Susie Homemaker

Besides going out downtown twice this weekend, I still managed to be a whirlwind in the kitchen on Sunday. I secretly took my time because honestly, I love spending time in my new kitchen & just can't get enough of it!

So what did I make?

Japanese Mushroom & Onion Soup [Crockpot]
Coconut Almond Granola
Potato Corn Chowder
Apple Spice Bundt Cake

Lucky for you, I'm going to give you the recipes because I'm nice like that! But in my half recipe, half made-up-on-the-spot kind of way...

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Crockpot Japanese Onion Soup (the official name)

* The only thing I did 'differently' is boiling ramen noodles on the side and adding them to our servings of soup. Yum!

Coconut Granola (the official name)

* I wanted more granola (and to use up more of the quick oats I had) so I doubled that and therefore increased the remaining ingredients.
* I found this to be too sweet even though I omitted the sugar. I think was due to the sweetened shredded coconut so I would recommend using unsweetened.
* I use pure, unrefined coconut oil which has more flavour.
* I skipped the pumpkin seeds & coconut extract as I didn't pick any up.

Potato Corn Chowder (my recipe)

You'll need: potatoes / carrots / onions / corn / water / salt & pepper
(quantities depend on your taste & how much soup you want to make)

* I boiled the diced potatoes and added the already boiled carrots and onions (as well as celery in this case) near the end.
* I boiled the frozen corn separately and also added to the rest of the ingredients.
* I reserved the water/vegetable broth and slightly mashed the veggies.
* I separated some veggies that I wanted to keep more whole & used an immersion blender for the remaining.
* I added back the vegetable chunks and slowly stirred in the broth. Add as much as you want to thin the soup.
* I also used a little bit of milk to make it creamier (optional). Season to taste!

Apple Spice Bundt Cake (my recipe)

You'll need: 2 eggs / 240 mL sugar / 80 mL oil / 2 cups shredded apples / 320mL flour /  1/2 tsp baking soda / 2 tsp cinnamon / walnuts (optional/to taste)

* Preheat oven to 400F. Grease bundt pan and toss with flour.
* Whip the eggs with the sugar.
* Add oil and shredded apples.
* Slowly add flour to mixture.
* Add baking soda, cinnamon and walnuts.
* Pour batter into pan and bake for ~30 minutes.

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Let me know if you have questions on my vague creative directions. Happy kitchen times :)

Quinoa Recipe - Oh, How Pinteresting!

Who doesn't love a good recipe find? That's right, no one.

I came across this one the other day & was already looking for something to make for dinner so figured I'd give it a try. So worth it!

For quick reference, here's a snapshot of the ingredients:

Recipe Screenshot

Here's what I changed:

1. I ended up with more than 2 cups of  quinoa so I added extra sauce and ended up using a whole jar - it's up to your tastes.

2. I replaced heavy cream with sour cream.

3. I couldn't find any fresh basil in the stores I checked so had to skip it.

4. I skipped the crushed red pepper as I'm not a fan & don't have any.

It was delicious & really filling! This is also probably the first recipe where the estimated prep/cook times are actually accurate!

If you really, really need some meat, I think you can easily add cooked cubed chicken breast or sausage. It will also likely last you longer as the meat will make each portion even more filling!

Linking up with Michelle today!

Halloween Weekend - The Food!

As promised, I'm doing a post about the food I made this past Halloween weekend! Go here to read about the fun!

Saturday I started with my mom's delicious Cheesy Muffins because even though they're not exactly festive, they are delicious and keep really well for a couple of days. I definitely anticipated needing to have breakfast on hand the next morning.

They're really easy to make - no kneading of the dough - and have both feta & regular cheese. PLEASE feel free to let me know if you want this recipe & I'll translate it from my mommy's version :)

Next up was what I was most excited about - Pumpkin Cupcakes with Pumpkin Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting!

Just from the title you can tell that they were dee-li-cious! I made my own butternut squash puree for this recipe because I like cooking from scratch and I prefer working with the butternut squash over a pumpkin. I really wouldn't change anything about this recipe, I liked it just the way it was.

Then on Sunday for dinner I made Pasta with Butternut Squash and Spinach. I really wanted a butternut squash/pasta recipe and after searching all over for one I settled on this one. I had never really made anything with spinach before (crazy, I know) so this was going to be a double experiment. Well it totally paid off!

I also added some sausage because I like to have some meet with pasta but I think bacon would also work too. As much as I love chicken, I didn't think it would fit in as well with the rest of the ingredients. Another recipe I definitely recommend!


Finally for my roasted pumpkin seeds I made two varieties - a sweet and salty.

-The salty version included salt, black pepper, red pepper (the spice).

-The sweet included brown sugar & pumpkin spice. You can just use cinnamon if you don't have pumpkin spice. 

Both were tossed with their ingredients and baked at 350°F for just under 15 minutes. Honestly, I burnt the sweet ones and almost burnt the salty ones so I definitely recommend turning the oven down to 325° and checking on them frequently.

Feel free to ask any questions & let me know if you'd like the Cheesy Muffin recipe! I also definitely recommend checking out Gina's Skinny Recipes where I got the cupcake recipe from!

Happy Baking :)

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How to make banana bread

The following will result in delicious Banana bread, just make sure it's:

- after getting home at 11:30pm on a Monday night

- after polishing off half a bottle of wine

- when your bananas are 100% frozen & you contemplate defrosting them in the microwave

[ultimately settling for hot water]

- when you realize you don't have the 1 egg you need, contemplate quitting, then frantically search Google for suitable substitutes

- when you're trying to figure out your usual apple sauce-for-butter ratio & hope it's 1:1

- when you have large chocolate chips that you decide to cut into little quarters before mixing in

- with love & determination <3

Oh ya, you might want the actual recipe as well.

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