Showing posts with label Cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cooking. Show all posts

Friday, October 18, 2013

Foodie Friday: "Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies!"

A couple of weeks ago we had some friends over for dinner and I was really craving a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. This is not normal for me, as I tent to be more of a regular-chocolate-chip cookie kind of girl with the occasional iced sugar cookie {generally around Christmas time, as icing sugar cookies for Santa is a family tradition}.

However, I've recently been an oatmeal-a-holic. Here are two instagram posts for proof:

^^ Whhyyy am I obsessing over all-things-oats right now?! Weird.

So, as I was perusing ye ole pinterest for oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipes, I found a different recipe that caught my eye. Pumpkin chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. I love all of those words. So, I figured I'd give them a try!

YUM. These things turned out deeee-lish. Even my mom & husband, non-pumpkin-lovers, were obsessing over these yummy treats. Fortunately, they were pretty easy to make. I have a feeling that they are going to become a fall dessert staple in the DeCrib from here on out {DeCrib = DeClue House... sorry if you didn't follow. It's my location name for the house on instagram}.

Here's what you'll need:

3 cups rolled oats
2 cups all-purpose flour {or 1 cup white/1 cup wheat if you prefer to go a bit healthier}
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips {or more to your liking}


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Set aside.


3. Using an electric mixer {or a crazy hand/futuristic-looking mixer stick like the one someone gave us as a wedding gift and I'm scared to death to use}, combine softened butter and sugars and cream together until light and fluffy. I was quite nervous about this step. I am not super comfortable with this strange hand mixer and I didn't exactly know what "cream" meant or what "light and fluffy" should look like. But whatever I did, it worked. Because as I said, deliciousness was the end result.


4. Add your egg followed by vanilla and pumpkin. This is what my "light and fluffy" looked like. Then I just stirred the other 3 things in by hand.


5. Add the flour mixture a bit at a time until well-combined. Then add chocolate chips.


6. Spoon onto an ungreased baking sheet. Here's a trick that I use {Jackie, my slightly perfectionistic friend, if you're reading this you'll want to ignore the next part}: I like to have mine a little lumpy. Like, crispy on the edges and soft in the middle, a.k.a. not perfectly round... So, I spoon them onto the baking sheet this way. If you like them like that too, don't round them off with your spoon! If you think I'm weird {Jackie, you can tune back in now}, then do it how you'd like.


7. Bake for 10-12 minutes {less is best} and cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet. Then, transfer to a wire rack. And voila!!!

{P.S. for another amazing fall recipe, check out the Foodie Friday I did back in August: "Fall-Inspired Chocolate Chip Banana Bread!" A recipe from my good friend and old college roommate Abby, who happened to be there to try these cookies the night they were created.}


Happy Baking!


Saturday, August 31, 2013

So Far on My Saturday...

Holy Toledo, I never thought it would happen: I have made it to Saturday! This was a very good, but long and tiring week. Our church has been in revival since Monday night, the "newness" has worn off at school and reality has set in. But PTL for long weekends and for a chance to relax {and clean the heck outta this messy house! Just ewww.}

There are many wonderful things about this day:
  1. It is the last "official" weekend of Summer. And that is fiiiiiiiiiiine by me. Bring. on. FALL.
  2. I slept until 9:30 a.m. Enough said.
  3. Today is the first College Gameday! I'm not a huge sports fanatic, but I love football because it means fall has arrived {or will be arriving soon!}. Just turning it on this morning made me excited. Football/Chili/Pumpkins/Apple Pie/Changing Leaves/Halloween/Sweaters/Boots... None of these things are life-changing on their own, but combine them and you get this fall-loving-girl excited!
  4. I am catching up on my SYTYCD today since next week is the finale! {That is "So You Think You Can Dance" for all you non-watchers.} I really don't know why I enjoy this show so much; it is really the only show that I consistently watch each week. It's probably because there is no way that I could ever begin to contort my body to do some of the things that these dancers do! They are amazing to watch.
  5. Random, but I weighed this morning and mysteriously lost two pounds since yesterday morning. I have been working out with a personal trainer in Bolivar for four. weeks. FOUR! And I have only lost about 3 or 4 pounds during in that time. {I know, muscle weighs more than fat.... blah, blah.} The ironic thing about this is that my last day with her for this cycle was Wednesday and then I lost a couple more pounds... My body is bizarre sometimes. But it was a pleasant surprise.
  6. Don't judge, but I enjoy being uber domestic sometimes {I suppose I get this from my momma - the woman never let me help her clean a day in my life because she enjoyed doing it. Which was fine.}. I am laundering/vacuuming/scrubbing/cleansing everything in this grossy-gross house and it makes me feel happy once it is finished. :) I have really neglected this place as I have been so busy with everything else going on, so it feels good to tackle each project... I think I'll enjoy having clean clothes to wear to school next week.
  7. I was craving something of the breakfast bread/pastry/extreme-carbohydrate-sort this morning but I haven't been to the store in forever {and I typically don't stock up on such items when I go anyway} and lo and behold, faaaaar back in the depths of the pantry, I found some blueberry muffin mix that my genius self had purchased at the Mennonite store this summer! Pajama-clad, makeup-less and rocking my three-day-old hair, I whipped up those bad boys and treated myself to a few of them while watching SYTYCD.

8. After thinking about the calorie count contained in #7, scratch what I said in #5.

Have an awesome and wonderful Labor Day Weekend!