Healthy Pumpkin Flavored Cream Cheese and a Giveaway Winner

Hi everyone!!

Thank you all for commenting on the giveaway.  It was really exciting to get all of those comments; maybe I should have them more often. :)

Vanilla Cupcakes with White Chocolate Pumpkin Ganache Filling and Brown Sugar Frosting

Holy moly, that's a long title.

These cupcakes are worth every word, though.  They deserve it.  They're fluffy, light cupcakes with a creamy, chocolatey, pumpkiny filling and a thick frosting that has a crunch to it.  The textures and flavors are very complimentary to each other.

Healthy and Filling Pumpkin Enchiladas

Ready for the pumpkin recipes??

I couldn't hold out any longer.  If you remember last year, I started pumpkin recipes around the same time with Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Muffins.

Guest Post: Versatile Oats

Thanks so much to Jenny for doing this blog post for me!  She's wonderful and has a great blog so be sure to check her out!  I don't know what I'd do without my wonderful blogging friends.  Xoxo! :) 

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Hey everyone I'm Jenny and I blog over at Fit Girl Foodie. Just wanted to start off saying a great big thanks to Katie for letting me do a guest post on her blog while she's away . If anyone has some serious baking skills it's her.

I'm not going to lie, when Katie asked me to do a guest post I had no idea what I was going to write. I'm not a baker nor have I made anything blog worthy. But if there's one thing I'm good at is making some serious morning oats.

I was a cereal junkie all my life and no not eating Kashi and Puffins. I ate Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisp, Captain Crunch and the likes. My first oatmeal experience was good but not mind boggling.

My rookie days

I don't know about you but not exactly pretty now is it?

Fast forward a few months and we have this

Pumpkin Pie Oats

Now we're on to something

Bananas more your taste?

Topped with more banana, peanuts, granola, and cinnamon raisin pb

What about banana and chocolate?

Topped with chia seeds, peanuts, graham crackers, chocolate morsels and a spoonful of cinnamon raisin pb



Or with Jam?

The options are virtually limitless

Who says oatmeal has to be boring?

Guest Post: Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Oat Muffins (with Peanut Butter Surprise!)

First of all, I just want to say a HUGE thank you to beautiful Alaina for doing this post for me while I'm out of town.  She's such a sweetheart and I love reading her blog.  If you haven't read it yet, please do, I guarantee she'll brighten your day. :)

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Hi friends of Katie! I’m Alaina Rose and I blog over at Sweetness Of Life.

 

When Katie first contacted me about doing a guest post I was thinking, what?! Really? Are you sure? I’m a new blogger. I have NO idea what I’m doing! But, Katie assured me that she loves my blog and that’s why she asked me to do a guest post. So, here I am! I’m honored and excited to be here while Katie’s gone. Thanks so much Katie!

One thing I’ve learned during the short time I’ve been blogging is that the blogging community is so incredibly welcoming and friendly! There is an endless flow of inspiration, encouragement and support that is shared, and it’s beautiful to be a part of. I’ve met some amazing people that I now consider friends even though we’ve never actually physically met. I’ve also learned a lot about myself through blogging. It has given me the opportunity for reflection and has become a wonderful creative outlet for expressing myself and sharing. I feel that we ALL have gifts that can be used to inspire each other. Blogging is such a wonderful way to share those gifts and to connect and learn from yourself and others through the process. I encourage everyone to start a blog!

Even though I’ve been passionate about cooking and baking for years, it has reached a new level since I started blogging! Today I’m going to share with you one of my favorite muffin recipes. It’s actually one of the first recipes I posted on my blog! They are gluten-free, somewhat healthy, delicious and contain a lot of my favorite ingredients: coconut, pumpkin, peanut butter, oats and chocolate! I hope you like them!

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Oat Muffins (with Peanut Butter Surprise!)

Ingredients:

·      1 1/4 cup Pamela's Gluten-free Baking and Pancake Mix (I’m sure you could try any other gluten-free baking mix, but this one is my fave!)

·      1/2 cup gluten-free oats

·      1 cup canned pumpkin

·      1/4 cup coconut oil

·      1/3 cup coconut milk (You can also use almond milk or soy milk. Whatever you like!)

·      1/3 cup maple syrup

·      1 tsp vanilla extract

·      1 tbsp cinnamon 

·      1/3 cup chocolate chips

·      PEANUT BUTTER!

Begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl mix together the pumpkin, melted coconut oil, vanilla extract, coconut milk and maple syrup. In another bowl, combine the flour, oats, cinnamon and chocolate chips. Then pour the liquid ingredients into the dry and mix together. Lightly oil your muffin tins or you can use muffin tin liners. Fill up the muffin tins or liners about halfway full. THEN, (this is the fun part!) put a dollop of peanut butter on top of the batter. Then put additional batter on top. Pop in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. This recipe makes 8 muffins.

I really hope you try these and that you love them! Thank you so much for having me! If you like what you see, please feel free to stop by my blog Sweetness Of Life and take a look around! And please don’t hesitate to comment. Comments from readers truly make my day!

Thank you again and have a beautiful day! 

Pumpkin Pie

 
If your family is a little strange like mine, then giving this recipe to you now is perfect.

My family isn't having Thanksgiving until Sunday this year, but that's okay. 

I don't know about you all, but I am feeling super thankful today.   I have a great family, boyfriend, and friends.  A great job, a wonderful home and neighborhood, clothing, food, etc.  I have absolutely zero room to complain.  I'm glad that there's a holiday that makes people stop and realize what they have.  It's sometimes very easy to get caught up in every day life and take things for granted.

So stop and think about all that you're thankful for today.   I would love to hear why, so leave a comment!  Happy Thanksgiving!  Eat some turkey for me today :)


Libby's Pumpkin Pie
From:  Libby's Pumpkin Can

 Beat the eggs.

 Combine dry ingredients.

 Add the rest.

 Mix, mix, mix!

 Add evaporated milk.

 Fill your crust.

Please don't judge my ugly pie!

Ingredients

• 1 (9 inch) unbaked deep dish pie crust
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 (15 ounce) can LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can NESTLE® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs lightly in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell.
3. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees F.; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. (Do not freeze as this will cause the crust to separate from the filling.)

Pumpkin Square Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I am absolutely loving all of the Thanksgiving/Fall-esque blog posts.  I'm going to share a few of my favorites. If you have some, please post the links under the comments section so I can check them out.  I'm a sucker for seasonal treats. 

Click the links to check out the recipes.  Pictures all belong to the owner of the links provided.

 Jessica @ How Sweet Eats made this delicious-looking pumpkin cake.

Buns in My Oven made this mouthwatering sausage dressing.

This extremely yummy-looking Chocolate Bourban Pecan Pie was made by She Wears Many Hats.

Baking Boy baked this yummmmmy Apple Cranberry-Orange Pie.

I figured I'd better make something good to try and keep up with all of these delicious recipes!  So, I made some Pumpkin Cupcakes for my boss' birthday... ommmmggg... let me just tell you I'm glad I had to give them away so they were far away from my house.  I could have eaten them all.  Easily.

So, here's my contribution to the blogosphere:

Sift together dry ingredients.

 Add in the other ingredients.

 Mix until smooth.

 Pour batter in cupcake pan.

 Bake until they look like this.

 While they're cooling, make the delicious cream cheese frosting.

 Mix it until its creamy.

Frost the cupcakes.  Sprinkle with cinnamon if you want.

Pumpkin Square Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from:  AllRecipes
Servings: 24

Ingredients

•  3 eggs
• 1 2/3 cups white sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 (15 ounce) cans pumpkin puree (approx. 23 ounces)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
•  
• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir into the pumpkin mixture until thoroughly combined.
3. Fill cupcake pans about 2/3 of the way full with batter. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in preheated oven until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool before frosting.
4. To make the frosting, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Stir in vanilla. Add confectioners' sugar a little at a time, beating until mixture is smooth. Pipe or spread evenly on top of the cooled cupcakes.

Iced Pumpkin Bundt Cake

So, I love fall, but I froze my butt off today.

I'm a wimp when it comes to "cold" weather.

I don't know how many people came into the store today saying "Oh, isn't it just beautiful outside?"

I'm sorry, Miss, but no, it is 55 degrees outside and unless you have a space heater in your purse, I cannot agree with you.  Thanks for asking, though, have a nice day!
 
I wasn't sure if I would look silly walking out of the house with a winter coat, gloves, a hat, and a scarf on today or not, so I opted for not.  

Luckily, I got to do my favorite thing EVER before it got too cold.  (P.S. it was probably 60 degrees when I did this and I still had a scarf on.  I'm a big baby.)

Any guesses??

Now any guesses?!

Ahh, I love decorating for Halloween.  :)  (Sorry for the crappy photos!)

 Isn't it cute?! :)

After doing that, I figured it was necessary to bake something fall-ish, so I made this delicious, moist, sweet, spice-infused Pumpkin Bundt Cake!  I made it with a powdered sugar glaze, but mom apparently thought it also needed cream cheese frosting, so she made some just for her piece.  (And I wonder why I'm addicted to sugar).

If you aren't crazy like us, the powdered sugar glaze is plenty.

Whisk together ingredients in separate bowls.

Beat butter and sugar, add the eggs.

Add the two mixtures, alternating between the two.

 Put it in the oven until it looks like this!

 Yummmm!

Iced Pumpkin Bundt Cake
Adapted from: Dinner with Kirsten
(Hers is so pretty! Check it out)

For cake:
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for greasing bundt pan
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin – you’ll need a 15-ounce can (not the whole thing though)
3/4 cup buttermilk, well-shaken
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
For icing:
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons well-shaken buttermilk (I used regular milk.  I don't like the taste of buttermilk)
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
Special equipment: a 10-inch nonstick bundt pan – but I’d love to try this as cupcakes, also
For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray bundt can with cooking spray, then dust with flour and knock out the excess.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and salt in a bowl.
Stir together pumpkin, 3/4 cup buttermilk, and vanilla in another bowl.
Beat 1 1/2 sticks butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Then add eggs and beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until batter is just smooth.
Spoon batter into pan and smooth top. Then bake  about 45 to 50 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick or skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a rack 15 minutes. Then place rack over cake and flip the cake onto rack. Cool 10 minutes more.
For icing:
While cake is cooling, whisk together milk and powdered sugar.  Wait until the cake is cool and then drizzle icing over cake.