Posted in Food
You can almost tell that it's Fall here (almost). The temperature has been below 90 and the water grasses around the lake have started turning brown.
We've been talking about eating more meals outside at the picnic table, since it's now the time of year when that won't cause heat stroke.
I've been doing some Fall themed cooking, too. Here are the Autumn Bento lunches I've come up with:
The base for this one is left over mashed potatoes (including the blue sky). The tree is luncheon meat and the owl is peanut butter ball.
As you can see, I'm trying to get my money's worth out of those Fall themed mini cookie cutters and the muffin pans I got from Jo-Ann Fabrics.
The main part of this lunch was a mini quiche surrounded by pie crust leaves. The salad has acorns made from the left over pie crust mixed with a little shredded cheese.
This is my lunch for today, "Harvest Moon". The owl was an experiment, but it turned out very well. Nika was making bean burritos for dinner last night and had left over beans, so I took a couple scoops and put them in the owl candy molds, which I then stuck in the freezer over night. This morning I had perfect owl shapes made out of refried beans.
The rest of my lunch is homemade trail mix ( craisins, dried blueberries, peanuts, and pumpkin seeds),
Citrus Slaw (I'll post the recipe tomorrow), Colby-Jack Cheese on a tortilla, lettuce, and some muffin tops from the blue corn muffins I made Saturday.
This is the lunch Blaze is taking to school today. The leaf shaped sandwiches are made from regular yellow corn bread and blue corn bread. This was the first time I had tried baking with blue corn meal and it didn't turn out a very attractive color. It would make good edible rocks, since it came out looking like gray granite). The pumpkin is one of the Harvest Muffins (recipe to follow) that I made yesterday, and the chips are these:
The chips are a bit pricier that I usually get, but the colors are so pretty and Fall-like.
Harvest Muffins
2 Cups unbleached white flour
1/3 Cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped fresh apple
1/2 cup dried cranberries (craisins)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Mix all the above ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Then in a smaller mixing bowl or large measuring cup mix the following:
1 egg
3/4 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
Stir well Pour the liquid mixture into the large mixing bowl with the dry mixture. Mix until all is combined.
Fill muffin pans 3/4 full and bake at 350 degrees F. for 30-40 minutes.
If I haven't mentioned in the past couple days how much I love my new silicon bakeware, let me say it now. I love this silicon stuff!!!
These muffins, even with all of their ridges, popped right out of the pan and hardly left a crumb.
For the ones on the right, I sprinkled a little cinnamon sugar in the bottom of the pan before putting the muffin batter in. The ones on the left were left plain.
We've been talking about eating more meals outside at the picnic table, since it's now the time of year when that won't cause heat stroke.
I've been doing some Fall themed cooking, too. Here are the Autumn Bento lunches I've come up with:
The base for this one is left over mashed potatoes (including the blue sky). The tree is luncheon meat and the owl is peanut butter ball.
As you can see, I'm trying to get my money's worth out of those Fall themed mini cookie cutters and the muffin pans I got from Jo-Ann Fabrics.
The main part of this lunch was a mini quiche surrounded by pie crust leaves. The salad has acorns made from the left over pie crust mixed with a little shredded cheese.
This is my lunch for today, "Harvest Moon". The owl was an experiment, but it turned out very well. Nika was making bean burritos for dinner last night and had left over beans, so I took a couple scoops and put them in the owl candy molds, which I then stuck in the freezer over night. This morning I had perfect owl shapes made out of refried beans.
The rest of my lunch is homemade trail mix ( craisins, dried blueberries, peanuts, and pumpkin seeds),
Citrus Slaw (I'll post the recipe tomorrow), Colby-Jack Cheese on a tortilla, lettuce, and some muffin tops from the blue corn muffins I made Saturday.
This is the lunch Blaze is taking to school today. The leaf shaped sandwiches are made from regular yellow corn bread and blue corn bread. This was the first time I had tried baking with blue corn meal and it didn't turn out a very attractive color. It would make good edible rocks, since it came out looking like gray granite). The pumpkin is one of the Harvest Muffins (recipe to follow) that I made yesterday, and the chips are these:
The chips are a bit pricier that I usually get, but the colors are so pretty and Fall-like.
Harvest Muffins
2 Cups unbleached white flour
1/3 Cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped fresh apple
1/2 cup dried cranberries (craisins)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Mix all the above ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Then in a smaller mixing bowl or large measuring cup mix the following:
1 egg
3/4 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
Stir well Pour the liquid mixture into the large mixing bowl with the dry mixture. Mix until all is combined.
Fill muffin pans 3/4 full and bake at 350 degrees F. for 30-40 minutes.
If I haven't mentioned in the past couple days how much I love my new silicon bakeware, let me say it now. I love this silicon stuff!!!
These muffins, even with all of their ridges, popped right out of the pan and hardly left a crumb.
For the ones on the right, I sprinkled a little cinnamon sugar in the bottom of the pan before putting the muffin batter in. The ones on the left were left plain.
