Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters – Chocolate or Vanilla

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I have discovered a new idea and I’ve decided to call these: Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters.

I didn’t actually invent this recipe. I happened upon it whilst scrolling Facebook and an ad popped up for Weight Watchers recipes. I don’t care about counting WW points, but I do like the idea of adding pumpkin to goodies. Any opportunity to add nourishment to food – I’m all in.

I was also very attracted to the idea of a two-ingredient recipe. It’s just a cake mix and a can of pumpkin. Easy and includes a vegetable? Yes please.

Now, I didn’t used to buy cake mixes. Those most certainly include ingredients that aren’t great. But alas, here I am, ignoring the ingredient list and paying $0.98 for a box of convenience. Then I add a huge wad of spinach to the cake, declaring that I am somehow still winning the war on food. Can we also  occasionally add an entire can of pumpkin to such a mix? Yes, we can. So now we can cringe as we buy cake mix, then smile as we add spinach or pumpkin.

And if I’m lucky, I might also have time to take a shower. Seriously, I have so many reasons to buy cake mix now. Here are my youngest 5 reasons. Plus Malachi, who is quite low maintenance but does also like to eat.

Why did I decide to name them Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters? Two reasons:

  1. Buying a cake mix is sort of cheating, making us sort of cheaters, but again, we like to shower sometimes and this is how we are surviving right now.
  2. These treats are some kind of cross between a cupcake and a muffin. They are too sugary to really be a muffin but too pumpkin-y to really be a cupcake. I couldn’t land on what to call them. A muffcake? Perhaps. But then Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters came to mind and I decided I liked it.

Is it possible I spend too much time reading nursery rhymes? Nah.

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters – Chocolate or VanillaYum

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters - Chocolate or Vanilla
 
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Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 1 cake mix, chocolate or vanilla
  • 15-ounce can pumpkin
  • ½ cup water
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon if you'd like!
Instructions
  1. Mix ingredients together until smooth.
  2. Scoop into 12 paper-lined muffin tins (you'll fill them a little bit more full than a typical cupcake or muffin).
  3. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

You can add chocolate chips, but I skip that because I don’t want to add extra sugar. Also have you seen what happens when toddlers eat melted chocolate chips? Oy, so messy.

And there you have it, friends. Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters are fun and easy to make. The pumpkin makes these moist and pumpkin is a superfood. Ha. I declare these to be a win.

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Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

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There’s a layer of Pumpkin Cake and a layer of Cheesecake in this treat. Together they make awesome Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars, the likes of which take hardly any effort to make!

This recipe is the result of me taking a moment to play with my Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffin recipe. Indeed, you can often find me playing with recipes at my house. Why play with toys when there are recipes lying around, am I right? Toy box. Recipe box. It’s all the same to me.

The beauty of playing with recipes is that one can easily turn one treat into a new treat, simply by tweaking a few ingredients and measurements. That is how the muffins turned into these Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars.

As many of my recipes are, this one is delicious enough for dessert and healthy enough for breakfast. :)

Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
 
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Serves: 24
Ingredients
  • 2 cups whole grain flour
  • ½ cup brown sugar or sucanat
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice*
  • 2 eggs
  • 15-ounces pumpkin puree
  • ¼ cup melted coconut oil
  • Cream Cheese Marble Filling:
  • 16-ounces softened cream cheese
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 Tablespoons real maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, sucanat, salt, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice.
  2. Mix in egg, pumpkin puree, and oil until well combined.
  3. Pour batter into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Set aside.
  4. Blend Cream Cheese Filling ingredients in a blender or with a hand mixer until smooth.
  5. Drizzle mixture over the unbaked pumpkin cake.
  6. Use a butter knife to spread the filling over the cake batter.
  7. Bake in a 350° oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  8. Allow bars to cool completely, then chill for at least two hours before cutting into bars and serving.

*Find the recipe for our Pumpkin Spice mix here. Or substitute 1 teaspoon ground cloves, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg in this recipe.

 

Do you like to play with recipes?

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Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts

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After months of trial, illness, starvation, exhaustion, and many other forms of misery (encouraging post so far, Laura) – the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags came together for a great feast on what is now known as The First Thanksgiving. These incredible people had much to celebrate, no doubt.

On their table there was an abundance of lobster, rabbit, chicken, squash, chestnuts, hickory nuts, onions, leeks, dried fruits, radishes, and cabbage – all of the traditional foods you and I always serve to our families on Thanksgiving, right? (I always tear up a little during the carving of our traditional Thanksgiving Lobster.)

Quick question: How did the above First Thanksgiving menu give way to boxed stuffing and canned cranberry sauce that plops out onto a plate? Don’t answer that. But what I do what to know is this:  Where have these Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts been all my life? These need to be added to everyone’s Thanksgiving menu: turkey, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, relish tray, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade rolls with butter, and a big, huge platter of Pumpkin Donuts. Oh, and don’t forget the Lobster.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts with Glaze

These Pumpkin Donuts scream, “Fall is here! Be thankful! Inhale deeply the scent of cinnamon spice! Eat me already!” This is a fall treat that ranks right up there with all things amazing. This donut recipe stirs up quickly, rolls out easily, and fries up into fantastic goodies that might make you pass out. They are great with a cup of coffee or apple cider.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts (adapted from this recipe)Yum

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Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts
 
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Serves: 15-20
Ingredients
  • 3½ cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground hard white wheat)
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ½ cup sucanat (or brown sugar)
  • 2 Tablespoons melted butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup buttermilk
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • Oil for frying (I recommend coconut oil or palm shortening for healthy frying)
  • GLAZE:
  • 2 cups powdered sugar (I use unbleached powdered sugar)
  • ⅓ cup buttermilk
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Stir together whole wheat flour, baking powder, sea salt, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and sucanat. Add melted butter, eggs, vanilla, buttermilk, and pumpkin puree - mixing until all ingredients are well combined.
  2. Roll dough on a well-floured surface.
  3. Cut out donuts and donut holes (makes about 15-20 of each).
  4. Fry dough in hot oil for about 3 minutes or until donuts are golden brown.
  5. Whisk glaze ingredients together and drizzle over warm donuts before serving.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts

What are your family’s traditional Thanksgiving foods that are a little different from the norm?  I have to admit, not only have I never had a Thanksgiving Lobster on my table, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually eaten lobster, period. I’m a Kansas girl turned Nebraska girl. What can I say?

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Warm Pumpkin Custard Drink (and my typo confessions)

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I’m about to share my Warm Pumpkin Custard recipe with you, but…

Just so you know, it is very hard for me to type the word “pumpkin” without automatically adding a “g” to the end – making it “pumpking”. This is what happens when you type words ending with “ing” frequently.

For the record, because of my blog name, I also type the word “heavenly” so often that I can’t tell you how many times the word “have” first comes out “heave”. For instance, every time I’m sharing about my ebook “Have Your Cookie…and Eat it Too“? I almost always first type “Heave Your Cookie…” It is a huge problem. But you probably didn’t even want to know that, did you?

And ultimately, that was a terrible thing to write about when I’m posting a new, delicious recipe. Try not to think about heaving your cookies, and instead, focus on the pumpking. Um, pumpkin.

Warm_Pumpkin_Custard

Yum

We have a friend who absolutely loves anything pumpkin. Since he was coming for a visit on a cold, drizzly day – I was brainstorming as to what I could quickly mix up that would satisfy his pumpkin craving and warm us all up.

Turns out, I didn’t have to think very hard. I simply grabbed my trusty Warm Vanilla Soother recipe and pumkinized it. Easy and delicious! Our friend loved it and had two huge mugs full!

This is a great dessert – or because it’s so full of rich, hearty, nutritious ingredients – I think it will be great for breakfast. As a matter of fact, it would be heavenly. (See? Told you I use that word a lot.)

Warm Pumpkin Custard Drink

Warm Pumpkin Custard Drink (and my typo confessions)
 
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Serves: 3-5
Ingredients
  • 3 cups whole milk
  • 4 egg yolks
  • ⅓ cup real maple syrup
  • 1 cup canned or pureed pumpkin
  • 2 Tablespoon arrowroot powder or corn starch
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk, egg yolks, maple syrup, pumpkin, arrowroot powder, and spices.
  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly (I use a whisk) until mixture begins to thicken.
  3. Remove from heat and add  vanilla.
  4. Stir until creamy.
  5. Pour into mugs and serve warm.

Am I the only one with potentially embarrassing typo issues?

Don’t even ask me about the time I accidentally left out the “r” when I was writing about how I store bulk grocery items in my “pantry”. Worst typo ever. Kinda makes you want to heave your cookies, doesn’t it?

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