Today involved holiday baking which means today was an awesome day. There is something about cooking to NSYNC, Mariah Carey, and Faith Hill’s Christmas songs that guarantee you’re going to be in a good mood!
I’m mailing out some cookies to family and friends tomorrow and decided to make an assortment of pumpkin mookies and peanut butter mookies to send their way. Mookies are the term Josh’s dad gave to baked goods that are a cross between a cookie and a muffin. I thought this was so cute and the perfect term for them, so its stuck with me.
Pumpkin Mookies:
1 can pumpkin
1 box spice mix
1 cup chocolate chip cookies
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie mix
This is a super simple recipe. You just mix all the ingredients together, plop them onto a cookie sheet, and bake them at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
The result is pure deliciousness! Soft, moist, sweet, and chewy! The best combination. (Like my cute spatula? Read to the end of this post to find out how to win your own!)
The recipe makes about 20 pumpkin mookies. I had to package these immediately so that I wasn’t tempted to eat them all before I could mail them!
After baking the pumpkin mookies I took an hour to do a pilates workout and it felt amazing. I was inspired today watching this video on Live Laugh Eat’s blog and wanted to share it with you. We have 24 hours in a day. For optimum health we need to take just thirty minutes of those 24 hours and get our bodies moving. It makes a world of a difference, as an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I’m really going to be more diligent with myself about making sure I’m taking time for my body and giving it the exercise it needs. And exercise can feel so good! I was a pilates noodle after my workout, feeling stretched and strong and super smiley. Gotta love those endorphins!
For dinner I decided to use up the other half of last night’s tofu and marinade it in a personal creation of mine. It involved spicy mustard, soy sauce, ketchup, apple pepper jam, salt, water, and strawberry shrub. I was just throwing things together and crossing my fingers it would turn out good. Next time I make tofu I’ll be keeping track of the exact amounts used as this turned out incredible. I sauteed it with some chopped carrots and tomatoes before adding in some protein pasta.
Quick, simple, healthy, and delicious! I will definitely be making this again!
After eating dinner I got back down to baking business!
Peanut Butter Kiss Mookies
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bag Hershey kisses
This was another really simple recipe. Mix the wet, mix the dry, combine them together, scoop onto a cookie sheet, sprinkle with sugar, and bake at 350 degrees for fifteen minutes.
While the mookies are cooling press a Hershey kiss directly in the center.
I’m used to making peanut butter kiss cookies that are tiny and rolled in sugar. My stepmom has the best recipe that is my go-to favorite. Her mom passed down recipes to her that she then tweaked and modified over the years. She has a recipe box that has some of the most amazing recipes in it. Unfortunately I forgot to ask her for the cookie recipe before she left for work so I modified an online recipe. I knew almost immediately into baking that these were not going to be the same. This batter was very wet, whereas normally peanut butter kiss cookies have a very dry batter so they can be rolled in sugar. This is probably due to me subbing out shortening for apple sauce. Taste wise they are less peanut butter cookie and much more peanut butter muffin. (Hence the name.) They taste great and I’m really happy with them but they’re different than peanut butter kiss cookies. Now that I’ve discovered a new recipe for mookies I think I will be making peanut butter kiss cookies sometime next week so I can still get my cookie fix.
Did you notice that cute Be A Good Cookie spatula I was using while I baked? OXO was so kind to send me one to promote their Cookies for Kids’ Cancer charity. Two OXO employees had a son born with pediatric cancer while working at the company. Through their own personal family battle with cancer they learned that 25% of kids diagnosed with cancer do not survive because of a lack of effective therapies. And the reason for the lack of effective therapies is simple: lack of funding. OXO decided to help “bake a difference” by creating Cookies for Kids’ Cancer and making a limited edition cookie spatula where 50% of profits (up to $100,000 a year) benefit pediatric cancer research and awareness. The spatula costs $6.99 and is available on Amazon and at Bed Bath and Beyond. They also offer people the opportunity to host bake sales fundraising for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer where they will match all proceeds from registered bakes sales (up to $100,00 a year). To sign up for one information can be found here.
Thinking of such little bodies battling such big illnesses breaks my heart. Anything to spread awareness is a step in the right direction. OXO offered me the opportunity to give away a spatula to a reader. I hope its cute message and bright color will start up conversations in your own kitchen about its meaning and bring awareness to a very serious issue. You never know the difference it could make!
To enter to win a Be A Good Cookie spatula:
- Comment telling me about an issue that is near and dear to your heart.
The contest is open until Monday, December 19th at 11:59 pm EST.
While you’re entering that contest, don’t forget to enter to win a cooler filled with Wholly Guacamole. Entries are being accepted until Friday night at midnight!
Oh my goodness all of that looks SO delicious! I’m definitely going to give your recipes a try. 😀
Awesome! I would love to hear what you think!! 😀
Wow the mookies look great!!! And the spatula is really really cute! Any issue near and dear to my heart is Alzheimers awareness.
I love the spatula! Oh yes, my stepmom’s mom and Josh’s grandma both had alzheimers. Its scary stuff.
That spatula is adorable! I’m going to be doing all of my baking next week. An issue that is near and dear to me is education, especially reading to young children.
Oh have fun baking! And yes, education is so important and something that will help people their whole life through!
great looking cookies and child obesity. Like the new food plate and has helped my kids.
Yes, I love Michelle Obama’s Lets Move! campaign! I think it is so important!
I agree that Alzheimers awareness is near and dear to my heart. It’s really sad to watch the people you love go through that.
I’m so sorry you had to deal with that. Diseases of any kind are not fun!
Those pumpkin mookies look delicious and so easy to make!
Gay rights is an issue that I’m passionate about. I have done volunteer work with the local HRC chapter in my city. It’s a great organization and I love working and meeting with others who are passionate about the same issue.
They’re great! I def recommend trying them!
That is an awesome issue to be passionate about and one I really feel strongly about as well. Have you seen this video? http://youtu.be/MLnn96n3Lpg Its really inspiring!
I’m a sucker for animal charities. I’m involved with my local animal shelter’s big fundraising event every year. 🙂
Oh yes, those Sarah Mclachlan animal commercials make me bawl my eyes out! I cant imagine who would ever hurt such cute little balls of fluff! <3
What a great giveaway 🙂 An issue that is very important to me is forest conservation. If only more of us were more aware of the importance of forest conservation and the amount of unnecessary and/or illegal logging done every day!
Oh this is a good one! Going hand in hand with nature conservation is fracking. Have you heard of it? Living in Central PA I’m surrounded by it daily and I think there has to be more regulation on pumping toxins into the ground!
Those cookies look amazing! The issue nearest to my heart is breast cancer – my grandmother was recently diagnosed, so it’s a big thing to us.
I’d love to hear what you think if you make the cookies!
Aww your grandmother is in my thoughts! <3
It would probably be recycling and getting more people to recycle. It isn’t that hard to do!
No its not and it makes such a big difference!
those look amazing, i’ve gotta try the recipie. i’m moving into my own apartment next week! so excited to bake. but an issue that’s really important to me is the research of progeria. i don’t know if you’ve heard of it but it’s a genetic disease that causes rapid aging in children. i did a research paper and project on it in 6th grade and ever since then i’ve been passionate about it. talk about little bodies with big struggles. most of them die of strokes. :[ it’s horrible and there’s no known cure. it literally breaks my heart. sorry to put a dapper on your lovely post.
Oh I have heard of that! Is that like what Robbin Williams goes through in the movie Big? That was so sad and so touching.
yeah sort of like that. super sad. :[
Those look AMAZING! Def gonna try the pumpkin spice ones!
An issue near and dear to my heart is definitely autism awareness. My brother and cousin have both been diagnosed with aspergers syndrome, and while my parents took it in and learned how to cope, my aunt and uncle are ignoring it and pretending it doesnt exist, which makes me sad. Not to mention there are tons of people out there who still believe a lot of misconceptions about autism.
I’d love to hear what you think of them!
I wrote an article for the Sony Open about autism during my internship. The Sony Open donates to Hawaii Autism Association so I was sent to interview the director. It was really eye opening to learn about all the misconceptions and the real facts. It was very educational!
sounds like a great day of baking!
Aw thanks it was! And today was another great day of baking! Ill have the recipes posted tomorrow!
Mookies sound awesome! One cause near to my heart is breast cancer, Im from a family of survivors and I wish everyone could be as blessed as I am in that regard.
They’re so good! I’m so happy your family has had such success with battling such a horrible disease!