I love to create new ways to eat vegetables - from seasoning and herbs, to creative uses and ways to cook them, there seems to be endless options for me to try. However, when it comes to autumn and winter squashes and other seasonal veggies, I tend to go back to a veggie medley that is seasoned with an unexpected dash of yum: Jamaican jerked seasoning.
Whaaat? Yes, Jamaican jerked seasoning. With its subtle hints of cinnamon and spice, it pairs so well with the sweetness of the sweet potatoes and squash, but adds enough savory notes with its spicy pepper seasonings for other veggies, such as red-skinned potatoes and zucchini.
Below, I share with you a short video walking you through the simple and easy steps to make a vegetable medley of your own... I make this for dinner so often because it's incredibly easy to make and fairly quick - once it goes into the oven, you simply set your timer and go. It allows me to multi-task because I'm a #BossWoman who is always busy in the evenings. ;-)
Ingredients:
- Any vegetables you like!:
Sweet potatoes
Carrots
Zucchini
Mushrooms
Onion
Any winter squash
Peppers
Etc.
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Crushed red pepper flakes
- Jamaican Jerk seasoning (the one I used is from Pampered Chef)
- Black pepper
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lay parchment paper down on baking sheet. Chop up your veggies. Mix oil and seasonings in a large bowl until well mixed. Toss veggies into oil mixture until well coated and place onto baking sheets evenly. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until fully cooked. Enjoy!
Every year for the Christmas season, I bake up a storm. With all the powdered sugar I use up between all my sugar cookies and my chocolate crinkles, I am not surprised that my kitchen does actually look as though a snow storm hit!
My mom used to bake a lot when I was growing up, and she'd make chocolate crinkles. Every Christmas without fail, there were chocolate crinkles scattered on her giant platters, amongst all the other decadent candies, breads, cookies, and various assortments of other confections. Of all, these were my absolute favorite and still are.
I don't actually know the exact recipe she used though, but I did find a Betty Crocker version that works wonderfully, albeit a few modifications that I like to make (such as using coffee to intensify the bold cocoa flavor) and adding more vanilla to give a nice hue of dreamy chocolate flavor.
Ingredients
1/2 c vegetable oil
4 oz unsweetened baker's chocolate
2 c sugar
2 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1/4 c strong black coffee - cold
2 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 - 1/2 c powdered sugar
Instructions
1. Mix oil, melted and cooled chocolate, sugar, cold coffee, and vanilla together.
2. Add in your eggs, one at a time to allow for even mixing.
3. Add flour, baking powder, and salt gradually. Mixture should form a ball in bowl. Cover and refrigerate for about 2 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F. 5. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper (or grease sheets evenly). 6. Use a small spoon to scoop out balls of dough. Roll into balls about the size of golf balls and drop into a small bowl of powdered sugar. The balls should look like the following:
7. Place on cookie sheets about 2 inches apart and bake for 10-12 minutes.
8. Immediately transfer baked cookies to cooling racks.
9. Take caution - these are addicting little treats that are best served with hot cocoa or steamed milk.
These are so so good! You will not be disappointed.
If you want to try some different intensities of chocolate oomph, I recommend trying it with semi-sweet chocolate - 2 oz semi-sweet, and 2 oz unsweetened. Or, if you want to die from chocolate over-load, try milk chocolate instead (but reduce the amount of sugar used and add a little extra flour instead).
Let me know what you think and if there are any other types of yummy recipes you'd like to see, or any fun DIY projects.
Aside from making dozens of pumpkin pies, breads, and cakes, pumpkins can also be used in savory dishes as well. One of them is soup or chowder (as my version is thicker)! Have you ever tried pumpkin soup? I will admit that this video is my first EVER attempt at making it, and I have to say that I really do like it...it has a lovely thick and creamy consistency, and the flavors give it a very exotic, yet down-to-earth taste.
My inspiration recipe came from a book called Five-A-Day: Fruit & Vegetable Cookbook, by Kate Whiteman, Maggie Mathew, and Christine Ingram. I bought this book a few years ago as it looked like a great book for getting back into a healthy eating habit, and what better way to do that than to find inspiration in a pretty cookbook?
I used their version of the pumpkin soup recipe as a base for mine, but as I went along, I decided to add in my own ingredients, substitutions, and changed it around a bit. I am very pleased with how this turned out! It has such a lovely, light flavor of pumpkin, mixed in with the very woody nutmeg flavor, and a creamy semisweet milk based broth. So delicious!
Here's the video tutorial:
Here are all the ingredients for MY version of the pumpkin soup recipe:
Okay, so I am a bit late on getting this blog typed and uploaded. It has been a hectic week...Busy going through my file cabinet and trying to reorganize it all. Over the past five years I have accumulated so many papers with school, work, bills...etc. etc. that it began to overflow ...like a cascading waterfall...out into other drawers and counters. Not so bueno. So I made a point to rid myself of paper clutter! While my life is getting clutter-free, I've neglected my new blogs...Oooopsies. haha.
Anyway, per the request of one awesome YouTuber, whose username is ItsJudyTime, (you know her?! great!) I uploaded a cooking tutorial video to my new All Things Emmy channel. (And just for the 411, I didn't delete my emalyce89 account, nor am I not going to be uploading videos anymore, but rather I am rearranging my content. My main account got a little cluttered with random videos. I wanted to organize my channels by topic to help you guys, my amazing viewers, to decide what you're more interested in and stick to that...so for anything beauty and fashion related, please check out my main website, www.simplybellezza.com or YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/simplybmakeup; and for my Christian blog, check out www.emalyce89.blogspot.com)
So, without further ado, here's the infamous deliciousness recipe! (and scroll down to the very bottom for my cooking tutorial video!)
Ingredients (feeds 2 people...depending on appetite!)
*2 button mushrooms, sliced (or fewer depending on your preference)
1/4-1/2 cup of grated carrots (I used baby carrots; please use what you like)
1 shallot (or about 1/8 cup of diced red onion)
Peanut Sauce:
1/4 cup chunky peanut butter
2 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp (or less) ground ginger
*1/2 tsp. (or more) crushed red pepper (SPICY!)
1-2 TBS. pureed herb blend (Thai flavor) (I used Gourmet Garden)
Other
1 TBS. peanut, olive, or coconut oil
2 oz. angel hair pasta
*optional
Preparation:
1. Dice mushrooms and set aside.
2. Grate carrots if not previously done; mix with mushrooms.
3. Dice up shallot or red onion; mix in with vegetables.
4. In separate bowl, combine chunky peanut butter, soy sauce, ginger, red peppers, and Thai pureed herb blend. Mix it well and set aside.
5. In medium saucepan, fill with water about 1/2 way. Add in oil. Set to boil.
6. Once water is boiling, place the noodles in to cook...takes about 3-5 minutes.
7. Drain all but about 2 TBS of the hot water.
8. Toss vegetables in with noodles, adding the peanut sauce. Add the hot water to melt the peanut sauce over the noodles. Continue tossing until well-mixed.
9. Let sit for about 3-5 minutes so the peanut butter sauce has a chance to set. The flavors will saturate the noodles.
10. Enjoy!
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Hope you all have a super scrumpdiddlyumptious day!
