Chipotle Butternut Squash & Pumpkin Soup

Roasted butternut squash & creamy pumpkin are blended together with warm spices & a little kick of heat in this perfect for fall Chipotle Butternut Squash & Pumpkin Soup...

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While I am not a fan of the cooler temps (and *gasp* the impending snow), there is one thing I do look forward to as fall progresses into early winter and that is the ushering in of one of my favorite seasons of the year- soup season! 

Honestly, we eat soup all year round in this house. But I definitely kick up my comforting and cozy soup game once the temperatures start to dip below the 40's on the regular.

I mean, what is better than a bowl of warm and creamy homemade soup when it is a cold and rainy (or snowy) outside? Not much else, folks. Except for maybe a mug of my Pumpkin Chai Hot Buttered Rum or a dish of my Slow Cooker Apple Butter Rice Pudding. ;)

This recipe for Chipotle Butternut Squash & Pumpkin Soup that I am sharing with you all today just might be the best fall-inspired homemade soup recipe that I have come up with so far for the blog. 

It is creamy & smoky, with a little kick of heat, and a touch of spice & sweetness. Everything you could possibly ask for in a fall-time soup! 

Slow Cooker Chipotle Ale Chili

This flavorful Slow Cooker Chipotle Ale Chili with a little kick of heat is the perfect dinnertime solution for a busy weeknight...

We are full swing back into the new school year here. My son actually started back last Thursday, and his cross country season officially started last Monday. In fact, he has his first meet of the season this coming weekend. Though I am a loyal slow cooker user all year round, I really stat ramping up my slow cooker game when school starts back up. There is just so much going on almost every day between homework, after school practices, parent meetings, and weekend meets that it is essential for me to break out my trusty slow cooker at least 3 times a week. I mean, you just can't beat having a delicious, home cooked meal ready and waiting when everyone walks in the door. And everyone does not walk in the door at the same time in this house, so the warm setting on my slow cooker's dial gets used quite a bit during the school year. ;)

One of my favorite meals to make in the slow cooker, especially during the fall months, is a good and hearty chili. Serve a bowl of it with a side of homemade cornbread, and you have the perfect after school/game day/busy weekend dinner plan. Traditional chili is good and all, but you all know me by now- I had to take my slow cooker chili game to the next level. And I did just that with this hearty and flavorful Slow Cooker Chipotle Ale Chili. Let me tell you all- this chili has amazing flavor with a little kick of heat...

Chipotle Pumpkin & Chicken Lasagna {For Two}

A big thank you to Dreamfields Pasta for sponsoring this post and helping me bring you all this delicious recipe for Chipotle Pumpkin & Chicken Lasagna For Two...

A few times a month my husband and I try to squeeze in a date night.  Sometimes we go out and grab dinner.  And other times we drop the little one off with a relative and come back to our home for a date night-in. 

We may rent a movie and pop open a bottle of wine. I will usually cook a little something for just the two of us. These are my rare opportunities to prepare a meal without having to keep in mind the taste preferences of a finicky toddler and a very picky teenager. ;)  So when they do happen I go all out with flavors that my husband and I love, but that the kiddos would probably turn their nose up at.

This amazingly delicious Chipotle Pumpkin & Chicken Lasagna is just one such example of a more "adult"-like meal.  My husband and I have always been a fan of chipotle peppers in adobo.  They add a smoky, spicy kick to this lasagna.  The creamy pumpkin and ricotta cheese balance out the spiciness of the peppers. And a hint of cinnamon brings a touch of sweetness to the entire dish...

Crock Pot Chipotle Corn & Potato Chowder

Let your slow cooker do the work this Cinco de Mayo with this creamy & spicy Crock Pot Chipotle Corn & Potato Chowder...

I am pretty sure the life of a food blogger is just a constant blur of holidays. 

You can get one down and done (Easter) and then another one is immediately staring you in the face...

I am looking at you, Mister Cinco de Mayo. ;)

Not that I have anything against Cinco de Mayo! I big puffy heart Cinco de Mayo.

Seriously, folks.

I will take any excuse to drink frosty margaritas, enjoy some guac and chips, and eat any and all things deliciously Mexican.

But I looked at my blogging planner the day after Easter and thought, whoa... 

I got to get some tasty Cinco de Mayo recipes out to you all... like now!

Cinco de Mayo is literally just a little over a week away!

Sand Pail List 2012- Canning! (And a Recipe For Chipotle Salsa)

I am starting to sweat a little now when I look at our Sand Pail List for the summer.  My son starts back to school on August 21st, so our summer days are all too quickly dwindling by.  And even now that I can cross #2 off the list, we still have five more activities left to do (in less than 15 days!).  I am starting to come to grips with the reality that we may just not get everything crossed off.  But a few of them could be extended into the fall (like Kennywood, the Civil War site visits, and the 5K ;) ).  

But wait.  I did say that I can now cross #2 off the list- learning to can!  :)  I canned for the very first time this past week.  It was a little small batch canning.  Definitely nothing to survive the zombie apocalypse on, but I am proud of my two little jars nonetheless...

I bought one of those nifty Ball Home Canning Discovery Kits.  Except it was not as nifty as I had hoped.  Because it was missing it's Beginner Guide and Recipe Booklet.  (Oh, so not cool...) So I did a little research on Google and MacGyver'ed my own small batch recipe for some salsa.  

I wasn't willing to call Ball and wait for a new booklet when I had all of these beauties from my garden, the neighbor's garden, and my local farmers market sitting on my kitchen island...

I am proud to say that my salsa was about 98% all local!

I still had some chiles in adobo sauce cubes in the freezer (what are those, you ask?  Click here to find out. ;) ), so I decided to make a chipotle salsa to can.  Now the following recipe is for a very small batch.  It made one 12 ounce jar and one 8 ounce jar.  Of course, you could just divide it up into two 10 ounce jars.  Or double it and make twice as much.

I will warn you that this makes a medium-hot salsa.  If you would like less heat, then I would leave out the jalapeno or just use one chiles in adobo cube instead of two.

What you will need:

8 medium tomatoes, chopped (you can seed them if you would like, but I just left the seeds in)

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 of a large green pepper, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped

1/4 cup apple juice

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

2 chiles in adobo cubes (or 2 tbsp of jarred chiles in adobo, pureed)

1 tbsp of sugar

After chopping the tomatoes, process half of them in a blender or food processor until mostly smooth.  Pour into a large sauce pan.  Add in the rest of the chopped tomatoes and all of the ingredients through the 1/2 tsp of salt.  

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Then add your 2 cubes of chiles in adobo, cover the pot, and boil for another 10 minutes.  Add in the tablespoon of sugar and boil uncovered for a final 20 minutes.

Baby girl getting in on the canning action too. ;)

Since I was missing that handy beginner's guide, I used the Intro to Canning Guide on the Ball website to get me through the actual canning process.  I could get into all the steps in this post, but their PDF was so simple and illustrative I would encourage you to just go ahead and click their link above.  They are the experts after all, and I possibly couldn't do a better job explaining it than what they have on their site.  It was pretty simple.  Even for this canning novice. ;)

* I will say that I processed my jars for about 20 minutes in boiling water.  The processing times can vary according to what you are canning and how much you are canning.  20 minutes was perfect for my two jars of salsa.

Tah-dah!  The fruits of my labor. 

This will be the first of many more canning ventures to come... :)

To see all our adventures from our Sand Pail List 2012, click here.

Small Batch Chipotle Salsa

by Frugal Foodie Mama

Prep Time: 12 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes + 20 minutes processing

6045040

Ingredients (20 oz)

• 8 medium tomatoes, chopped (you can seed them if you would like, but I just left the seeds in)
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 of a large green pepper, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 chiles in adobo cubes (or 2 tbsp of jarred chiles in adobo, pureed)
• 1 tbsp of sugar

Instructions

After chopping the tomatoes, process half of them in a blender or food processor until mostly smooth. Pour into a large sauce pan. Add in the rest of the chopped tomatoes and all of the ingredients through the 1/2 tsp of salt.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Then add your 2 cubes of chiles in adobo, cover the pot, and boil for another 10 minutes. Add in the tablespoon of sugar and boil uncovered for a final 20 minutes.

I will say that I processed my jars for about 20 minutes in boiling water. The processing times can vary according to what you are canning and how much you are canning. 20 minutes was perfect for my two jars of salsa.

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For Nutritional Info on this recipe, please CLICK HERE.

Foodie On a Budget- Chile con Pollo (& the $5 Grocery Budget Conclusion!)

As those of you who have been following along know, my husband and I wrapped up our successful $5 Grocery Budget Challenge last Friday.  (Click here for my initial post on our grocery budget challenge, including my meal plan for the week.)  The only two things that we bought at the grocery store last week were a loaf of bread and shredded mozzarella cheese.

I had planned to make something like a white chicken chili for dinner Wednesday evening, but it evolved into something more like a Mexican chicken stew.  A Chile con Pollo! ;) 

What you will need:
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped (I used the half that I had leftover from my Summer Pomodoro Sauce from Sunday.)
2 tbsp of canola oil
2 tsp of Penzeys Arizona Dreaming spice blend (You could also use a combination of chili powder and cumin in lieu of this spice blend.)
2 tbsp of flour
1 1/2 cups of cooked chicken (I had some roasted chicken frozen in my freezer from when I made my Slow Cooker "Roast" Chicken a couple of weeks ago.)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cup of frozen or fresh corn kernels
4 cups of chicken broth
1 tbsp of brown sugar
salt, to taste

Go ahead and chop and mince up all of those veggies.  I put the onion and garlic in one bowl and the peppers together in another bowl.  Set those aside.  In a large stock pot or dutch oven, heat about 2 tbsp of canola oil over medium heat.  When oil is heated, add the onions and garlic and saute for about 1 minute.

 Next add the jalapeno pepper and red bell pepper, and saute with the onion and garlic for another 2-3 minutes.  In a small bowl, mix together the Arizona Dreaming (or your chili powder and cumin) with the flour.  Add the flour mixture to the veggies in your pot and cook for another minute.  

Now add your cooked chicken to the pot and stir with the pepper mixture for another minute or so.  

Pour in the chicken broth and then season with the black pepper.  Add the corn kernels.  Cook over medium heat for another 10-12 minutes.  Towards the end of the cooking time, add the brown sugar.  I like to add brown sugar for the slight smoky sweetness it lends to the stew.  Taste your broth.  Add salt if needed.

I served our Chili con Pollo garnished with a little shredded Mexican cheese on top and a wedge of homemade cornbread on the side.  (Click here for the recipe for the best homemade cornbread I have ever made, and the only that I will make from now on.)
For Nutritional Info on this recipe, please CLICK HERE.

Thursday evening was homemade pizza night.  We have been kind of obsessed with homemade pizza in this house since I found THIS RECIPE for making pizza dough in my bread machine.  This dough makes THE perfect pizza crust.  I topped our pizza with homemade pizza sauce I had leftover from our pizza I had made the week before and had froze, pepperoni (also leftover from the week before), jarred banana peppers, fresh basil from my garden, and shredded mozzarella cheese.

Friday evening we had planned to have pancakes for dinner, but that day was also payday. And my husband had a friend in town from out of state.  So we all went out to dinner. ;) 

So you may be wondering what did we do for breakfasts and lunches?  We had plenty of cereal and frozen waffles already in the house.  Lunches were usually leftovers from dinner the night before if there were enough.  If we didn't have any leftovers, then we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or grilled cheeses.

Eating well and eating healthy are doable on almost any budget.  You just have to be resourceful, freeze-freeze-freeze (hardly nothing is thrown out in this house!), find ways to use what you have on hand, and be creative with your substitutions. 

Chile Con Pollo

by Frugal Foodie Mama

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

6045042

Ingredients (Serves 6)

• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 tbsp of canola oil
• 2 tsp of Penzeys Arizona Dreaming spice blend (You could also use a combination of chili powder and cumin in lieu of this spice blend.)
• 2 tbsp of flour
• 1 1/2 cups of cooked chicken
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup of frozen or fresh corn kernels
• 4 cups of chicken broth
• 1 tbsp of brown sugar
• salt, to taste

Instructions

Go ahead and chop and mince up all of those veggies. I put the onion and garlic in one bowl and the peppers together in another bowl. Set those aside. In a large stock pot or dutch oven, heat about 2 tbsp of canola oil over medium heat. When oil is heated, add the onions and garlic and saute for about 1 minute.

Next add the jalapeno pepper and red bell pepper, and saute with the onion and garlic for another 2-3 minutes. In a small bowl, mix together the Arizona Dreaming (or your chili powder and cumin) with the flour. Add the flour mixture to the veggies in your pot and cook for another minute.

Now add your cooked chicken to the pot and stir with the pepper mixture for another minute or so.

Pour in the chicken broth and then season with the black pepper. Add the corn kernels. Cook over medium heat for another 10-12 minutes. Towards the end of the cooking time, add the brown sugar. I like to add brown sugar for the slight smoky sweetness it lends to the stew. Taste your broth. Add salt if needed.

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