Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Vanilla Chai Glaze... YUM YUM YUM

YOU GUYS. This recipe rocks. Because pumpkin is the best!!! and so is pumpkin spice. and chai spice is the same idea- cinnamon overload! combined... AWESOMENESS. The cookies taste more like scones because the pumpkin puree makes them so fluffy but they are so so so yummy. And only 79 calories per cookie and 21 for the dip of glaze! 100 total. LEGEN... wait for it... DARY. I got the recipe from here:

http://www.reclaimingprovincial.com/2011/10/31/chai-iced-pumpkin-cookies/

But I tweaked it a bit.



Cookies

2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp cloves
½ tsp salt
½ cup of butter (1 stick), softened
1 ½ cups of sugar
1 cup of pumpkin purée
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat your oven to 350°. 

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

3. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in pumpkin, egg, and vanilla until creamy, then mix in dry ingredients until well-combined.

4. Drop tablespoons of batter onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. 

5. Bake cookies for 15–20 minutes, or until they begin to have just a hint of golden brown around the edges. 

6. Remove from oven and cool complete before frosting.


I added a couple extra spoonfuls of pumpkin, because you know, it rules. :)

I also pressed the cookies with a flour covered fork for the second batch and it worked out a lot nicer because they don't flatten at all when they cook. I also made sure to coat my hands with flour before setting the dough in tablespoons on the sheet because it is VERY sticky. ;)

Icing!

2 cups of confectionery sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 chai tea bag

1. Melt butter in a saucepan and add milk

2. REMOVE FROM STOVE

3. Steep chai tea bag in the liquid for 5 minutes, then discard.

4. Combine together with sugar, vanilla, and milk, and mix until a smooth icing forms.

For this I realize the recipe was HELLA wrong because the "glaze" was a chunky floury dry mess so i overcompensated by doubling the milk and half-doubling the butter and it got super liquidy so i had to add about 1.5 more cups of sugar... hence this GIANT bowl of leftovers....

Dip the cookies if you have a real sweet tooth, or drizzle the icing over top with a fork if you’d like to dial it back a little. 

The calories per cookie are 79 if you use these proportions and make 40 cookies, which is how many i made. They are smallish. The icing is 21 per cookie and based on these proportions with 40 servings, which is fairly accurate because I doubled the icing recipe and barely used even 1/4 of the frosting and I frosted about 2/3 of the cookies. :) ENJOY :)

Vegetable Bake with Rosemary :)

This recipe is bomb because all you do is slice up a bunch of veggies and cover them in spices and olive oil then bake them for an hour and they come out delicious! Or you know, I could lay it down for you.

Ingredients:
4 red potatoes
2 zucchinis
one ear white corn
2 cups mixed frozen veggies from safeway (broccoli, snap peas, carrots)
2 handfuls grape tomatoes
1 cup sliced baby bella mushrooms
2 tblsp olive oil
garlic powder
pepper
salt
rosemary

Step 1. Slice veggies. Blot moisture off of zucchini

Step 2. Cut corn off ear and roast in iron skillet. 

Step 3. Shake potatoes and zucchini in a bag with olive oil and spices.

Step 4. Pour everything in a baking dish, add more spices on top, and cover with foil. 

Step 5. Bake at 400 covered for 40 minutes and Uncovered for another 5. Check potato softness to determine if it's done.

YUM. Makes 3 full plate servings at about 480 calories per serving. 350 if you only use 2 potatoes instead of 4 (we decided 4 was overkill for us). 

Healthy Snacks!

I often get asked how I eat all the fattening and sugary filled treats on this blog without gaining weight. Well, I work out. A lot. I also only make these recipes once a month or so and the rest of the time I'm eating almost entirely healthy and keeping track of my daily vitamins and calorie intake. So to appease those looking for healthy options, here are some snacks I eat on a daily basis in addition to the usual salads, crackers, and pieces of fruit :)

Snack #1:
Cucumber slices on whole wheat crackers with fat free cream cheese. Yummmmmmmmmmm. I eat this like every day. Sometimes without crackers. Cucumbers are the best.

Snack 2: Fresh tomatoes! with salt and pepper. Bomb.com.

Snack #3: Carrots and hummus! I also dip broccoli in hummus. Hummus is amazing because it makes your veggies more exciting without adding the fat of ranch dressing :)

Snack #4 All fruit smoothie! I made this one with frozen mixed berries, a banana, nonfat milk, orange juice and ice, but I've made variations with no milk or with a peach instead of a banana, etc. :)

Snack #5: Apples with all natural peanut butter (SO MUCH BETTER than Jiff) and local farmer's market honey. Yes Please.

Seeeee I can be healthy, I can! :) <3

Chocolate Cake Pops!

I know, I know, Jenny baking is absurd. I'm well known to hate sweets and not having attempted any baked goods sans cheesecakes in about 3 years I was hesitant to attempt these. But with the help of my lovely kitchen advisor (AND the creator of this recipe) Giana, they turned out amazing! And I added my signature touch with some fun facial hair decorations ;)

Chocolate Cake Pops:

Ingredients:

1 box cake mix

1 box frosting mix

chocolate chips

decorations (black frosting, googly eyes, green starbucks sprinkles ;))

Sticks (Sold in baking aisle at Safeway)

cake pop bags (optional)

The ingredients

 Step 1: Make the cake! :) Just follow the directions on the box, any mix will do. Let cool before moving on to next step.

Step 2: Make frosting! Add water a bit at a time til you get the right consistency.

Step 2.5: Arrange the cake and frosting for instagramation

 Step 3: Mix the frosting and the cake! Add a bit of cake at a time, so it stays super MOIST. what an awesome word. Also, admire Giana's feminine hands.

Step 4: BALLS. On a baking sheet with foil and nonstick spray.

Balls.

 Step 5: Put in the freezer until cold. About 1.5 episodes of netflix How I met your Mother's worth of time.

Step 6: Melt chocolate chips in a bowl and dip the sticks in them, then plunge into balls. This helps them to stick.

Step 7. Freeze again. Another 1.5 episodes :)

Like this! Eat all the ice cream in your freezer to make space. ;)

 Step 8: Put a bowl in the top of a veggie steamer on low heat for a few minutes and melt more chocolate chips. Make sure the bowl is ceramic so it doesn't melt ;)

Mmmmm chocolate

 Step 9: This step is tricky. It works best with 2 people. You must keep stirring the chocolate as you spoon it onto a cake pop so it doesn't burn. Then the second person has about 15 seconds to decorate the pop before it hardens. Decorating is up to you, but I put two eyes on each pop, then used the black cake frosting tube to draw out mustaches and added almonds slivers for noses. You can also just use candies or sprinkles.

Giana's spooning technique

Manpops. Made with black frosting, eyes, and chopped chocolate covered almond noses :)

 Step 10: Place in mugs stick side down to let dry without smearing. About 6 to a mug is what I could fit. Place in fridge and refrigerate overnight. This is very important as I tried to eat some after half an hour and they were super melty and kept falling off the stick. They tasted more like dough. If you wait overnight they are extra thick and fudgy! Yummmmm.

Enjoy!

Girly pops in bags with ribbon

Ready for transport!