Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

You know those pumpkin choco-chip cookies you make from a spice cake mix? Well, I hate those things. I was so glad to get a good home-made recipe. These cookies are amazing!

1 c vegetable oil
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp mapleine
1 tsp salt
1 large can (29 oz) pureed pumpkin
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
5 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 pkg MINI chocolate chips

Preheat oven 375 degrees.
Cream oil, sugar, vanilla, mapleine, and salt.
Add eggs and pumpkin.
Beat well until mixture is fluffy.
Mix in spices.
Add flour, baking soda, baking powder.
Blend until incorporated.
Add chocolate chips.
Dough will be a cake like consistency.
Spoon onto a lightly sprayed cookie sheet.

Bake on 375 for 13-15 minutes.
Remove from cookie sheet to cool.

This recipe make approx. 100 cookies. (I halved it and had plenty!) They freeze well.

Options: Add currents, raisins, craisins, chopped nuts, or white chocolate chips in place of chocolate chips. Try icing with a butter cream frosting and topping with chopped nuts.
(Recipe from Suzanne Price)

The end result????????

Harvest Pumpkin Bars

Bars
2 c all-purpose flour
2 c sugar
1 Tbps pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 (15 oz) can solid pack pumpkin
3/4 c vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
Frosting
3 oz cream cheese, softened
6 Tbps butter, softened
1 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 c confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl.
Stir in pumpkin, oil and eggs.
Spread in a greased 10x15 inch baking pan.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until edges pull away from the sides of the pan.
Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Frosting- Combine cream cheese, butter, milk, vanilla, and confectioners sugar in a medium mixing bowl.
Beat on medium high speed until smooth, scraping the bowl constantly until of spreading consistency.
Spread over the baked layer.
Chill, covered, until serving time.
Cut into 48 bars.

A Pampered Chef recipe.

Food Storage Analyzer

Emergency Essentials has a great tool to help us see how much food storage we have accumulated! (or not accumulated in my case~) It's free and pretty darn useful! You just punch in how many people you need to feed and how much of each item listed you have in storage and... wah-lah! I have enough food to feed my family for almost 59 days!!! Okay, it's not much but I'm working on it.

At first I was thinking this analyzer was just geared toward EE items but I was glad to find they had a place to analyze canned foods and also a spot where you can add your own items.

Another neat feature is they have a recipe link right next to some of the items so you can see how you can use it. This also helped me see what else I needed to purchase in order to actually make something with what I have in the first place.

Overall~ Super easy to use!

Negatives... well, I still think EE is too pricey for most of their items so the ordering feature means nothing to me. Wonder if they have coupons.... Kim, let me know:)

Sweet... now I can a $10 gift card for reviewing the analyzer!!!!

Crispy Panko Mustard Chicken

I have wanting to try cooking with Panko bread crumbs for awhile now and yesterday I finally did it. This recipe was so yummy! The panko gives an incredible texture. Plus, this is so easy! This would go great with potatoes but since we were out we ate ours with corn and veggies.

FYI: "Do you know panko? It's a Japanese style of bread crumbs used to coat fried food. The crumbs are large and very flaky. It's made from yeast-raised bread dough that is baked in a special oven so it does not form a crust. The crumbs start out very pale colored but cook up golden brown. You can find it in the Asian section of just about any supermarket."
I purchased mine for about $2 at Macey's.

Crispy Panko Mustard Chicken
serves 2

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon Creole Mustard (You can use any type of mustard- I used honey mustard-so good!)
1/4 cup panko
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Melt the butter in a small dish in a microwave oven then combine the butter with the panko crumbs in a small mixing bowl.

Coat chicken breasts with mustard then place on a greased, foil-lined baking sheet, top with crumbs ("The trick to this technique is to mix the panko crumbs with just a little bit of melted butter then put it on top of the mustard coated chicken by hand instead of dipping the chicken in the crumbs.") and bake approximately 15 minutes or until cooked through and golden brown.

Recipe and photo found and all quotes taken from Cooking with Amy food blog: read it and eat it.