Pumpkin Speculoos Oatmeal Cookies

The name pretty much says it all. I found this recipe after sifting through some pumpkin recipes. The combination of speculoos and pumpkins was too intriguing to not try. I decided to make this recipe first time around without any modifications and they were delicious! However, next time I will probably try to add my own twist(s) and some healthier substitutions. I think the speculoos was overshadowed by the pumpkin so I would like to bring it out a bit more next time. 

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 generous teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted)

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/3 cup speculoos (called Cookie Spread at Trader Joe's)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats

Combine the flour, baking soda, spices and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In another bowl combine the butter and sugars and mix well.

Next, add in the pumpkin and speculoos and mix well. Also beat in the eggs and vanilla extract and stir until everything is well combined.

Slowly (while mixing) add in the dry ingredients.

Finally, fold in the oats, using a spatula.

Place heaping tablespoons of dough on a cookie sheet with some space in between each (I used tin foil on top of the sheet) and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 to 12 minutes until the bottoms of the cookies begin to turn a golden brown color.

Enjoy!

Healthy Apple Crumble

The past few weeks I've been trying to make Michael all of the successes from the list of recipes I had experimented with during our year apart. When I made my way to the Healthy Peach Crumble I decided to substitute the peach for apple because what better way to celebrate fall than an apple crumble? Plus, we bought a bunch of beautiful apples at the farmer's market this weekend. 

This recipe is shockingly easy and amazingly delicious. The most difficult step is peeling the apples. Give it a try, you will not be disappointed. 

Ingredients

3 to 4 apples

1/3 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup oat bran (can sub with flour of your choice)

2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped pecans (or just buy pecan pieces if you don't want to chop or use a food processor)

Directions

Mix together the rolled oats, oat bran, brown sugar, coconut oil, cinnamon, and pecans in a medium bowl.

Line an 8 x 8 pan with peeled apple pieces. Dust the top with more cinnamon. Bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes or until the apples are baked (soft to the touch).

Let it cool for a few minutes, add a dollop of whipped cream on top and it is ready to eat!

Homemade Peanut Butter

I've been so excited to make homemade peanut butter. About a year ago, Michael and I started eating natural ground peanut butter from Whole Foods and other healthy grocery stores (thanks R2!) Peanut butter (among pretty much everything else) is ridiculously expensive here in the city. We decided (since we eat so much peanut butter) it would be worth buying peanuts in bulk on Amazon and make our own. The result - delicious and super easy!!

All you have to do is throw some peanuts in a food processor and process until the butter is the consistency you desire. I made it creamy this time around so I waited until the butter clumped up in a ball before turning off the processor.

A few other quick ideas - 

• add some honey
• make it crunchy (process less)
• add some cinnamon
• add ground hot pepper for some spice

Enjoy!

Getting Creative with Pumpkin Seeds

What better way to celebrate October than carve a pumpkin? As soon as we decided to buy some pumpkins today at the farmer's market I was already planning in my head what we should do with the seeds. We decided to get a little bit creative and make sweet and salty flavors, in addition to plain old salt (a classic). 

The sweet seeds (shown below on the left) are made up of brown sugar and cinnamon. I didn't use any measurements but combined the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and mixed in the seeds. 

To make the spicy seeds, we combined ground hot pepper and garlic powder. I spread them on a cookie sheet and popped them in the oven at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes. 

Note - depending on how dry the seeds are after you've rinsed but before you've combined with other ingredients, the cooking time may vary. We laid the seeds out for a couple of hours to air dry.