Mmmm.... Pumpkin Bars

I made these tempting little treats yesterday in the midst of my baking madness. I don't know why these moods overtake me and I feel the sudden urge to bake everything in my cupboard. But yesterday was one of those days. Perhaps the $7.00 box of gluten free pan/bar mix was the inspiration to it all. I don't don't really know. The box said that one box should make one large pan of bars. But I'm not spending $7.00 just on the mix, only to have it all go into one stinking pan. That's almost 1/4 of my weekly budget, it just wasn't going to happen. So I decided to stretch it so that it will last 3 pans.

Here's what I did:

Slightly less than 1 cup of 123 Gluten Free Pan/Bar Spice Mix
1/2 cup pumpkin
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used Canola)

Preheat oven to 350.

Spray 8x8 glass pan with cooking spray

Pour mix, egg, and oil into a bowl and mix really well. The mix at this point is thick and almost doughy. Stir in the pumpkin. Now the mix will be sort of runny and pourable. Pour into the pan and spread evenly.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cut and serve.

In the picture my powdered sugar looks a little funky. I didn't let them cool all the way so the sugar melted in a little. But they looked so good, and I couldn't wait to sample.

This was my first time making these and using this particular mix. They turned out awesome, and even my gluten loving husband thought they were great. My whole family gobbled these up. I swear you would never know they were gluten free.

Now though, I know how good these are. So I'm a little worried about finding room each week in my budget for a $7.00 a box of baking mix.... I mean I just discovered these little beauties, how can I give them up? I'm really wishing I had made sure the pantry was fully stocked with all kind of baking supplies before starting this challenge. I thought about that last night as I lay in bed wondering what to spend my last $6.00 on. I know it's kind of cheating, but man would things have been easier. But I guess the whole point of this experiment, if there is one, was to challenge myself. Ah well...

Peanut Butter Cookies

Today was a baking marathon for me. I made a batch of chocolate chip peanut butter cookies (these happen to be gluten free.. but they really are delicious and you can't taste the difference), a batch of gluten filled chocolate chunk cookies, and gluten free pumpkin spice bars (YUM!).

I thought I would share the peanut butter cookie recipes because it's such a neat little recipe. It's probably the easiest cookie recipe in the world, and no one would know it.

Ingredients:

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

If you don't have brown sugar you can use just a cup of white sugar, but the brown sugar really does make it taste better.

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.

Spoon onto cookie sheet. I dip a fork into some sugar to make the little crisscross pattern on the top like "fancy" peanut butter cookies.

Bake at 350 for about 10-12 minutes.

Seriously it's that easy. These really are tasty. I love peanut butter cookies and was a little bummed about missing out on them when I found out I had Celiac Disease. But these tasty cookies are soooo good and so much easier to make than the traditional kind.