Underwood Pumpkin Dip

A delicious fall dip great with apples, pretzels, or pita chips taken from the blog on Moorpark, Calif.’s Underwood Family Farm’s Web site. A lot of steps but totally worth the wait if you’re patient. I even ate left over 4 days after it was made and tasted like it was a fresh batch. Thanks Underwood Farm! Mouth-watering!
Underwood Pumpkin Dip

2 cups of pie pumpkin insides
8 oz cream cheese
1-2 cups of confectioners’ sugar (based on how sweet you’d want it)
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Cut pumpkin in half and discard the stem. Scoop out seeds and guts and roast pumpkin at 350⁰ for 50-60 minutes. While oven is on let cream cheese it to bring to room temperature. When done, pumpkin should be tender to touch. Let it sit and when it is cool enough to touch scoop out pumpkin and measure out 2 cups. Combine cream cheese and sugar in blender or food processer, once mixed together add in pumpkin, vanilla and spice slowly. Continue to mix until smooth. Refrigerate two hours prior to serving.

Spaghetti Squash Mac and Cheese

I was recently looking at some old photos of myself and I realized, I need to jump off the pity party bus and run alongside it in order to lose some weight. I am starting by saying goodbye to any and all fast food and soda. I didn’t realize how much soda I drank. I figured I don’t buy it when I go grocery shopping so that means I don’t drink a lot. Well my friends, when you are purchasing a $1 large coke from Mickey D’s four to five times a week, that’s a lot of soda!! Kind of gross now that I just wrote that down. Anyway, I digress. Besides no fast food and soda I am also trying to cut back on my carb intake. Now I am Italian so I can’t cut it out all together (I’d be one sad Italian) but I can always cut back. Below is a Spaghetti Squash Mac and Cheese recipe I found, and of course changed. I actually tried to follow this recipe, but then when I took a bite of it, I decided it needed a few extra things added in.

1 large spaghetti squash
Pam cooking spray
1 bag frozen broccoli
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 hand full of cheddar cheese
1 hand full of mozzarella cheese
¼ cup parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
Red pepper flakes
Garlic, minced

1. Preheat the oven to 400⁰ and wash the outside of the squash thoroughly.
2. Cut the squash in half, long ways, and spray both sides with Pam. Let cook in oven for 50 minutes. Squash should be tender to the touch of a fork when done.
3. Once squash is out of the oven microwave frozen broccoli for 4-5 minutes, until steamed.
4. While squash is cooling and broccoli is cooking, melt butter in skillet and whisk in flour. Once flour thickens add in shredded cheeses and milk while continuously whisking.
5. Lower heat and quickly scoop insides out of squash and place into bowl.
6. Add in cooked broccoli and top with cheese sauce. Add salt, pepper, red pepper and garlic.

**I added a lot more salt than I normally would for any other meal. I also added Tastefully Simple’s Garlic Garlic but garlic powder or minced garlic would work fine.

Mom’s Cranberry Sangria

Mom’s Cranberry Sangria


½ bag fresh cranberries
1 750 mL bottle Chardonnay
2 liters Ginger Ale
½ liter Cranberry Schnapps

1. Freeze fresh cranberries in small, shallow container with water to make into ice cube. Let freeze 24 hours.
2. Combine wine, soda, and Schnapps into a serving pitcher. Include cranberry ice cubes and serve.

Mom’s Green Bean Almandine

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Green Bean Almandine 

3 Tbsp canola oil
3 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 garlic cloves
½ cup sliced almonds
1 lb fresh green beans

Steam green beans until tender. Remove from pan, drain any extra water and set aside. Sautee pressed garlic and almonds in oil combination on medium-high as to not burn the garlic. Add in green beans and toss together. Serve immediately.

Friday Favorites: Blogs

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Today’s Friday Favorite is going to be based on blog articles I’ve come across this week. Since I am pretty new to this whole blog thing I’ve been doing a lot of research but not just on foodie blogs. Financial, lifestyle, clothing: I’ve been looking at them all. So here are a few of my favorites I came across this week.

  1. Lo Bosworth’s You Tube Channel: What’s in My Bag (Fall Edition)

Okay I am a little biased on this. I am a big Lo Bosworth fan. (I’m 26, don’t judge) But she has taken her blog to the next level and just recently started a You Tube page to expand her fan base. Last week she did a simple little What’s in My Bag video blog.

2. Money Saving Mom: A Month of Financial Fasting

When you read articles about paying down your debt they all say the same thing. Raise your income and lower your payments. Well dah. If it were that easy though credit card companies would not make any money because we would all have it figured out. This article, however, makes a little game out of saving money once a year. Organize your home and find what you could get rid of. Sell clothing, decorations and anything that’s still in good shape on eBay or at second hand stores. The author suggests using free toiletry samples and any stock piled food you have in the house. If we all looked around and were a little creative I am sure we can go a few weeks without stopping at the grocery store for anything but fresh fruits and veggies.

3. Young Adult Money: 5 Frugal Ways to Celebrate the Holidays

The holidays are always an expensive time of year. This blog post gives some ideas of how to save money while bringing in the holiday spirit. When I worked in retail all of the managers would buy gifts for each other. Well buying an extra 5 gifts a year can really add up so one weekend in December my girlfriends and I would get together bake a ton of cookies and make holiday drinks and make an event out of it. So much fun. My other favorite is movie night at home. Make some popcorn, pop in Elf or A Christmas Story and enjoy the season next to the Christmas tree.