Pumpkin Crunch Cake and Homemade Yellow Cake Mix

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

I originally found this recipe on Pinterest. This recipe is super easy, just make sure you break your eggs one at a time in a separate dish before adding to your main dish... why would I say that you might ask... well, we have fresh eggs, laid by our awesome chickens. I however didn't do that with this batch of cake because I was in a hurry, I broke open a couple eggs and they were fine, then I got to the last egg, and it was rotten... YUCKY! It broke right over the bowl, that I had the evaporated milk, other eggs, and pumpkin. All of that needed thrown out and started over, not to mention the smell! yuck. I had to scrub the sink, the bowl, the disposal drain everything and then spray air freshener (fabreeze). Yes, not a pleasant experience. I recommend even if from the grocery store... you should always break your eggs separately one at a time adding each individually before adding to the dish your making.  I digress... 

I have made this recipe a few times in the last couple of months, It is so good that one of my son's asked for it to be his birthday cake this year. I'd say that's huge! I hope you enjoy it! :) The original recipe does not call for brown sugar to be sprinkled on the top but I believe it makes for a better topping. More of a praline topping, so delicious. Next time I may even do some cinnamon and sugar on top with the brown sugar. Who knows, so many possibilities :) Enjoy!

I also, did not use a store bought cake mix. I found another recipe on line for homemade yellow cake mix. I used that in place of the store bought cake mix. Can I just say, it was WAY better then when I've made it in the past with the store bought mix, plus it didn't have all those other additives. To me that's a double win!

Ingredients:

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix (made mine homemade)
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup margarine, melted

1 cup brown sugar
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease one 9x13 inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Mix well, and spread into the prepared pan.
Sprinkle cake mix over the top of the pumpkin mixture, and pat down. Sprinkle chopped pecans evenly over the cake mix, then drizzle with melted margarine, and sprinkle with brown sugar.
Bake for 60 to 80 minutes, or until done. Top with whipped topping when ready to serve.

Note: My oven cooked it in 60 min. Every oven differs in temperature. Monitor closely after 60 min. You do not want to over cook this. 

Homemade Dry Yellow Cake Mix

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour 

1 1/2 cups sugar 

1 tablespoon baking powder 

1/2 cup non-fat dry milk

Directions:

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and non-fat dry milk. Stir with wire whisk until blended together.  Use dry ingredients in place of store bought dry mix for any dump cake.

Note:  I did not add any other ingredients to the mix, and only used this. The original recipe has what should be added if making a straight yellow cake. 

Enjoy! :)

Scalloped Au gratin Potato Chicken Casserole (Slow Cooker)

Tonight is a busy night for us. We have Cub Scout Pack Meeting tonight. We will be trying to get everything done, to get ready to be there, plus we still need to make a healthy snack to bring with us to share. I'm trying to use what I have in my pantry, fridge, freezer and food storage for the next two months. To see if I have enough for a whole two months supply, and then we will work on restocking our food supply. Therefore, I have a few odd  ball items that by themselves would not be enough for my family of 5. So I'm trying to be creative and add similar things together to make enough for our family. I know this isn't easy, and I'm sure this never happens to you. I have at one point enough boxes of things (I thought) for meals. But, I'm realizing that one box of scalloped potatoes is not enough as a side dish for my family. We each have about 4 potato slices and that's it. So, that doesn't work as a side dish, unless Bill and I are eating it as a date dinner side, and the boys don't get any. They don't like it when we do that. With that said. I first googled to see if other people had ever done a box potato mix in the slow cooker. I found a few that had. So I when with my plan. I know exciting right! :)

Ingredients:
1 box Scalloped Potatoes
1 box Au gratin Potatoes
1 bag frozen mixed veggies
6 chicken tenderloins cut into bite size pieces
4 cups of water (HOT)
4 Tbsp butter

Directions:
In the slow cooker, add the HOT water, mix in the seasoning packages from the boxed potatoes, then add the potatoes, and mixed veggies and stir. Cut up the tenderloins and add to the potato/veggie mixture. Drop the butter on top of the chicken and then stir to incorporate into the dish. Set on low for 8 hours, Stirring periodically to mix in all the ingredients.

Serve warm.