Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies for Fall!

To celebrate the Fall weather that has finally arrived in San Diego (72 degrees and cloudy!), why not bake a batch of these tasty pumpkin, oatmeal & chocolate chip cookies? Just go ahead...and bookmark this recipe (or pin it!)...they are super delicious and my husby's favorite. Ryan would love for me to make these year round, but for some reason I can only bring myself to make them during Fall...so here there are! Enjoy one (or two!) with a glass of milk or hot coffee!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
created by Megan Mullen

Ingredients:
1 Cup Flour

3 1/2 Cups Rolled Oats *added 1/2 Cup from first recipe edition
1 Cup Butter
1 Egg
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup White Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Cup Pumpkin (canned or fresh)
2 Cups Chocolate Chips
A dash of pumpkin spice (nutmeg, cinnamon, etc.)-use more for "pumpkin pie" taste

Mix all dry ingredients. Set aside. Mix wet ingredients, slowly stir in dry ingredients. Bake at 375 degrees for 9-12 minutes or until golden brown.

love love, 
Meg

1 Roasted Chicken, 3 Tasty Meals

A few friends and I were talking about good recipes and we happened to discuss cooking whole chickens. I'd never really given it much thought before. I liked buying rotisserie chickens from Costco ($6) and using the meat for enchiladas or chicken tortilla soup. I'd never really thought of roasting my own chicken and making not one, but THREE meals from it. I think that's pretty resourceful, if I do say so myself :) I thought I'd pass along a great recipe, that I've tried and loved, so that you can ENJOY too!

I am LOVING this new recipe, from the blog 100 Days of Real Food,  found on pinterest. How to cook a whole chicken...in a crock pot. It was amazing! The recipe was easy to follow, simple, and delicious! There weren't any complications or delay in times and the end result...tender chicken full of flavor that just falls off the bone.

Here's how it worked out for us:
I searched pinterest and found a recipe for the crock pot (think: quick, easy, and NO oven heating up the house). I purchased a whole chicken (approx. 5  1/2 lbs.) from Henry's Sprout's for $1.49/lb (great deal!). We already had all of the spices on hand (also purchased in bulk, from Sprout's). Got home, mixed the spices, pulled the whole chicken out of the bag (yuck-definitely the worst part of the whole deal, in my opinion), and rubbed the chicken with the spices. Placed it in the crock pot and put the lid on. I forgot to buy an extra onion to chop and place under the chicken...oh well! The timer was set for 4 hours and I checked the meat 3 1/2 hours in...it was fully cooked and so tasty! There were no added oils or fats, just chicken and spices.

Meal #1: Chicken, wild rice and steamed zucchini

Meal #2: Homemade Chicken Tortilla Soup
The next day I pulled the remaining chicken from the bone and added it to a homemade (chicken) tortilla soup from the Pioneer Woman...I love her recipes! Mmmm! We made some fresh tortilla chips, by slicing tortillas and baking in the oven at 400 degrees for about 7 minutes. Yum! I told Ryan that I'll probably make our own chips from now on...they were so good (and simple)! And another bonus?...We have a HUGE pot of soup leftover for lunches and dinner tonight.

Meal #3: Homemade Chicken stock for soup/meals
The chicken carcass (eww) was used with this recipe (also from 100 Days of Real Food blog) to make chicken broth for another large soup or additional meals. I followed the simple recipe and let it sit overnight in the crock pot. Our house smells like chicken broth this morning, but I now have the base for another complete meal (saving us approx. $4...$2/box of chicken broth). Woohoo!

For $8 we were able to make 2 solid meals, plus leftovers, and broth for another meal! I am definitely doing this again (maybe even this week...too soon? haha!). I hope you'll try it out! Stay tuned...I'm working on more blog posts like these, with recipes worth sharing :)

with love,
Meg

make this: Homemade Granola

YumOH! Last week I was looking for a good homemade granola recipe to pair with my plain yogurt. I had all the essential ingredients lined up in the pantry: oats, nuts, raisins, honey, brown sugar, dried coconut. Mmmm! Google came up with a few (thousand) recipes, and I peeked at a few of them...I scanned the recipes and judged the photos. With no personal references to any of these recipes, it was hard to tell which one would be just the right one. I wanted a keeper. And I found one!

I baked the homemade granola and it was AMAZING! The recipe was simple and flexible. I like flexible. I try to be flexible in baking (and I'm totally comfortable with not sticking to the exact recipe :) but I understand that's not for everyone. I made a double batch to make sure there would be plenty to share. Actually, scratch that. I accidentally poured 1/2 cup of honey into the bowl instead of 1/4 cup. It worked out anyways...I try to stay flexible! :)

When I checked my iPad later, to save the recipe...it was GONE! The page was closed. Boo! I quickly wrote down the ingredients and measurements that I had remembered. This was a recipe worth remembering and making again!

I wanted to share it with you :) it's flexed a bit, to what I used (and I can't take the credit!)...but you can substitute several ingredients to your liking and make it your own :)

Homemade Granola Recipe:

4 Cups Oats

1/2 Cup Honey

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

2 tsp Vanilla extract

6 Tbsps. Canola Oil

1 tsp salt (or less)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 Cup Raisins

1/4 Cup chopped Pecans 

Handful of dried coconut (to your liking)

1/2 Cup Chocolate chips 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Mix oats, honey, and brown sugar with oil. You may need to use your hands! Add the cinnamon, salt (less is more, but it's a great salty-sweet combo), and continue mixing. Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven, scrape pan and flip granola. Add remaining toppings (but hold the chocolate chips). Place in oven again and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Use your best judgement on the crispy-ness of the granola. The granola will bake a little bit longer after it is removed from the oven.  Let the pan cool and then store in an airtight container. Add chocolate chips and mix. 

and then...ENJOY!

I hope you make this!

Megan