Nakita Grinie

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

The girls and I have been off school all week.

It has been glorious....no big plans...staying in our pj's most of the day & doing some baking!

In October & November I make tons and tons of things with pumpkin in them, but once December hits, I switch over to Christmas baking mode and I keep the pumpkin on the shelf and replace it with all things Peppermint & Chocolate. 

The girls wanted to make cookies this week, so we decided on these ones:

 Here is what you need:

 Bake at 350 for 14-15 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned and set in centers. 

You will love these cookies. 

They are soft and delicious.

The pumpkin, oatmeal & chocolate chips taste so good together.

 All 5 of us love them....Luke even pulled up a chair to the counter and stole 2 of them from the plate when he thought we weren't looking. 

Hope you love these as much as we do.
Need more Pumpkin Recipes? Check out these ones:
 Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies {HERE}


 Pumpkin Ice Cream Cake {HERE}

Pumpkin Bread {HERE} 

And, some savory recipes with Pumpkin....
Sweet Potato Black Bean & Pumpkin Chili {HERE}

Baked Ziti with Pumpkin, Sausage & Spinach {HERE}

 I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

Enjoy!

 Here is what you need:

 1 (1lb) box of Pasta

1 lb of Sausage (I use Sweet Italian)
1 can (15 oz) canned Pumpkin
4 cups of fresh spinach

Diced Onion (I use pre-diced because my eyes are so sensitive to chopping onions)
2 teaspoons of garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cayenne pepper
1 can (12 fl oz) Evaporated Milk. (I used low fat, but you could use non-fat)
2 cups Mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup  Parmesan cheese

 Cook your sausage & diced onions.

 After your sausage is fully cooked, remove the sausage from the pan & set aside. I kept some of the onions & sausage grease in the pan.

In the same pan, add the can of pumpkin, garlic powder, salt & cayenne pepper.

 Stir it up.

 Then add the can of evaporated milk (you could use half & half, but I didn't have that, so I used evaporated milk!)

Slowly add evaporated milk, stirring until smooth. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 to 3 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken slightly.

 Then, add the sliced mushrooms to the sauce (if you don't like mushrooms, leave them out...we love mushrooms!)

 Then add the sausage back into the pan. Stir & cook over meduim heat for another 2-3 minutes.

 Your pasta should be done cooking by now, so in a big bowl, mix the pasta, spinach, sauce & 1 1/2 cups of mozzarella cheese.

 Mix it all together so the sauce has coated everything. Put into a 9x13 baking dish.

 Add another 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese & the 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan to the top.

 Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Then for an additional 5-10 minutes bake with out the foil.