We went down to Pearl Street this year for the Munchkin Masquerade. It is the place see and be seen on Halloween. There are some pretty amazing costumes (think an entire family dressed up as the Incredibles...) and all the stores hand out candy to the kiddos. Needless to say, Ellie was completely overwhelmed but happily took it all in, held safely in Mom and Dad's arms. She was a dinosaur this year (and really excited about it):
Slightly more ferocious than the ladybug costume she donned last Halloween:
Too cute. Along with getting dressed up for Halloween, we always enjoy carving pumpkins. Flick was traveling during primo pumpkin carving time this year, so my mom and I spent an evening carefully cutting away the perfect Halloween designs in our pumpkins. It is a good thing that Halloween is over because the animals have been feasting on our artwork for the past few days and there is not much carving left to speak of. They were cool while they lasted though:
The pumpkins may be done but we are still feasting on the roasted pumpkin seeds that we meticulously separated from the "goo" on the insides of the pumpkins while carving. For tasty roasted pumpkin seeds, separate the seeds from the pulp. Rinse thoroughly to get all the goop off and soak in a clean bowl of salted water overnight (just a few shakes should do it). Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Drain the seeds and cover a baking sheet with foil; spray with cooking spray or rub some oil on the foil to grease it. Spread the seeds in a thin layer on the sheet and sprinkle with a little more salt. Bake for 10 minutes. Using a spatula, flip the seeds and bake for another 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before enjoying!
If you are tough like we are, you can eat the entire seed, hull and all (yeah, so it is a little strange but that is where all the salt is!), otherwise, peel off the hull and enjoy the little green pepita inside!
We'll start our meal chat with Enchilada Casserole. We have featured this meal before and I brought it out again while my parents were in town. Since my dad is lactose intolerant, we used cheddar cheese in place of monterey jack (cheddar and muenster are fine for him!) and he seemed to really enjoy it, as did my mom and I.
Since the Enchilada Casserole only uses 4 wraps, Flick and I used the rest of them earlier in the week for Grilled BBQ Chicken wraps. These are great on the grill year round and are so easy to make. They are pretty kid friendly too so hopefully the whole family can enjoy them together.
Shrimp Fra Diavolo is another one of those solid meals that tastes more gourmet than the short list of ingredients and rapid cook time implies. I love meals like this, they are real confidence boosters. This dish doesn't pack as much heat as the name and ingredients imply.
I made Flick and I some Honey Cashew Chicken with rice for a good healthy dose of vegetables one night. I really like this recipe and love that it uses edamame - something that we don't often cook with but that has a really good flavor and increases the heartiness factor of a dish in a very healthy way.
Our vegetarian meal was Falafel Pitas. YUM! I love falafel and these were so easy to make. You could easily make a double batch, shape the patties, and freeze them for future use. Just take them out, defrost, and continue forth with pan-frying them for a quick, healthy, tasty meal on a rushed weeknight. You will have to use your imagination on these because we wolfed them down before getting the camera out. I really enjoyed the sauce that went along with them and Ellie actually ate it off the top of her falafel - so that gives you some indication of how delicious it was. Hope you all had a great Halloween, happy cooking!
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