Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm on a pumpkin kick lately.  For breakfast this morning I made pumpkin pancakes, and ate them alongside my pumpkin spice coffee with pumpkin spice creamer.  Overkill?  Nah.  'Tis the season, right? 

I made these cookies a few weeks ago, and they were delicious.  They stayed nice and soft for several days when stored in an airtight container.  They're also fairly light, so I didn't feel quite so guilty eating so many of them!  I found the orignal recipe on one of my favorite blogs, Skinny Taste.  If you haven't checked out this blog, go there immediately.  Gina has so many fantastic low-fat recipes and is where I get over half of the recipes I use on a regular basis.  Anyway, I made a few changes to the original and doubled the recipe.  I ended up with about 40 cookies. 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from Skinny Taste)

You will need:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 tbsp butter, melted
• 2 egg whites
• 1/3 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. and spray baking sheets with cooking spray. 

Stir together flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin spice in a large bowl.  In another bowl, mix sugars, butter, egg whites, pumpkin, and vanilla together with a whisk until well combined and fluffy (I used my stand mixer with the whisk attachment). 

Whisk the flour mixture into the wet ingredients in two additions until well combined.  Stir in chocolate chips. 

Drop spoonfuls of batter onto baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch in between each. 
Bake 9-11 minutes.  Remove from oven, let them stand for about 5 minutes, then remove cookies from pan to wire racks to cool completely. 

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

I found this recipe in a Kroger ad (one of our local grocery stores here in Nashville).  I've made it twice in the past 3 weeks- it's a keeper!  I've lightened it up a bit and changed some things based on our taste. 

You will need:

• 1 cup low fat (or fat free) sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups instant rice, uncooked (I used instant brown rice which worked fine)
• 20 oz. cooked, diced chicken breast (I used the pre-cooked frozen kind, but that is rather expensive.  You can certainly cook your own chicken for this recipe.)
• 4 1/2 oz. thin sliced deli ham, cut into small pieces
• 6 oz. reduced fat sliced swiss cheese, cut into small pieces
• 1 cup corn flakes, crushed
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Whisk together sour cream, chicken broth, and pepper in a large bowl until smooth.

Add rice, chicken, ham, and swiss cheese; stir until combined.

Pour mixture into a 13x9 baking dish and spread evenly.

Mix together crushed corn flakes, parmesan cheese, and melted butter in a small bowl.  Sprinkle evenly over top of casserole. 

Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes until heated through and topping is golden brown. 

Welcome to the new blog!

If you've made it here, you've figured out that I've moved all of my cooking posts to this new blog.  I wanted to have a place to post recipes separately from other posts.  I've gone back and edited a few of my older posts, but for the most part, everything that was on the old blog is here in its original form.  Thanks for stopping by!