What's for Dinner

Jared was a bit ambitious when he helped me with the shopping last week. I asked for tomatoes, and he came home with 12. Yes, 12. Not wanting to be wasteful I told him to figure out something that could use up all those tomatoes.

He came up with a tomato, garlic, bell pepper, onion & tomato sauce deliciousness. I'm not sure what he calls it, but it was good. Chef Jared strikes again. We used it to top over spaghetti noodles on Sunday, and we had a ton of the vegetable mixture left. I found this Jambalaya recipe that will use the rest of his creation for tonight's dinner.

This week we are also having:

Greek Salad (I still have the rest of those tomatoes to use up!)

Apricot Glazed Pork Tenderloin (I'll be making this for the first time tomorrow, but I've had it and it was amazing! Thanks Jess for the recipe! You can even find all the ingredients for this at Aldi's.)

Double Potato Soup (I use vegetable broth, if I can find it.)

We'll have a couple of simple nights with sandwiches, salad, & pasta in the mix.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

This post is for Jared's friends at work that were asking for it. I wish I had taken a picture, but once these were out of the oven we were more concerned with eating them than having a photo shoot. They are so good!

I got this recipe from my friend Colleen who makes all kinds of delicious things! Everyone needs a Colleen in their life to share their delicious recipes with you!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 c. flour

3 c. sugar

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1 c. oil

3/4 c. water

2 cups of pumpkin (or one 15 oz. can)

4 eggs

1 cup chocolate chips (I use the whole bag - 2 cups)

1 cup walnuts (optional)

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Add the wet ingredients to the dry & mix together until combined.

Pour into greased containers. Fill pan 1/2 to 3/4 full.

Bake at 350 degrees.

Cooking Times:

1 large loaf - 1 hour or more

3 medium loaves - 45 minutes or more

5 mini loaves - 35 minutes or more

muffins - 25 minutes or more

(It always takes longer than I think it should to cook through the middle, this is about when I start checking the loaves.)

Icing:

Powdered Sugar & milk & dash of lemon juice. Mix to a runny consistency & pour over top of cooked pumpkin bread. (I start with 4 parts sugar to 1 part milk, and then add more milk as needed. I'm not sure what the lemon juice does, sometimes I have it, sometimes I don't. It doesn't affect the taste.)

Adam's Halloween Bag

I finished up Adam's Halloween bag today. He wanted a skeleton that matched his pillowcase.

Good Deals

For my friends that have boys age 4-8 years. Walmart on Beach & N. Tarrant has clearanced out their swimsuits to $3. If you swim as much as we do, it might be worth picking up some for next year!

Halloween Trick or Treat Bags

Here's Hadley's Trick or Treat bag. I got the idea from the Livin' Life Patino Style blog. I don't know her, but I stalk her blog! I am totally impressed by her fun projects!

This was really easy to make. You can get the bags from any craft store. Use double sided fusible webbing on the back of the fabrics, and sew around the letter and the circle. I traced a dinner plate to get the circle. I have some cutesy ribbon for the handles, but Hadley keeps untying them. I'll just wait until the big day to put them back on.

Halloween Pillowcases

Jared told me that his mom always had Christmas sheets & pillowcases that they would get to use during the month of December. He told me how excited he would get as a kid because he would know that Christmas was coming soon.

Adam's birthday is the day before Halloween. We love the fall, the cooler weather, the pumpkins, and the colors of the changing leaves. October is my favorite month for all of these reasons.

I thought it would be fun to make Halloween pillowcases for us to use during the month of October. My mom treated me to a fabric spree, and I whipped these up. They were super easy & fast.

(Measurements for a standard pillowcase is 20" x 26")

- Cut 2 pieces of fabric 22" x 33" (This should allow for some shrinkage after washing the finished pillowcase.)

- The short open sides are folded over 1/4" and ironed under. Then fold the same side over 3 1/2" and ironed in place. Sew seam in place. Do this for both pieces.

- Place right sides together. Sew a 1/2" seam allowance around the three "closed" sides.

- Turn the pillowcase right side out and you are done!

FABRIC: If your fabric is directional, you'll need more fabric. I used 1 & 1/2 yards for Adam's skeleton one. If your fabric is non-directional, you can get away with less because you can fold it the other direction (meaning the pattern won't be upside down on the back side of the pillowcase.)

Although I'm making the kids trick or treat bags, these would be great to use on Halloween night to collect candy.