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I've been searching the web for new fall recipes to try for our November meal plan. I wanted to add a lot of soups to help keep our budget low this month and easy. Here is a great little tutorial for a Corn Chowder that looks super yummy! I'm making it for dinner tonight and making just a couple changes. Since our family does not like a lot of spice in our food, I am eliminating the jalapeno pepper. Also, because we are dairy free, I am replacing the cows milk with coconut milk. Should be yummy!

Watch the Video of how to make it!

Recipe Link

When the month of October hit, so did my cravings for apples! I tried making an apple pie, apple oatmeal muffins, and this apple crisp. The crisp quickly won itself a spot in my "holiday baking favorites" list. (It's not an official list, just kept in my mind! haha... I should write it down!)

I found the recipe online and of course tweaked it just a hair to meet our dietary / allergy needs. You can find the original recipe at GlutenFreeMommy.

Apple Layer

• 7 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced  (I prefer to do half granny smith and half with a sweeter apple, like gala.)
• A little bit of lemon juice for apples

Streusel Topping

• 1 stick of butter
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups gluten-free oats
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Directions

In a 9x13 baking dish, layer the sliced apples and toss with lemon juice. In a medium bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon and oats. Cut in butter until the mixture is crumbly. Add in almonds and mix well. Spread this mixture on top of the apples.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40-45 minutes.


*** I've also just recently tried this recipe replacing peaches for the apples. It was great and a hit with our guests! Omit the lemon juice and place four 14.5 oz. cans of drained peaches in bottom of pan and spread streusel topping over them. I also omitted about half of the cinnamon in the mixture as well. Enjoy!

The other day I had a partial can of pumpkin puree sitting in my fridge that I needed to use up so I looked online for a festive pumpkin muffin recipe that I could try. I came across this recipe on Food.com and was not disappointed! It came out yummy and moist! 

Link to the original recipe here.

2 1/2 cups Gluten Free Pantry All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup coconut flour
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin puree
1 tsp. salt
1 cup oil (can mix half butter / half oil)

2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup brown sugar or sucanat
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup milk (I used Almond Milk)
2 Tbps. Pumpkin pie spice
4 eggs

Topping:
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans and almonds)
1/2 cup brown sugar or sucanat


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together all dry ingredients in large bowl. Mix together wet ingredients in separate bowl, then combine both bowls. Mix until smooth. Line 12 muffin tins with papers.* Pour batter into muffin tins. Sprinkle topping on muffins; pat down into batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

*This recipe makes a bunch of batter. I actually had enough left over after the 12 muffins to make two small loaves!

Fall has been peaking its head in off and on over the last month but we're hoping it's finally here to stay! I absolutely LOVE the fall season! It brings on cool weather, beautiful foliage, yummy baking, fall flavored coffee, and the excitement of the upcoming holidays!

I wanted to capture some of the trees before they lost their color so the other day, as I drove around town, I snapped pictures. Here are a few...

 Can I live on this street? Ah... simply gorgeous!

On Friday night, my church hosted a Halloween Outreach for a condo community. Many elderly live in this community so instead of them trying to get out, we came to them. We brought candy, cookies, cider, and children. :-)

It turned out well and we have a wonderful time ministering/fellowshiping as a church and also getting to serve the community there.

How I love fall here in Louisville!


Here is a beautiful tree I drove past the other day. I just had to take a picture! I love all the leaves that have fallen beneath the tree.

There tree outside our living room window is beginning to change as well.

The freeways are gorgeous here! They are lined with various colored trees... yellow, orange, deep red, green, brown... all the fun colors of fall!

From what I've been hearing from different sources, Kentucky is due to have a cold winter! Maybe we'll have a snowy white Christmas! I've never had one of those before!

This last week I've been trying some new recipes... some I've made up and some I've followed (or adapted). We've been eating A LOT of squash because one, it's not a starchy food so I can eat it, two, IT'S CHEAP!!! Yay for fall and fall foods! :-)



We've been doing mainly eggs for breakfast because I can't eat much fruit, I'm allergic to dairy (a new find that I've been experimenting with this week... sure enough, whenever I eat milk, yogurt, or cheese, my lips get itching and red, my stomach sometimes hurts, and I get gassy. :-( I'm not very happy about confirming this allergy too! haha... oh well! However, butter doesn't seem to bother me. Interesting!) minimal grains, and no potatoes. That being said, breakfast options are few and far between. So I tried creating a Frittata one morning and it turned out good. I put hot sauce on it to give it some flare.

I've been trying to get creative in my cooking since we've gone primarily grain free. I saw a recipe for zucchini spaghetti and so I decided to try it. I tweaked the way the squash is cooked though because I didn't have a lot of time. Instead of soaking the squash and them cooking them to be like noodles, I just sauteed them for a few minutes until they were hot.
Here's our spaghetti with homemade sauce. It was very yummy!

I tried a fun new recipe for a Butternut Squash Pudding. It turned out good but I want to tweak it a little next time. I think I'll add more cinnamon and I did add pecans to my version.

Here is my attempt at a Shepherd's Pie. The "potatoes" are made from steamed cauliflower whipped with butter and milk (before known allergy), leftover spaghetti sauce, and sauteed squash on top. Kyle really liked this meal and kept saying how much he likes potatoes. :-)

Here is it on the plate!
Homemade chicken and squash soup. We were both surprised at how good this turned out! I was trying to use up some leftover broth, chicken, and squash, so I turned it into a soup and it was delicious!

We'll here's a quick overview of what our week's been looking like. Hope you enjoy!

Today I tried baking our fresh pumpkin we got at Huber Farm on Sunday. I've never cooked a fresh pumpkin before so it was a fun experience.

Our beautiful pumpkin...

Raw pumpkin pieces
Cooked pumpkin pieces
Pumpkin puree
Our pumpkin soup for dinner tonight...

With the Holidays upon us, my mind has been day-dreaming the last few weeks about fun recipes, decorating ideas, new and old traditions, seeing family and friends, etc... I would love to learn some new inexpensive ways to decorate for the holidays.


Christmas morning breakfast 2007.
Last year I enjoyed making breakfast for my parents and myself. It was so much fun to break out my dishes and put them to use! I tried new recipes for all of it and we loved them all... especially the muffins!!! (find recipe here)

Martha Stewart's website has some fun ideas for fall and winter decor and food... click here

Williams-Sonoma has some great holiday entertaining, decorating, and cooking ideas... click here

Also, the GirlTalk blog has some great fall recipes listed... click here

Do any of ya'll have ideas you would like to share?

On Friday I captured Kyle for the afternoon and evening to take him somewhere special for his birthday. We drove about an hour away to Madison, Indiana where we enjoyed the little historic town and scenic park. We spent the evening walking up and down Main Street, checking out the Fudge shops, coffee shops, music stores, etc... It was so relaxing to just get out of town and enjoy a simple, laid back atmosphere!!!

Here are a few pictures from our time together: