Since we’re on a pumpkin spice kick, I want to share my other new recipe with you all. Again, I designed this recipe for my fur daughters, but it’s human friendly (and tasty) as well. With only 6 ingredients, it’s super easy too! So let’s get baking!

Puffy Pumpkin Cookies

I love creating new recipes for my entire family. One of my goals is to mak
them healthy, taste good, and use very little ingredients so they are easy to make
This recipe is no exception. You only need 6 ingredients and I’m willing to bet
you have most of them, if not all of them in your house. Like the other recipe,
this one calls for pureed pumpkin. I usually have this on hand for baking, but
make sure it’s just 100% pumpkin. (It’s better that way!) I’m ready to get started,
so let’s go!

Here’s What You’ll Need:

• ¾ cup Kind Granola (you can use any brand, but we are partial to Kind)
• ¾ cup Pureed Pumpkin
• ⅓ cup Brown Sugar
• ¼ cup Coconut or Olive Oil (This is amazing for skin and heart health too!
• 1 ½ cups of Flour

Preheat your oven to 400°. Mix the first five ingredients well. Then slowly mix in flour.

Once you have it all mixed well, grease your cookie sheet. Drop your dough by rounded

teaspoons onto the pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool.

That’s all there is to it! Using teaspoon sized cookies, this recipe will yield about three dozen

tasty treats. Like I said, humans and fur babies will love them. But remember, because these

are all natural, there are no preservatives. Therefore you should store them in your fridge.

If you want to keep them more than a week, then freeze them. Just thaw when you’re ready to enjoy.

Pumpkin Spice Granola Bites

Fall is right around the corner. Since I just got my girls some pumpkin Spice Greenies, it got me thinking that I needed to create some autumn treats for them as well. This fall inspired granola recipe is easy, and best of all, since it’s made with all natural ingredients, it’s not just a dog treat. This recipe can double as human treats too.

Pumpkin Spice Granola Bites

Granola is super tasty and amazing for you as well. The oats are full of fiber, so they help lower cholesterol and can even prevent diabetes. The nuts and seeds in Granola are chock full of unsaturated fats which are good for your ticker too. It’s also good for your four legged family too! Which is why you’ll notice I incorporate it into almost all of our treat recipes. If you love all things pumpkin spice, then this recipe is for you! You can whip it up in no time, and your kids, as well as fur kids are going to love it! So let’s get started.

.First, preheat your oven to 375°. You’re going to toast your regular oats, and a few ingredients before you get into actually making the granola. Here’s what you’ll need.

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups Oats
• ¼ cup of Coconut Oil (Olive or Vegetable Oil will work too)
• 1 ½ tsp of Cinnamon

Mix these three ingredients together, then spread them out into a baking pan. In total you will bake these are 375° degrees for 25 minutes. However, have your phone handy to set a timer. Stir them around every ten minutes so they don’t burn. After the full twenty five minutes, remove them from the oven and turn it down to 300°.

While your oats are toasting, gather and combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl. You will need:

• 1 cup Kind Granola
• ⅓ cup Pureed Pumpkin (canned works great, but make sure it’s JUST pumpkin.)
• ⅓ cup Brown Sugar
• ¼ cup Honey

Pour your toasted oats into the mix, and stir well. Next grab your bar pan. I use my handy silicone pan that makes little square bites. Press the mixture in, and bake at 300 for 30 minutes. (You can bake these longer if you want them crunchier, but keep an eye on them as noone wants burnt granola.

If you’re using a bar pan, let them cool for about ten minutes, then cut them into bars. Don’t wait too long or you will have a huge mess of crumbs!

That’s it. How easy is that? With only 7 ingredients, you just created a yummy and healthy treat for your loved ones! These Pumpkin Spice Granola Bites taste amazing. My sister and I and my dogs love them, and I know your family will too.

Yields 3 dozen in my square treat pan

(Side Note: Since this recipe does call for sugar, only give your dog a treat or two ((depending on their size)) per day. You don’t want to give them too much, no matter how much they love them.)

Perspective

  Yesterday afternoon was off to a rough start. Liam was rotten for me during lessons. His new punishment is a writing assignment. 1) because he REALLY needs to work on his handwriting, and getting him to write is like pulling teeth. 2) because he hates it, and I'm sorry, but time outs, and groundings don't work. Had to try something new.

  So when he has been exceptionally rotten, he has to write. We start off with 5 short sentences, and if he persists, then it goes up by 5 each time. So I waited til Mr. M (TSS) got here to make him do it. I KNEW it was going to be a fight. It wasn't long, and I raised it to 10 sentences. He was screaming at me, kicking my chair and refusing to do it. So there son, now you have to do more!

  It turned into a pretty nasty meltdown. It was a tantrum at first. He was pissed. He didn't want to waste his "Mr. M time doing stupid writing." It quickly spun out of control and into a meltdown. He was screaming at me and telling me, "I SUCK! I CAN'T DO IT! MY WRITING IS HORRIBLE!" (he over heard me telling his new school I wanted an OT eval for him because his writing is not where it should be :/ ) He ended up hiding under my desk and insisting Mr. M leave the room. Odd, because he LOVES M. You see, the older Liam gets the more aware of his feelings he is. He was embarrassed.  He told me later he didn't want Mr. M seeing him "so mad and so sad." Once M complied (and I felt terrible for him) Liam dried his tears, rocked a bit and banged out his writing. I even offered to knock two off for him being such a trooper. His rule abiding reply??? "No momma, you said 10 and I was bad, so I will do 10."

  My plan was to let him paint pumpkins. As you know, being an autism momma is also about recognizing triggers for our kiddos. I knew that his self esteem at the moment was low and that letting him paint pumpkins may make that worse. He is such a perfectionist. Instead I decided to let him carve one. He grew 14, we have plenty to spare! He has a special kid safe knife (thank you pampered chef) that won't cut him, and he LOVES to be let loose on unsuspecting pumpkins.

  Now, I usually draw the face on, and then let him carve it. He tells me how he wants it to look and I draw it. This year, I figured I would just let him do as he wanted to it. It would be 100% Liam. We cleaned it out, and he was off......

This is what he carved....

Now, he stepped back and looked. I could see the disdain in his little face. "Momma. I suck! I ruined it!" Oh good God, here we go again. Thank God, my brain thought quickly for a change. "No, no Liam. You didn't ruin it!" "Yes I did momma. Look at the big hole!" "Liam, you see a big hole, I see a place to put the light without me having to reach inside it. Yuck!" He smiled wide! "You're right momma!" (Yep, ALWAYS,  just ask you're dad!) 

He was happy with that, and was ready to move on with more carving. So, I  asked him if he wanted a face on it. He did. I drew what he asked. He carved the eyes, nose and part of the mouth, then asked me to take over because his hands were tired. Those  pumpkins are thick little suckers!

Liam's pumpkin :)

When he was all done, I did the redneck thing that pita always does with the pumpkins. I jammed in a solar light. So much safer than candles, and I don't have to remember to go out and light it every night. When Liam saw it with the solar light, he was very pleased with his huge hole. He later told me "Yeah momma. I carved that big hole for a reason." ;) 

 So, carving pumpkins turned out to be a great lesson for Liam on perspective. He learned that there isn't only one way to see something. That there is always a bright side.

redneck pumpkin lighting ;)

<3 <3 <3 <3