No-Bake Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

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Honk….Honk ……, All Aboard!  It’s Halloween, our first stop on the super high speed Holiday Train! Don’t blink though, cause if you do, it’ll be January 2nd 2015 when you open your eyes!N- Bake Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies-4I used to get myself all worked up about them.  I probably still do to some extent.  But, lately I’ve been trying to steer my mind in a more peaceful direction.
N- Bake Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies-5One of the things I’m finding out on my peace journey is that it’s OK to let go of traditions.  Just because you’ve been doing something the same exact way for the last 150 years, doesn’t automatically make it a downer if you don’t do it that way anymore.  Change is really good! I’m beginning to welcome and embrace it at every opportunity.  In fact, I’m starting to find an odd sort of comfort in constant change especially when things are particularly difficult.  I think it’s because I know it will eventually change!
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I’m still going to use pureed pumpkin in the fall, like I did in these No-Bake Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies.  I’ll do things, I want to do, and things that make Ben, Sam, and Will happy.  Don’t get me wrong.  If there are traditions that bring you joy, by all means, do them!  I’m just not going to allow myself to feel bad if I don’t feel like doing something.  Especially if it’s not going to hurt anyone else.

I’ll also do things I don’t necessarily want to do because they’re important to other people (this fits in to not hurting other people). But, I’m pretty sure the world won’t end if I don’t clean my toilets on Thursday’s, vacuum the floors on Saturdays, or roast a turkey on Thanksgiving Day!

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No-Bake Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1-8 oz. can pumpkin puree
  • 4 oz. ½ cup plain almond milk
  • 126 g. 6 Tbsp. agave
  • 48 g. 3 Tbsp. cashew butter
  • 1- 7.2 g packet gelatin
  • 60 g. 2 scoops vanilla protein powder
  • 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 288 g. 3 cups thick rolled oats
  • 84 g. 6 Tbsp. mini chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. In a small sauce pan over medium heat combine the pumpkin, almond milk, agave, and cashew butter.
  2. Stir over heat until mixture is completely smooth and starts to boil.
  3. Remove pan from heat.
  4. Add the gelatin and protein powder to the mixture and stir until smooth.
  5. Stir in the pumpkin pie spice and the vanilla.
  6. Add the dry rolled oats to a medium mixing bowl.
  7. Pour the pumpkin mixture over the oats and stir until combined.
  8. Add the chocolate chips and stir until combined (if you don’t want the chocolate chips to melt you will need to let the mixture cool completely before adding them).
  9. Scoop the mixture out of the bowl (I used a regular ice cream scoop) into mounds onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
  10. Refrigerate cookies for at least one hour to set up. EAT!!!
  11. Makes ~ 14 cookies.
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You get cookies today instead of Friday Fun.  Don’t worry it’ll be back next week!