#recipe: 3 recipes for fall

For me fall and winter are the most inspiring time for cooking/baking. It's cold and dark outside, so there's nothing better than warm kitchen and all that delicious smell :)

So, I decided to put here 3 recipes that are in my opinion very perfect for fall time!

CHICKPEA + LENTILS SOUP

1 chopped onion

1 chopped carrot

1 garlic clove

salt, pepper

400 g canned chopped tomatoes

dash of sugar

400 g canned chickpeas

1 dl lentils

2 dl vegetable broth

Heat oil in the pot. Add chopped onion, carrot and garlic. Season with salt andpepper. Add chopped tomatoes, chickpeas and vegetable broth. Let it boil until chickpeas are soft. Add lentils and boil till they are ready. Season with salt, pepper and sugar if needed (I didn't add any of those to this dish because onion and garlic gave so much flavor themselves!)

PUMPKIN COOKIES WITH CHOCOLATE CHIPS

Oh yes! Finally I got pumpkin puree and got to bake something out of it! I made basically the first pumpkin cookie recipe I found. The cookies turned out so good!

100 g unsalted butter

100 g brown sugar

6 tbls (90 g) pumpkin puree

1,5 cups whole wheat flour

0,25 ts salt

0,25 ts baking powder

0,25 ts baking soda

1,5 ts ground cinnamon

0,25 ts nutmeg

0,5 cup (90 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180 C degrees. Mix butter and sugar. In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Add pumpkin puree and sugar-butter mix. Mix is nicely. Add chocolate chips. 

Roll the dough into balls (about tablespoon of dough for one ball) and place them on to a baking sheet on a baking pan. Flatten the balls a bit. Bake the cookies about 8-10 minutes. If the cookies didn't spread much at all, flatten them when you them them out of the oven. Let them coold down and enjoy :) (they are just as good when they are warm as well!)

I took the original recipe from HERE, but I changed it a bit..made it healthier :)

BAKED SWEET POTATO FRIES 

I am such a big sweet potato lover! I used to not like sweet potatoes at all, but now I truly love them!

I had been craving for sweet potato fries for quite a while and I finally made them today. Oh they tasted so delicious! I think the sweetness of sweet potatoes is just so perfect for this season! 

The recipe is of course very simple:

1 big sweet potato (mine was 700 g)

0,5 ts salt

0,25 ts pepper

a bit of potato seasoning (optional)

about 2 tbsp olive oil 

Preheat the oven to 235 C degrees (450 F). Cut your sweet potato in half. Cut slices out of both of the halves. Slices cut into strips (try to cut them as same size as possible). Put the potato stips to a baking sheet. Add olive oil, salt, pepper and any other seasoning you want. Mix them all together (use your hand). Now comes an inportant part: line your potato strips all nicely, so they don't touch each other. That way the strips will be crisp :)

Bake the potatoes for 15 minutes, then turn them over (yes, one at a time) and bake 10 more minutes. If you don't want them to be so very crisp, reduce the baking time a couple of minutes both sides.

Fun times :)

Last weekend was so great because Jay didn't have to go to work on Saturday. So, on Friday he went out with his friend and when he came home early morning I woke up too. Neither of us were tired, so we just chatted and laughed and just had so much fun :) I enjoyed that early morning with my hubbies company a lot! Finally we fell asleep. In the morning I made banana bread and went to the food shop.When I got back Jay woke up as well. We had agreed that he'll make a dinner. He went to the easiest way and bought frozen pizza and baked it in the oven. It was very good! And I just liked the fact that I didn't have to cook :) The same evening we went to the cinema to see Dracula. It was such a good movie! When we walked back from the movies we laughed again so much and had such a nice time together! I think it was one of the best days together in a while. He's been working so much and he has weekends off very seldom. Luckily upcoming Saturday he's off again and we are planning on going to the cinema again :)

On Sunday my sister Anni-Brit came to visit us. So, in the morning I made banana cake. I asked dad over too so there would be more people to eat that cake :D Anni and I went to the shops, watched a movie (A Single Moms Club) and just caught up on each others lives. She's going back to Estonia on Thursday morning.

The weather has been pretty changing. Saturday was super sunny but cold. Sunday was not cold but so rainy. And Monday and Tuesday were cold, but cloudy. Today actually even snowed a bit. Because the weather has mostly been cold I have been eager to bake :D Halloween is coming closer and at work we are preparing for our Halloween party (doing decorations, planning activities ect). My friend from work found canned pumpkin puree (we were all looking for it everywhere, but couldn't find). But she found it and I asked her to buy me two cans. I had never had any pumpkin sweets (pumpkin pie or pumpkin cookies..). Yesterday when I got the puree I knew that when I got home I would make something. I made pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips. They were sooooo delicious! Recipe will be up soon as well :) I never thought they could taste SO good! I am definitely addicted and I have a new favorite thing to bake now!

Over all these past few days have been so much fun and I have been enjoying my time with Johannes and my sister!