RECIPE: Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

We had our first snowfall this week. And as much as I wished it would have happened a month later than it did, I will admit it was really pretty. We had just enough to cover the ground and it stayed around for a few days. The kids were ecstatic and even though they got home from school after 4 that day, they zipped through their homework and dug out all of their snow pants and boots to play in the snow well into darkness (which right now is around 5 pm!)

Just as the snow was falling I thought about how nice warm pumpkin bars would be for the kids after school snack. Unfortunately, that thought came 20 minutes before the bus arrived, wah wah wah! I started making these bars anyways and figured they would be a great dessert buuuut since it was snowing I figured we could eat them right after they cooled a bit which would mean....dessert BEFORE dinner! Yeah, every now and then you just have to do that. :-)

These bars are sooo good! I have been making them for years now and they always please every crowd. I frost them with my 4 Ingredient Cream Cheese Icing which really makes them outstanding. And on a side note, I didn't have any vegetable oil when I made this particular batch so I replaced it with an equal amount of liquid-state coconut oil and they turned out perfect. Not a hint of coconut in them! Sweet!

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

1 15 oz can pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil (or 1 cup liquid-state coconut oil)

1 2/3 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients together in a medium size bowl. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake 40-45 minutes. Let cool and frost with 4-Ingredient Cream Cheese Icing (Recipe found here). Enjoy!

The ingredient list run down....pumpkin, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, sugar, coconut oil (or vegetable oil)

Flour and eggs!

This recipe is so simple, truly!

Mix all the ingredients together and bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes in a greased 9x13 inch pan.

Yumm-o!

This would make a great dessert this Thanksgiving too! I hope you give it a try!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

 XOXO,

RECIPE: 4 Ingredient Cream Cheese Icing

One thing I love about fall is all the pumpkin goodies that come out of hiding. I about bought each and every pumpkin thing I saw at Trader Joe's the other day. Oh! They get me every year. And don't get me started on all those yummy pumpkin recipes. I start making them in as soon as there is a slight chill in the air. And, of course when you make pumpkin goodies you are going to need to make some cream cheese icing to go with them, of course. So here is my favorite 4 Ingredient Cream Cheese icing just for you, enjoy!

4 Ingredient Cream Cheese Icing

1/2 cup (4 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Cream butter and cream cheese together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Slowly add powdered sugar and continue mixing until completely incorporated.  Stir in vanilla.

Butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla.

The makings of one delicious icing!

PS. This icing works great piped on a cake or spread over bars.  

Now go enjoy your all your pumpkin goodness even more with this icing!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

TUTORIAL: Magnetic Paint Craft Pumpkins with Magnetic Letters

If you remember from this post here, I was invited to participate in Michaels' Great Pumpkin Challenge where they sent me a box of their neat-o craft pumpkins to create, carve, or design something fun with them for Fall/Halloween. Since we are in Back to School mode as my kids are finally starting school (Noah started his first day of FULL day school today, hold me!) I thought how fun would it be to use those colorful magnetic letters we all have on our fridge and make a magnetic pumpkin to spell out fun Halloween-type words!

This project is so, so easy! All it takes is a few short 5-10 minute stretches of time over a couple of days as you will need a few coats of magnetic paint to get a good magnetic attraction going.  Here is how I did it...

Magnetic Paint Craft Pumpkin with Magnetic Letters

Craft pumpkin

Can of magnetic paint 

Foam brush

Painter's tape

Small can of latex paint in the color of your choice (will be the final color of the pumpkin!)

Magnetic letters 

Can of Primer for Plastic

Can of spray paint in the color of you choice (for the letters!)

For this project I used the largest craft pumpkin sold at Michaels...it has the most surface area for spelling out fun words! Since you will be painting over it with the magnetic paint you can use any color pumpkin.

I bought this small can of magnetic paint at Michaels (found in the spray paint aisle). I used about half of it for this project!

Take your painter's tape and tape off the stem to protect it from the paint. Then using your foam brush, give the pumpkin one coat of magnetic paint and let dry for 24 hours (as per the can instructions). The can states you will need at least 2 coats of paint but I found the magnets were still falling off with 2 coats so I did an additional 3rd coat which ended up being the perfect amount of magnetic attraction!

Once your last coat of magnetic paint is dry (another 24 hours!) you can paint over the magnetic paint with any color latex paint.  Since I wanted my pumpkin to be used for Halloween decorating, I painted mine Gloss Black in color but how cute would a cream color be with gold letters! Let your topcoat dry for a few hours. You can remove the painter's tape once the paint is dry.

In between coats of magnetic paint you can spray paint your magnetic letters. Remember these? I think we have about 32,498 of them on our fridge and laying around every one of my kids' rooms.

Since the letters are plastic you will want to spray them with a coat of Primer made for Plastic.  I happened to have some of this Krylon Fusion for plastic so I used it like a primer! Once the primer coat is dry you can spray the letters with your topcoat color of choice.  I love the look of a silver metallic on black so that is what I chose :-)

And there you have it...silver metallic letters on a jet black magnetic pumpkin...Happy Halloween indeed!

Now, your kids (or you!) can have fun spelling out lots of fun Halloween-y type words!

Enjoy! See, I told you this one was easy!!

Oh and PS. Just in case you didn't know...

·         All Michaels locations are hosting a Great Pumpkin Event on Saturday, October 5 from 1 p.m.-3 p.m. For only $6 (which covers the cost of a 9” carveable pumpkin) kids can create their own pumpkin design and a free face painter will also be on hand. A great weekend event for the whole family!

·         Did you know that Michaels offers custom carved pumpkins that can be personalized with a variety of designs and names? Prices start at $19.99 and you can them order at all Michaels locations, just make sure to place your order by Oct. 13 so that it will be completed by Halloween. Visit www.michaels.com/custom-carved-pumpkins for more information.

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

*I received compensation for this post; however, this is my personal, honest opinion based on my experience with the product.

Dragons, Giraffes and...Pumpkins?!?

Alrighty, here are some pictures of our family trip to Goebbert's Pumpkin and Farm Market. We had so much fun, it was the perfect fall weather to be walking around their pumpkin playland! We always love to go to Goebbert's every fall so that Noah (and now Penny) can run and climb on all their neat wooden structures of firetrucks, tractors, trains, etc. They have so many that on even the busiest day plenty of kids can enjoy them. This year Goebbert's has added an exotic petting zoo tent and even 2 giraffes! The giraffes are a daddy and his son and you can climb up a huge ramp and pet and feed the giraffes face to face...how cool is that! They also have a pumpkin eating dragon this year that talks to to kids and blows steam from his nose before smashing his chosen pumpkin to bits. I thought Noah would have been scared of him but he was really liking it and even pet the dragon more than a few times! We even had a potty first here and had to use the port-a-potty with Noah...thank goodness I was prepared this time...those things are soooo NASTY! Well, I hope you were able to go and have some Fall fun this past weekend, the weather here in Illinois was absolute perfection!

Yes Penny, we can still see you!

No Penny, this is NOT an orange!

Rearranging the pumpkins

Noah taking Penny for a ride on the Firetruck

Hello, Daddy giraffe!

Momma & Penny getting some giraffe kisses

How you doin'?

Noah feeding the pumpkin-eating dragon

Pumpkin Pie Fruit Dip

OK, as promised, here is the recipe for the sweet dip that I made for our Halloween Bash. This dip had some majorly rave reviews and many people wanted the recipe. It is super easy to make and tastes like a pumpkin pie without the crust...nummy in the tummy! A sweet treat to make that's healthy to boot! Need a nice and festive dip option for your Halloween party? Well then, let's get to makin' it!

Pumpkin Pie Fruit Dip

1 smaller sized can pureed pumpkin (not the ginormous sized one AND not the pumpkin pie mix!!)

1 brick of softened cream cheese (use 1/3 less fat to keep it nice and healthy!)

1 1/2 -2 cups powdered sugar

1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice

2 tsp cinnamon

Mix all the above ingredients together in a large bowl. If you have a mixer, use it so you can get all the lumps out. That will make it nice and smooth and pretty looking! If you want you can gut a miniature pumpkin (like I had my husband do) and serve it in there so it's all festive and such.

Serve with apple slices, bananas, graham crackers, nilla wafers, ginger snaps...basically all things yummy!

Now, just watch your party guests go wild for a perfectly matched fruit dip to the season!

Looks oh, so good!

Just right for a Halloween Bash

Perfection!

A Wagon Full of Goodness

Today was beautiful here in Illinois! The weather was absolutely perfect for a trip to the pumpkin patch and that is exactly where went. Our littles had so much fun running around (and on top of) all the mounds of pumpkins, what a great way to burn some energy especially after all the rain we have been getting around here lately! The patch we visited had a kid-sized maze made of hay bales just tall enough so they could see us. Noah and Penny really enjoyed running around and finding their way out of it. We even went on a nice hay ride around the patch...Noah especially loved the giant tractor that was pulling our wagon, and for good reason...tractors are cool! We bought a wagon full of pumpkins...big and small...perfection! Now, onto carving them and roasting their seeds...Mmmm! FALL...the best season ever...hands down!

Ready to pick some pumpkins

Penny was all about climbing on these...outfit chosen by daddy!

Noah and Penny...need I say more!?

Daaaad! Can we get this one!?

Becoming one with the pumpkins...

Penny lovin' the maze!