Pumpkin Pizza

Papa Murphy's Pizza usually sells pumpkin shaped pizzas around Halloween and we usually buy one for a quick easy meal. This year we made our own and it was so easy.

 I just made our favorite pizza crust, rolled it out into a funny shaped circle and then gathered the top together for a stem.

Addie and I both decorated one. After I took this picture she decided to add another layer of sauce for the hair.

Happy Halloween!

Last Minute Halloween Ideas

We are running out of time before Halloween so here are a few fun ideas I have seen around the internet that you could whip up in the next few days.

These adorable Witch Hats from See Vanessa Craft

Candy Corn Ghost People from Knead to Cook

Frankenstein Cookies from Munchkin Munchies

Monster Cookies from Artsy Fartsy Mama

Halloween Jello Cups from Simply This and That

Don't forget my Halloween Cups.

Healthy Halloween Snack

With all the candy and sweets around Halloween it's nice to give my kids something a little healthier but still fun and festive. I saw this cute idea on Serving Pink Lemonade and ran to the store with my little one. I told Addie I had a surprise snack for her after preschool and when she saw these she was as excited as she would have been if it was a cookie.

You could also just draw with a sharpie on the skin of a little clementine, like over on Homespun with Love. If only those were in season around here.

 

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

Aren't these cookies adorable? I saw them on a wonderful recipe blog called High Heels and Grills and knew immediately I had to make them. The recipe is just the basic sugar cookie bars with the addition of some yellow and orange food coloring. Which make them a perfect Halloween treat. 

Cookies:

• 1/2 cup salted butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 T. sour cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• Orange and yellow food coloring

Frosting:

• 4 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 cup salted butter, softened
• 3-4 T. of milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract {I used clear vanilla, so the frosting would be more white, but any kind works}
• A pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F and grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add egg and combine well.
4. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until completely combined.
5. Slowly add the flour, baking powder and salt to the wet mixture and stir until well combined.
6. Color all of the dough yellow and remove half.
7. Press one half of the yellow batter into the dish, it will not seem like enough dough but just keep squishing it down.
8. Add orange food coloring to the rest of the yellow dough.
9. Spread the orange batter out, I broke of the orange batter into globs and then smooshed them all together. 
10. Bake for 17-20 minutes
11. Set aside to cool completely.
12. FOR THE FROSTING: In a medium bowl, cream powdered sugar, butter and milk until light and fluffy.
13. Stir in vanilla and salt and combine well.
14. Frost your cooled cookie bars evenly.
15. Cut into triangles and serve.

Recipe adapted from: High Heels and Grills

Of course this is how Addie's cookie turned out. Can't eat a cookie without some sprinkles. 

These are a perfect easy treat to take to neighbors and friends. I found this cute Spider You've been Booed! at Grey Square Designs. They have a free printable you can download.

Easy Fall Bouquet

The tree in my front yard is looking like this right now. It makes me almost forget how messy this tree is. I love to cut off some of these branches and put them in a vase. It makes a beautiful and free fall bouquet. 

                      

Make sure you rinse off the branches when you bring them in the house. I did this a few weeks ago and found a lovely spider crawling around my piano where I put the vase and I am NOT a fan of spiders.

Mummy Cups with Peanut Butter Popcorn

I saw some mummy cups like these in a magazine but they used fabric for the strips. I thought gluing on paper strips would be just as cute and so cheap because we already had all of the supplies.

All you need is:

• Paper ripped into strips
• Glue
• Pastic or paper cups
• Goggly Eyes

Put some glue on the cups and just start glueing the paper onto the cups. Try to cover all of the cup leaving no holes. Once it's covered glue on the eyes and fill them with whatever you like. 

This was such a fun easy craft to make and would be adorable as a little party favor or a treat for someone just wrapped up in cellophane and tied with a bow. I would have done that if I had any cellophane.

My girls loved making these too, this is how my 4 year olds turned out. She says it looks spooky.

We filled ours with Peanut Butter Popcorn which is one of our favorite snacks for movie night or game night. It is super simple to make and so addictive. Once you start eating it, you'll never stop. 

Peanut Butter Popcorn

1/2 c. Light Corn Syrup
1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Peanut Butter
1 t. Vanilla
6 - 8 c. Popped Pop Corn (about 1/2 c. un poped corn)

1. Mix corn syrup, sugar and peanut butter over medium heat just until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Take off heat and add the vanilla.
3. Stir in the Popcorn and eat! Watch out, it's HOT for a few minutes.                     

Linked up to these parties. 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I love all things pumpkin flavor, except pumpkin pie. Strange I know. Anyway, these are my go to pumpkin chocolate chip muffin and my favorite muffin of all time.  I love them because they are easy to make, taste devine and they use the whole can of pumpkin puree. No more trying to figure out what to make with the rest of the can.

I found this recipe one day when I googled healthy chocolate chip muffins, I don't think these are necessarily healthy but they have become my tried and true recipe. We are lucky if these last longer than one day, my whole family can not stop eating them. I also add about a 1/2 cup of chocolate chips in mine because everything is better with chocolate. 

INGREDIENTS:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour or 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour (or the white/wheat blend)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 15 ounce can solid-pack pumpkin (yes, dump in the whole can)
1/3 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1/2 chocolate chips

Topping:
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tablespoon sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Put oven rack in middle position. Preheat oven to 350F. Put liners in muffin cups or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
1. Whisk together flour and baking powder in a small bowl.
2. Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin-pie spice, cloves, nutmeg, 1 cup sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.
3. Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in another small bowl.
4. Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about 3/4 full), then sprinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake until puffed and golden brown and a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes for regular muffins, 15-17 minutes for mini-muffins.

Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

Source: Slightly adapted from: Healthy Diet Mom

Escape to Midway Utah

Reed and I celebrated our 6th anniversary this past weekend. It was pretty darn perfect. We started the night off walking around the new City Creek Mall with dinner at Texas De Brazil. We filled up on a lot of good food and dessert, which is always my favorite part of the date.

We found a wonderful Bed and Breakfast called Johnson Mill in Midway Utah, one of our favorite places on the earth. The hotel was completely picturesque complete with a waterfall, gazebo, pond and the fall colors that surrounded us. They also served us a delicious stuffed french toast for breakfast the next morning.

We both wanted to stay forever, unfortunately reality called us back. I think we will be going back for many anniversaries to come.

I love you Reed!

Halloween Picture Books

We read a lot of books around here.  It is one way I love to play with my girls. I have a hard time playing imagination or princesses but I can read picture books to my girls for hours.

I'm always on the look out for new books for us to read and every holiday we try to find some new favorites. These our the current favorites in our house for Halloween. Let me know if you have any other recommendations! We are always looking for more.





Room on the Broom
Room on the Broom is my favorite of all the Halloween picture books. It has a fun story, a little rthym and wonderful pictures. It is written by the same author as one of our other favorite picture books, The Gruffalo.

Hoodwinked
Hoodwinked is the story of a cute little witch who is looking for the perfect creepy pet but she is having a hard time finding the right one.

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
I think this is considered a Halloween classic. We enjoy reading this book which is probably the spookiest of our Halloween books. Not enough to make Addie scared but enough to make her curious about the ending.

Skeleton Hiccups
This one is probably my least favorite of the group but my four year old thinks it's hilarious. She will laugh out loud as the skeleton tries to get rid of his hiccups.

Too Many Pumpkins
This book is not really a Halloween book but a book about pumpkins. Rebecca hates pumpkins but she finds herself overwhelmed with pumpkins one year. She has to figure out what to do with her abundance of pumpkins.

Pumpkin Jack
Pumpkin Jack is another book more about pumpkins.  This book is about Tim carving a pumpkin for Halloween and naming him Jack. After Halloween he has a hard time getting rid of Jack so he leaves it to rot and watches as the pumpkin changes through the year.

Skeleton Meets the Mummy
This is a cute little story about a Skeleton going for a walk on Halloween when he is scared by a sound. He turns around and finds a Mummy chasing him!

Frankenstein
This is a parody of the classic Madeline. We have a lot of fun reading this book before Madeline and then finding all of the differences.

 Update: Here area few more books we loved reading. I'm going to update the list here so I remember for next year.
  Big Pumpkin
  Which Way to Witch School?
  A Job for Wittilda