This week's obsession: Pumpkin

Please tell me I am not the only one that has been obsessed with Pumpkin recently. Just the idea of it being fall (even if the weather here doesn't show it most of the time) makes me want to have pumpkin. So finding recipes on Pinterest for pumpkin anything just makes me happy. This week I decided to try a couple.  In case you have never cooked with pummpkin, please make sure you get just plain pumpkin and not pumpkin pie mix in a can.  They are different, and right next to each other in the grocery.

First I made pumpkin muffins from a mix that I have had for almost a year. Why I didn't use it before is beyond me, because they are delicious. A great way to keep the calories down on muffins is to make mini muffins. I still get the taste and the muffins I am wanting with half as many calories.

The next thing I made was Pumpkin Fluff from recipe-diaries.comIt is delicious and super easy to make. The biggest test in my household as to if a dessert is good is Mady. She is a picky eater, and this she seems to love. We call it pumpkin pudding for her, she likes pudding. I didn't make any real changes to the recipe, except it does say to use 1 1/2 oz of vanilla pudding. The small boxes are just 1oz, so I just used one box. I think it is still awesome! Also I'm not sure where they got the calorie count from, mine was a little higher, but no big deal, just don't have a ton at one time and you should be good.

Yesterday I decided I wanted to make Pumpkin Chocolate chip cookies. I wanted to make a lower calorie version so I decided to go with a cake/pumpkin mix type of cookie. I have found a recipe at Runs For Cookies that looked good and simple, and low calorie for plain pumpkin cookies, so I decided to use this idea and create my own. Mostly because I didn't have a spice cake mix, only yellow cake, and I'm cheap so I decided to use what I had. So here's what I did.

Ingredients:
15oz can pumpkin
1 Yellow Cake mix
1 tsp vanilla
Pumpkin Pie Spice to taste
1/2 cup chocolate chips

MIx Pumpkin and cake mix until smooth, then add the rest and mix through. Using a spoon or ice cream scooper drop spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. They are cake cookies so they puff up like cake.

These do not have a strong pumpkin taste, I think next time I would add more spice than I did, but they are delicious. I like cake cookies, a lot because I love cake, so I think they are great. I got 32 cookies out the mix, I think next time I could get 36. My calorie count for these was about 72 calories a cookie. If you take out the chocolate chips it's even lower. Overall they are a tasty cookie that I will make again. Everyone in my house likes them! (If you have never made cookies from cake a mix like this, know that they are sticky when cooled and stay that way) Below are my cookies, aren't they a pretty color!?