Raspberry Almond Bars

These bars are super easy to make and taste delcious!  The raspberry preserves helps you save time instead of making a raspberry sauce from scratch.  You could easily substitute in another fruit preserve instead if you prefer something else - strawberry, blueberry, blackberry etc!

Servings: 16

Size:  1 bar

Points Plus: 4pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Bake Time:  25-30 minutes

Rating: 5 stars – Excellent

Ingredient List:

1 cup flour

¾ cup oats

½ cup sugar

½ cup butter

½ tsp. almond extract

½ cup red raspberry preserves

1/3 cup almonds, sliced

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Lightly grease an 8x8 or 9x9 baking pan.  In a large bowl, mix together the flour, oats and sugar.  Add in the butter and cut with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir in the almond extract and mix well.  Reserve about 1 cup of the oat mixture.  Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan, pressing down firmly to bind the crumbs together.  Spread the raspberry preserves over the top to about ½ inch from the edges of the pan.  Mix the sliced almonds with the reserved oat mixture and sprinkle on top of the preserves; press down gently.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.

Tip:

Not everyone owns a pastry blender!  That’s okay, this recipe can still be made without one.  Use a fork instead to cut the butter into the oat/flour/sugar mixture.  You have to keep working at it, but eventually the mixture will turn into crumbs!

XOXO Megan

Frosted Pumpkin Cookies

I have had this recipe saved to my Pinterest dessert board for quite awhile.  It comes from the Parent Pretty blog – check out the original recipe here.  I made a few modifications, most notably, I cut the recipe in half.  I wasn’t ready to have 5 dozen cookies staring me in the face and testing my self-control!  2 and 1/2 dozen seemed like a much more reasonable amount for me to make.

Servings: 2 ½ dozen (or 30) cookies

Size:  1 cookie

Points Plus: 4pp

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time:  10-12 minutes per cookie sheet

Rating: 4 stars –  Very good

 

Ingredient List:

Cookies:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground nutmeg

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

½ 15 oz. can pumpkin

2 cups flour

Frosting:

¼ cup butter

¼ cup packed brown sugar

2 or 3 tsp. milk

½ tsp. vanilla

2 to 3 cups powdered sugar (depending on frosting thickness/consistency)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Using a mixer, beat the butter for 30 seconds.  Add in sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and beat until well combined.  Add the egg and vanilla, mix well.  Next, beat in the pumpkin.  Finally, add in the flour in multiple steps, not all at once.  On an ungreased cookie sheet, drop heaping teaspoons of cookie dough a few inches between each cookie.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Cool on a wire cooling rack.

To make the frosting, heat the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan on the stove.  Make sure the mixture is well combined and smooth.  Transfer the butter/sugar into a bowl, whisk in the 2 tsp. milk and vanilla.  Beat in powdered sugar, add more until frosting is to your desired level of thickness vs. more of a glaze.   You may need to add additional milk to acheive the frosting thickness you prefer as well.  Once the cookies have completely cooled, spread frosting on top.

Tip:

I can't stress enough the importance of waiting until your cookies have cooled before you add the frosting to the tops.  I was impatient and my cookies although started out looking great (see picture above), but I quickly watched my frosting droop and melt off the top and setlle into small pools at the edges of each cookie. :(

XOXO Megan

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

This recipe is actually for Pumpkin Spice CAKE, but since I have little self control when it comes to desserts I used the old standby portion trick and turned them into cupcakes! This recipe is so simple and very low in points for a delish pumpkin dessert.  Enjoy!

Servings: 15
Servings Size: 1 cupcake
Points Plus: 3pp
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Rating: 4 - Very Good

Ingredients
1 box of spice cake
1/2 cup water
15 oz canned pumpkin
Fat-free cool whip*
Cupcake liners

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350.  Mix spice cake, water and pumpkin in a bowl.  Scoop cake mixture into cupcake tins and bake for about 30 minutes.  Let cool and top with cool whip.

Tip
Let's face it, fat-free cool whip is not the most 'natural' food out there.  Let's face it, it is 0pp so I don't really care! (I believe that anything is fine in moderation) I also like cool whip on pudding for another low point snack. Also - these freeze good and would make a tasty breakfast with a banana on the side!  And finally!!!! I used my Pampered Chef cookie scoop to put the batter in the muffin tins, it helped them be equal sizes!

XOXO - Katie