Yogimommy Makes Pumpkin Alfredo

I love pumpkin!  So when I was searching for a recipe to try, the Tortellini with Pumpkin Alfredo Sauce that I found in the Food Network magazine really stood out to me.  Plus, I had just steamed a pumpkin I had found on sale, so I had fresh pumpkin on hand that needed to be used.  

However, what I did not have was tortellini and when I went to the store it was not on sale.  Since I did have other pasta on hand, I decided not to buy tortellini this time.  I also felt like it needed more vegetables and some protein in order to make it a more complete meal.  Here are the ingredients that I used:

• 1/2 package of mini penne (I made the whole box but felt like that was too much pasta once the sauce was made so I only used half--I will probably make a pasta salad out of the rest of the pasta for a separate lunch or dinner)
• 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small shallot, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1/4 of a sweet onion, finely diced
• 1/4 of an orange bell pepper (I had this color on hand otherwise I would have used whatever color I had)
• 1/4 of a poblano pepper (I would not necessarily go out of my way to get this one to add--I added it because I had it on hand.  I think I would have preferred an Italian pepper next time)
• 1 cup steamed, fresh pumpkin (I would have used canned if I did not have fresh pumpkin on hand--but now that I have found how easy it is to steam pumpkin I love keeping it on hand during the autumn months when it is in season)
• Pinch of nutmeg (I wish I had had fresh nutmeg on hand but I could not find it anywhere so I had to use some ground nutmeg that I had on hand)
• 1 can of low fat evaporated milk (I am trying to eat healthier and this seemed like a healthier option compared to heavy cream)
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (I felt the added vegetables require more parmesan cheese)
• 1/2 to 3/4 pounds of shrimp cleaned and peeled
• Pepper and salt to taste (the cheese is salty but I personally did not want to not salt the vegetables as they cooking in the beginning)
• Chopped fresh parsley and chives for garnish (I happened to have both of these on hand otherwise I do not think I would have specifically picked them up for this recipe)

For the directions, I followed the ones in the recipe fairly closely.  I added the extra vegetables when the recipe called for the shallot.  I added the shrimp right after I added the parmesan cheese so they would be just done when I was ready to serve the dinner.

I will definitely make this recipe again.  It was a big hit at my house.  Neither my dad or I thought that the evaporated milk had a negative effect on the sauce--so I would definitely use that again in the future.  The one thing that I would change is that I would cook the vegetables longer so they got softer.  The time in the recipe was only taking into account the time it would take to soften one shallot.  Peppers in general take longer--but the amount of vegetables I used meant I should have increased the time.

The shrimp was a big hit.  It came out wonderfully after cooking in the sauce. 

Yogimommy Makes Apple-Cinnamon Wheat Berries

I found the recipe for Apple-Cinnamon Wheat Berries after following through some of the links on one of my favorite blogs, Frugal Foodie in WV.  This recipe appealed to me for a couple of reasons.  One, I had been talking about trying a breakfast-in-the-crock-pot recipe for a while.  This desire increased as the temperatures dropped by 20+ degrees in a week (it may have been more but I do not tend to follow the weather report very closely).  Whatever the change--it got chilly fast.  Two, I had found wheat berries on sale not-too-long-ago and had been looking for recipes to use them in.  I bought them as one of my steps towards eating healthier--but I am still working through the process of learning to cook with an ingredient I do not know very well. 

That being said, I am not sure that I could really consider my final product to be "this" recipe exactly. I did make quite a few changes, and so I am going to write out my ingredients:

• 4 cups of unsweetened vanilla coconut milk (I would have used almond milk if I had it on hand)
• 1 1/2 cups of Wheat Berries
• 1 cup made up of the combination of the liquid that came off the pumpkin I had steamed and then let cool and water
• 3 Fuji apples cored and cut into 1-inch pieces (I left the peel on more out of convenience but I did not mind it in the final product)
• 1/2 cup of steamed pumpkin (I had this on hand because I had steamed a pumpkin using one of my favorite kitchen tools the day before--if I make this again I would add more pumpkin)
• 1/3 cup of old-fashioned oats
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon all spice
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar (I am not sure why the recipe called for this to be added at the end--if I make this again I would put it in earlier so the wheat berries absorb more of the sweetness)
• slivered almonds (I did not really measure these out--I just put what I thought we would like in each individual bowl)
• dried cranberries (again I did not really measure these out, but after the first bowls I replaced these with bananas which my family liked better in the dish) 

I followed the directions of the recipe fairly closely, adding my additional ingredients at the beginning.  

Overall, my family liked the dish but did not necessarily love it.  The wheat berries themselves have a texture that almost pops in your mouth that was not loved by everyone.  I will say that even the next day, the wheat berries kept that texture so this dish did not dissolve into mush or lose its texture after the long cook time or after being reheated the next day.

My dad, who tends to like things a little sweeter than me, did want to add more sweetness to his dish--he was the one that originally suggested the bananas rather than the cranberries that I agreed seemed to compliment the flavors of the dish more.

If I had the ingredients on hand (and really wanted to do a breakfast-in-the-crock-pot meal), I would not be opposed to making this one again, but I do not know that I would go out of my way to collect the ingredients solely to make this recipe again.  But I did love waking up to a nice hot breakfast basically done for me, so I am definitely interested in trying more breakfast-in-the-crock-pot meals.  And I am so excited that there are a couple more interesting ones linked up with this one on the Family Circle website.