Tag: breakfast

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting

Lauren5 Comments

A few weekends ago, Joey was off seeing some scary movie and I was at home dreaming of something sweet and delicious that combined chocolate and pumpkin. Basically the opposite of anything involved in a scary movie.

I tested out the recipe. We ate 12 muffins between the two of us (not at once, I promise).  They were good but I knew they could be better, so I remade them and they came out perfect. And I received boyfriend confirmation that they were “awesome!!” and even better than the first batch.

And they better be because I decided to “take a quick walk” to Target to buy muffin tin liners for them and that short walk ended up taking an hour. Definitely worth it, though. I know they’re all chocolatey and cream cheesy, but they’re also all whole wheaty and oil free(y?) and therefore total breakfast material.  And the perfect “grab-and-go” breakfast for when you stayed up way to late watching election coverage and want to sleep as long as possible the next morning.

Just one thing. We’re still into pumpkin, right? Okay good.

Double Chocolate Muffins with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting

For the muffins:

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 stick butter, softened
  • 1 egg
  • 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

For the frosting:

  • 1/2 stick butter, softened
  • 8 oz. cream cheese
  • 1.5 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cream together butter and sugar (in a mixer or with a hand mixer).  Add egg and beat until combined.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, soda, baking powder, and cocoa powder.
  4. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, along with applesauce and beat until combined.
  5. Fold in mini chocolate chips.
  6. Fill greased muffin tin with batter, filling 3/4 full.  Bake for 25 minutes.
  7. For frosting, cream butter and cream cheese together until combined, then add sugar, pumpkin and cinnamon and beat for 3-5 minutes or until fluffy.
  8. Once muffins are cooled completely, generously frost with pumpkin cream cheese frosting.

Remember when I baked muffins without liners and broke the tops off of every single muffin while trying to free them from the pan?  And then instead of topping them with frosting, I glued the two pieces back together with the frosting?  Turns out this makes for the perfect muffin.

Trust me, just try it.

Weekend Things: This Is Fall

Lauren2 Comments

I woke up to this on Friday morning.

Snow?  I’m so not ready for snow.  Or cold.  Or anything even remotely winter-y.  If I had my way, I’d hit the pause button on the last week of September and live with that weather for the rest of my life.

On the plus side, cooler fall temps make Starbucks taste extra good.

This new little Starbucks popped up last week.  Only three weeks after they started building it!  It’s a new thing Starbucks is trying.  The store is teeny tiny, with only enough room for a few baristas and customers can’t even go inside.  There is a walk-up window though.  I can’t decide if it’s strange or cool.

I could totally get used to seeing these kinds of fall colors when I walk around our neighborhood.  Please don’t tell me that in a few weeks these will all have fallen.  I don’t think I can handle it.

Fall also brings Joey’s brother’s birthday.  I can’t say this enough: I love other people’s birthdays!  We went out to a Brazilian steakhouse in Denver to celebrate.  Basically, waiters walk around with meat on giant spears and you get a little card that signals weather you want a piece or not.  Do you know how many different cuts of beef there are??

Then Joey and I pretended it was actually our birthday and got our own dessert.

I left declaring I was never eating again.

Until Chipotle Thursday the next day.

Which has nothing to do with it being fall.  Or even the weekend, technically.  My blog, my rules.

I totally dig the beer and football season thing.  Except for the football part.

Nothing is more fall than chili.  And just like Starbucks, chili is better when it’s…well, when it’s chili.

A hot homemade breakfast with my family is like hitting the jackpot when you come in from the cold outside.

 

 

Just a typical Sunday morning with dogs barking, babies wandering, 3-year-olds causing trouble and adults trying to fit in a word edgewise.

And maybe acting like kids too.

I let my mom’s dachshund off the leash for probably the first time ever and she went nuts, running around as fast as she could.  It was adorable.  And so was the fact that my nephew who usually wants nothing to do with me, wouldn’t let me leave his side all morning.

I’m guessing he forgets all about liking me by the next time I see him.

Also back, is Joey and I’s tradition of seeing an early morning Saturday movie.  When it’s cool outside and hiking season is sadly over, seeing a movie (for cheap!) seems like the next best thing.  We saw Pitch Perfect and both loved it.  But more on that later, I’m off for more October birthday celebrating.

I love other people’s birthdays!

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What did you do this weekend?

What are your favorite fall things?

Have cold temperatures reached your neck of the woods?  Did I really just say “neck of the woods?”