Pumpkin, Pumpkin and more Pumpkin

The other day I was looking in our cabinets for something sweet and as I was going through the 2 with the baking items, I noticed a can of pumpkin that I bought last fall and never used. I was THRILLED because I had just told Danny a couple days before that I was craving pumpkin pie. Not only did he not offer to go get some, he told ME to go get some. That's not the point of this post though...

I decided to see what I could whip up with this one can of pumpkin. It was one of the larger cans and I knew one of the recipes I wanted to try only needed half and the other only needed a couple of spoonfuls, leaving me with 3/4 of a can and in need of a 3rd quick and easy recipe. I wanted quick and easy because Pregnant Erin is lacking patience these days. So, here is what happened.

Saturday night I made Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Sunday morning I made Pumpkin Pie French Toast
And just this morning I made Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal
... All of which turned out great!

Lets start with the cookies... all you need is: a box of spice cake mix and a 15oz can of pumpkin. Honest to God, thats all you need.

Bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. As you can see, mine are quite large so it took about 15 minutes for them to get done enough. My family has LOVED them! A few recipes I've seen have put cream cheese frosting on them, but the hubs and I agree that a dollop of whipped cream would be awesome!

Next was the Pumpkin Pie French Toast... you can click the above link for the measurements of the larger batch, but here is what I used for 4 pieces and yes I ate all 4.
4 slices of bread
1 egg
2 spoonfuls of pumpkin
splash of milk
couple shakes of pumpkin pie spice

Mix that all together until it looks like really nasty runny baby food. Lightly dip both sides into the mixture then put on a hot griddle. **When dipping, don't completely saturate the bread. My first 2 pieces were so heavy they almost fell apart and were mushy** Cook both sides until they look done then enjoy :)

Finally, the Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal. I LOOOOVE variations of oatmeal, especially when they apply to the current season.

For this breakfast, you'll need oatmeal(duh), a couple spoonfuls of pumpkin, some shakes of pumpkin pie spice and vanilla wafers (or graham crackers).

Prepare your oatmeal as directed and in a separate bowl mix together the pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. I did this in a separate bowl because I wanted to make sure the spice was evenly spread throughout the pumpkin. Combine the pumpkin mixture with the oatmeal. Crush your cookies/graham crackers (the amount you use is up to you.. I used 6 vanilla wafers) then sprinkle onto the oatmeal. Give it a taste test then doctor it up as you wish. I ended up putting 1/2 a packet of Truvia so it was a little sweeter since I like sweet oatmeal.

And now that all this is over, I'm probably going to be okay with not eating pumpkin until Thanksgiving when I have a large slice of pie!