Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Last week it was pumpkin pancakes, this week it's pumpkin pie oatmeal. Let me just say, wow! This oatmeal is the best I have EVER had! It's incredibly sweet, more like a dessert than a breakfast really, but oh so delicious!

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

The oatmeal is like a big bowl of gooey pumpkin deliciousness, and the topping gives it a wonderful sugary crunch which makes for a great contrast to the gooey oatmeal underneath. There is not one thing I don't like about this meal, seriously!

I have been known to make oatmeal and mix in some canned pumpkin and spices many times before. It's simple and tastes great. But I must say, this recipe totally puts that to shame! If you like pumpkin and oatmeal you HAVE to try this.

For the Oatmeal:

Mix together:

1 cup oats

2 1/2 T brown sugar

dash of cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, and salt

In a separate bowl mix:

1/2 t vanilla

2 T softened butter

3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree

3/4 cup milk

Pour pumpkin mixture into oats mixture and stir. Pour into individual ramekins, place on cookie sheet, and bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. While that is baking prepare the topping.

For the topping, mix together:

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1 T brown sugar

1 T softened butter

After 10 minutes, remove oatmeal from the oven. Divide topping equally over ramekins. Place in oven and bake an additional 7 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Super Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these cookies a few days ago but didn't get around to taking the pictures off my camera until today. You already think I'm the crazy pumpkin lady over here, so why not live up to the title?!? haha

Super Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

As you can see, these cookies puff up quite nicely. They are almost cake-like they are so soft. It's quite literally like eating a piece of pumpkin cake, in cookie form. yum! I think these would be really good with some vanilla ice cream :)

Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese

Another post about pumpkin?!? It's not like you should be surprised at this point. haha

Do you like pumpkin? How about bagels and cream cheese? Okay, wait for it ...

Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese Spread for Bagels!!

Are you excited?? If not, you should be! This is delicious!

I'm finding so many great pumpkin recipes that I love, I swear I am going to get fat eating them all! Seriously, it's getting a little out of hand! Just a little fyi, I currently have 27 recipes saved involving pumpkin. 27!! Thus far I have made 6 of them. That leaves 21 to go haha! No worries, I promise I won't make all of them (not this season at least), but I do have a number more different types of things I want to try. Clearly I have the canned pumpkin stock to do it. :-P Anyway, on to the recipe:

Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese Spread

Ingredients:

4 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup pumpkin purée

3 T brown sugar

2 T maple syrup*

1/4 t vanilla

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of pumpkin pie spice

*the actual recipe called for maple syrup. As I stated earlier, I don't really like maple syrup, so it seemed silly to buy a huge bottle when I only needed two tablespoons. I did a little research and came up with a substitute. Mix together:

2 T boiling water

2 T brown sugar

1 t granulated sugar

Beat all ingredients together with a mixer until smooth. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Slather generously on top of a bagel (if you buy mini bagels like me, this would make for a great snack!). Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pancakes and a Pumpkin Spice Latte

It may be possible that I have a real problem here:

I may or may not have bought the entire stock of pumpkin purée when I saw it at the store today. What does this mean for you? LOTS of pumpkin recipes coming your way over the next week!

I started off today with a wonderful pumpkin breakfast. First, pumpkin pancakes!

yum yum yum! These are light and fluffy with a light flavor of pumpkin that is not at all overpowering (although we all know how much I LOVE pumpkin, so maybe if you hated pumpkin it might taste overpowering, I don't know). I'm sure they would be good with maple syrup, but I'm not really a fan at all. I thought about whipping up some whipped cream to dollop on top, but decided that since I wanted to make this next treat, I would pass on the whipped cream calories this morning, and simply sprinkle the pancakes with cinnamon and sugar instead. I wasn't disappointed. :)

Next, Pumpkin Spice Latte!

Just like Starbucks, but only a fraction of the cost! (And since I used Starbucks coffee, it really was JUST like Starbucks haha). This was really simple, and turned out really good. One of my favorite fall drinks is a pumpkin spice latte, so I was pretty excited to stumble upon this recipe. All you have to do is mix a cup of coffee, 2/3 cup evaporated milk, 1/4 cup pumpkin purée, 1-2 T sugar, 1 1/2 t vanilla, and a pinch of pumpkin pie spice together, and heat in a sauce pan until hot. Put the mixture in a blender, blend for one minute to make the nice frothy topping, sprinkle with cinnamon and enjoy!

Confession here: I have NO idea how to make coffee! NONE! I don't drink it. I don't like it. I love coffee flavored drinks, but I hate plain coffee. So, I never learned how to make it. My mom gave me a small coffee pot (just in case) and I pulled it out and didn't even know how to go about pretending to use it. Therefore, I bought some of these (which you can find at Starbucks, but also in the coffee section at Target):

Individual instant coffee pouches. This was totally made for me! If I was going to make this a lot, or drink coffee more, I'd learn to use a coffee pot because it would be less expensive. But these are just under $3 for 3 packages and I figure for how rarely I would need coffee, that's not a bad deal. Plus, it's Starbucks! $1 per pumpkin spice latte is much cheaper than the $4 I'd spend buying it there, so it works for me. haha

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Brownies

As promised, pumpkin spice cheesecake brownies!!

Having tried these, I am not sure why a person would EVER want to eat a plain chocolate brownie again. These are delicious!! They are incredibly rich, which means you can really only eat one at a time or you might get sick (not being tempted to eat a whole batch is a good thing, I promise!). I took them to school today for our birthday luncheon and received multiple requests for the recipe. They were really easy to make, so I'm telling you, you have to go make these now! The pumpkin taste is not overpowering as it is blended nicely into the cream cheese. I promise, you won't regret making them (well, unless you love them so much you eat the whole pan, then you might regret it haha)

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Brownies

Brownie Batter

3/4 cup butter, melted

1 cup sugar

1 T pure vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/4 t cinnamon

Cheesecake Batter

6 oz cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

1 T flour

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 t pure vanilla extract

1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 t each ground ginger and ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8x8 square metal baking pan.

Beat together melted butter, sugar, and vanilla, then beat in eggs one at a time. Combine dry ingredients and then gradually stir into butter mixture with a wooden spoon. In a separate bowl, beat together cheesecake batter ingredients.

Spread about 2/3 of chocolate batter into prepared pan, and spoon cheesecake batter over. Dollop remaining brownie batter over cheesecake batter. Swirl both batters together by running a knife back and forth through the pan.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until center is set. Cool completely on wire rack and chill before cutting and serving. Keep refrigerated.

Enjoy! :)

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Okay so I admit it, I have a secret love affair for all things pumpkin. After I made those pumpkin muffins a few weeks ago I had been DYING to try out a recipe for pumpkin cupcakes but I just hadn't had the time. Plus, have you heard about the pumpkin shortage of 2009?!? Every time I went to the store to buy canned pumpkin it was nowhere to be found! How is that even possible?? So sad!

Anyway, I finally found some canned pumpkin at Target (although they still only had something like 6 cans of it!) and decided to get to baking.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

The batter for these tasted exactly like pumpkin pie, it just had a different texture. yuuuummm. The cupcakes turned out incredibly moist (I think that's due to the pumpkin purée) and the cinnamon cream cheese frosting complemented them perfectly. This is probably my favorite frosting thus far (but I'm also partial to a cream cheese frosting, not a huge fan of buttercream). Will I make these again? You bet! Will I probably make them again very soon? Most definitely! Now if someone could just work on finding an excuse for me to make them again that would be great! Mom, how do you feel about pumpkin cupcakes instead of pie for Thanksgiving? hehe

*recipe available upon request :)

Stay tuned for pumpkin spice cream cheese brownies to come later this week. I'm super excited to try this recipe and have to bring something to school this week so I think it might be perfect!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Fall is officially here, and we have the weather to prove it! A crisp cool breeze blew in the other day, which made me start thinking about all things fall. My most favorite thing about fall: pumpkins! Specifically, food made with pumpkin. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin spice lattés etc. You may be seeing a few different pumpkin recipes this month. :)

Anyway, tomorrow is my day to bring a breakfast snack to bible study, so I decided to do some baking today. No cupcakes this week, but I do have some wonderful muffins to share! Give you one guess what the star ingredient is ... pumpkin or course!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Muffins

These are GREAT! I know I say that about everything I bake, but it's true (plus, the things I've baked that I didn't like I just don't post about haha). These are moist and delicious. A great mix of pumpkin and chocolate. YUM!! I think they are going to be a big hit tomorrow at my ABF.

For those interested in the recipe, here you go:

Ingredients:

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

15 oz can pumpkin puree

1 cup melted butter

1/2 cup applesauce

3 cups all purpose flour

2 t baking soda

2 t baking powder

1 t cinnamon

1/4 t allspice

3/4 t salt

1 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. With wire whisk, beat the eggs in a large bowl, and mix in the sugar, pumpkin, applesauce, and better. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, and chocolate. Stir the flour mixture into the egg and pumpkin mixture until just combined. Transfer batter into lined muffin cups. Bake about 13 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.