Third time is the charm

Happy pumpkin (and pattern!) found here

I don't always finish a recipe I start...or that I start to start...or that I think about starting.  Part and parcel of my scatterbrain, and the distraction that chasing 4 kids of wildly varying ages can cause...

What was I saying?

Oh, right, pumpkin bread!!  You may recall a quick tip about pumpkin in applesauce.  It was supposed to be pumpkin bread, but I boo-booed.

The second time I started to make pumpkin bread, I was derailed by sick kids.

Today, finally I made pumpkin bread!  Well, sort of...

I had my recipe, I got the butter out of the refrigerator to bring it to room temperature.  I started gathering my ingredients...whoops, where's the pumpkin?  I dug all through the pantry, but no canned pumpkin anywhere!  Then I noticed this line above the recipe:

You can make this loaf with any cooked mashed squash, yams or sweet potatoes.

Perfect!!  I had half a package of squash leftover from the Mini Chili Bowl recipe, and since the pumpkin bread called for 1 cup, I filled in the rest with applesauce!

Do you own this cookbook?

If not, go buy it.  Now.  Stop reading, step away from the computer, go to your nearest used bookstore (I'm a fan of Half-Price Books), and buy it.  It is the best all-purpose cookbook ever.  Any time I have a basic recipe I need, banana bread, frosting, baked squash, or anything else, this book is my first stop.  It also has great tips about how to work with different ingredients, like kale, parsnips, and basic information about just about anything, including various oils and spices.

Back to the bread!

I followed the rest of the recipe exactly, except for the flour, I used TJ's White Wheat flour instead of all-purpose.
The one other switch I made was to replace raisins with chocolate chips.  I figured that raisins would just get poo-pooed by #1 and #2, and chocolate chips would make everyone more excited about the bread.

#1 did bust me putting the squash in, so she was quite suspicious, but she still liked it!  She said she couldn't taste the difference at all.

Looking for chocolate chips?  Turns out they sink!

The official tally:

What they don't know...

Knit squash found here

...won't hurt them...and it might just make them healthier.
I pulled a fast one over on my oldest tonight.  I sent her outside to watch the littles play, while I defrosted squash to sneak it into tonight's recipe.

Mwa-hahahahahaha!

Go figure, it actually worked for once!  She liked dinner, and didn't once ask what the weird flavor was!  (Aaaaand lucky for me, she doesn't read my blog.)

Unfortunately tonight's experiment did not go over as well with the littles.

I based dinner on a recipe I found on Pillsbury.com for "Fiesta Chicken Taco Cups".  I don't do chicken, and the recipe sounded too spicy for my sensitive-palated monkeys, so I changed it quite a bit.

Here's my version:

Mini Chili Bowls

1 can of Nalley Vegetarian chili (of course, you can use your favorite brand)
1 can of crescent rolls
1/2 package of frozen butternut squash (6 oz, or about 3/4 cup), defrosted
1/2 cup of prepared Mexican rice (I had it leftover in the fridge, and the chili needed thickening...it worked!)
1/2 cup of shredded cheese

Heat oven to 375.
Grease or spray 8 muffin cups
Roll out crescent rolls.  Divide into 4 rectangles, and cut each rectangle in half.
Press dough into cups, really squishing it into the bottom and up the sides.  Do your best to get a complete cup.
Mix chili, squash and rice.
Spoon about 2 tbsp into each cup.  (There is quite a bit leftover.  Stick it in the fridge and use it on nachos later, or set it aside for picky monkeys who refuse to each chili out of a bread bowl...see below...)
Sprinkle cheese on top of each cup.
Bake 15-20 mins, until tops are brown.

Now, as I said, #1 actually really liked these! (#2 is visiting grandma's house) #3 and #4 liked the chili...but ONLY after I served it in bowls.  They really didn't like the mini bread bowls.  I'm learning!  A muffin with multiple ingredients is ok, but a bread bowl is not.  Crescent rolls wrapped around tasty ingredients in a spiral or pinwheel are ok too, but only if I bake it thoroughly.  My one complaint with the crescent rolls is that they are TRICKY to bake correctly.  They can look done on the tops, and still be doughy on the bottom.

The good news?  This was my last can of canned dough, so no more crescent recipes for a while!

Here is the official tally: