Pumpkin Pecan Bread

Pumpkin is something I very much look forward to in the fall.
Last year I found an amazing pumpkin bread recipe, so I had to make it again this year!

This Pumpkin-Pecan Bread recipe is from the Southern Living All Time Favorites cookbook.

It is delicious! One of my favorite recipes for sure.

Pumkin Pecan Bread

3 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs

1 (15 ounce) can of pumpkin

3 1/2 cups of flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

2/3 cup water

1 to 1 1/2 cups of chopped pecans

Beat sugar, oil, eggs, pumpkin, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves at low speed 3 minutes or until blended. Add water and beat until blended. Stir in pecans. Pour batter into 2 greased and floured 9x5 inch loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire rack.

Special Notes:

The recipe makes 2 loaves- 1 to share or you can freeze it for up to 3 months.

I have used vegetable oil or substituted applesauce instead- both ways are delicious.

I don't have cloves, so I don't put them in. I sprinkle a little extra allspice instead!

Enjoy!!

Daisy Duke

This week Jason was out of town for a couple of days,

so Daisy and I spent a lot of quality time together.

I snapped a few cute pictures I want to share!

 Daisy and her new tennis ball.

(This ball has since been thrown away because she was eating the yellow stuff...)

 Snuggle Time!

Hey! Check out my new do!

 Trying to escape the vet's office.

My mom snapped this one last night.

She was one tired girl!

Tonight we are celebrating Jason's birthday with dinner at whatever restaurant he chooses.

And I will be making these strawberry cupcakes today too!

Jason loves strawberry cake, and these cupcakes are so yummy!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Zucchini Chips

I am trying to find new recipes and try making new things.

Jason and I get tired of green beans and chicken!

I found a recipe for zucchini chips on Pinterest and decided to try it.

The original recipe can be found here.

The ingredients:

breadcrumbs (I used store bought)

parmesan cheese

whole wheat flour

pepper

milk

sliced zucchini

(original recipe calls for apple cider vinegar, but I left it out)

I cut the recipe in half because I was only using one zucchini.

Mix 1/8 cup of breadcumbs with 1/8 cup of parmesan cheese.

Add pepper to taste.

Mix 1/2 cup of milk and 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour.

Dredge each zucchini slice first through the milk/flour mixture, then through the breadcumb/cheese mixture and put on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes until browned and crisp.

These turned out yummy! I would definitely make them again. 

It's quick and easy- my favorite :)

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I decided to link up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Today I am loving:

1. That this is my week off. No work for me! :)

2. The warm weather we had today! I'm so glad we are getting into spring.

3. That Jason had today off and we got to spend the day together.

We took a trip to Athens and just did fun things. It was a great day!

Here are a couple of pictures until I am able to post about it:

4. That Friday my mom and I are going dress shopping for Charles's wedding and planning for the shower we are throwing my future sister-in-law. Quality time with my mom is awesome!

5. That my sweet friend Sherry is recovering well from her final breast cancer surgery! Praise the Lord!!

6. That the whole family will be together to celebrate my dad's birthday on Saturday.

Jason and I will be making the crab cakes :)

7. My sweet Daisy Duke, who is even more spoiled now that she sleeps all night with Jason and then all day with me!

8. That I decided to give the green smoothie a try this morning.

I adapted this recipe from skinnytaste.com.

2 cups of spinach

3/4 cup frozen blueberries

1/2 banana

3/4 cup vanilla almond milk

1/2 cup of greek yogurt

Since I used blueberries, it isn't really green. It did taste good though!

9. The beautiful sunset tonight.

10. That I have so many things to love today. There is so much to be thankful for! :)

"Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong in Christ Jesus."

1 Thessalonians 5:18

 I hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday!

Cooking

This week I tried a couple of new recipes!

The first was banana bread, but instead of using oil and sugar the recipe uses honey and applesauce. It was an excellent Pinterest find!

Banana Bread

Jason and I both liked it a lot! It went pretty fast :)

Then today after church I tried a Southern Living recipe for Eggplant Parmesan.

It was good too! Jason really liked it :)

This week I'm going to try my family's lasagna recipe. Hopefully it will turn out as good as when my brother makes it!!

Here are my photo challenge pictures for the week:

22. Where you work

I was off from the hospital this week, so my work was cleaning house!

23. Your shoes

 24. Inside your bathroom cabinet

Towels!

 25. Green

My favorite hair products :)

 26. Night

Tonight Jason and I went with some friends to Passion City Church. 

This hand represents the 27 million people who are slaves right now and the campaign to end their bondage!
For more information click here!

Only a couple more days left in the February Photo Challenge! 

Can you believe it's already almost March?

Time is certainly flying!

Dinner Time

Last night Jason decided he was craving chicken and dumplings, so I told him we could have them for dinner tonight. I found a recipe that I wanted to try and had to get a few of the ingredients from the store. I got this recipe from the Taste of Home Comfort Food Diet Cookbook. We are trying to eat healthy, so I thought this would be a good recipe to try. It was easy and tasted really good. Jason liked it too, but it wasn't how his mom does it. 

Anyway, the ingredients are

1. 3 celery ribs, chopped
2. 1 cup carrots, sliced
3. 3 14.5 ounce cans of reduced sodium chicken broth
4. 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
5. 1/8 teaspoon pepper
6. 3 cups cooked chicken, cubed
7. 1 & 2/3 cup of biscuit mix
8. 2/3 cup of milk

I seasoned the chicken before I cooked it, so I didn't use any poultry seasoning. I cooked the chicken while I prepared the carrots and the celery. 

Celery ribs, chopped

Sliced carrots

After getting the vegetables cut up, spray a dutch oven with cooking spray and saute the celery and carrots for 5 minutes. Then stir in the broth and pepper (and poultry seasoning if you use it). 

Bring the mixture to a boil. While I waited on the broth to boil, I cut up my chicken.

After the broth boils, reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the chicken . 


To make the dumplings, mix the biscuit mix (I used Bisquick) and the milk.

Then drop tablespoonfuls of the biscuit mix  into the broth. Cover and let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until the dumplings are done.

Finished product!

Then for dessert we had vanilla frozen yogurt with peaches from Jaemor Farms! It was a yummy dinner.

Strawberry Cupcakes

Last night we had our friends Rod and Pam over to celebrate Pam's birthday with a cookout dinner. Jason grilled steaks and shrimp, and I made potato wedges, green beans, and a salad. I also made strawberry cupcakes for dessert! They turned out so good :)


Pam wanted me to make her something out of the cupcake book I got as a wedding gift

After looking through it, I decided on the Strawberry Cupcakes.

The first step is to preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then line a 12 cup muffin pan with liners.

Next chop up the strawberries, the recipe calls for a 1/4 of a cup.

Then add 2 tablespoons of strawberry jam or preserves (I used Smuckers Simply Fruit Strawberry).

Mix the two together.

Next, the dry ingredients: Flour, baking powder, and salt

Whisk together 1 and 1/4 cups of flour, 1 and 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Then, beat 1/2 cup of room temperature unsalted butter and 3/4 cup of sugar together at medium to high speed with an electric mixer (I used my new Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer!)

Beat until fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.

The next ingredients: 3 egg whites and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Add the egg whites and the vanilla extract to the sugar and butter mixture and beat until combined.

Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 1/3 cup of milk in 2 additions. Beat just until combined.

Fold in the strawberry mixture.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups.

Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees for 25 minutes- until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes for 5 minutes in the pan then allow them to finish cooling on a wire rack for about an hour.

Next is the frosting! I used a recipe for strawberry buttercream from a Southern Living Cookbook. This recipe usually frosts a three layer strawberry cake, so I halved the recipe. I still had some left over! You will need 1/2 cup of butter, softened, 1 16 ounce package of powdered sugar, and 1/2 cup of chopped fresh strawberries. Beat the butter on medium speed for 20 seconds until creamy. Then add the powdered sugar and strawberries. I put the strawberries in first, then added the sugar in small amounts.

Beat on a low speed until creamy.

Here is the finished product: Strawberry cupcakes with Strawberry buttercream icing!

These turned out really good. I definitely recommend the recipe. We all ate 2 cupcakes :)