Southwest Butternut Chicken Stew

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A few years ago I was searching for butternut squash recipes and found a beautiful picture of a chicken stew.  I clicked over to read the recipe and was immediately disappointed.  The black bits in the stew were olives, and I’m not a fan.  The black color was part of what made the dish so beautiful, so I wrote up the recipe I was hoping to find.  Then I threw it in the crock pot and fed it to guests, because I live dangerously like that. It was delicious.  The slightly sweet flavor from the butternut contrasted perfectly with the spicy southwest flavors.

Did you know that Butternut squash and pumpkin are in the same family?  If you’d like a homemade dark orange, thick sweet puree for your pumpkin recipes, consider subbing butternut instead.  There has been a rumor going around that canned pumpkin is really butternut squash…but after some research I’ve found that to be false.   And also learned about a new strain of pumpkin that is destined to be in my garden next year.   If you have one of these KING of eating pumpkins, you may use that instead in this recipe.

Southwest Butternut Chicken Stew

1 1/2 lbs Butternut Squash, peeled and cubed

4 cups chicken broth

1 lb boneless chicken

1 onion, chopped

1 can, 15 oz black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can, 10 oz Rotel tomatoes, undrained

1 1/2 tsp Ground Cumin

1 tsp minced garlic

1/2 cup, dry quinoa, rinsed

1/4 cup Cilantro

1/4 cup Sour Cream

In a slow cooker, combine everything except the quinoa and cilantro.  Cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 6.  Pull out chicken and chop or shred, then return to the pan. Stir in quinoa and cook for 30 minutes longer.  Garnish with fresh cilantro  and sour cream just before serving.  Serve with tortilla chips or Fritos.

Butternut Squash is fairly easy to work with.  It’s easier to cut through than the some of the tougher squashes.  I just trimmed off the ends, then scooped the seeds out of the bowl.  I love this squash so much, I saved and dried my seeds to try in the garden this spring.

A vegetable peeler works great for removing the skin.  You’ll just need to make more than one pass.

If you still see streaks of green on your squash, there’s still skin there.  Keep using the peeler to remove layers until it’s just orange.  Then you can cut it into cubes.

This is day 7 of 31 Days of Pumpkin Recipes

1 Pumpkin spice mix

2 Homemade pumpkin puree

3 Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

4 Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

5 Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

6 Pumpkin Bagels

7 Butternut Chicken Stew

8 Pumpkin French Toast Casserole

9 Healthy Pumpkin Pecan Scones

10 Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

11 Pumpkin Muffin/Drop Cookie Mix

12 Easy Pumpkin Cake

13 Pumpkin Dump Cake

14 Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

15 Pumpkin Mousse

16 Pumpkin Cheesecake

17 Pumpkin Latte

18 Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

19 Pumpkin Chili

20 Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies

21 Pumpkin Biscuits

22 Maple Pumpkin Butter

23 Stuffed Sugar Baby Pumpkins

24 Pumpkin Pancakes

25 Pumpkin Waffles

26 Pumpkin English Muffins

27 Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

28 Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts

29 Pumpkin Biscotti

30 Pumpkin Caramel Monkey Bread

31 Impossible Pumpkin Pie

 

 

Homemade Pumpkin Bagels Video Tutorial

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This isn’t a new recipe to this blog, but it’s still one of my favorites. The soft inside and chewy outside make a lovely grab and go breakfast. I originally wrote this post in 2015. Grant is now in 1st grade! I don’t regret spending that last year with him, and even though the kids are all in school now, we decided my time is still best spent at home helping things run smoothly for everyone.

Tee hee.  This video makes me giggle.  When I watch the replay and Grant (4) dumps the pumpkin on the counter, I roll on the floor laughing and then back it up and watch it again.  Maybe because I was there for the original moment, trying to balance a camera and helping Grant with the cooking at the same time.  How the pumpkin on the counter shocked us both and I got the giggles, which I tried to hold in making a weird background noise.  Grant, relieved that I wasn’t upset said, “We better clean that up.”   Which made me giggle all the more.

After we made quite a mess but got most of the stuff in the bowl, I said “What should we do now?”  I thought Grant would say, “Let’s clean up!”  but he said “SMILE.”  Which made me giggle all over again.

This boy is the joy of my days.  The sleepless nights, messes, tantrums, and battles are all worth it.  I had the option to spend this year in a classroom blessing other people’s children, while I earned money that my family needed.  I would have had to let someone else be with Grant during the day, and I just couldn’t.  It’s his last full year at home and I fought for my chance to be the one to clean up his messes and talk him down from the ledge of toddler insanity. It was selfish and selfless at the same time.  He needs me as much as I need him and there’s something priceless about that.

For those who prefer a written recipe here you go:

Pumpkin Bagels

  • 2/3 cup warm water
  • 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 Tablespoon active dry yeast

Put all ingredients in the order listed in your bread machine.  Set for the dough cycle.  When the cycle is ended, divide the dough into 10 balls.  Poke your finger through the center and make a large hole.  Let the bagels rise for an hour or until doubled. Pour 8 cups of water into a stock pot, boil bagels for 1 1/2 minutes, turning once.  Remove to a dish towel to drain.  Place bagels on a greased baking sheet.  Brush with egg white and sprinkle with a little sugar.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden on the top.  Cool on a wire rack.

This is day 6 of 31 Days of Pumpkin Recipes

1 Pumpkin spice mix

2 Homemade pumpkin puree

3 Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

4 Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

5 Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

6 Pumpkin Bagels

7 Butternut Chicken Stew

8 Pumpkin French Toast Casserole

9 Healthy Pumpkin Pecan Scones

10 Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

11 Pumpkin Muffin/Drop Cookie Mix

12 Easy Pumpkin Cake

13 Pumpkin Dump Cake

14 Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

15 Pumpkin Mousse

16 Pumpkin Cheesecake

17 Pumpkin Latte

18 Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

19 Pumpkin Chili

20 Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies

21 Pumpkin Biscuits

22 Maple Pumpkin Butter

23 Stuffed Sugar Baby Pumpkins

24 Pumpkin Pancakes

25 Pumpkin Waffles

26 Pumpkin English Muffins

27 Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

28 Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts

29 Pumpkin Biscotti

30 Pumpkin Caramel Monkey Bread

31 Impossible Pumpkin Pie

 

Caramel Filled Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

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These cinnamon rolls start with a pumpkin based yeast dough, filled with cream cheese caramel, for an ooey gooey breakfast treat that triples as a perfect dessert or after school snack.

The dough is the same as our Pumpkin Dinner Roll Dough, but halved so it will fit in your bread machine.  Of course you can mix it up in your mixer if you prefer, or even make the larger batch like I did so there are plenty to share.

Read more…

How to make pumpkin puree

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Photo credit: Tim Mossholder

While canned pumpkin is really delicious, it’s super easy to make homemade pumpkin puree to use in all your fantastic recipes.  Homemade puree freezes really well for year long stockpiling. Even though pumpkin pie, bread, doughnuts, pancakes, cookies, muffins…..dot our winter menus long after October, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas, the time to grab your pumpkins is now. Tourism pumpkin patches will till their pumpkins under the day after Halloween and it will be terribly hard to find one anywhere.  If you buy them now, stored properly, they will keep long into the winter.

Any pumpkins will work, but the tiny ones have the sweetest most pumpkiny flavor. And the gray pumpkins have the darkest flesh.  This one even had a sweet melon smell.  And it doesn’t have to be pumpkin, butternut squash is in the same family and makes an even thicker, rosier puree.

Read more…

Pumpkin Spice Mix

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At the last minute, I decided to participate in the Write 31 Days blog challenge.  I participated two years ago and loved how it challenged me to post more often.

I took the year off last year, but am jumping back in this time with 31 Pumpkin Recipes :).  Some are recipes I’ve had in my rotation for a bit, and some are brand new being tested in my kitchen as we speak.   Some are savory, but most are sweet.

Before we can cook much with pumpkin, we need a good pumpkin spice recipe and I’m proud to offer you my own blend, which has gotten thumbs up all around from my recipe testers.

This recipe makes enough to fill a 2 1/2 oz spice jar, or you can quadruple it for a pint canning jar.  All spices are their ground versions.

4 Tbs Cinnamon

Read more…

Easier Prep Ahead Meals

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Eating at home instead of in restaurants is the #1 way to save on food costs, but it’s not always so easy.  I was visiting with another mom (while we chaperoned a field trip) about how expensive it can be to raise a family.  She confessed that they get food stamps but also spend over $700 a month in restaurants for their family of 4. She knows it’s sabotaging their goals, but she feels trapped.  How does a family get food on the table when they are so busy and stressed?

Planning and Preparation.  The busier you are, the more important it is to have a detailed plan and scheduled in time to make it happen. If part of your meal is already done, and all the ingredients are on hand, cooking is not as big a deal.

I meal plan on Wednesday, shop early on Saturday and meal prep for the week either Sunday night or Monday morning.  If you don’t have time to do your own meal planning, I offer affordable, detailed meal plans done for you.  If you’d like to do your own but aren’t sure where to start, click here.
After about 6 months of prepping my meals ahead this way with the FitMama meal plans, I have some thoughts about how to make meal prepping easier. The idea of Fit Mama is to have all of my food made ahead for the week, so I can focus on the meals my family needs the rest of the time and not have to make two different things every night.  Plus if my food isn’t already made before I get hangry, I will stuff my face with any and all edible substances within reach.

Meal prepping lets you borrow time from a moment when you aren’t as stressed and move it to the moment that is the most intense.

 

With Fit Mama, I eat 6 small meals a day.  Prepping 36 single serving meals for the week is more labor intensive than prepping 6 family dinners.  Yet, it has been the part of the program that has brought me the most success.

It’s important to choose simple when you are in the busiest seasons of your life.  I’ve narrowed meals down to 3 types:

  1. The easiest are stir togethers like overnight oats, homemade gelatin, chia seed pudding, or protein pancake or waffle batter.  They go together the quickest and make me feel productive.

2. Then there are casseroles, marinated meats, and crock pot or one pot dump recipes that can be assembled or thrown in a bag, then cooked quickly just before meal time.

3. On the more labor intensive end of things are meals that require cooking some of the ingredients before the dish can be assembled and cooked again.  For example, My breakfast stuffed sweet potatoes require pre-baked potatoes, browned turkey sausage, and pre-cooked scrambled eggs before assembling. They are delicious!  But if my prep time is shorter than usual, it’s not the best choice for that week.  A good option for these types of dishes is to prep the singles first, such as browning hamburger and leaving the rest of the chores for another time.  It’s a lot easier for me to consider making stuffed sweet potatoes for breakfast if all I have to do is put it together for the final bake.

The other option is do to generic meal prepping. This would include cooking a bunch of hamburger in bulk and then freezing it in portions ready to throw in a meal. Or filling the slow cooker full of chicken breasts to shred. Or washing all your produce and shopping it ready to go for the week.

There’s no right or wrong way to prep for your meals as long as it feels doable to you and takes some of the pressure off when you’re the most stressed.

It’s also the perfect time to get some of the family members involved.  Here’s a screen shot from a live video my boys did with me to show the FitMama members how we meal prep. The boys have learned to dice and chop and all sorts of other kitchen skills by helping me in this way.

Tell me about you.  How do you meal prep?  Any tips for us?

You might also like:

The Easiest Shredded Chicken for Your Freezer

Batch Cooking Ground Beef in Your Slow Cooker

Step 1 to a meal plan you’ll actually follow

 

 

Simplifying Breakfast

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When I was a new mom I had dreams of sitting around the table every morning, with Daddy leading devotions to smiling children memorizing Bible verses set on a backdrop of a hearty home cooked breakfast. I had no idea at the time that we would welcome one baby after another and that I’d have 12 years of rough mornings. We’d be up all night taking turns with a colicky baby and Darren would peel out of bed barely rested, just in time to throw on clothes and dash to work where he had a loaf of bread stashed for breakfast toast.

Read the rest at http://www.kansascitymom.com/simplifying-breakfast/  and get the make ahead Always Ready Bran Muffin recipe that my family loves.

$6 Left

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Last weekend I finally ventured to Costco for the month and when I was done, I had $6 left for food in April.  It’s been awhile since I ran out of money this early in the month and I know exactly what happened.   Marshmallows and All Beef Hot Dogs several times a week add up. Plus they taste really good with chips and soda…also expensive and not healthy.

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Our new fire pit is so much fun, but I didn’t know what else to cook out there at first.  We’ve since broadened our horizons.   Marinated chicken and homemade whole wheat bread dough will roast on a hot dog fork.  And oh man!!! They are delicious.  You can also fork roast vegetables (like zucchini, mushrooms, peppers, and onions) and fruits like apples.

But really that’s not the point.  I broke one of my own rules this week and it didn’t end well.

Necessities FIRST! Rare treats after.  

I can have roasted marshmallows once in a while (but 4 bags a week might be overdoing it.)  I just should have made sure that I had enough money for all the essential foods first.

Necessities are any affordable foods that promote health:  In season fruits and vegetables, whole grains like oats, brown rice and 100% whole wheat bread or flour, unprocessed meats, nuts, beans, and some dairy items like milk, butter and cheese.

Rare treats are processed foods like crackers, chips, lunch meats, desserts, sodas, juices, and other beverages. They also might include higher priced healthy foods like steak or fresh raspberries. I’m not saying never buy these, just make sure of the necessities first.

We’ll be ok on $6 this week.  It’s enough to buy a couple of gallons of milk and my pantry is well stocked with enough stuff that we’ll eat just fine.  It’s a good chance to practice my creative pantry cooking skills, but I’ll be doing things differently in May.