Maple Pumpkin Cheese Cheese Muffins – moist pumpkin muffins flavored with maple and filled with sweetened cream cheese!

Two pumpkin recipes this week!

Is it too much pumpkin?

I still have many cans of pumpkin in my pantry so. Prepare yourselves.

Anyway, let’s talk about making mornings easier today.

Because I get my kids out of bed at 6:15 and we’re (trying very hard to be) out the door at 6:55.

Three kids.

That’s 6 shoes that inexplicitly go missing in the middle of the night. Every single night. How does this happen? Why is one shoe outside if the other is under the bed?

I. Don’t. Understand. It.

Tell me I’m not alone. Tell me you have also found yourself sneaking into the neighbor’s garage at 7 am because your kid swears he left his shoes there.

…

Two days to Halloween! I hope you’re ready! I bought a second round of candy this weekend – this time I got the Tootsie Roll pack with Dots, that way I’m not tempted because Dots? Are disgusting. And I kind of feel bad for handing them out to the neighborhood kids but you know.

I’ve got two more Halloween recipes to get through before the big day. This one is a fun little snack mix that’s kind of like my favorite Christmas mix but this one has popcorn, pumpkin seeds and candy corn! Mmm! My kids went nuts over it, for obvious reasons.

I have been avoiding the popcorn trend because I thought for sure that covering popcorn with something would make it soggy but that wasn’t the case with this. The popcorn was the most fought over part!

Monster Munch

adapted from Betty Crocker

Ingredients

4 cups Chex cereal
4 cups popped microwave popcorn
1 cup honey-roasted peanuts
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup butter
6 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup harvest mix or candy corn

Instructions

In a large microwavable bowl, mix cereal, popcorn, peanuts and pumpkin seeds; set aside.
In a small saucepan, heat butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup on high over medium-low heat until mixture is boiling, stirring occasionally; stir in vanilla pumpkin pie spice. Pour over cereal mixture, stirring until evenly coated.
Microwave 5 to 6 minutes, stirring and scraping bowl after every minute. Spread on waxed paper to cool, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to break up.
Stir in harvest mix. Store in airtight container.

pepitas