Pumpkin Oatmeal Raisin Cookies {with Cinnamon Chips!}

After months of corresponding with the Chicago Alpha Gam Junior Circle, I finally made it to an event!  Woohoo!  It was the A(GD)mazing Race, themed after the show but taking place in Chicago and there was a potluck afterwards.  Seeing as it has cooled off lately, I baked my go-to fall potluck dish: Harvest Pumpkin Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.  These things are amazing.  I ran across the recipe in a Splenda cookbook I purchased several years ago and now make these cookies several times every fall.  The pumpkin makes them light and fluffy and the spices and raisins give it the perfect fall flavor!

Harvest Pumpkin Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
(Adapted from the Splenda cookbook)

1 cup butter or margarine - softened
1/2 cup Splenda sugar blend (I haven't been able to find this lately, so I used the Domino Light blend)
1/2 cup Splenda brown sugar blend  
1 cup Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup raisins
1 package Hershey's Cinnamon Chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cream together the softened butter with the sugar and brown sugar.  Add the pumpkin, egg, and vanilla, blending until thoroughly combined.  Gradually add in the flour, oats, and other dry ingredients and mix well.  Fold in the raisins and cinnamon chips.  Place dough in tablespoon sized dollops on the baking sheets.  Bake for 14-16 minutes or until bottom is lightly browned.  Cool on baking sheet for 7-8 minutes and transfer to wire cooling rack.

To achieve the more healthy Splenda version, just omit the cinnamon chips.  I was feeling adventurous and wanted a bit of extra fall flavor in this batch and therefore added the chips.  If you're all about some cinnamon-y delicious fall flavor, stick to this recipe.  This is my favorite fall cookie and super easy to prepare.  Hope you enjoy this batch of cookies as much as I always do!

Pumpkin Cookies + Caramel Frosting

Last week I opened a can of pumpkin to make the pumpkin spice granola, but it only called for a half cup.  That left me a decent amount of pumpkin to use for another concoction.  And this is what I chose.

Pumpkin Cookies + Caramel Frosting
(adapted from this recipe)

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

The weather only got into the 60's yesterday and barely touched a breezy 70 degrees today.  That can only mean one thing: fall is near and it's time to start baking all things pumpkin.  This works well; pumpkin is one of my all time favorite flavors.  Normally I like to bake everything from scratch, but today was the first day I got back into the kitchen after moving.  And it's my mom's kitchen.  So since I haven't really lived here in quite some time, I chose to do any easier recipe in case I couldn't locate a necessary item or utensil.  And that's how I stumbled upon this recipe and tweaked it for the taste I had in mind.

Pumpkin Crunch Cake
(inspired by this  recipe)

1 15oz can pumpkin puree
1 12oz can fat free evaporated milk
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups Splenda sugar blend
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 box white or yellow cake mix
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter - melted

Is It Fall Yet?!

Even though it's just now Labor Day weekend, I'm already craving fall.  Fall is my absolute favorite time to bake; I love all the typically fall flavors like pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, etc.  And since college football has started, that's signal enough for me that fall is just around the corner.  With that said, this morning I opened a can of pumpkin and tried a recipe for a low-fat imitation of a Starbucks pumpkin frappucino.  Um, I did not think it was as similar to Starbucks as it claimed so my search continues.  Anyhow, then I was left with all that pumpkin.  Normally, I would freeze it into 2 Tbsp cubes so that I could preserve it & it would come in handy  for those recipes that only call for a dab of pumpkin flavor.  However, with us moving, freezing would just end up getting tossed.  It was too early for dessert (not for me, but Carl probably wouldn't appreciate dessert for breakfast) so I settled on pumpkin pancakes - yum!