Pumpkin muffins

Oh. My. Word. I love love LOVE pumpkin!!! As much as my friend, Megan, does. I think.

I am all the time in the kitchen these days, and since I'm in the kitchen so are the oldest kiddos in the house. And while there can be bickering of who gets to do what (i.e. measure, pour, stir), most of the time it has become very enjoyable to have "help" baking. So many of my memories growing up come from being in the kitchen with my grand parents. Hopefully, my kiddos will remember me as a younger mom in the kitchen with them. Emphasis on the word Younger.

If there is one thing most people don't know about me is that I make up recipes all of the time. Lately it's because of Porter's inability to digest dairy through breastmilk. But most often it's because I get a hankerin' for something and I just use whatever ingredients I have on hand to make it. If I ever had the guts to try out for The Next Food Network Star, my POV (point of view) would totally be..."Whatever's in the Pantry." :)

So here are the best pumpkin muffins I've made up so far. We'll call them...

Streusel Pumpkin Muffins

Muffins:
*2 cups + 2 tablespoons of Self-Rising flour (or you could use just 2 cups of all purpose flour and add in 1 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt)
*2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice (or just use cinnamon)
*1 1/2 cups sugar
*3/4 cup applesauce (or you could use vegetable oil...but I didn't have any)
*3 large eggs
*1 teaspoon vanilla extract
*1 can of pureed pumpkin

Streusel Topping:
*1/2 cup brown sugar
*1/2 cup flour (self-rising or all purpose...whatever you have!)
*4 tbsp melted butter (or margarine...which is what I have to use these days)

Optional:
*Chocolate chips

Mix all Muffin ingredients together in a large bowl. I used my stand mixer, but mix until just combined...don't over mix. Spray muffin tins with non-stick spray and fill 1/2 way. Set to the side. Mix together Topping ingredients; will be very thick. With clean fingers, break Topping into small pieces and sprinkle all over the tops of muffins. If you are ever so indulgent, sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top of the muffins as well. For me, I do 1/2 with and 1/2 without.

Bake at 325 for 30 minutes. Cool in pan for at least 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Serve warm and enjoy. With coffee. :)

Thank goodness my in-laws live close by so that I could get rid of some! They are so ridiculously delicious that I could have easily gone out of control...like eating them for breakfast AND dessert.

Delicious-ness

One thing I love about this time of the year is that the baking never ceases! We bake goodies for our friends, neighbors, fundraisers, and - of course - for ourselves. :)

One of my favorite recipes to make each year is Homemade Toffee Bars. During my first year of teaching (10 years ago, gasp!), one of my sweetest students EVER named Natalie brought me these toffee bars as a Christmas gift. They were so delicious that I asked her the very next day for the recipe. I made them for years each Christmas season, but then somehow lost the recipe; no matter how hard I tried I couldn't recreate the exact recipe in my head. Well, as luck would have it, Natalie "friended" me on Facebook. She lives all the way in Hawaii now with her husband who is stationed in the service. I sent her a message asking her if she could possibly remember the toffee bars that she gave me 10 years ago (gasp again!), and she did!!! Woo Hoo!!! Christmas baking is finally complete again!!! We have made SO MANY of these this December, and we have gotten such rave reviews that I just had to post this delicious recipe. It is SO easy that you will want to try them out, and when you do, I'm warning you now, you will be addicted.

Homemade Toffee Bars

Ingredients:
Approximately 1 1/2 sleeves of saltine crackers
2 sticks of butter (I never said they were healthy!!!)
1 cup of brown sugar
1 package of mini chocolate chips (you can use the regular ones, but the mini ones cover better in my opinion)
1 cup of chopped pecans
kosher salt (optional)

Recipe:
Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees
Cover a cookie sheet with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
Lay out the saltine crackers to cover the entire tray (this is a great thing to have your kiddos do b/c the rest of the recipe is not kid-friendly).

Melt butter and brown sugar together; bring to a boil, and let boil for 2 minutes.
Stir butter and sugar mixture and pour over the crackers.

Put in the oven for 4 minutes; remove.
Quickly pour chocolate chips over the crackers. (You can see here that I used regular chocolate chips - they really don't cover as much space as the mini ones.)

Put in the oven for 1 minute; remove.
Quickly spread the chocolate chips with a knife.

Sprinkle the pecans over the chocolate and lightly sprinkle with kosher salt if desired. (*note - if you used salted butter, you will NOT want to sprinkle any salt!)
Put in the fridge for 1 hour.

Break apart the toffee bars and ENJOY!!! And, share with others if you can. :)

I have to admit something - the camera was on the counter to take a picture, but my hands were too messy from breaking apart these toffee bars (i.e. eating them) to pick up my camera! They really are THAT good!!!

For the record...

...in case anyone got the idea that we are always healthy in our house...

I took the kiddos to Wendy's tonight for supper. Since Ella Beth is allergic to oranges, we simply had to get french fries to accompany her chicken nuggets. And Landon's.

No, he's not allergic to oranges.

:)

A first in our house

So, most everyone knows that us Castleberrys are pretty "healthy" when it comes to eating. We go light on the fried foods, light on processed foods, null on hydrogenated oils, enjoy our fresh-from-the-garden fruits and vegetables as often as possible.

But, recently we, ahem, let ourselves go a little crazy. ;)

Scott brought home a 1/2 dozen DONUTS! Thankfully, Scott's parents were at our house and there was only one donut per person...otherwise, Scott and I would have had to eat more than one!

And these weren't just any donuts, mind you. No, these were Halloween donuts - fresh from Krispy Kreme. 

I don't know who was more excited...the kids for getting to inhale fried sugar deliciousness - or Scott's parents for us finally allowing our kiddos something unhealthy and indulgent. ;)

I can admit that they were quite tasty. My mouth is watering just looking at these pictures. But...I tend to lack self-control. Which is why we don't bring treats like these into our house very often!

Do you think our kiddos enjoyed themselves?!?!

Now, if we could only allow the grandparents to take Ella Beth and Landon to McDonalds...FAT CHANCE!!!

Healthy eating to you!