September Glossybox Product Reviews

Glossybox nailed it this month! Not only did it only take 3 days for them to get the box to me, but the products were huge! I got 3 full sized products and 2 travel sized products.

This month's theme is Fall Forward. The products are a look at new formulas, technologies and colors of the season as well as forward thinking essentials. This month there were 3 full sized products totaling $74.

 

Here we go!

• Missha M Perfect Cover BB Cream SPF 42 in golden glow- I don't know how Glossybox nailed it this month, but they totally got the shade right for this $30 BB cream! They really made up for last month's box when they sent that awesome lip stuff in the horrid color. This BB cream was in golden beige and matched my skin perfectly. Unlike Boscia's BB cream, this one went on really smooth, had a great texture, was dewy, felt moisturizing, and had a nice smell to it.  At first I thought I needed 3 pumps, but that was enough to cover my face, neck, decolletage and my shoulders LOL. Even 2 pumps was too much. A little bit of this goes a long way. One and a half pumps covers my face and neck. I have used this almost every day since I got it. It has thicker coverage than my Too Faced BB which is nice for the coming winter.

Ignore my goofy face, but I wanted to share the BB cream results. On the left side of my face I did not apply the cream and on the right I applied only a thin layer of cream. This cream really gives a nice airbrushed finish to the skin without being thick like foundation. I used to be strictly a tinted moisturizer girl, but since BB creams hit the market, I am officially converted. Now take a look at the color on my lips......because that is the next product!

• Kryolan for Glossybox  Moisture Rich Lipstick in GLOSSY pink- you can really feel the vitamin E in this lipstick. I am not a lipstick girl, but I might toss on this in the evening at some point. The color looks like a mix of bubble gum and mauve. It says "the perfect pop of pink it supposed to compliment all skin tones and lifestyles" (lifestyles? really?) The color is not terrible. Maybe this will get some usage.

My lipstick was stuck in the cap when I got it :(  But I popped it out and stuffed it back into the right end and it works just fine.

• OC8 Professional Mattifying Gel- This product has a weird smell to it. That was the first thing that I noticed. It is a cloudy color and when it goes on it does not feel matte. I used it under my BB cream that was sent in the box and it worked really well. I got a little oily around my nose around 11 pm, but everything else stayed nice and matte. I tried this product again when I went out for a nice dinner and it had pretty good results. I just wish it did not have that funny smell to it. It does a good job keeping my skin from looking oily so this may get used quite a bit regardless of the smell.
• Global Keratin Hair Taming System Shampoo and Conditioner- This shampoo and conditioner claims that it will keep your hair from getting frizzy for up to 5 months....but my question is: 5 months from when? The first use? the completion of the travel set? what? I used both and they smell wonderful. They are not floral, which I like.  Its more of an oriental scent. It did not say on the bottle if it was safe for color treated hair....but I took the chance and forged on. I did not use my flat iron on my hair and it did not seem to help that much with the frizz upon the first usage, but the second day my hair was much less frizzy. I used it again the next time I washed my hair and this time I really noticed a huge difference. My hair was smooth and sleek and the ends seemed more under control.

Well that is everything! So excited for the October box :)

 

Jenn



Love with Food- September's Box

This is my second LWF box and it is the "Back in Skinny Jeans" inspired box! Again, blogger is turning my images to the side and upside-down so I apologize in advance :)

 

First out of the box was the Crunchy Dried Edamame Snack. It was not so good. The taste was nice, but the texture was dry and the skins that were left on the beans was kind of gross. Some on in my class told me I looked like I was eatting grasshopper heads LOL. I took the Tropical Blend Crunch Dried Fruit with me when I was volunteering and it was really good! I usually don't like pineapple but like this it was good! I forgot to take a picture of the fruit.

 

 

This San Franola Granola was yummy! I am usually not much of a granola person but both buy itself and in a blueberry Chobani was really good. For an ounce and a half its 200 calories, so paired with a greek yogurt....well there are all your calories for breakfast. I have turned granola and greek yogurt into my breakfast of choice for this last week and it is yummy. I would love to get this granola, but for $24 for 12 boxes.....eh, I think I can find something less expensive. 

I don't know if LWF realized this, but they put both a nut butter and a jelly in the box.....so I had to make a PB&J! Individually both of these were pretty good, but they made an AWESOME sandwich! The Barney Butter had a different texture, but it was not bad. I won't be rushing out to buy this as I can have the same size serving of reduced fat JIF and half the calories.

 

I love salad, so I was really excited to try these Gourmet Mist dressings. I broke out the regular balsamic one first. It was good, but it was not anything more amazing than using regular balsamic or even the fig infused balsamic that I love. I am hoping the pomegranate one is really delicious. I don't really like raspberries but I hope that one is good as well.



 





Here is the salad I tried the dressing on. I was so hungry I just threw something together. It was about 1 cup of spring mix lettuce, 3 large slices from a tomato, some glazed walnuts that I found in the cupboard that my mom bought, and some goat cheese! I love goat cheese on salads :) I used about a half a packet of dressing on this salad.

 

Teccino coffees were included in this box, not sure what they have to do with getting skinny, but I like coffee! I was disappointed to see they were "no caf"....well what is supposed to keep me awake during class and volunteering? I decided to drink the vanilla nut coffee before going to bed (usually I drink my Yogi Soothing Caramel Bedtime tea). It smells wonderful! It comes in a bag like tea and you steep it for 3-5 minutes. It tasted great with out anything added, but I decided to add some condensed milk and stivia. Yum.

 

And just in case anyone wanted to check it out here is the link for the Back In Skinny Jeans website :)

 

 



 There it is! Can't wait to see what next month's box looks like. I hope there is something pumpkin flavored in it :)

 

Jenn

September Birchbox- Late Late Late :(

I would love to have a box to review for September, however my Birchbox is either really late or not coming.
I have emailed Birchbox's customer service and they have yet to respond. I called them and the automated message said to leave a voicemail. I did, but no one has gotten back to me.

I called USPS and was told that after UPS drops the load at the sorting center (which is 2 hours away from me) that it could take up to 14 days to get to me. (I find this hard to believe since I have received 3 boxes so far with no problems) The customer service rep for USPS said they are putting in a ticket for an investigation to where my package is. Maybe if Birchbox's customer service ever gets back to me, they can start talking to me about a refund because it sounds like this box is lost.

So here it is, September 21st, and I am still box-less.

My Glossybox showed up in 3 days and thank the heavens for that! :) At least now I have some great products to enjoy.

Stay tuned! If this post gets updated, it means the box came in.

Jenn

UPDATE: Finally someone from Birchbox contacted me regarding my missing box (after 3 emails and one voicmail left). They are going to wait until the 26th and if I still haven't received my box they are going to send a replacement.  By the way, my full sized order came IN 3 DAYS! So why can't the sub box come that quickly? Glossybox does :)

UPDATE #2: On September 25th my box finally showed up.

 

Everything was pretty small this month. I don't have even one full sized product. There was also a lot of propaganda in this month's box LOL. There was the usual card with info product information, a little envelope with some fashion tape, a "Fall Colorbook" with not many new ideas, and then a card with a code for $25 if you spend $75 for a clothing company.

Here is everything in the box. Not a single full sized item.

• Skin, An Apothecary Soy Body Whip in Poppy- this has a nice texture, very strong scent, and didn't leave me feeling greasy. This little tub will be good to keep in my purse especially with the colder weather coming. My poor elbows get so dry.

• Twistband Birchbox Custom Lace Hair tie- just one hair tie :) its kind of cute. Its nice and stretchy, claims that it is ouch free and I guess we will see. I don't often put my hair up so I will be saving this for a day when I am volunteering. I would definitely not be paying $14 for 6 of these or $22 for 12 of them. I will stick to my hundreds of Goodys black elastic hair bands that collectively I think are still under $14.

• Jouer Matte Moisture Tint- this sample is laughably small! Its so freaking tiny I almost lost t in the tissue paper! I took a pic next to one of my EOS lip balms to give you an idea just how small it is. I may get 2 uses out of it.....maybe. Color looks like it might actually work for me. Everything I have been reading is talking about trading in your tinted moisturizers this Fall and Winter for BB creams since they are heavier, so it was weird to get this in a Fall box. This might have been a product better suited for the Summer.

• Kate Spade Twirl Fragrance- the description of fruity and floral is definitely spot on. I am more of an Oriental or Musk kind of girl come the Fall. This would be a nice Spring or Summer fragrance.

• Color Club Birchbox Custom polish- my polish is called "Insta-this" and is a bright blue. It is only a mini polish (really Birchbox? you couldn't spring for a full sized one for only $8 and give me just one full sized product?) Looks like a fun color and I am excited to try it. I only have one other Color Club polish and it is a glitter one.

• Hollywood Fashion Secrets Fashion Tape- This is an interesting little "lifestyle extra". It says "helps conquer wandering bra straps and unruly hems"....but with DDD's like mine, the straps don't wander Birchbox LOL. On the back of the envelope it says "eliminate blouse gaps, secure plunging necklines, hold accessories in place and adjust jean length. I am really not sure I have any of those problems....but maybe I will be more adventurous with my clothing this season and I may end up having a need for these.

Well, that's it. Box received and reviewed in less than an hour. In my opinion, this box kinda sucked. Comparing it to my August Box or my July Box or my awesome June Box (which was my first box) this one fell very short.....then add to the fact I had to wait for so long to get it? Yeah. Not happy. I will give them one more month. My October box will be the deciding box!

 

Jenn

LARABARS: Flavor Review and Homemade Recipes

I had received a sample of a Larabar in my July Birchbox. It was a small uber bar in "bananas foster". I brought it to school with me as a snack before my final and ......yuck! The flavor was gross. I was so disappointed because I love bananas foster and I had heard great things about Larabars. After I gave my review a friend told me how much she loves these bars and to not give up just because I got one bad flavor. She suggested that I get individual bars to try as the boxes are pretty expensive if you get one that you don't like. I went to the store and came home with one uber bar in apple turnover and then regular bars in blueberry muffin, chocolate chip cherry torte, lemon bar, peanut butter and jelly, cashew cookie, peanut butter cookie and chocolate chip cookie dough.

I have been trying to transition into more healthy alternatives to take with me to my evening classes and to the hospital when I volunteer so I am not eating junk. The brand boasts these bars are "simple. pure. delicious." so I figured I would give them a try. Here is what I found......

I started off with the Lemon Bar.  After I completed this "3 day diet", this was the first thing I ate. It was my breakfast and I paired it with a Starbucks Skinny Caramel Latte. I was surprised to see that just this one bar is 220 calories! Yikes! That's normally what my entire breakfast caloric intake is. There is all of 5 ingredients in this bar (dates, cashews, almonds, lemon and lemon flavor)  and it was definitely delicious. The lemon flavor was present but it was not overwhelming or overly tangy or tart. The texture was nice, but hard to explain. It is dense, like the nuts have been mixed in with a date paste, and the bar is not hard but more chewy. It did pretty well being thrown in my purse before I ran out the door that morning.

Next up I packed the Peanut Butter and Jelly bar......Oh. My. God. It tastes just like a PB&J! A whopping 4 ingredients in this bar (dates, peanuts, unsweetened cherries, and sea salt) was turned into my dinner, or dessert, however you want to look at it. Again, the bar is chewy and dense but if you enjoy it in small bites like I did then it will last at least through your class break LOL. With 210 calories for this bar, again I will need to do some shuffling of calories to get this into my diet....or miss a snack during the day. I will definitely be buying a box of these though. Less messy (and possibly less calories) than packing a PB&J for class.

I was heading to the hospital to volunteer and was starving so I grabbed a Blueberry Muffin and tossed it into my purse. It went from my purse to my pocket, from my pocket to the counter, from the counter back into my pocket, and finally into my mouth......this bar was a bit smashed up when I got to it. It is not as dense as the first 2 bars I tried and there are 190 calories in the bar. Now we are heading in the right calorie direction! I love blueberries, so this is a no brainer for me :) The bar was definitely sweet blueberry and not tart. The 6 ingredients (dates, cashews, blueberries, blueberry and lemon juice concentrate, and vanilla extract) are packed with antioxidants and I think this would go wonderfully in the morning with my cup of coffee. Definite buy for me.

My Wednesday Statistics class was vastly improved when we took our break and I enjoyed my Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough bar. At 8:30 at night, when being lectured to about the driest subject I can imagine and being freaking starving because I had dinner at 5:00, this was perfect. It was like dessert! With only 4 ingredients  (cashews, dates, 4-ingredient chocolate chips that melt in your mouth, sea salt) I really did think that I was eating cookie dough....and I didn't have the guilt!

Well, I next encountered a bar I did not like. It was during the next nights class, Modern Art Appreciation, and I took out a Chocolate Coconut Chew bar......yuck. These 5 ingredients (dates, almonds, walnuts, cocoa powder, and coconut) together was just gross. I got down about 3 small bites and over half the bar went in the trash. Four bars out of six that have been tried....not so bad I guess.

I grabbed the Uber Apple Turnover bar when I went to my statistics class the next week and was not really impressed with this bar either. The texture was good, but it had raisins and I am not a huge fan. I thought they would kind of be masked because of the dates, but they were not and I did not finish the bar. With walnuts, dried apples, brown sugar syrup, raisins, dates,  pecans, honey and sea salt, this bar has had the most ingredients of any I have tried so far. I do not think I will be getting this one again.

Again for statistics (I am sensing my Larabar trend), I grabbed a Cashew Cookie bar, and it was really tasty. The texture was right, it was not too sweet and it was a bit salty...and only 2 ingredients! Cashews and dates! It came in at a whopping 230 calories for just one bar though, so this one will be kept for days when I am using this bar for dinner.

Lastly I tried the Chocolate Chip Cherry Torte, which the show Unwrapped claims is Larabar's most popular flavor. It was not my favorite flavor, but it was not bad! In a pinch I would enjoy this bar simply because I could feel and taste the pieces of chocolate in it. The dates, chocolate chips, almonds, dried cherries, cashews and sea salt had a nice texture.

I also found the Pecan Pie bar at my grocery store! I will have to double check to see if they have the Ginger Snap bar as well.

In order to try the Key Lime Pie bar, Carrot Cake bar  and some others I wanted, I had to go to Larabar.com and I ordered the beginner's box. This way if I really love any of them I can just order large boxes off the website. There is also the chocolate bar line, Jocalat, however there is no beginners box for the 4 flavors of that bar so I will have to hunt them down in stores since on the website they do not sell individual bars.

I also looked up "how long do Larabars last?" and the response was they last for a few months, but if you know you can not get to them that quickly you can freeze the and they will keep very well. I think this is an awesome idea since I am the only one in the house that will eat them and I will be ordering them in bulk.

If you can not get Larabars at a store near you and you don't want to pay for them to be shipped to you (I am not judging you!) then there are several places online where you can find recipes for homemade bars. I mean, we are talking about just a few ingredients and smashing them all together so it can't end up in a disaster.....right? This may be a future blog......  Here is a recipe for Homemade Larabars that looks pretty basic and yummy and includes chocolate pieces and natural peanut butter. Here are several another recipes from LivingCrunchy.com that sound really delicious! One has cherries, almonds, cinnamon and vanilla, another with pineapple, coconut, and lemon zest.....and they even have a recipe for the Blueberry Muffin bar! I see these being my Christmas presents to family this year :)

I may update this when I try the other bars I ordered and do a separate post for the homemade bars I try! Keep your eye out :)

Jenn

Sample Society Box- September

Yes, I subscribed to another box. Should that really surprise you? :) This box is kind of confusing because its called the Sample Society box, the website is BeautyBar.com/SampleSociety and then on the box and the cards it says "with Allure". When you visit the site, it has this weird pop-up thing at the bottom that you have to minimize, and it advertises that you can shop several sites under one "roof" (those other sites being diapers.com, soap.com, wag.com, yoyo.com and casa.com). You can review the products you get, but it does not earn you bonus points like with Birchbox or Glossybox.

 

(Blogger is, yet again, turning my photos. Sorry guys!)
















With your box, you get a code for $15 off your order, which is awesome. The box is $15 a month, so if you find something you want to buy, it pays for itself!

So this month I got 5 products to try. A facial cleanser, mud mask, perfume, eye liner, and lip gloss. Here are the reviews on the products:

• Cellceuticals Extremely Gentle Skin Cleanser- I received a 2 oz. sample of this skin cleanser and full size is 6.7 oz. No idea what this tube is worth. The information on this cleanser is that it takes of facial and eye make up, leaves skin feeling supple, and irritant tested. After trying it,  I really liked this cleanser! It took most of my tinted moisturizer off my face, it foams up a little bit and my skin was soft and not dried out. Product did just what the company claimed it would. It does not have a fragrance and it is a clear gel. This would be an awesome cleanser for sensitive skin.

• AHAVA Purifying Mud Mask- The tube I got  is 0.9 oz and after some research I found that this is the travel size and it goes for 7-8$. AHAVA says to use this to brighten and even your skin tone, root out grime and blackheads and prevent blemishes. I tried this right after the Cellceutical cleanser. The mud is a fine grit, which is a really nice texture. It is grey and does not really have a scent. After covering my face, I waited for 2 minutes. While waiting my skin felt tight and dry but when it was time to rinse my skin felt wonderful and had a nice pink glow. I have not used a mask like this before, but for only $27 for the full sized and having my $15 off....I might have to get this one!

• Diptyque Eau de Toilette- This is just a little sample of perfume that came in a rather large box. I got the Do Son scent, and on the website the scent is described as "Tuberose asserts itself, expressing all its sunny, hazy, creamy, indolent seductiveness. Anyone with blood in their veins will succumb to the irresistible temptation of this insolently seductive white flower." In my world, this was a very strong, rose scent, that gave me a headache behind my left eye...I kid you not. I tried it again the next day and guess what, another headache :(

• Borghese B Gloss in Fiore- I do believe this is a sample gloss as well but I can't find the size on the container. The color is a shimmery dusty rose which I really like. The consistency of this gloss is really sticky though. It is very thick and applies well, but when I put my lips together they stuck that way and it was a bit disappointing. I may have to top this gloss with a clear one to make it more slick.

• Stila Smudge Stick in Black- I love Stila products so is it weird that this being the smallest sample in the box was the one I was most excited about? I did my research and the Smudge Stick is a waterproof, highly pigmented eyeliner. I tried this on just the outer edge of my eye and it is seriously dark! I will need to play with it more to learn how to get a nice line (as the stick itself is pretty thick) but this eyeliner stays in place once you put it on. I couldn't smudge it once it set which was neat. I did find this YouTube video where this adorable girl does a review on this eyeliner and I am glad I watched it. She said that you can smudge the liner right after you apply it (which is helpful for me) but after you let it set she showed how it does not budge. This may be a purchase for me as well especially since they have it in 8 different colors at Sephora.

 

Here is a close up of my eye after I used the Stila Smudge Stick. It is super black! I wish I could get a better picture. I played around with it and right after I apply it I run an eyeliner brush over it to smooth out the line and make it more uniform.

Here is a picture of me with the lipgloss. I am not really this pale, I promise, but I needed the flash for the lip color to show up. As you can see its a dusty rose color with shimmer. I tried to take a picture of just my  mouth, but do you know how creepy that looks?

 

 

So that's it! All 5 products used. While this is my first box and it did not blow me out of the water, it did introduce me to 2 awesome products :)

Jenn

Some Interesting Biology Information

So I volunteer at the hospital in the imaging department and one night the techs I am friends with were talking about Throckmorton sign. Having no idea what this was, and clearly not getting the joke, I asked them to explain it to me. I was told its an occurrence in men when their penis is  pointing to the side of the body that is injured. You can see it in an x-ray, which is why we were talking about it.

impactednurse.com

Clearly the penis is pointing to the leg that was stabbed....cool right? A site where a nurse talked about this, joked about this giving a new meaning to "dick driven" and I had a good laugh. I'll take it to the next level and say: women if your man's penis leans to one side, that might be the side that he has brain damage  :)

 

 

Now that I gave you your new medical term for the week and a new reason to look at a penis, let me share with you something I discovered today that is applicable to women.

 

Birchbox had this article on their facebook feed today and it was about face mapping and where you are breaking out.



 

Currently I have a nasty break out in area 11, so I looked it up and it said this :"Zone 11 & 13: Hormones — Stress and hormonal changes can sometimes be alleviated with more water and a few extra servings of dark, leafy greens but if breakouts in this area persistent, make an appointment with your doctor to look into a possible hormonal imbalance. Additionally, breakouts in this area also indicate when you are ovulating (and which side).

Um...cool! Nice to know that my break outs actually tell me things about my body and since it is "that time of the month" its kind of neat to know that is the side that is causing me all these miserable cramps! If you read the article, it tells you that a break out in area 12 means you need to add more fiber into your diet and if you break out in 1&3 you need more water.

 

There you go!

 

Jenn

Miss Jessie's Original for Curly Hair

I received a sample of Miss Jessie's Quick Curls in my August Birchbox and I was intrigued so I went to their website. I found that they have 2 samples that can be shipped to you for free so I ordered Creme de la Creme Conditioner and Pillow Soft Curls. I was super surprised that the samples are so huge! I can see why they keep a record of your IP address so you can't order more (yes, I tried to get more).

I tried Creme de la Creme Conditioner first and since I didn't get Creme de la Curl Shampoo, I used Organix Moroccan Oil Shampoo instead. I ended up using the entire packet to cover my hair evenly. This has a nice clean smell, like laundry.  I was hoping less of the product would go further so I could try this conditioner twice. I left the conditioner in my hair while I finished my shower, so about 10 minutes. When I rinsed it out, my hair had a wonderful texture. It felt thick, soft, and not oily.

Then I got my packet of Pillow Soft Curls out. I was really excited about this product because this is the one that I always look for but its sold out. I put a little over a quarter sized amount in my hand.....and it smells like straight chemicals :( Yuck. Such a disappointment. I slathered the stuff in my hair careful to cover every inch, from the root to the tip.  Then I broke out the diffuser....


I have no idea how to do this correctly, so on the picture in the left my hair is still wet. I diffuse my hair on the hot and high settings. When my curls start to take some shape and hold their own, I switch it to low so it doesn't blow the delicate curls into fluffy little messes. I stop when my hair feels dry, even though I know it is not, it ends but being just a tad damp when it cools off. So I let it air dry as I continue to scrunch it until its dry all the way through.

It did not take long to get the curls to set and to dry. Usually it takes forever, but I think the Pillow Soft Curls helped with the dry time. The curls were, as it says on the bottle, large and relaxed, and they are soft and not crunchy. Unfortunately, they still had a chemical smell :(

It was rainy and humid today, so I guess it was a good choice to go curly. The curls held well. I dried my hair around noon and when I got home from school at around 11 pm they were still curly and bouncy. My hair did go a little flat though. I think the sheer weight of my hair just weighs it down but since this stuff stays a little malleable it was easy enough to flip over and shake some volume back into it. It does leave a little bit of a residue on your hands if you touch your hair at all (and I have a habit of playing with it) but my hair did not get frizzy at all. The curls stayed separated and the shapes stayed nice and round. While driving home from class I started humming the tune to Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl" but the words in my head were "I wish I had Miss Jessie's Curls!" ha ha ha, I guess that proves how exhausted I am.

I will up date this when I can use the Quick Curls product sample I got from my Birchbox again with a diffuser but for my air dry review you can check here and its the fourth product down.

Jenn

Pinterest Test: Low Fat Pumpkin Spice Choc Chip Cookie and more!

With all the pumpkin recipes I have been trying lately, I am surprised my whole family is not turning a bit orange. It's just so good for you and has fiber in it.....who doesn't like to poop? LOL Especially when I can package that pumpkin into delicious baked treats.

Well today I had a dilemma: I wanted to make these Low-Fat Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies that I found on Pinterest, but the recipe only called for 2 tablespoons of pumpkin. So I would have almost an entire can left! So I decide to do another version of my 2 Ingredient Pumpkin Spice Muffins but this time with Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix. This way no pumpkin goes to waste and I get two delicious and nutritious goodies with only a few more minutes of work :)

I gathered my ingredients for the cookies first.

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 egg white
2 tbsp pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

 

Then I gathered my ingredients for the muffins.
(Jesus Blogger, you are KILLING ME with not uploading pictures correctly!)

Anyway, ingredients are the left over pumpkin from the cookie recipe and a box of Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix.








What do you know! Both recipes call for preheating the oven to 350 degrees- what luck! So I set that sucker and got to work mixing up my cookie batter.

As per the directions on SkinnyTaste.com, you mix the dry in one bowl and the wet in another bowl and then wisk the dry into the wet. If it is crumbly when you are finished, put a few drops of water in the mixture just until it is smooth......and it tastes amazing! (Lecture me on the danger of eating things with raw eggs later, I am too busy basking in the after glow of awesome cookies)




Then I tossed in my half cup of chocolate chips and emptied the rest of the bag in a Ball jar. My mom and I are trying to get away from plastic so when we can use up the glass jars she collects, we do. (That's why you see the all-purpose flour and the brown sugar in canning jars in the picture above)

After mixing in the chocolate chips, lining my cookie sheet with parchment paper, and dropping my batter on the sheet in 12 even little clumps, I popped those amazing-smelling blobs in the oven for 10 full minutes.

But while these little guys were cooking, did I rest? Of course not! I cleaned my glass mixing bowl, emptied the rest of my pumpkin can into the bowl, topped it with the bag of cake mix and started stirring!

It turns out I needed a bigger bowl....oops! Even though I was careful, I managed to make a mess of the counter. I did end up putting in about 1/8 cup of water in with the batter so it would be smooth. This batter was a lot thicker then when I did it with the spice cake mix. The batter tasted just like chocolate, you could not really tell there was pumpkin in it. At this point I was not sure if that was a good or bad thing......

But there is nothing wrong with anything chocolate! So I forged on and filled my cupcake pan with the batter and put it in the already hot oven for 21 full minutes. They came out looking delicious! One of the reasons that I like cooking with pumpkin is that it does not stick to the pan like things with sugar and oil do. These things pop right out of the pan and don't stick. You can pop them out right after they come out of the oven and on to a plate too cool and they won't lose their shape because the pumpkin is so dense. I love it when shit is this easy!

And there you have it! Yeah, it is about an hour of baking, but at least 21 minutes of it is resting, especially if you are like me and you clean up as you go.

My parents loved the cookies and I have to say they were worth the effort. Next time I will have to make a double batch to share because at 2 cookies for 171 calories, they make a great dessert. The fudge muffins come in at 172 calories per muffin and have way more pumpkin in them so they are an awesome choice for dessert (or breakfast) as well.

The muffins tasted just like chocolate fudge, you could barely tell there was pumpkin flavor! That's not bad if you are trying to hide it, but we love the pumpkin flavor! Well, these will be enjoyed as well. And baking with pumpkin puree has revolutionized how my family enjoys baked goods. I have a feeling that year-round we will be subbing oils, butter, eggs and water for one can of vitamin and mineral packed pumpkin puree.

 

Well there you go! I hope that helps any of you wondering what to do with that can of pumpkin when you only use a few tablespoons!

 

Jenn