Everything But The Kitchen Sink, Pumpkin and Oat Cookies (Gluten Free)

I often wonder if Food Network (and other networks that have shows all about food!) has had an effect on our country's obesity epidemic. I mean, how many times have you watched the Food Network and started craving something...like cookies? Or pasta? Or a big juicy steak? You can't deny that it's happened at least once, maybe even without your awareness. This is exactly what happened to me the other day. I was sitting on the couch watching one of the shows on cake making, and I all of a sudden got the urge to make cookies. I remembered this recipe for Pumpkin-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, that Grace had posted back in October (ok, I had written it down, my memory isn't that good!) and I knew I just had to make them. My plan was to make them my own and add some new ingredients as a way to clean out the kitchen. Here is what I had;

Brown rice flour

A large canister of oats, with only a bit left

Random golden raisins

A bit of mini chocolate chips

Some carob chips

A few walnuts

So I did a bit of modification to Grace's recipe and came up with this;

Everything But The Kitchen Sink Pumpkin-Oat Cookies!
(Makes 40 cookies)

Ingredients
1 cup pureed pumpkin (or pureed sweet potato or butternut squash)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup soft butter
1 egg, beaten
1-3/4 cup oats
1.5 cup brown rice flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1.5 cups add-ins
(I used; 1/4 cup chocolate chips, 1/4 cup carob chips, 1/2 cup walnuts, 1/2 cup golden raisins)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. In a medium bowl mix together the two sugars, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
3. Add the soften butter and blend well.
4. Add the beaten egg and the pumpkin
5. Add the oats and the 1 cup of add-ins
6. Use a spoon to form cookies as you normally would with chocolate chip cookies, and put them on a greased cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

8. ENJOY!



Estimated Nutrition Facts
(1 cookies)

So at least I didn't make a really bad-for-you cookie after sitting and watching cake designers make a three teared cake with buttercream and chocolate candies on top....I mean...considering how much I was craving a piece of cake after watching that show, these cookies have some pretty good stats! And, while they didn't taste like a buttercream cake, they were delicious (even Nick approved of them, and is actually asking me to make them again!).


QUESTION: Which food show on television really increases your appetite?! For me it's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Also Top Chef.

Have a great weekend everyone. I'm off to Steeler country for the day for work, then I work tomorrow and have Sunday off to do some last minute Christmas prep (and finish my wedding invitations!).

Sugar Coma

On Saturday my best friend got married to her boyfriend of almost ten years, Rob. CONGRATS TO BOTH OF YOU!!!! Their wedding was not only beautiful, but it was a blast. Everything was perfect and Cathy looked amazing, as always. Many of you know that my favorite part of any wedding is the cake.

This one was very simple, with all white frosting and the only decorations were the little flowers on the side. I thought it looked perfect. But how about the taste? Out of this world.

I believe they kept the cake simple because they knew the most popular dessert (for most people...) would be the freshly baked pies.



I could have eaten this entire pie by myself. It was the best pecan pie I have ever tasted. The best part about it was the thin layer of chocolate on the bottom. I was in heaven eating this.


Throughout the entire night (on top of several glasses of white wine) I ate: 1 piece of wedding cake, almost two entire pieces of pie (pecan and apple) and a Snicker bar. Gross Gina. Talk about a serious binge! Am I mad at myself? Heck no. I don't ever do that, so who cares?! Not me. It all tasted wonderful. Don't ask about the Snicker bar....Nick and I got a hotel that night and rated the vending machines, as if we had been deprived of sugar or something...


Keeping on the theme of "desserts", today I wanted to share with you a new cookie recipe. Evan posted this "Chunky Monkey Nut Butter Oatie recipe several weeks ago, which I just had to try myself. I was glad I did because before making these cookies I had no idea just how easy it was to make oat flour. Seriously, check this out!

All I did was add the oats to my Magic Bullet and turn it on for about 30 seconds. It's just like regular flour you would buy at the store! I think I could make pizza with this stuff....what do you think?!

I started this recipe with intentions to follow Evan's recipe ~99% (I knew I wasn't going to use honey, because it's not something I can eat on my low FODMAP diet). As is typical with me, I ended up modifying the recipe to a much greater extent than I had planned (and not on purpose....). Here is my completely modified recipe for Evan's "Chunky Monkey Nut Butter Oaties;

Ingredients

1/2 cup oatmeal

6 T peanut butter (I used Soy butter and Smucker's all natural peanut butter)

1/2 cup sliced almonds

2 T Splenda brown sugar (or 4 T regular brown sugar)

2 T molasses

2T water

1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 t salt

~1/4 t baking soda



Directions

1. With a food processor or Magic Bullet, create a flour out of your oats (see my picture above).

2. Add the peanut butter, brown sugar, molasses, and water to the oat flour, then mix it all up.

3. Blend in the salt, cinnamon, and baking soda.

4. Add the almonds.

5. Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet, or a cookie sheet with a piece of foil or wax paper on top.

6. Bake at 325 for ~20 minutes (times may vary!)

Yes, these were delicious, with 170 calories of pure healthy goodness (ok, aside from the molasses and brown sugar....). Thanks for the inspiration, Evan!


Question: What's your favorite type of cookie? Have you tried soy butter yet? If not, check out my post to read all about it.