When ZestyCook asked me to do a guest post, I knew I had to come up with something ZESTY enough to be grouped with all his wonderful recipes and amazing pictures. He has inspired me to reach to a higher level with my kitchen experiments and my food photographing skills. I hope you enjoy this recipe for an easy to make skillet meal. This would be the perfect comfort meal for a cool fall night!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 1/2 cups uncooked small pasta noodles
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup mashed or canned pumpkin
• 1/2 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/2 tsp sage
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Method

1. Saute onion in a large skillet until tender.
2. Add pasta, water, pumpkin, sage, and nutmeg. Mix until well blended.
3. Bring mixture to a boil.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low and mix in the ricotta and Parmesan cheese.
5. Let the mixture simmer for 15-20 minutes or until pasta is tender and sauce has thickened, stirring frequently.
6. Serve and top with additional Parmesan cheese.

If you enjoy this recipe by all means…. tell me about it and go pay Megan a visit over at her blog.  If you like pumpkin, you will find tons of great pumpkin recipes for all your fall cravings!  Thanks again Megan for a great post….

So, lets start off the week with my rendition of my mom’s classic sweet marie bar recipe.  So simple to make yet so yummy to eat.  This recipe is basically a kicked up rice krispy square with some peanuts and peanut butter. How can you go wrong?

This recipe is so simple that it’s almost funny to write it down… but everybody needs to try them.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1 Cup Peanut Butter
• 1 Cup Corn Syrup
• 1 Cup Peanuts
• 3 Cups Rice Krispies
• 1 Package Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1/2 Bar Parowax

Method

1. Melt the first three ingredients on the stove
2. Add the Peanuts and Rice Krispies once melted
3. Spread into pan and let cool
4. Cut into Squares
5. Melt Chocolate Chips and Parowax into a double boiler
6. Once it reaches the smooth consistency – remove from heat
7. Dip Squares into Chocolate
8. Place on Wax Paper to cool

These chocolate treats freeze very well and I often find myself eating these right from the freezer year round.

Tips/Alternatives

To switch things up for a slightly different flavor – you could use dark chocolate.  If that is your fancy or you may want to add other ingredients to the squares such as seeds, to make it more of a trail mix bar.  The opportunities are endless.  Play with it and ENJOY!