Hot yummy breakfasts have turned into a thing of the past unless I am on the ball the second we wake up (which doesn’t happen).  So here is my quick solution to our breakfast dilemma.  

{Army Toast}

Use a cup to cut a hole in the middle of your bread.  Put your bread in your skillet/pan and then crack your egg into the hole.  Cook on each side for a few minutes or until your yoke is how you like it.  While your eggs are cooking, toast the middle piece and use for dipping.  

My boys were giddy with excitement.  They ate like champs (unusual) and ask for it ALL. OF. THE. TIME. 

If you are a fan of banana bread AND chocolate than this is the recipe for you!  Seriously delicious!  I found it on this site, which by the way I am currently in love with.  

 2 c. flour
¾ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
¼ c. butter, softened
1 ½ c. mashed ripe bananas (about 3-4 medium bananas)
2 eggs
1/3 c. plain lowfat yogurt or sour cream
½ c. chocolate chips

{Step 1} Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

{Step 2} Cream sugar and butter. Add bananas, eggs, and yogurt, beating until just blended. Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Beat on low until just moistened.

{Step 3} Microwave chocolate chips in a medium bowl for 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1 c. batter to chocolate, stirring until well-combined. Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter (so you have stripes of plain and chocolate batter) in an 8 ½” x 4 ½” loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Swirl batters with a knife.

{Step 4} Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes (give or take a little; I’d probably set your timer for 1 hour and 10 minutes to be safe) or until a knife comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan and then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Check this out….you’re mouth is totally watering isn’t it?

I should add that I cooked mine in 4 mini bread loaves and it turned out fabulously well.  I cooked it a little less than the recommended time, about an hour.  It was a little harder to swirl it without mixing, but I really liked the idea of being able to pig out 4 times on 4 different loaves rather than just once.  

I am in love with my crockpot.  The hubster is currently the poor man that has to work graveyard shifts, 12 hour graveyard shifts, so he has to leave the house by 5pm.  Well, I don’t really think about making dinner until about that time, so he is often left scrounging for something to eat.  Poor man.  Enter fabulous crockpot.  In the morning when the boys are in school I can throw a meal in the crockpot and he has an amazing meal by the time he leaves for work. Love it!  

The latest and greatest….CROCKPOT LASAGNA.

6 lasagna noodles
1 lb. ground beef, browned and seasoned with Italian seasoning
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 16 oz. carton cottage cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup water

Spray crockpot with cooking spray. Take 3 lasagnas noodles, break them in half and put them on the bottom of the crockpot. Spread half the hamburger on top of the noodles. Pour half of the spaghetti sauce and half of the water on top of that. Place half of the cottage cheese, followed by half of the mozzarella cheese on top. Repeat layers one more time. Cook on low 4-5 hours or on high 3 hours. 

My oh so gracious neighbors have been blessing me greatly with fresh fruits and veggies from their garden.  Oh I just can’t wait till I have a garden of my own.  The joys that come from growing your own produce just seem fabulous.  Someday, sigh, I will have a massive garden and amazing fruit trees.  I will spend my summers canning, pickling, jelly’n, and eating free goodness.  Someday.  Back to the point.  I have had some zucchini for a couple of weeks now and finally got around to making some bread with it.  Oh. My. Gosh.  It is so good! I will be calling this recipe….

{Zucchini Cake Bread} 

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 1/4 cups white sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup grated zucchini

1/2 cup milk

1.  Grease and flour pans.  I used four mini pans.

2.  Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda and cinnamon together in bowl.

3.  Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, milk, and sugar together in a large bowl.  Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well.  Stir in zucchini until well combined.  Pour batter into prepared pans.

4.  Bake for 50 (ish) minutes.  Cool in the pan on rack for about 20.  Remove from pan and completely cool.  Or if you are anything like us, you won’t be able to wait for it to cool, so just go ahead and dig in.  

Bonus:  This “cake” bread freezes wonderfully.  We ate one loaf in about 10 seconds flat.  I quickly wrapped the remaining loafs up and threw them in the freezer before the ole’ hubster got ahold of another loaf.  I figure we’ll pull it out on a “special” occasion.

Who doesn’t love hot dogs mixed in their mac & cheese?  Could there be anything better?  I may be slightly kidding, but it is decent enough to eat on those nights when you have a mental block and don’t know what to make for dinner.  When I was in college, my awesome grandma would tell me she was cooking dinner and this is what it would be. Hot dogs mixed with some mac & cheese.  Pretty fancy, eh? Well, I was feeling bad because my boys hadn’t eaten many veggies for the day.  I spotted a zucchini sitting on my counter and had a light bulb go off in my head.  I shredded the zucchini and added it to the mac & cheese.  Brilliant!  Want to know what would have been even more brilliant? Peel the zucchini first.  My boys took one look at the “green stuff”  and paniced.  After enticing them to try it, they loved it and chowed down.  So to save yourself, just go ahead and peel the zucchini first.

Peanut butter is my weakness.  I eat it way more than I should, but I just can’t seem to get enough.  I was looking through my Deceptively Delicious cookbook the other day and knew I had to try these Peanut Butter and Banana Muffins mainly because of the peanut butter in them.  They are scrumptious.  How could they not be though?  

{Peanut Butter and Banana Muffins}

1 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup carrot or cauliflower puree (I used carrot)*

1/2 cup banana puree**

1 large egg white

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

*To puree your veggies:  Steam, then throw them in the food processor until smooth.

**To puree for banana:  mash with a fork then put in food processor until smooth.  It will look like baby food when it is done.  

{Step 1}  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line with pper baking cups.

{Step 2}  In a large mixing bowel, mix 1/2 cup of brown sugar with the peanut butter, the vegetable and banana purees, and the egg white, using a wooden spoon.  

{Step 3}  Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and stire.  Add to the bowl with the peanut butter mixture and stire just to combine (the batter will be lumpy- do not overmix).  Add the remaining 1/2 cup of brown sugar and stir once or twice.  

{Step 4}  Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake until the muffins are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center, 15 to 20 minutes.  Turn the muffins out onto a rack to cool.

{Step 5}  Store in an airtight container at room tempurate for up to 2 days, or wrap individually and freeze for up to 1 month. Personally, I like them better cold.  

Here is a super easy and quick treat that will hit just the right spot.  You will need some refrigerated crescent rolls, cinnamon, & sugar.

It’s as easy as this: 

Roll out your rolls and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.  Roll up and cook according to crescent roll package directions. 

There is nothing better than {easy}, {quick}, & {delicious}.