This post was brought to you by caffeine.

Usually when I get off of work I need a nap.  Well, I had been so worked up about wanting to try the recipes that were floating around my head all day.  I knew I wanted to remake the King Arthur apple cheesy bread and spice it up.  I also recognized my behavior of making non stop pumpkin items so I also wanted to try some healthier variations to some recipes.  When I got home I tried to take a nap, but was so excited I jumped out of my bed and headed to the kitchen to make a blondie recipe with pumpkin.  My grandma has been rebelling against my healthy food, so I asked her to try my new dessert.
“Oh!  It’s good!  It tastes like ice cream!”
“It’s a healthy dessert.  It’s made with beans.”
“Beans?!?  ……….You’d never know there were beans in there.”

😀 😀 😀

I win.

More on that later…

I wake up early during the week for week so my body is naturally going to wake up early on the weekends, but it’s gotten to where if I sleep past 7 or I’m not dressed and out the door by 9:00 I feel like I’ve wasted my day. So, this morning for some reason I sprang out of my bed at 4. My friend and I have been walking at the park but that isn’t until 730. I had to get out of my bed. Ok.

It has been two years since my Ireland trip and I still haven’t printed any pictures. They are on my computer and on an SD card somewhere in my room. (Yes, I know how that is living on the edge and I could end up in a bucket of tears and traumatized.) I waited too long to order anything on the photo website I had them uploaded to so that backup plan was deleted. My computer has been making me nervous and I knoooow I need to print them so today was the day!!!!

Y’all I took 1,700 pictures. What was I thinking?!? The good thing about waiting 2 years before touching them was it made it so easy to weed through. “Why did I take a picture of that? I don’t need that one. I don’t need 11 pictures of this piece of grass. What’s with this mug? No.” I have one folder left to go through but so far am down to 420 which I will weed through again.

I drank two cups of coffee and listened to worship music during this productivity. While they were actually uploading I read some of Hosea. (Flashback to my recent post about the crisis and anxiety of needing to read the whole bible at one time… I’m supposed to be reading Exodus …).

Two cups of coffee later just in time for my family to just be waking up and me bouncing off the walls. I’m usually to myself in the mornings and need time before talking … Not today!!!

I almost texted my friend that we could go earlier because I’m pretty sure I could have ran a marathon. Let’s have a recap:
Two weeks ago when I got in her car we were both groggy and I hadn’t had anything to eat so I was shoving a piece of bread in my mouth for some kind of carbs.
“I had a banana.”
“I forgot to buy bananas.”

730 rolled around today and I jumped in the car “Hey!!!! I’ve had coffee!!! I’m ready!!” With my fists in the air. “Do you need quiet?? Is it too early for talking to you???” Thankfully she said no and laughed because I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have kept quiet if I tried. Too much coffee and an empty stomach.

We got back home and the crash hit me.  I wanted to remake an apple cheesy bread from King Arthur’s website, but I wanted to add bacon and herbs.  Mmmmmm.  I’d been thinking of it for a while now.  I headed to the store to get ingredients and decided while I was experimenting to try a different flour, too.  I picked up a bag of whole wheat flour and a gluten free brand Cup for Cup that my coworker had told me about.

When I got home I started the cheesy apple bread.

While that was in the works I kept thinking of pumpkin blondies and needing to try this recipe.  I made the cheesy bread on Saturday and the pumpkin Sunday.  I’ve lost my mind with the amount of pumpkin recipes I’ve tried in 3 weeks so these needed to be a little healthier.  I cannot keep up this delicious pace and fit in my pants, so this recipe needed to be awesome.  Friday I had made a ‘blondie’ using chickpeas, but I still want to work on that a bit before sharing.

The original recipe from Brown Eyed Baker uses a 13×9 inch pan, so since this was an experiment I cut the recipe in half as to not use all of my ingredients at once.

I know I bought brand new whole wheat flour and gluten free, but I felt like pumpkin and oats just go together.

To make oat flour you grind up oats using the same measurements.  I used the nutribullet.
1 cup of scooped oats blended is 1 cup of oat flour.

I labeled my pans A and B and then shared asking which one is better and to see if they knew why.  They were both equally delicious, but one was a little richer and one was sweeter.

Ingredients for each pan:

Gluten Free Pumpkin Blondies A
1 1/4 Cups Oat Flour
1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 1/4 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1/4 teaspoon Allspice
1/2 brown butter
1 Egg
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup Pure Maple Syrup
1/2 cup granulated sugar
8 oz Pure pumpkin puree
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts

Gluten Free Pumpkin Blondies B
1 1/4 Cups Oat Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 1/4 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1/4 teaspoon Allspice
4 oz unsweetened applesauce
1 Egg
1/2 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
8 oz Pure Pumpkin Puree
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts

DIRECTIONS FOR EACH A AND B

A Directions:
1. Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees.  Spray 8×8 pan with non stick (or butter and flour your pans).
2. Brown butter***.  (I like to do this first so that while it’s cooling I can prepare other things and not have to wait.)
3. Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice.  Mix well.
4. In another bowl stir brown butter, maple syrup, and granulated sugar together.  Add pumpkin and gently stir in egg.  Add vanilla extract.
5.  Slowly incorporate wet ingredients to flour mixture and gently stir until combined.
6. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts
7. Pour in prepared pan and sprinkle a few oats on top.
8. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. (I had to bake a little more than 40 minutes.)
9.  Take out of oven and when cooled completely you can add a glaze which is totally optional (but totally recommended!).

B Directions:
1. Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees.  Spray 8×8 pan with non stick (or butter and flour your pans).
2. Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice.  Mix well.
3. In another bowl mix applesauce and maple syrup together.  Add pumpkin and gently stir in egg.  Add vanilla.
4.  Slowly incorporate wet ingredients to flour mixture and gently stir until combined.
5. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts
6. Pour in prepared pan and sprinkle a few oats on top.
7. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. (I had to bake a little more than 40 minutes.)
8.  Take out of oven and when cooled completely you can add a glaze which is totally optional (but totally recommended!).

*** If you do not know how to brown butter be prepared for a life changing experience.  You simply:
1. Heat a pan over medium heat. (Light colored bottom works best so you can see whether or not it’s burning.)
2. Place butter in pan and swirl around.  As it begins to melt it will begin to foam and you whisk and whisk and whisk.  It will turn from light to a light brown to a darker brown and start to smell absolutely amazing.  Be careful not to burn it and then transfer to a heat proof bowl.  (Trust me.  One time I only had time to grab a plastic piece of tupperware and…well…it collapsed on itself and there was brown butter everywhere.  Science does not care about your lack of planning.  It was very neat to watch in real time as the plastic melted.)