Pumpkin Rolls

So I know, its been like months since I've posted a new recipe!  I blame it on the combination of having a cute little baby around, AND trying to operate a new computer!  Anyways, I made these yummy pumpkin Rolls for BUNKO this month and not only did my mouth water over them, I had MANY people begging for the recipe so they could make them for Thanksgiving!  Aren't they just darling!!!  And they really don't take that much more time than rolling up plain old circle!!  I wish I would have taken pics during the process, but I've been soo out of the loop about blogging my food,  until THIS BLOGWORTHY yummy pumpkin roll!  Which of course I found on Pinterest with a way cooler picture than mine!

Yield 30 Rolls:

3/4 cup whole milk, scalded

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

6 tablespoons butter

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

2 packages active dry yeast (1/2 ounces) plus 1 teaspoon white sugar

1/4 cup lukewarm water

5 cups all-purpose flour

15-20 pecan halves, sliced into 3 vertical sections

1/4 cup melted butter, optional

Directions

1. Pour hot milk in a mixing bowl, add butter and stir to melt. Add sugars, pumpkin puree, salt to the milk and combine well.
2. In a small bowl proof yeast in a lukewarm water with a teaspoon sugar. When it gets foamy add to the pumpkin mixture, and add the egg, mix well.
3. Add in flour gradually until well combined. The dough will be sticky.
4. If using electric mixer, attach a dough hook and beat the mixture until the dough itself pulls from the side of the bowl.
5. Turn the dough out to your table or  board dusted with a little flour. Knead with hand for 1 minute. Form the dough into a ball shape, place in a greased bowl and cover with a cloth. Let it rise in a warm place until it doubles in volume, about 1 hr.
6. Punch the dough to deflate and knead it for a few seconds on a board. Cut the dough in half. Cut each half into about 15 pieces.
7. Roll each piece into a ball shape with your hand. Flatten the piece with palm of your hand a little. Using a knife, give 8 cuts on the edge to mimic flower pedals but the leave center uncut.
8. Poke the center with your finger to give a deep indentation, and repeat the same procedure to all the other pieces.
9. Place them, 2" apart, on a baking pan lined with parchment paper or baking mat, and let them rise again to be doubled, about 45 minutes.
10. Preheat oven 350ºF for 20 minutes.
11. If the center indentation is not obvious on the rolls, poke them again with your finger.
12. Brush with egg wash, if you wish, and bake for 9-12 minutes until the top gets slightly golden.
13. Brush the rolls with melted butter or a little honey diluted with water to make it shine if you wish.
14. Insert pecan slices on top for your pumpkin stem.

Peanut Butter Sheet Cake Brownies

 Can you say YUM??  Ok, we all know I have a peanut butter obsession, but I can honestly say even if you don't, you will LOVE these!!  Just look at how ooey gooey these things are!  And it doesn't have that dry, stick to the top of your mouth peanut butter, it is a really smooth and  melt in your mouth texture!  A must try!  I brought these to a ward party and then to a BBQ and had many people asking for the recipe,  so here goes.  And the sad thing is, I've had this recipe hanging out on my email that my sister sent me months ago to try and it took me this long to get to them!!  There is also another recipe floating around pinterest, but after looking at the ingredients of them both, this one  won my heart!!

Cake:
1/4 Cup creamy peanut butter
1 Cup Water
1/2 Cup butter
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Brown sugar
2 Cups Flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 Cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

Frosting:
3/4 Cup butter
6 TBLSP buttermilk
1/2 Cup peanut butter
3 1/2 Cup powdered sugar
1 TBLSP vanilla

Preheat Oven to 375*,  In a medium pot add the Peanut butter, water and butter and bring to a boil..  Remove from heat.  In a seperate mixing bowl, mix the sugars, flour, salt and baking soda.  Add the peanut butter mixture to it and mix well.  Add in the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla and mix well.
Pour into a gread cookie sheet pan with an edge.  Bake for 15 minutes.

For the Frosting:  in a small pot bring the butter, buttermilk and peanut butter to a boil.  Remove from heat and add the powdered sugar and vanilla.  Whip it really good and fast to make it creamy rather than runny..  Let the cake rest for about 15 minutes, then pour the frosting over the warm cake and spread.

Baked Chicken Southwestern Egg Rolls

So I bought these egg roll wraps a while back and was searching pinterest for the perfect recipe to put inside of them and came up with my own little recipe that I LOVE!!  They are definitely a keeper in my books!  And to bake these little babies instead of deep frying them sure saves you a LOT of calories in the end, and they taste fantastic baked!!!

2 chicken Breasts - cooked and shredded
1 can Black Beans  - rinsed and drained
1 Cup -Spinach chopped
1 1/4 Cups- Mexican cheese blend
1 can - diced green chilies
4 green onions - chopped
1/2- 3/4 avacado -chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 pkg egg roll wrappers
1 egg

Preheat your oven to 400* . Cook your chicken breasts (I put them in a crockpot with a bit of water and cooked them on high for 3 hours.) Then take out and shred with 2 forks.  In a bowl, dump the rest of the ingredients with the chicken except for the egg roll wrappers and egg.  Mix everything really well.  Next open your egg roll wrappers, and crack an egg in a bowl..  Lay your mixture in one corner of your wrapper, roll over once, then dab your finger in the yolk of your egg and put a dot on the other 3 corners of your wrap.  Fold in your sides like an envelope and keep rolling.  The egg should seal your wrap.  Place them on a cookie sheet sprayed with butter flavored pam..  Spray the tops of the wraps as well.  Put them in the over and cook for about 15 minutes and MAKE SURE to flip them half way through the time.  We enjoyed our egg rolls with sour cream and salsa.  Yummy!

Guacamole

Are you searching for that perfect Guacamole recipe that makes it so you just cant stop scooping it up with the perfect tortilla chip?  Well, I found mine!  Or should I say my mom found it!  I seriously became addicted to this dip, and my husband I just about finished off a whole bag of chips in one sitting!  Enjoy!!!!

3 Avacados
2 cloves garlic -minced
1 tomato - chopped
1 lime- juiced
1 tsp- salt
1 1/2 Tblsp  -cilantro
1/4 cup -  chopped onion

Start with cutting into your avacados and pitting it out, roughly chop eveything up and stick into your ninja or chopper and give it a few pulses until the texture you like.  Then start dipping!  Pretty easy!!!

Cottage Cheese Delight!

Hello!  Happy New Year!  I'm 2 weeks away from delivering my baby and home with Bronchitis, but hey, I hope you are having a happy new year!!!  A friend of mine posted this on facebook and of course I'm always up for trying new recipes that look yummy and healthy!  And practically contained every ingredient that I love!  The only problem was, there wasn't a name for it so I had to come up with something fancy for it, and nothing came to me, so Cottage Cheese Delight is what I got!  Now for all you Paleo goers out there this could or could not be paleo depending on how strict you allow dairy into your diet!  I'm not that strict when I choose to be paleo so I would definitley allow this on my menu!  (Hopefully Paleo comes back full force after this baby is born, but for now, uh uh, no way)

The VIVA lowfat cottage cheese is my favorite brand.  I think it has the best texture and taste and I've tried quite a few.  I also like these mini cucumbers that are soo easy to chop up.  I added the blackberries to the list because I had them and was very much glad I did!  It brought a great sweat/tartness to it that was awesome!!

1/2 Cup Cottage Cheese
1/2 Avocado - pitted and chopped
1/4 Cup chopped cucumber
1 green onion - green ends only, chopped
red grapes - handful, washed
Blackberries - handful, washed
Salt & Pepper

Just dump everything into a bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper to your taste, AND ENJOY!!!!  I had this for lunch for 3 days straight and loved it!  Thank you Jen!!!