Running Mama Cooks

Almost every year Zach and I host a small Halloween party for our friends. I love this holiday, its so much fun to dress up and decorate the house. This year we dressed up as our kids, Cecily and Finn. I love how our costumes turned out!

Here is a look at my decorations. I've collected quite a few halloween things throughout the years.

I had no idea what we were having for dinner tonight until about 5:00, when I remembered that I bookmarked Mac & Cheese Muffins on my google reader. I ran to the kitchen...pasta, check! Cheddar, check! Milk, check!! We were in business. I used a combo of recipes (a popular Nestie recipe as my guide), put the mac & cheese into large muffin tins and baked. Money!

Mac & Cheese Muffins

Ingredients:

2 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 1/2 cups milk
2 tbsp butter
3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp nutmeg
8 oz. small macaroni, cooked al dente
Plain bread crumbs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Spray large muffin cups with cooking spray.

In medium saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Add flour, salt and pepper and whisk until combined. Add milk slowly, stirring constantly over medium-high heat until sauce thickens. Remove from heat.

Stir in 2 1/2 cups cheese until melted. Season with paprika and nutmeg. Add macaroni. Pour into muffin tins and sprinkle with remaining cheese and breadcrumbs.

Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly.

ZACH'S RATING - *****

I think I have a new favorite source for recipes. Our Best Bites is a great blog with some awesome recipes. This is the second soup I've made of theirs and both have been winners.

This soup tasted SO rich, but it is really low in fat! The only change I made to the original recipes is that I used turkey bacon. If you love big bowls of comforting soup, you must try this!

Baked Potato Soup
Recipe by Our Best Bites

2 Tbs butter
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 C flour
4 1/2 C low-fat or skim milk
1 14oz can chicken broth
4 medium baking potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds) baked*
2 C grated cheddar (or sharp cheddar) cheese, divided
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 C light sour cream, divided
1/2 C chopped green onions, divided
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled, divided

*don't have time to bake potatoes in the oven? Just pierce them with a fork a few times and then pop them in the microwave. Cook in 5 minute intervals until a knife easily pierces through them. It usually takes 5-10 minutes. To bake in the oven, pierce each potato with a fork and place directly on oven rack. Bake at 375 for 45-60 minutes.

Melt butter in a stock pot over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for 30-60 seconds until fragrant. Add flour to pan. Slowly add milk a little at a time while whisking constantly to eliminate lumps. Whisk until smooth and then add chicken broth. Bring soup just to a simmer and heat until thickened, stirring often, about 5 minutes.

Once soup is thickened, turn heat down to medium-low. Cut potatoes in half length-wise and use a spoon to scoop out potato flesh into the pot. Use a wooden spoon to smash potatoes, breaking up large clumps. Add 1 1/2 C grated cheese and salt and pepper and stir until cheese is melted. Remove pan from heat and stir in 3/4 C sour cream, 1/4 C green onions, and 4 strips of the crumbled bacon. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with each serving with the remaining sour cream, onions, cheese, and bacon.

ZACH'S RATING - ****

I love roasted chicken. Our dinner plans fell through so I grabbed a whole chicken while we were food shopping. I don't have a go to recipe for roasting a whole chicken so I went online to look at a bunch. Below is the result! It came out juicy and delicious. Zach isn't too much of a rosemary fan, but sometimes I have to sneak it in :D Guess that's why my rating suffered!!

Garlic Herb Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

1 4-5 lb Whole chicken
1 whole head of garlic, plus 6 cloves peeled and smashed
1 lemon
1 bunch of fresh rosemary
1 bunch of fresh thyme
1 tbs butter, melted
olive oil
paprika
garlic and herb Mrs Dash
salt and pepper
2 cups baby carrots
6-8 butter potatoes
1/2 cup chicken stock

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pinfeathers and pat the outside dry. Place the chicken in a large roasting pan. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with whole head of garlic, half of the lemon and half of each bunch of herbs.

Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Sprinkle generously with paprika and Mrs Dash. Chop remaining herbs and sprinkle half over the chicken. Drizzle with olive oil.

Cut potatoes into quarters. in a large bowl, combine potatoes and carrots with salt, pepper, smashed garlic cloves, the remaining chopped herbs and olive oil. Place around chicken in the roasting pan and cover with the chicken broth.

Roast the chicken for 1 hour and a half or until the juices run clear.

ZACH'S RATING - *** 1/2

Pumpkin french toast? Why not!! I have leftover pumpkin in the fridge so I thought Id put it to good use this morning. Came out great!

I didn't really measure anything, so this won't be a real "recipe." Just mix one egg, a splash of milk, a scoop of pumpkin, dash of vanilla and a generous amount of pumpkin pie spice together. Dip bread into the mixture coating it and cook in a pan with a little bit of melted butter.

I cannot believe its been a whole year since I started this blog. I honestly wasn't sure how much I would keep up with it, let alone have people who actually read and follow it! I am so grateful to everyone for all of their positive feedback and comments on this little adventure of mine. One of the best things is hearing that someone else tried and loved one of the recipes!

I had high hopes for this recipe since I love pumpkin in savory dishes. While it was pretty good, I wasn't as impressed as I hoped to be. I did think that using cottage cheese for a low fat cream sauce was ingenious, so I will be using that technique again.

Creamy Pumpkin Penne
Recipe slightly adapted from Cara's Cravings by way Cook Pray Love

Ingredients:

8 oz whole wheat penne pasta
2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
about 2T chopped fresh sage
1 cooked chicken smoked sausage, sliced
1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese (1% milk fat)
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup nonfat milk
pinch of nutmeg
5oz torn spinach, thick stems removed
grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese, optional

Preparation:

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add onions and cook gently for about 10-15minutes, until softened and beginning to caramelize. Add garlic, sage, and chicken sausage; continue to saute.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions.

In a blender, combine combine pumpkin, cottage cheese, and milk. Blend until no lumps are present. Add to sausage mixture in skillet and continue to cook over low heat. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg.

Drain pasta and return to pot over low heat. Add sausage mixture and baby spinach, and toss together. Cover for a few minutes to let the spinach wilt. Serve with parmesan cheese, if desired.

ZACH'S RATING - ***