Perfected the pumpkin cookie recipe!

Woahhhh whata morning!!  Accomplished thus far

• baked OhSheGlows banana donuts
• perfected the pumpkin cookie recipe!!!!
• cleaned kitchen top to bottom
• vacuumed house
• made lunch, ate lunch

Now that is one productive morning 🙂

Onto the baking adventures!

Up first was trying OhSheGlows baked banana donuts.

I followed the recipe to a T except for adding a touch of agave to sweeten things up (probably 1 tblsp?).  I also made up a quick peanut butter “icing” using peanut butter, water & agave (microwaved it to warm up and stirred until a drizzly consistency)

Oh heck yea!

Half iced/half not…. these were  a-freakin-mazing! 

The Man woke up just as they were finishing up and he was so uber-happy it wasn’t even funny 🙂  I tasted both with the pb icing and without, both were delicious…. Angela is a genious!  If you haven’t tried these I highly recommend doing so….. soon.

Next up was round 2 of the pumpkin cookies I had made a few weeks back… this time some canned pumpkin was gettin’ thrown in the mix as was some cream cheese!!

• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup vanilla soymilk
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp chia seeds
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp agave
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• pumpkin butter (about 1 tsp per cookie)
• LF cream cheese (about 1 tsp per cookie)

Combine the dry ingredients (flour, oat bran, brown sugar, baking powder, chia seeds, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice).  Then begin stirring in the egg whites, soy milk, pumpkin and agave.  Stir to combine.

Coat baking pan with cooking spray and plop spoonfuls of cookie batter onto pan, I made14 total cookies.  Made an indentation in middle of each cookie (use your thumb if ya want!).  Bake in a 400F oven for 5 minutes, lower temp to 375F and finish another 2 minutes or so til done.

While cookies are still very warm, top each with a small blob of cream cheese (since the cookies are warm it was warm through and be easier to spread)

Almost done!

 

Then top each with a small blob of pumpkin butter. 

Perfection!

 

At this point I popped them in the fridge to let the cream cheese and pumpkin butter “set up” — after about an hour I got to tastin’ and holy yum these were incredible!!! The bites of cream cheese mixed with the pumpkin-y flava was insanely delicious, this put my first try at these to shame 🙂  I love them, and not sure if I’m willing to share hahahaha.

I did a quick calorie calculation and am estimating each of these puppies clocks in at about 90 cals… honestly, not too shabby!

Do any of you use pumpkin in a favorite baked goods recipe (cookies, bread, cakes)?  I’d love to get more ideas because I love this stuff!

The Man and I then did a ton of cleaning around the house including kitchen, floors, vacuum, we all know how that goes….

After all that I had worked up quite the appetite 🙂  So I grilled up (in the trusty George Foreman) a peppercorn turkey sammie with mozzarella on an Light Italian Flat Out.  Alongside I decided to give the swiss chard a test run based on an idea I learned at the Farmer’s Market.

Washed a few leaves of chard, added to a medium heat pan with 1tsp EVOO.

Now you see it, now you don't

Added these once the chard had cooked for a few

Pretty basic

Here’s how it turned out (sprinkled with a bit of Parm)

Lovin' this lunch

So what did I think??  I really liked the flavor of this basic recipe!!!!  I am looking forward to cookin’ the gratin using the rest of the chard later this week 🙂

Well, after 2 pumpkin cookies + 1 hershey kiss I gots to get goin’!  We are headed to The Man’s parents soon for some football and chili so I hear…. see ya tonight!