Homemade Croutons

Good evening! Hope everyone's week is going good. I think it may finally be starting to feel like fall around here. It's been in the 50's during the morning time, and yesterday the high was only 75..it felt wonderful. Even though today has crept up to 82, I'm confident that we will soon be completely out of the 80+ days :) I made Ceaser salad's for lunch today and I was about to open a fresh thing of store bought croutons, then I realized I had some nice Tuscan bread that was on it's last leg so I decided not to waste it and thought it would be great turned into croutons for our salads. I would personally suggest using a good bread, I've used regular old white loaf bread before, and it's just not the same end result. Also, using freshly ground black pepper adds so much more flavor than the powder stuff. You can really season these with whatever you want though, that is the beauty of making them yourself! These were so fresh and delicious! Easy, simple, and full of flavor. If you've never made homemade croutons before, give it a try next time you're about to throw out that day old bread. Use them on salads, soups, whatever you like!

Ingredients:

A few thick slices of good quality day old bread

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Salt

Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Directions: Cube your bread and place it in a saute pan that's set to medium high heat. Drizzle in a few teaspoons of olive oil, then stir bread around to coat all of the pieces evenly. Sprinkle on some salt & pepper, check for seasoning, then continue to cook them until they are golden brown and crisp, stirring them around every so often so they cook evenly on all sides. Transfer to a plate to cool, or use them right away warm.

Breakfast Burritos

Hello there :) I've got something super yummy to share with you all tonight, breakfast burritos! When I was thinking of things to make earlier, I thought I had a great line up of ingredients that would make some killer breakfast burritos..and I set out to make them! My husband has always thought that he didn't like breakfast burritos, and to be honest, I'm not very familiar with them myself..it's not something I ever choose to get anywhere. We were both excited to see what I could come up with though. The result was delicious, so much better than either of us thought they would be! I thought the egg would ruin it for me since I'm not a huge fan of eggs, but all of the ingredients blended and worked with one another perfectly. These would be a great time saver for busy mornings, just make them, freeze them, then reheat them! I hope you give these a try!! PS ~ You could totally use the frozen blend of pre-diced potatoes, onions & green peppers to save time!

Ingredients:

6 Slices of Bacon

2 Medium Size Russet Potatoes, diced

1/2 Cup Onion, diced

1/2 Cup Green Pepper, diced

4 Eggs

1 Heaping Cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded

10 Flour Tortillas

2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil

Salt & Pepper, to taste

Directions:

Dice your bacon and cook in a fry pan over medium high heat until cooked, remove and drain on a paper towel; set aside. You can either cook the vegetables in some of the bacon fat, or remove that from the pan and add your vegetable oil, I cleaned my pan out and used vegetable oil. Add your diced (they should be fairly small dices) potatoes to the pan and season with salt & pepper and let cook on medium high heat for about 10 minutes, then add your onions and green peppers and cool until potatoes are tender and cooked through. Remove your vegetables to a bowl and set aside. Whisk your eggs up and scramble them in the fry pan that you just removed the vegetables from, using the excess oil leftover in the pan to prevent them from sticking. Once your eggs are done, turn off the heat and add the vegetables, bacon and cheese. Stir until everything is evenly combined. *Note if you don't want your cheese to completely melt, then let your mixture in the fry pan cool off slightly before you add your cheese so that way when you add it it's to where the cheese just gets warm. Place mixture down the middle of warmed tortillas (I placed mine in my tortilla warmer in the microwave for about 25 seconds) and then roll up. Serve with salsa, if desired.

Pumpkin Squares

Hi there! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. I'm so excited because in a few minutes I'm going to (make my husband) drag out all of my Halloween/Fall decorations so I can decorate! I love love LOVE decorating for this season. I thought since I was decorating today that it would be fitting for me to post these pumpkin squares. These are so amazingly delicious and moist, you must add them to your Fall baking line-up! Have a great day you guys! :)

Ingredients (cake):

4 Eggs

1 2/3 Cups Granulated Sugar

1 Cup Vegetable Oil

1 15-ounce Can Pumpkin

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

2 Teaspoons Ground Cinnamon

1 Teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

Directions (cake):

In the bowl of a mixer, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix until thoroughly combined and smooth. Pour batter into a greased 13x10 baking dish, and bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes or until skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.

Ingredients (frosting):

1 8-ounce Package Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 Cup Butter, softened

2 Cups Confectioners' Sugar

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Directions (frosting):

In the bowl of a mixer, combine the cream cheese and butter and beat with a whisk attachment until smooth. Add confectioners' sugar and mix until combined. Add vanilla extract and beat until thoroughly combined. Frost on completely cooled pumpkin squares.