Fall Recipe Round Up

Happy Monday, all!  Seeing as the cooler temps are here to stay and, dare I say it?  Snow is just around the corner, I thought I'd compile a few of my fall-ish recipes that I've made over the past few years.  Enjoy!!

 Vegetable Ragu 

-1 medium carrot, sliced
-1 garlic clove
-1/2 cup sliced zucchini
-1/4 cup onion
-a few mushrooms, sliced
-a small tomato, chopped
-1/3 cup of Hunt's fire roasted tomato's
-2 Tbsp chopped roasted red pepper strips
-1 Tbsp fresh basil/parsley
-S & P

Pour a quarter cup of water in the frying pan. Add carrot, garlic, zucchini, onion, mushrooms and tomato and S & P. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Add fire roasted tomato, red pepper strips & herbs. Cook another 5 minutes. Serves 2.

Sweet Potato Barley Risotto

-1 tsp olive oil
-1 small onion, diced
-1 cup pearl barley
-3 cups broth or water
-1 sweet potato, cubed
-1 tsp each coriander & cumin
-1/2 tsp each chili powder & cinnamon
-salt & pepper to taste
-2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

*cube sweet potato and microwave in a bowl with a touch of water for 6ish minutes or until fork tender. Side aside
*heat oil in saucepan and cook onion about 5 minutes
*add barley and spices and cook 1 more minute
*Add broth/water, cover and cook on low heat for 15 minutes or until thick, checking every so often that the liquid hasn't dried up. Add more fluid if needed.
*Once barley is cooked through, stir in sweet potato and cheese. Remove from heat and serve.

Smoked Turkey, Lentil & Kale Soup

·                     2 carrots, peeled and chopped

·                     1 onion, chopped

·                     3 ribs of celery, chopped

·                     2 crushed garlic cloves

·                     2 tbsp avocado oil

·                     4 cup stock

·                     2 cups water

·                     2 cup green lentils

·                     2 bay leaves

·                     1 smoked turkey leg

·                     1 packed cup of chopped kale

·                     salt & pepper to taste

1.             Heat oil in a large pot and add all chopped veggies.  Cook until soft 5-8 minutes

2.             Add garlic, bay leaves, salt & pepper.  Cook 1 minute more

3.             Add smoked turkey leg, stock and water.  Bring to a boil

4.             Add lentils, bring back to boil then turn temp down to a simmer

5.             Partially cover and let simmer for 1.5 – 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

6.             With approx 45 minutes of cooking time left add chopped kale

7.             Remove turkey leg and set aside too cool slightly.  Puree soup with an immersion blender.  **If you  like your soup a bit thinner, add water accordingly.  I added an extra 2 cups**

8.             Keep soup on low heat while you remove and chopped all the meat from the bone.  Add turkey back to the pot and cook just a few more minutes to heat

Lentil & Rice Pilaf Stuffed Peppers

-1 onion
-1/2 cup shredded carrots
-1 cup lentils
-3 + 1/2 cups water
-1 can fire roasted tomatoes with juice
-2 minced garlic cloves
-1 cup brown rice
-1/2 cup pepper pieces (I used the tops of the peppers to be stuffed) 
-1 Tbsp basil
-salt & pepper
-6 peppers, tops cut off and inside cleaned out
-grated asiago cheese

*Pre-heat oven to 350*

*saute onion & carrots for about 5 minutes. Add water and lentils. Bring to a boil & then turn down heat, cover and cook for 10 minutes.

*add can of tomatoes, garlic, rice, 1/2 cup water, pepper pieces, S & P and basil. Cover & cook for another 15 minutes. Check to make sure mixture doesn't dry out. Add more water if needed.

*Put peppers in a casserole dish trimming bottom as needed so they stand straight. Fill with about 1/2 a cup of lentil/rice mixture. Sprinkle about 1 Tbsp of grated asiago on top.

*Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Enjoy! 

Pumpkin Nut Muffins

·                     1 cup WW flour

·                     2.5 tsp baking powder

·                     1/2 tsp salt

·                     1/2 tsp baking soda

·                     3/4 cup oats

·                     1/4 cup agave

·                     1/4 cup Egg Beaters (or 1 egg)

·                     3 tbsp melted butter

·                     1/2 cup vanilla flavoured “milk” (I used USVAB)

·                     1 cup pure pumpkin puree

·                     1/4 cup chopped walnuts

·                     1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

1.             Heat oven to 400*

2.             Combine flour, baking powder and soda, salt

3.             Add oats

4.             Add remaining ingredients

5.             Stir to combine

6.             Fill greased muffin cups 1/2 way and bake for 20 minutes

You can check out all my recipes by clicking on the Recipe Tab at the top of the blog.  And don't forget to visit my Krista's Kravings Facebook page!!  I'd love to see some love over there, too.  :)

What is your favourite fall recipe??

Bye for now!!

Movember and a CSN Store Giveaway

I had to scrape the windows of the Jeep this morning!!!  With my library card no less!
Just thought I’d get that out there.  :)
How is everybody??  I’ve been pretty fantastic!  We had a smoking busy weekend at the Krista’s Kravings house.  Three hockey games (2 out of town) on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, a 1 hour soccer practice on Sunday, trick or treating Sunday night, Pilates last night.  Tonight was another hockey practice .  Tomorrow is FREE and Mom, DD and I are doing something fun on Friday night.  More deets on that later.  ;)
I actually took a half day vacation on Monday because the kids had a PD Day so weren’t at school.  DS was in a hockey camp all day and I didn’t want DD home by herself, for the first time, for a full day.  She asked if we could do lunch and I happily obliged.  We decided on William’s Pub because it’s been a long time since we ate there and we really do enjoy it.  I went with the half salad, half sandwich deal; Greek with the dressing on the side and a chicken pesto panini:
Our lunches came with a choice of chips, a cookie or an apple.  We went with cookies, obviously!  DD chose a PB one and I went with white chocolate macadamia nut.
I also enjoyed a pumpkin spice latte to go:
Love.
After a quick tour of the mall it was time to go back home and get a pasta dish in the oven so that I could get a decent meal into DS before we left for his game.  I found this “Take 5” recipe in my Rachael Ray magazine that I knew would be perfect.
It called for ravioli, sausage meat, a jar of tomato sauce, a head of escarole and mozzarella cheese.  I used tortellini because that’s what I had on hand and went with this Mexican Yves veggie ground round in place of the sausages:
My hubby totally thought he was eating taco seasoned beef!  Here’s the dish after layer #1:
The boys loved this (DD was at Mom’s for dinner because she had dance and wasn’t going out of town with us) although DS picked all the escarole out.  I knew that would happen, but he did give it a try.
Have you seen any men lately sporting some funny looking facial hair? Has anybody heard of Movember?  If not, the month of November is prostate cancer awareness month and men around the nation are growing funky moustaches to raise money for prostate cancer research.  My hubby included.  The deal is that they have to shave for the last time on Oct 31 and can’t shave the stash again until December 1.  They can grow a beard or goatee as well which can be shaved off at any time, but the moustache stays.  So here is my hubby Sunday night after a shave.  
I’ll post another photo of him mid month and again on Nov 30.  He plans on sporting a full goatee.  We shall see.  If you wish to make a donation to this worthy cause, go ahead and click here.
FOOD!!! 
The above is breakfast polenta.  I mixed 1 cup of unsweetened Almond Breeze with a 1/4 cup of polenta.  Right at the end I stirred in some sliced strawberries and dotted it with hazelnut mocha sprinkles.  YUM!  
Tonight’s meal ^^ was a quesadilla of sorts.  I sautéed red onion, red pepper, mushrooms and turkey breast with various spices and a wee bit of chicken stock.  This was placed on a tortilla that had been prepped with some mashed Romano beans then I topped it with a slice of cassata cheese.  Into the oven for 10 minutes at 350* and dinner was served….in the dark!  Haha!
Before I book outta here, I did a little shopping today…
Would YOU like $65.00 to shop here, too?  It could be yours!  CSN Stores has a huge range of great products to pick from.  There’s something for everyone for sure.  This is what you need to do to get your grimy little paws on this $65.00 gift certificate! (Canadian & US residents only, please)
1)  Browse around the CSN Stores site and leave me a comment letting me know what you would want most.
2)  “Like” me on Facebook.  Just click on my little FB Badge on the right of the blog.  Easy peasy and it gets you another entry.  Just remember to leave another comment telling me you did so.
3)  Check out the Thanks & Giving tab at the top of the blog and leave me a comment there letting me know what you think of my food drive.  Come back to this post and let me know you did that.
So there you have it; THREE chances to win!  I’ll pick a winner using the random number generator on November 17 and post the winner that same day.  Hey lurkers!  Now’s your chance to come out and say “hey”!  You don’t have to have a blog to enter so really, there’s no losing here.  :)  Have fun!
Bye for now!!

A Visit To The Pumpkin Patch & Crock Pot Barley

The rain stopped earlier than what was forecasted on Sunday and it was quite warm so we decided a trip to the pumpkin patch was in order!
Along one of the pathways we came upon this sign:
My kids were all over that and turned picking a cob of corn into their jobs.
Little did I know that they thought their cobs would be popped on site!  That sure led to a bit of confusion and they were bummed when the popping instructions said they needed to wait 4 weeks before they could do anything with them.   LOL!!
My kidlets had spend some time on the net searching out the perfect pumpkin carving templates so when we arrived they knew the basic shape and size that they needed.  Long, but fat.  Right.  Here’s what they ended up with:
Apparently they’re perfect!  I’ll reveal the finished jack o lanterns in my next post!  I was more interested in taking picture after picture around the farm than I was picking pumpkins.  HA!  These are a few of my favourites:
There’s just something about the hues of fall that grab my eye.  Bright and subdued all at once.  There was also an area where the kids could measure their heights.   
I think DS cheated a little by standing on his toes!
Onto a completely different topic now; I’ve been craving barley like a mad person lately, but haven’t had the time to cook any.  I finally decided to give it a whirl in my crock pot.  I added 1 cup of pearl barley and 3 cups of water as per the package instructions, then set it on low for 3 hours.  The results were perfect!
Not mushy, not sticky, still chewy and firm.  I had a nice helping at dinner along with some pan seared basa fillets and edamame that I cooked with a small onion, garlic, olive oil, salt & pepper.
Awesome eats right there.  I just wish my family thought so!  DOH!  Other eats have looked like this: Pulled pork with leftover barley and edamame.
  Butternut Squash Soup with Mary’s crackers.
Before I sign off , please remember to check in with the Thanks & Giving food drive to see what the food item of the week is!!  Also, if you’re participating, let me know how you’re doing so far! 
It looks like we’re gonna be getting some BAD weather tonight.  They’ve dubbed it a “weather” bomb”.  It’s already started to rain and the satellite has gone out so I thought to post now in case I can’t later.  Hope you’re all having a great day!
Bye for now!!