Where did November go?

Gosh, it is nearly the end of November. December is right around the corner and the year is almost over. How can this be?

I haven't been too great at posting lately. I'm so irregular when it comes to posting. Here's a little Pinterest love and recipe that worked BEAUTIFULLY! Thought I'd share. I'll post some more later, after the house is clean. Wait, that chore will never be done. So I'll just post soon, promise ok?

Thin Mint Cookies (Think Girl Scouts, only cheaper)

Got this recipe from Pinterest.

Source: loveveggiesandyoga.com via Char on Pinterest

It worked great!

Ingredients:
1 roll/sleeve of Ritz Crackers
1 tablespoon Shortening
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 teaspoon mint extract flavoring **Measure carefully. A little too much and you have cough syrup tasting, YUCK!

Melt chocolate and shortening. Shortening helps chocolate stay smooth and not get hard when melting. Once melted add in mint flavoring. Measure careful!! Dip crackers into chocolate and set aside to dry/cool. If you have enough room in your freezer I would suggest setting cookies on a plate to cool quickly in there. If you live in warm climates (Hello, I live in 115 degree desert Arizona!) I would NOT suggest doing this in the middle of July. The freezer helps.

I promise, these don't taste like Ritz crackers. Chocolate helps!

Hope this makes your weekend better!

Hey, Hey Little Pumpkin Muffin

My pumpkin baking and cooking is not limited to the Fall holiday season, it is just kicked into overdrive. From Pumpkin bread, lattes, bagels, muffins, pancakes, cheesecake...the list goes on. I haven't tried something Pumpkin that I don't like.

Made these Pumpkin Pancakes a few weeks ago, delish! I didn't use a bisquik base, but made them from scratch. High Five! So with the latest muffin trend here in the Dewey house, I wanted to continue that. I used this Pumpkin Pancake recipe and put it into muffin tins. Add chocolate chips. Devour. Repeat.

Can you smell them fresh from the oven? Scoot closer.

Pumpkin Pancakes (from scratch, original recipe by me)

1 1/2 cup milk (soy or dairy-free work well too)
1 cup pumpkin puree (room temp)
1 egg
2 tablespoons apple sauce (in place of vegetable oil)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 cups flour, white or whole wheat
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground all spice
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 teaspoons ground flaxseed
*Optional: 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, chocolate chips

In one bowl, combine all wet ingredients, mix. In another bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I used re-useable muffin tins, sprayed with non-stick spray. Add dry mix into pumpkin/wet mix and mix until JUST COMBINED, don't over mix. Muffins/pancakes will be tough. Add chocolate chips at the end.  I scooped a heaping spoonful into each muffin tin. Baked for 15-18 minutes, until done in the middle.

Second batch, ran out of batter. Used water to fill empty spaces.

Here's a tip. If you run out of batter (I got 20 muffins total out of the batter), fill remaining empty spaces with water. This will help muffins bake more evenly. Works..like..a..charm!!

Aren't they cute? These will make great grab-n-go breakfasts too! If I don't eat them all before dinner :)

Pizza Bites

After making turkey chili last night for dinner, decided I wasn't full enough. I mean, I did run more than 3 miles on saturday, so it was ok, right?

Came up with these little pizza bite things, as I was envisioning pizza rolls back in my high school days. Man were those good!

Pizza Bites from IG

I had some chocolate milk to go along with it. Made sense, right?

Pizza Bites

1 can biscuits (8 count)

Pepperoni slices (used 16, would use more like 32)

Shredded Pepper Jack Cheese (all I had, about 1/2 cup)

Spaghetti Sauce (about 1/2 cup)

Garlic salt to taste

In a muffin pan, spray 8 openings. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take out each biscuit, and roll flat, until it is about 3-4 inches in diameter. The bigger, the more room you have to stuff it! Place rolled out biscuits in muffin tin, sprayed with non-stick. The order I added the ingredients: Pepperoni slices (2 each roll), cheese (about 1 tablespoon per roll), sauce (about 1-2 tablespoons per roll). The dough will puff up so next time I'd double the amount of pepperoni. 

The sauce was fine, even burst out a little while cooking but still was enough to be moist. Add more or less of what you want. Pineapple or black olives would be good! I sprinkled garlic salt on top so it was a "garlic-bread" type. After you fill the rolls, pinch to close and flip over so the opening is on the bottom of the muffin tin. Sprinkle garlic salt on top. Bake for 13-15 minutes. 

These were perfect for a post-dinner snack. Ha!

Happy Monday!