Needles and a Pen » Knitting, Sewing, and Nursing School

Masthead header
Needles and a Pen bio picture
  • Welcome to my blog!

    Hi! I'm Traci. I'm a Registered Nurse who loves quilting, knitting, cross stitch, and the great outdoors. In my pre-scrubs life, I owned Real Photography, and you can still see my old wedding and portrait photography site here .

    I've created a map that shows links to our camping/hiking/general family fun review posts that you can find here. It's pretty much the coolest thing on this site. Thanks, Google!

    I great big puffy heart *love* comments, so please let me know you visited! I try to always reply!

adding more (pumpkin) spice to your life : pumpkin muffins, cookies, and yogurt

Thanks to Starbucks, I know very few people for whom the return of autumn doesn’t mean cheering over the return of the pumpkin spice latte.  If you’re like me, though, that’s not enough.  I want to pumpkin the crap out of my fall!

While doing some blog browsing this weekend I stumbled upon a blog with a recipe for pumpkin spice chocolate chip muffins using stuff I already had on hand.  A box of chocolate chip muffin mix (that I had bought on a whim literally two days before and had never bought before–it was FATE), half a can of pumpkin (still in the pantry from last fall–I had no idea there was a canned pumpkin shortage all winter or I’d have sold it on ebay), and some pumpkin pie spice.  The muffins were AWESOME and a huge hit with everyone (we gifted a few to Will’s teachers).  The pumpkin made them extra moist.

Recipe for pumpkin spice chocolate chip muffins:

  1. 1 box of chocolate chip muffin mix (or your favorite muffin recipe)
  2. 1/2 can of pumpkin
  3. 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice
  4. Prepare the mix as directed (you can decrease the water called for my the mix by a bit since the pumpkin adds a lot of moisture)

It inspired me to go on a little pumpkin spice binge.  While grocery shopping this week I went to grab some more muffin mix, but the chocolate chip cookie mix was half the price of the muffin mix, and I figured it would be just as yummy.  This particular mix didn’t call for any water, so once I’d added the pumpkin it was a little runny.  I added about 3/4 cup of old fashioned oatmeal and 1/4 cup of pecans to thicken it back up.

Recipe for pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies:

  1. 1 box of chocolate chip cookie mix
  2. 1/2 can of pumpkin
  3. 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  4. 3/4 cup old fashioned oatmeal
  5. 1/4 cup pecans (or other nuts on hand)


Then came the pumpkin spice yogurt.  Super yummy and I think my favorite of the bunch!

Recipe for pumpkin spice yogurt:

  1. serving of homemade yogurt (you could also substitute plain yogurt)
  2. heaping spoonful of brown sugar
  3. heaping teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
  4. graham cracker (crumbled for topping)

All are amazing with a little pumpkin spice tea.  I get mine from Adagio, but it’s not strong enough in the pumpkin spice department for me, so I add pumpkin pie spice to the loose lea tea before steeping.  (Oh no–I just looked and it seems like they are either sold out or just stopped offering it.  In that case, I recommend my most favorite tea from them, the thai chai.)

Make It Modern - I still can’t find canned pumpkin where I live, I guess that it will be available soon… In the meantime I bought a couple sugar pie pumpkins and made me own puree so I now I want to try your yogurt recipe. We already made pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin pound cake 🙂

Susie - Yum!%20these%20look%20and%20sound%20amazing.%20%20I’m%20bookmarking%20for%20a%20recipe%20to%20try%20this%20week%2C%20thanks%2C%20Traci!%20So%20glad%20to%20find%20this%20creative%20spot%20by%20you!

Susie - Oh good grief, my comment got all messed up- these look amazing, can’t way to try them!

Michelle - HI there-I feel the same about Fall…..I want as much pumpkin flavor as I can get!!!
Although, I am the worst baker, so I have the pouch of snickerdoodle cookie mix and was wondering what your thoughts were in adding some pumpkin to it.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
Thanks-Michelle.