Snack of the Week/Recipe Time: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies!

Happy Sunday everyone!

I hope everyone's day has been as relaxing as mine! :)

It's September and I'm craving fall, my second favorite season (my favorite is winter!).  Sadly, in Baton Rouge we don't really get a fall or a winter... instead we get a vaguely-cooler time of year that I like to call "not summer."  As of this week we are still in the 90s in terms of temperatures, but next week we should drop down to the 80s (freezing, I know).

In honor of fall's approach, I baked some cookies in the Kreiger house today.  They are one of the Kyle's favorite: pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!  I usually save them for Halloween/Thanksgiving time, but we just couldn't resist!  Therefore, our snack of the week is also a recipe! They have THREE ingredients and are low-fat without sacrificing delicousness.  They are very ugly cookies though, don't let them fool you!  Also, a BIG thank you to Sara for giving me this recipe in the first place!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1 box of Spice cake mix
1 small can of pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
1 12-ounce bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix spice cake mix and canned pumpkin in a large bowl until smooth.  This is very hard to do by hand because the dough will be SO thick.  I usually use an electric hand mixer for at least 2 minutes.
• Once thoroughly mixed, add in the chocolate chips with a spoon until they are spread evenly through the dough.
• Use a nonstick cookie sheet and dip out the dough with a spoon. This batch makes between 20 and 24 cookies. Since the cookies are pretty big, I had to do more than one sheet full.
• Bake 18 minutes or until you can stick a knife in a cookie and pull it out clean.
• Serve with milk! :)

I count 3 pointsplus for these cookies, based on a estimate I saw on the Weight Watchers Recipe Builder when I had an online account. These cookies are much healthier than normal because you substitute pumpkin for eggs and oil!  I feel like the pumpkin/cake mix combo makes the cookies more moist/cake-y than other cookies.  Even people who don't like pumpkin seem to really enjoy these cookies.  I blame the delicious semi-sweet chocolate chips!  So if you are in the mood for something sweet that isn't going to offset your entire week of eating well, give these a try!  I hope you enjoy!

Until next time,
BK