Pumpkin White Chocolate Cookies

So, lately I have been a failure at both cooking and baking. However, there have been tons of yummy fall recipes floating around Pinterest and I just couldn’t resist.

I saw these easy “3 Ingredient Pumpkin White Chocolate Cookies” over at Tatertots & Jello.  Three ingredients?? That’s pretty hard to mess up!! And they are semi healthy too!! No flour, no butter, no oil.  Bring it on!!!

Ingredients:

16 oz. Pumpkin Puree

1 box of Spice Cake Mix

2 cups of White Chocolate Chips (1 cup in cookies – additional cup for optional topping – see my notes below)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350-degrees

Mix the pumpkin, cake mix and cup of white chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl

Once its thoroughly mixed, spoon mixture on to a greased baking sheet

Bake the cookies at 350-degrees for 10-12 minutes (I only cooked for 10 minutes to prevent burning – my specialty!)

Take them out and cool!

A few notes:

• If you look at the original recipe over on Tatertots and Jello, you will see she melted white chocolate over the top of the cookies.  I failed at melting my chocolate (I know I know – this is how I roll with cooking/baking) so my cookies had no extra chocolate on the top.  But honestly, it wasn’t even missed.  These cookies are a perfect amount of sweetness (even for someone who would eat sweets for every meal for the rest of my life.
• THESE ARE ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!!  I am not a fan of pumpkin pie because of the consistency of the pie itself and the crust.  HOWEVER, I do love the taste.  These cookies have an amazing amount of chewy/soft consistency and taste exactly like pumpkin pie!!  The white chocolate chips are a little extra sweet and are just like putting some whipped cream on top of your pie!!
• These are even better stored in the refrigerator!

This is a super easy, minimal ingredient recipe!!! They are absolutely DE-LISH!!!

Have you tried any fabulous fall recipes lately??

High Five for Friday!!!

Happy Friday friends!!!

Here’s my five, well four, for the week!!!

1.  Last Friday night I went to a football game at my alma mater.  My niece’s high school was playing my high school.  I went to go see her freshman-year band performance.  14 years after she came to see me at my first home football game, in a baby carrier!  Such a proud aunt!! And my big sister (her mom) marched on that field 13 years even before that!!  Family of band nerds!!!! And proud of it!

2.  I have been wanting to bake  a yummy fall treat, but most of the recipes out there go against my trying to eat healthy.  I made these pumpkin spice cookies for my fella last weekend.  Not only were they DELISH but they are also pretty good for you!! I will be posting the recipe next week!

3.  I have had a bunch of games stored away and dug them out recently.  We played a round of Jenga last weekend. Seriously, that game is so much fun. But stressful! Happy to say I didn’t lose!!!

4.  My DIY spirit continued this week around my house. I have swapped out electrical outlets before and figured this one would be the same.  After several failed attempts and face-timing with a friend who is an electrician, I managed to cause sparks, blow the house’s circuit breaker, and burn up the outlet! Whoops!! Luckily no one was harmed and no houses were burned to the ground. And the outlet has been successfully installed!!

Overall a successful week!! What are you up to this weekend?!?

As always, linking up with Lauren!

Happy Friday!!!

My Table Scares Me

So, throughout most of my life, I have taken the “safe” route. Not taking many chances, doing things the way they “should” be done, and especially not taking any chances in decorating my house.

I have always gone the safe route, not wanting to do anything too risky or out of my comfort zone.  Then I saw this quote……..

Source

It immediately inspired me.  Since I graduated college, I have lived with another person.  All of my decorating choices were a compromise.  For almost the past two years, I have lived by myself for the first time in my life.  It took about a year to realize, this was MY space, and my space only.  This may be the only time in my life I will be on my own, able to decorate for ME and no one else.  While sitting in my living room, looking at this…….

I realized this was the space I wanted to scare me. All of that dark furniture (all brought from my old house, bought for that space specifically) didn’t make this space feel like mine.  THIS was where I was going to take my decorating chances.

I have always been a fan of light colors, turquoise, tan, white, yellows, but lately I have been drawn to navy, gold, yellow, etc.  Then I saw this living room on Pinterest…..

Source

After seeing this, I knew navy and gold/yellow was where I wanted to go.

With all of that heavy furniture, one piece had to go. My TV stand was staying and I loved the tall bookshelf in the corner, so it was the small shelf on the left that got the boot.

I fell in love with this table…..

Source

But with a $699 price tag, I knew something else had to be done.

I have never, in my life been drawn to the color gold, until recently.  This was definitely going to be a risk, outside of my comfort zone, and something that scared me.

I scoured thrift shoppes, HomeGoods and other discount stores and wasn’t finding anything I liked. Then I remembered various gold items floating over blog land, all done with the magic of Rub’nBuff.  You may remember I gave my first go with Rub’nBuff on this silver vase.  This vase was to practice before I took my skills out on a bigger, more substantial piece.

I found the perfect table on Joss & Main.  Clean lines, simple, and only $99. BUT they were sold out. Womp.  The perfect table was eluding me.  I took a chance and looked on Amazon and found the exact same table that Joss & Main was sold out of.  For $93!!

I had $65 in cash back bonus to use + free shipping with Amazon Prime, so the final cost of the table was only $33.58.  That made me feel better about totally altering the look of the table.

After building the table, I got to work adding the Rub’nBuff

It took two coats to fully cover the table.  This time, the best way to “buff” off the excess was to just wipe. No circular buffing, no scrubbing. Just wiping off the excess.  This helped limit the number of streaks and prevent the original finish from poking through.

It didn’t take long at all. And when done, the finish was solid, and wasn’t rubbing off.

I swapped out the bookshelf for the new table and absolutely love it!!!

I think it totally helps lighten up the space, taking away the heaviness of all of the dark furniture.

I did a little bit of styling of the space (seriously always the most fun part of any new project!!!)

I got all of this from Target. Total Target addict! The lamp was on clearance for $18 and the shade was only $14.  This picture doesn’t do the lamp any justice. It is HUGE.  And totally a bargain at $18.  I got this Jonathan Adler desk organizer to hold some necessary living room clutter and also to use as a charging station for my iPad and phone.  I always charge them at this spot and this helps corral the mess!

I absolutely love pictures and wanted to find the perfect place for these pictures from my trip to Napa last year. Boy do I wish this table was in a house I owned out in Napa!! I got this geometric shape from Target for $3.  I gave it two coats of Navy spray paint and it was perfect for the space.

So, was I scared to have a gold table in my house? Yessir! But am I thrilled to have taken a chance and go outside of my comfort zone?? ABSOLUTELY!!!

What decorating risks have you taken lately?!?!?!