Pumpkin Recipe #2: Pumpkin Apple Pancakes

Breakfast for dinner is one of my favorite things...brinner, as we call it in my house. I decided since I have canned pumpkin in my fridge, to have these delicious pancakes for dinner tonight, and post the recipe for my fellow pumpkin lovers to enjoy! I have previously posted this recipe on my blog, during the Lenten season, so some of you may have already seen this one, but it's definitely worth repeating.

This recipe I got from the TV show "The Chew." One of the viewers "won" with her Pumpkin Apple Pancake recipe. I couldn't wait to try them when I saw the episode, and I'm so glad I did because we have them often! So delish!

MIA ROGERS' PUMPKIN APPLE PANCAKES

Ingredients:

1c flour

1 1/2t baking powder

1/2t cinnamon

1/4t nutmeg

1/8t ginger

1T butter, melted

1/2c pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

1/4c brown sugar

1/4t salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

1c buttermilk*

1/3c peeled, diced apple (I usually use 1 apple)

Caramelized Apple Topping:

1 apple, thinly sliced

1T butter

2T brown sugar

(I usually double this recipe, because I love it so much! And really, who wants a scant amount of this apple-y goodness on their pancakes?!)

*If you don't have buttermilk, put 1T of lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup and fill with milk until it reaches 1c. Whisk it to combine, then let it sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes, until it's curdled. Mix it up and voila! You have your buttermilk substitute!

Directions:

In a medium bowl, toss in your flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. In a smaller bowl, place your egg, melted butter, diced apple, pumpkin puree, and buttermilk. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and let stand for about 5 minutes. At this point, you can now make your caramelized apple topping!

In a large-ish skillet, melt your butter (here's where I'd use 2T...okay maybe 3 or 4T of butter!) over medium-ish heat. Add your brown sugar and apples and stir until the apples are nice and soft, and slightly golden (8ish minutes). (I can tell you from experience, that using one of those apple peeler/corer/slicers will save you so much time...do it!)

(This is my husband, being an awesome assistant, caramelizing the apples. Don't you love the action shot?!)

To cook your pancakes, scoop up 1/3c of the batter and plop it onto your preheated griddle. Cook on one side until it's bubbly, then flip and cook another 1 1/2ish minutes. When they are done, top with your delicious caramelized apples, some warm maple syrup, and maybe...just maybe...some brown sugar!

(Here is an unnecessary photo of the pancakes almost finished cooking.)

(The plated goodness.)

The recipe says it serves 4 people, but I can easily eat 4 of these delicious suckers myself! Enjoy!

Pumpkin Recipe #1: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spread

This. Is absolutely one of my favorite pumpkin delights that we enjoy in my house. I could literally eat it with a spoon, but that's probably not the wisest thing...so many calories and all. I got this recipe from my good friend Haley, who is a self-proclaimed foodie, and I agree! She always has the most delicious recipes and I've never been disappointed...ever!

I have so many pumpkin recipes on my Pinterest boards, and I am hoping to make a dent in some of them this coming Autumn, and not just make my favorite ones like I usually do. Lots of treats, so hopefully I'll have the energy to try some of the new ones out!

I cannot for the life of me find where I pinned this darned recipe, and every new one I look at is not the one I have! I hate to not give credit where credit is due, but I might just have to call this recipe my own? Kidding! I'm just gonna grab one and adapt it. Here goes...

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Recipe (Adapted from LaLoosh)

Ingredients:
8 oz softened cream cheese
1/2c pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/4c sugar
3/4t pumpkin pie spice
1/2t vanilla

Toss all ingredients into a medium-ish bowl and beat with an electric mixer until it's nice and smooth. Refrigeration is recommended, for an hour, then you can spread on bagels and the like. My favorite is to put it on cinnamon raisin bagels!

I hope you enjoy this as much as my family and I do!

Back to 123, Annual Training, and an End to 100 Happy Days

I'm back on monthly CBCs for my hematologist, and I had another draw on Monday. I had a feeling they were going to be up, and I was right! They went from 116k to 123k! I didn't even have to email my hematologist to ask if they results were in yet, because the hospital system was working correctly, which seems to be rare ;) They were at exactly this number back in March, which is making me hopeful that they will continue to rise and hit 'normal' sometime soon.

Here is a graph of my entire ITP journey thus far.

Chris has been in or around Yakima (even 2 days in Redmond for inventory!) for his Annual Training for Army since July 12. It has been very hard him being away. A lot of the days, the girls misbehave (typical, not just when Daddy's gone) but when he didn't come home at night for me to have a little break, it was even harder. He did get to come home and sleep for the 2 days he was in Redmond, so that was a nice surprise. He still doesn't know for sure if he will be helping fight the wildfires going on in central Washington. His 2 weeks is up this coming Sunday, and still no official word, which is frustrating for more than just me. Praying for tons more rain where it's needed, and that he can come home on Sunday as planned. We have a friend who was activated to fight the fires, so please keep Dusten in your prayers, along with his wife Heidi. OH! I forgot to mention Chris was promoted to SSG while in AT, so that's a bonus!

I didn't mention this before, but I participated in the 100 Happy Days challenge, like a lot of people have. I successfully completed it, and got a ton of compliments and feedback that I should do it again! I've decided that I'm going to start it again on August 1st. For those of you that follow my Instagram (allisonnoelle), all of my photos were tagged with the #100happydays. There's probably a huge long list if you just search for that, though!

Here are a few of my favorites:

Day 3

Day 15

Day 38

Day 57

Day 79

Day 93

One more thing...I will probably be doing another giveaway in the month of August for my business! It'll to celebrate me being a small business owner for an entire year! I still have to think of what I'm going to do, so stay tuned!

P.S. Pumpkin is making its way back into my house already (in the form of pumpkin cream cheese)! Squee! (That means recipes coming!)