This is so simple, so delicious, so yummy, and it has a secret ingredient…and no, the secret ingredient isn’t honeydew melon…follow me into something new and great…

This is so simple and is only 2 points per serving and serves 2 (but you may not want to share).

Simply throw in 1 cup of honeydew melon into a blender and turn it on until it’s all chopped/liquefied.

Dump in a bowlful of ice (I didn’t measure, sorry, just a whole bunch to make an icy mess.  Chop that all up.

Pour in a cup of milk…blend it all up:

Add more ice if you like, then, add the secret ingredient…are you ready?  The secret ingredient is….SALT!

No kidding!  No, where are you going?  Come back!  Don’t knock it ‘til you try it!  Go ahead, put a couple dashes of salt in there and blend it all up, then pour it into a glass:

  See that frothy, smoothie, yumminess?  Take a taste!  You’ll be amazed at the way the salt makes the flavors just pop!

So simple!  So easy! So GOOD!  And VERY filling!

Now, I was going for healthy and so went the more smoothie than shake way…but I bet this would be to DIE for if you used vanilla ice cream.  Go ahead and try and then come back and let me know how it tastes!

Show of hands, now that you’ve read this, how many of you are actually going to try it out?

How’s my timing?  Did I miss everyone’s pumpkin seed roasting opportunity?  Or did I get a few people out there who may not have started yet and procrastinate like I do?  Either way, here’s how I roasted my pumpkin seeds and the turned out FABULOUSLY!  Perfectly crisp and not burned, and all so fabulous…want to know how?

First, when you get all those seeds out you are of course going to need to clean them.  Now, I am a very sensory oriented person and so I actually LOVE this part of the job…no, seriously, I love having my hand in all the goop. 

Once you have all those seeds out and separated, make sure to rinse them, then, place them in a bowl covered in salted water.  Don’t worry, they will all float, but make sure there is plenty of water in there.  You’ll want about 1 TBS salt to 1 CUP of water (I used 4 cups of water).  Leave them for 24 hours soaking.  If you’re like me then you won’t be able to resist mixing that water up with your hand every few hours, but don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt them in any way at all.

After 24 hours (okay, I had about 20 hours but that was fine…I had to get to work and wanted them drying all day so I could roast that night), drain the seeds and lay them out on a baking sheet to dry for 8 hours/overnight/while you are at work.  I lined my baking sheet with foil because that’s what I was going to cook them on anyway and, really, I love using foil because it makes clean up oh so easy!

Once you are back from work/wake up for the day/wait 8 hours, put them back into a bowl for a quick toss with a TBS of oil (you can add more or less as you like) 1 tsp sugar, a dash of salt, and any other seasonings you want.  Want a pumpkin pie flavor add cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger; want a spicy flavor add chili or hot sauce; the possibilities are endless.

Lay them back into the baking sheet in a single layer.  Preheat the oven to 300.

Once the oven is preheated, place the tray in the middle of the oven for 1 hour.  You want them to dry out.  If at the end of the hour they are dry but not toasted, turn the heat up to 400 for 5-10 minutes.  After about 45 minutes I started to hear popping in the oven; that’s how I knew mine were ready to come out.  I tasted one and…PERFECTION!

Oh, so good!  I love these things!

If you want to preserve more of the enzymes and good things in there, rather than cooking them for an hour, heat the oven to 150 and baked for 12-24 hours.  This way you are dehydrating them rather than cooking them; but who wants to wait that long to taste these?

What seasoning do you use on your pumpkin seeds?

Earlier this week I posted on my facebook page that I had a breakfast of a homemade Pumpkin Pop tart…little did I know what I started, everyone was commenting, emailing, and begging me to send them the recipe!  Okay, enough already!  I am sitting here, exhausted after a very long day of work that included carrying a sleeping toddler for half a mile walk with a bunch of other toddlers and preschoolers…but I will not let you down….here is the pumpkin pop tart recipe:

As is, just for the crust, it is 5 weight watchers points for 10 servings.  If you take out the minimal sugar and use egg whites only, it drops to 4 points (but you have to drop BOTH in order for it to make that change and, really, 5 points?  SO worth it!)  Make sure if you use a filling other than yummy pumpkin that might have a points value that you add that to it was well.  A simple glaze, which I will give a recipe for as well, doesn’t change the points any here.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 TBS sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, cold and cut into cubes

1 large egg

2 TBS milk

1 large egg for brushing dough (but you’ll probably only use about 1/4 of it, if that)

Simply whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together then add the cut up butter and break it up using your fingers, pastry, or processor.  Work the butter in until only pea size lumps remain.  (I used my food processor for this one and it was really helpful, but use what you have).  The dough should hold together when squeezed into a ball.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs with the milk until well beaten then add that into the flour mixture all at once.  Stir and make sure that the moisture is introduced to all the flour.

Lightly flour your countertop and knead until it all comes together.  You may need to add a bit more flour so that the dough is less sticky.  You don’t want to add too much, but it shouldn’t stick to you or the counter as you are kneading it.  It will be a light dough.

Divide the dough into two and wrap each half in plastic wrap; then put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. 

While it’s in the refrigerator, get your filling ready (though it probably won’t take too long if you’re adding pumpkin).

Take the dough out and roll half into a large rectangle.  You want to roll it out to 1/8 of an inch thick and then will cut it into 3×6 rectangles.  (Aim for 10, if you need to, gather the side pieces you cut off and roll those out to cut into rectangles, I’ve actually considered next time cutting them into circles with a biscuit cutter or something just to make it easier…and I’m guessing I could get more out of them).

Once half the dough is cut out, place them on a baking sheet (you may lightly grease it, you know your pans, I don’t need to grease mine) and put that sheet in the refrigerator; repeat rolling out and cutting with the second half of the dough.

Take the baking sheet out of the refrigerator and now for the fun stuff!  Brush a beaten egg on the bottom layer of dough then fill them with 1 TBS of filling…my filling of choice is obviously pumpkin, but you could use jam, jelly, or anything else…I’m actually considering banana in the next batch…slices of banana sounds so good.

Then, place the other halves.  Take a fork and seal the edges, press all around all of them, and don’t forget to put some air holes on the top as well.  Get creative and make cute pictures like hearts with the holes if you want, but you do need to make air vents so they don’t explode.  Once that is done, put them back in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes, adjust the oven rack to the top third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

While baking, if you want to make a glaze, simply mix 1/4 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 TBS milk, and a flavoring (you can use brown sugar, vanilla, maple syrup) just a splash.  I like vanilla, but I actually used a bit of brown sugar for these as it seemed to go better with it…just a bit for flavor, not much at all….like “THAT’S TOO MUCH” just thinking about it.

Once they are done baking, take them out of the oven and place on a cooling rack.  Now, my instructions were to not glaze them until they were cooled, but I found that glazing them as the cooled was much better as it spread easier and I had to use much less.

If you are using pumpkin, you could also sprinkle a bit of nutmeg while the glaze is still wet…OH EM GEE!  To die for!

So, there you have it, an amazingly awesome recipe to make your own pop-tarts…you’ll never have to buy the dry box kind again…you’ll never want to!  These are so good!

I am thinking about different ways I can mess with it for different flavors; I might just add a sprinkling of nutmeg and pumpkin in the dough next time; or, if I want to mix a bit of chocolate into it as well…oh the possibilities are endless.  How about a bit of peanut butter in the dough with those bananas in the middle?  I am so going to have fun with this recipe!

What flavor will you make?

Want to know how to do it?  It is really SO simple!

I found the easiest way to cut them is to start by taking off the top just like you do when carving (you know, cut out a little hat for the guy).

Then, just simply (but very carefully) slice down the sides to cut it in half.  Scrape all the pulp and seeds out (don’t throw those out!  You’ll thank me later), then, in a shallow dish (you may need to, one for each half) place the pumpkin halves cut side down.  Pour about a half inch to an inch of water in the dish.

Pre-heat the oven to 400 and make sure to lower your shelf.  You don’t want it on the very bottom, but if you keep it in the middle the top of the pumpkin will be too high.  Aim for the highest part of the pumpkin to be in the middle of the oven.

Then, put them in the oven and set the timer for 2 hours.  Then wait…once the two hours is up, check to make sure it is soft enough.  You should easily be able to stab it with a fork AND the skin should fairly easily be able to peel off.

Take it out of the oven and let it sit for just a bit.  You want it cool enough to handle, but not too cool just because it gets more difficult to peel.  I found it was easier to peel it in large chunks.  I cut it in about 9 pieces each half.

Once peeled, get out your food processor or blender and start adding the pieces slowly so that they all get pureed well.  Add some nutmeg if you like but remember you can always add nutmeg as you use it as well.  Completely up to you. 

If you find it a bit too thick, add a but of the water leftover from when you baked it. 

I found that I had to push it down a couple times to make sure it all got pureed well.  In the end, it will look like this:

Yes, that is FRESH pumpkin!  No canned for us this year!  WHOO HOO!

I have taken to freezing all my pre-made items like this in ice cube trays and, once they are frozen, I simply put them in a labeled freezer bag.  It makes it really easy to portion out and not defrost more than we need.  It makes things last a lot longer as well and allows for more variety in meal planning.  Before the freezer trick, I would make a bunch of refried beans and we would have a week worth of Mexican food to use them all up.  Now, I can take out just what we’ll need, defrost it, and if I’m really good, then we only have enough leftovers for lunch the next day.

Two pumpkins gave me A LOT of pumpkin puree.  I’m am planning on using it for all sorts of things:

Pumpkin pancakes

Pumpkin cookies

Pumpkin bread

Pumpkin oatmeal

Pumpkin pie

Pumpkin spaghetti

I’m actually considering getting a few more just in case (it will be a very long time before we can get pumpkins again and, the cans?  They’re seasonal…It’s always good to have extra on hand, right?

What do you use pumpkin for?

Get a long piece of foil OR two long pieces…I start with a long piece and realize that I need more so end up with two pieces every time.

Slice up all sorts of different veggies.  Pictured there were green onions, mushrooms, red bell peppers, green bell peppers, yellow squash, white squash, and zucchini.  Feel free to add any more or less as you see fit.

Just pile it all in the center of the foil and then sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper over everything.  Then drizzle just a bit of olive oil.

Place the second foil piece over the first and seal the edges all around (or, if using one piece, just seal the edges together).  You should have a nice little pocket of veggies now.

We use a charcoal grill; so I put this on the grill as I start it up to give it plenty of time to heat up and steam inside.  Just place it off to the side.  Then, once you take your meat and everything off the grill, just take the package off the grill and open it up!

SO GOOD!  As I’m writing this, I am imagining sprinkling some garlic and possibly a bit of lemon in there next time…that’s the great thing about this “recipe” is you can just change it as you see fit!

You could also do this in your oven, which I will most likely do once the weather starts cooling off and we pause on the BBQ, with winter veggies instead of summer…yum!

So, what veggies would you add?

So, what is this gem of a fact?  Is it the fact that monkeys actually eat bananas from the bottom end?  Thus, when you peel from the bottom end of the banana, you immediately eliminate that little end piece that no one ever eats?  Nope, although, I DO peel my bananas from the bottom, I guess that would be an interesting banana fact that I put into practice every single time…that doesn’t quite get the same you-are-a-strange-one look this other fact always gets…

No, my interesting fact is that bananas, when split straight down the middle lengthwise, will always spit into equal thirds!  Yep, they do!

See, the first step can get a bit messy, you can try to use the handle end of a utensil, but a finger works just as well.  I used a half banana here in these pictures, but it works for a full banana as well…actually, if you peel a banana from the bottom (as the monkeys do) that little hole in the bottom actually gives you a pretty good starting point:

See how when I started, you can actually see that straight line right down the side there…that’s one of the three straight splits you will get:

Take that piece off and the other part, with a gentle push, will split right down the middle:

Then you will have three equal lengths of banana:

     It works!  EVERY   SINGLE    TIME!

Okay, confession time, I usually do this not with the whole banana (although I do at times) but with each bite I take.  I bite and then, with my tongue, in my mouth, where no one can see, I split the banana apart…yes, I’m that weird!

Now, how did I ever learn this little trick?  Well, I work in child care.  YEARS ago when I was working in a toddler room, someone told me this trick.  Let me tell you, bananas, whole, are a HUGE choking hazard for toddlers just learning to eat because they are the perfect roundness to block their airway.  However, split it into thirds?  Not so much anymore!

Now, you aren’t going to give a toddler just learning to eat the full third in it’s length because they’ll just shove the whole think in their mouth causing ANOTHER choking hazard.  Nope, just take those thirds and easily break off bite sized chunks!  It’s that easy!

I’m telling you, when you don’t have a knife or anything else to split a banana into pieces for a toddler, this is a lifesaver!  Try it!

What interesting facts do you know about bananas?  You know, so we can all eat bananas a bit weirder now!  No, I’d really like to know!  I love interesting facts!

The best part?  It’s only 7 WW points for one serving of EVERYTHING!

Tools:

Foil

Baking Sheet

Knife

Cutting Board

Ingredients:

Pork Chops (I used two, I would stick to two per pocket max, but I bet you could make this with one per pouch or more per pouch)

Ears of Corn (1 for each person)

Potato (I use two per person, but only because I like to have the left over for breakfast the next day)

Onion (a quarter per person)

Garlic (as much as you like!)

Salt and Pepper to taste

3 TBS Soy Sauce

3 TBS Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 Cup Water

 Directions:

Preheat oven to 375

Line your baking sheet with foil: This is really just in case and I haven’t had a problem with juices spilling out on the tray, but it’s a good safety net in case the juices to spill out.  It’s so much easier to clean up.

Now, get a larger piece of foil and place that on the tray:

It should be much longer and wider than the tray.  I have extra wide foil to this makes it easy.  If you don’t, take two pieces of foil cut the same length and then roll one edge together to make a seal and use that…unless you want to just go ahead and make individual pockets, then I guess you don’t have to do this but cut two lengths anyway, one for each pork chop.

Okay, in the middle of the BIG piece of foil, place your pork chops and then you’ll want to make a sort of well with everything so that you’ll have a place to catch all the liquid as you work:

Add some salt to the chop…but not too much, remember you’ll be adding some salty sauces later:

Add pepper:

Wash your potatoes:

Then cut them…they say “quarter” them but what they really mean is “eighth” them like so:

You want large chunks, but equal in size so they all cook pretty evenly.  Not too small or they’ll over cook…uniform in size:

  Shuck the corn (take the husk and hair off) and break the cobs in half; then place those around the pork chops: Then, around that, place the potato pieces:

Even on top of the pork is okay:

Yes I know, cross contamination, but remember this will ALL be COOKING TOGETHER!  It’s not raw vegetables next raw meat…it will be all cooked through!

Take an onion and cut it in half: Cut that half into large wedges (I cut it into six):

Then break up those wedges/layers over the pork: Now, savor for a minute, at how yummy that looks!

Add the minced garlic:

Okay, I cheated, I had minced garlic in a jar…but in my defense I got a HUGE jar of the stuff for 50 cents! 

Now, add your Soy Sauce and Worcestershire Sauces:

Confession time, I ran out of Worcestershire sauce so I just added a bit more Soy Sauce…it was still so yummy, but I bet it would be just as good or better with the other as well. Pour the sauces all over everything.  Then add water:

Just enough water to help in the steaming process.  If, as you’re adding water it looks like too much, then add a bit less.

Now is the fun part, roll up the long way across all the goodness: Then roll up the edges:

Make sure they are sealed real tight:

And now you have a delicious little package that you will get to open in about an hour:

Place in the oven for ONE HOUR!

When the hour is up, if The Husband isn’t home yet, just turn off the oven and let it sit in there, keeping warm and waiting for him…then take it out and begin peeling the foil back (be careful because it is HOT):

Bask in the glorious smells that are wafting up your way:

Then, serve: 

You’ll want to be careful as you take the pork out because it will literally fall apart as you do so.  It is THAT good and tender!

Everything has absorbed all those good tastes, the potatoes have absorbed a lot of the sauces and is oh so good!  It is just heaven in a pocket!

My Comments:

I thought this was going to be just an ordinary recipe…I thought wrong!  I have found a new favorite!  Plus, it is healthy, light and good for you too!  Something so simple is so good!  The Husband likes it, too.  The first night I made this he was having problem with his teeth hurting and, after I made it, commented that he wanted something soft to eat…well, this was definitely easy on his sore mouth as it was so juicy and tender and just fall-apart-melt-in-your-mouth good!

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Pork Chops (I used two, I would stick to two per pocket max, but I bet you could make this with one per pouch or more per pouch)

Ears of Corn (1 for each person)

Potato (I use two per person, but only because I like to have the left over for breakfast the next day)

Onion (a quarter per person)

Garlic (as much as you like!)

Salt and Pepper to taste

3 TBS Soy Sauce

3 TBS Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 Cup Water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375

Line your baking sheet with foil.  Take another larger piece of foil and lay it over the baking sheet.

Fill the foil with pork chop (seasoned with salt and pepper) and all the other ingredients.  Make sure to shuck the corn and break it in half and quarter the potatoes and onion.

Seal the foil around the ingredients making a pouch.

Place the pouch, on the baking sheet, in the oven

Cook for an hour

Tools:

Pot

Knife

Cutting Board

Measuring Cups/Spoons

Small bowl

Large bowl

Colander

Large Spoon

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pound POTATO

3 slices TURKEY BACON

1/4 cup reduced-calorie MAYONNAISE

2 TBS RED WINE VINEGAR

2 TBS PARSLEY

1/2 tsp table SALT

1/4 tsp black PEPPER

1/2 cup SCALLIONS chopped

Directions:

First, let it be known that I did this a bit, like I say with love, like my mom…I didn’t have bacon, so I used turkey sausage.  As I’ve mentioned before, my husband like Miracle Whip, so I used that instead of mayo.  Oh, and I didn’t have red potatoes so I used Idaho potatoes.  While these substitutions ended up not changing the points for what I added, they could so make sure you adjust for that in case you care about WW points. 

That being said, put the potatoes on to boil.  I like to have them quartered BEFORE I boil them because they cook a bit faster that way.  It’s up to you.  If you use red potatoes, they won’t take quite as long to cook.

I took my leftover sausage, and chopped that up while the potatoes were boiling: Chop up the scallions:

When chopping the scallions, cut as far up as you like.  I go all the way up the green.  If part of the green is starting to dry out or turn brown, I toss that, but I use it all!

Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them and toss in the sausage and scallions:

Now it’s time for the dressing…get your mayo and put it in a small bowl:

Add the vinegar (oops, I had white wine vinegar instead of red wine, see what I mean about substitutions):

Add the pepper:

And mix it all together:

Then, pour that over the potatoes and scallions and sausage:

Toss it together a bit gently, you don’t want the potatoes to completely come apart; although, you do want them to crumble a little, right?

Keep gently tossing, and try it out and also have your husband try it out:

Once you have it right (salt/pepper/taste) put it into a bowl that you will bring with you to the BBQ:

Find out that your husband would like a bit of mustard in there, add a squeeze of mustard, and toss again:

Now, take it to your picnic and enjoy!  

My Comments:

I really liked this the way it was, my husband, upon trying it, was missing the mustard flavor…to him, it’s not potato salad without the mustard…I added the mustard and it tasted just as good (I REFUSE to say it tasted better!).  We all enjoyed it!

What’s your favorite Potato Salad Recipe?

Recipe:

1 1/2 pound uncooked red potatoes   

3 slices uncooked turkey bacon   

1/4 cup reduced-calorie mayonnaise   

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar   

2 Tbsp parsley, fresh, chopped   

1/2 tsp table salt   

1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground   

1/2 cup scallions, chopped   

Directions:

Place whole potatoes in a large saucepan and pour in enough water to cover them; set pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are fork-tender, about 20 to 30 minutes; drain. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice each into eight pieces.

Meanwhile, cook bacon in a hot skillet or in the microwave until crisp; drain on paper towels. Break bacon into small pieces.

In a small cup, combine mayonnaise, vinegar, parsley, salt and pepper.

Transfer cut potatoes to a large bowl; add bacon and scallions.

Toss with dressing until coated.

Yields about 3/4 cup per serving.