Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Spice Bread - by Lisa

It's Tuesday, and I'm posting an entry, AND IT'S A RECIPE! Really, this shouldn't be so difficult to do, right?

Anywho, the super good news about today's recipe is that it is ridiculously easy. So easy in fact I could have my 4 1/2 year old make it. :) All you need are 3 ingredients: boxed spice cake mix, can of pure pumpkin, and some chocolate chips.

Seriously - that's it!! (I seem to be on a kick here with my super simple recipes.) Put it all together, bake at 350 and you're done! My friend Melanie passed along the recipe to me years ago. It's so simple that I don't even have it written down anywhere - LOL!!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Spice Bread
Recipe from Melanie

Ingredients:

• Boxed spice cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)
• 15.5 oz can pure pumpkin
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. 
3. Pour into bread pan or cupcake pan.
4. Bake 30-35 min or until toothpick comes out clean.

That's it!! Dig in and enjoy.... :)

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting by Summer

We had friends over for dinner on Saturday night. It was an easy dinner of pizza because they also have two small children and who doesn't like pizza!  I offered to make dessert because, well . . . like that needs an explanation :-) I was trying to figure out what to make that would be yummy, kid-friendly and easy. I found this in my dessert recipe binder. I love pumpkin bars, but they make so much! And that cream cheese frosting! I could eat these bars non-stop, so I knew they would be the perfect dessert!

In the past I have made these in a 9x13 pan, but this time I used the 10x15 pan that the recipe calls for.  Try these if you like pumpkin at all!

 Using a large off-set spatula really helped making frost these easy! Be sure to spread it on nice and thick!

Pumpkin Bars (unfortunately I don't know the source for this recipe)

• 4 eggs
• 1 2/3 cups white sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir into the pumpkin mixture until thoroughly combined.
Spread the batter evenly into an ungreased 10×15 inch jellyroll pain. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in preheated oven. Cool before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

To make the frosting, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Stir in vanilla. Add confectioners’ sugar a little at a time, beating until mixture is smooth. Spread evenly on top of the cooled bars. Cut into squares.