DINNER IN A PUMPKIN!

This was super fun to make. Not only did we get to get and carve 3 pumpkins, we also got to do it to a small pie pumpkin tonight! We were feeling festive and did dinner in a pumpkin! It turned out great and yummy! We had apple juice with it. It was a very fall meal.

Ingredients:

• A pumpkin (can use a squash, don't recommend a spaghetti squash thought)
• ground beef
• onion
• green bell pepper
• corn
• rice, I used brown
• can of Cream of Mushroom 
• Salt and pepper to taste

Here's what I did:

1. Start cooking the brown rice (or any other rice).
2. Start cooking the hamburger, be sure to really give it some good pepper and worcherstershire. This is where most of the flavoring is
3. After the hamburger is cooked toss in some green bell peppers and some onion, both of which are sliced up.
4. After the rice is done, mix it in with the hamburger mixture, along with a can of cream of mushroom soup and a can of corn.
5. Stir the mixture good. Test taste it and add in any extra seasonings you feel it may need. I added a bit extra salt.
6. STUFF THE PUMPKIN!!! This is the funnest part. :)
7. Cook at 350 degrees for about an hour. My pumpkin was small, so it took about 45 minutes. To test if the pumpkin is done, just poke the outside with a fork. You'll be able to tell if it's done, by how soft it is.


It turned out great for us! The things I would do different are: 1) I would have used better quality of hamburger and rice. We had walmart beef, which is a no go. The meat has been tough and there is a big difference in flavor. I bought the cheap rice. We could tell, a better quality of meat and rice would have really improved the meal, but as far as everything else goes, it was great.

This meal is really forgiving, there is no way to mess it up. Be careful when eating, the rice retains the heat, so it stayed hot the whole time we were eating. This little pumpkin was plenty for the both of us, but I would only recommend that this is a meal for 2 people. If feeding more, use a bigger pumpkin, or more. Trevor also has the metabolism of 3 people and can eat a lot. lol. We ate most of it all together. :)

Here are our pictures from our meal!

All cooked and ready to eat! It smelled so good!

We had extra rice mixture, so we just cooked it with the pumpkin.

The juices were just oozing out!

We cut the pumpkin in half and both just took forks to it to eat!

YUMMY! LOOK AT WHAT WE GET TO EAT FOR DINNER!

Time to dig in!!!!

Twist in Diet!

So on Monday, Trevor had another doctors appointment. The no dairy diet has seemed to work well for us. I've lost weight and Trevor feels better. So while talking with the doctor, he recommended that we get an allergy panel test done on Trev. So we went over to the lab and got more blood work done on him.

We just got the results back, and you'll never guess what he's allergic to. We were super surprised

1. Trevor has no milk allergy. WTF? So what made him feel better these last few weeks?

2. He has a severe allergy to wheat. WHAT? At the first doctors appointment, we did a Celiac disease test and it came back negative.  So he is allergic to wheat...severely? It gets better.

3. He has a moderate allergy to peanuts. Awesome?

4. He has a mild allergy to corn and walnuts. Random, right?

Mom reminded me that corn is in everything, corn syrup and such. The only thing I can think of is that when we went on the no milk diet, we cut out basically everything unhealthy and cooked pretty natural foods. (Which was fun for me, I've been creative lately.)

So, I guess it's more all natural eating! I don't see this as a set back, but more of a blessing. :) It's the extra kick in the butt I need to cook and eat healthy. It will, and has, prevented me from wanting to come home and just make a box meal. And I've found it's super fun to make new meals and try new things and follow a recipe that I've never tried before. It's a bit more expensive to buy foods when you try to avoid the processed food and go all natural, but you are what you eat. Why not eat good? I've found that if you plan right, you can buy a certain item, and use it in your cooking all week, to help you save. I've been learning a lot, and it's been super fun!

-SamiMae

Cranberry Chicken and Lehi's Rice

So, these are not original recipes, but I do modify the portion sizes. I went home to visit and my mom let me have a cookbook of hers. My chicken and rice recipe came from the Worldwide Ward Cook Book, by Deanna Buxton. 

Cranberry Chicken (pg 83)

• Chicken
• 1 16oz cranberry sauce
• 1/2 C. Catalina salad dressing
• 1 envelope onion soup mix

Combine cranberry sauce, Catalina, and onion soup mix and pour on top of chicken. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

My favorite kinds of meals are ones I can throw together and not have to do much else. This a perfect recipe. I did homework while it was in the oven cooking! Boy, I'll say, right now, it smells AMAZING!

The side dish that I chose to make with my chicken also came from the Worldwide Ward Cookbook. It's as follows.

Lehi's Rice

• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1/4 C. onion, chopped
• 1/2 C. Carrots, chopped
• 1/2 C. Celery, chopped
• 2 C. Chicken broth
• 1 C. long-grain rice, uncooked

I'm using brown long grain rice instead of white. In a saucepan, melt butter and add veggies. Cook and stir until veggies are "slightly wilted" and onions are clear. (You know how they look when they get cooked). Then, stir in chicken broth and rice. Bring everything to a nice boil. Cover and reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes, or however long it takes the rice. 

I'm serving this with a nice green salad, something simple. 

For this meal, total prep time was about 30 minutes, by the time I got the chicken in the oven and got the veggies cut and cooked. My little apartment smells amazing! It reminds me of Thanksgiving. It's a festive meal. 

As soon as Trevor gets home, its dinner time! 

-SamiMae 

Our DAIRY FREE Diet

About a month and a half after Trevor and I got married, we decided to get him into the doctor. He had ongoing stomach pain since his mission to Peru. After talking with the doctor, he decided he wanted Trevor to go on a 10-day dairy free diet. Yay....I quickly found out how hard that was. Come to find out, on day 10 Trevor felt better. No stomach pain. We continued on this diet for a few more weeks. Milk is Trevor's comfort food. By himself, he could easily go through a gallon of milk every two days if i'd let him. (I'm not a huge milk fan, but I do love my cheese :)

So, now we are just trying to figure out where his tolerance level is. I didn't intend for my recipes page to be all dairy free. But if you're like us and need good ideas for dairy free foods, follow along. I've found some super yummy recipes! 

I know Trevor misses his milk, but I must say, I like this new diet. I've lost about 10 pounds since we got married back in August! :D