The Holidays Are Here

The mood is jolly around here.

Chris and I are starting our Thanksgiving celebration & preparation today. I’m baking and getting ready for tomorrow while Chris just called and reserved his two pies 🙂

We have three Thanksgiving party to go to, same as last year. One for lunch and two around dinner time. It’s going to be a feast marathon but what I’m most looking forward to is spending time with my family. Hopefully, we will be able to host Thanksgiving in our house in the future.

Guess what? This is where we have been spending our time during the weekends. I think Disneyland skipped right thru Thanksgiving and made it officially Christmas on Nov 14th 🙂

But we will get to that later. I’ll post Christmas pictures after Thanksgiving.

Ok, moving on.

I know that we will be eating a lot of indulgent desserts from here on out. This is the time of the year for me where I really indulge and enjoy all the sweet treats at parties.

Ok, maybe not just at parties but…..the day before the party while I’m baking and testing. At the party enjoying my sweet labor. And the day after the party eating the leftovers (if there are any).

But to avoid the sugar overload, I still like to keep it on the healthier side for my every day treats.

I made these Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies recently and have been enjoying them. I’ve brought them out with me (i.e. Disneyland) and shared them to friends, all of them liked it too.

I split the dough and made two different batches. I made one with raisin and walnuts added in. The other half of the dough, I added dark chocolate chips. I like them both, but I loved the chocolate batch more.

The recipe has an option to make it with ground flax seeds. I didn’t add any because I forgot, but they still turned out well.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

(recipe from Post Punk Kitchen)

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 1/3 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 2/3 cups sugar (I used half stevia baking blend & half white sugar)
2/3 cup canola oil (I used 1/3 Melt buttery spread & 1/3 canola oil)
2 tablespoons molasses
1 cup canned pumpkin, or cooked pureed pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
optional: 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds

Options for add-ins:

1 cup walnuts, finely chopped & 1/2 cup raisins
1.5 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.

Mix together flour, oats, baking soda, salt and spices in a

In a separate large bowl, mix together sugar, oil, molasses, pumpkin and vanilla (and flax seeds if using) until very well combined. Add dry ingredients to wet in 3 batches, folding to combine. Fold in your add-ins. Do not over mix.

Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheets. They don’t spread very much so they can be placed only an inch apart. Flatten the tops of the cookies with a fork or with your fingers, to press into cookie shape.

Bake for 16 minutes at 350. If you are using two sheets of cookies on 2 levels of your oven, rotate the sheets halfway through for even baking. You’ll have enough batter for 4 trays.

Remove from oven and get cookies onto a wire rack to cool.

The cookies taste better after they have cooled down. I stored them in a sealed container on room temperature overnight and the next morning, they tasted even better. They are soft and chewy. I think if I had added the flaxseeds, they would turn out even softer and with more cakey texture.

Cookies for breakfast? Oh yes, I did.