Simple Homemade Pumpkin Yogurt

The can of pumpkin that I used to make pumpkin nut butter, well I didn't use it all up so I had to find another recipe to use it up. That is when I found this super simple recipe for pumpkin yogurt, from preventionrd.com. It only takes about 2 minutes to make for about 5 servings to enjoy, that's a win in my book. My daughter loves this recipe and so do I. I am a little partial to pumpkin though. Give it a try.

Ingredients

- 2 cups of non-fat plain Greek yogurt (I didn't have Greek yogurt, but I did have plain yogurt, which worked just as well)

- 15 oz can of pumpkin

- 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice (your homemade one from the previous blog post)

- 1/2 cup of brown sugar

1) Add all the ingredients to a medium mixing bowl and thoroughly mix together.

2) Refrigerate until you are ready to serve/eat it.

That is it, very simple to spice up that plain yogurt sitting in the refrigerator. 

Enjoy!!

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice

A lot of recipes that I make using pumpkin call for pumpkin pie spice as well; but, I honestly don't like paying around $4 dollars for 1 or 2 ounces of it. I actually never realized how easy it is to make my own, just 4 simple ingredients, that I normally have in the house any way. Give this one a try and you will never have to buy pumpkin pie spice again.

Ingredients

- 1/4 cup of ground cinnamon

- 2 tbsp of ground ginger

- 2 tsp of ground nutmeg

- 1 tsp of ground cloves or allspice (I used ground cloves)

1) Place all the spices in a small bowl or air tight container and mix together.

2) Once thoroughly mixed together you are finished. Use this mix any time your recipe calls for pumpkin pie spice.

Simple. Affordable. Perfect. Another plus to making this recipe is it makes the kitchen smell good! I used this mix to make homemade pumpkin yogurt (which will be my next blog post).

Enjoy!!

Pumpkin Nut Butter

I had a big can of pumpkin to use up and was trying to figure out what to do with it when I came across this recipe for pumpkin nut butter. I had to make it partially out of curiosity and just because I love pumpkin. I found this recipe on chocolatecoveredkatie.com, it is quite simple and quick to make and definitely has a uniqueness about it, but I like it; so does my 1 year old, she eats it by the spoonful. You can use it on your toast, pancakes, french toast, in oatmeal or by the spoonful, lots of options and a change up from the normally peanut butter or butter.

Ingredients

(I doubled this recipe)

- 1/3 cup of pureed pumpkin or canned pumpkin (I used canned)

- 1/2 tsp of cinnamon

- 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp of a nut butter, ie peanut butter, almond, or even coconut (I used peanut butter)

- pinch of salt

- Optional: added sweetener- 1/2 packet of stevia or 1/2 tbsp of brown sugar (I used brown sugar)

1) Add all the ingredients to the bowl of a food processor or a mixing bowl (if using a mixing bowl, mix together with a spoon). Mix together.

2) Remove from your bowl and place it in an air tight container for storage or enjoy right away.

That is it. I love 1 or 2 step recipes like this. One recommendation that they give on the website is that if the peanut butter is hard, heat it up slightly before mixing it in. We have mainly eaten ours by the spoonful so far, but we are looking forward to trying it out on many different things.

Enjoy!!

Eggless Edible Cookie Dough

I love the taste of cookie dough, to be honest who doesn't, but I always have that thought in the back of my mind about the raw eggs that are in cookie dough; how unsafe is it really to eat it.  Well, now I do not need to have that worry or question any more, I found an awesome eggless cookie dough recipe on thecookiepuzzle.com. It is very quick and easy to make and it gives you the same great flavor of cookie dough that you might be tempted to eat. I have actually made this recipe twice in the past week because it is THAT GOOD!! This is definitely one that I recommend.

Ingredients

- 1/2 cup of soften butter (Not melted! I used salted)

- 3/4 cups of brown sugar

- 1 tsp of vanilla

- 1/4 tsp of salt

- 1 1/4 cups of flour

- 2 to 4 tbsp of milk (I used 2%)

- 1 cup of mix ins (I used chocolate chips. Note: 1 10 oz bag is 1 3/4 cups of chocolate chips)

1) Cream together the brown sugar and the softened butter.

2) Add the vanilla and 2 tbsp of milk and mix (I used a hand mixer). 

3) Mix in the salt and flour. Depending on how thick or thin you want your dough add more milk to thin it out; I used 3 tbsp all together.

4) Gently stir in the chocolate chips or whatever mix in you chose and enjoy. Remember to refrigerate the leftovers.

Warning: this recipe is very addictive because it is so good. I do want to tell you that this cookie dough is amazing added to some vanilla ice cream. I hope you enjoy this recipe and let me know what mix ins you decided to use.

Enjoy!!