Just call me Deb Downer

Happy Monday? Isn't that an oxymoron? Anyway, I made some mean pumpkin cupcakes this weekend that I am dying to share. I was planning on making these pumpkin spice cookies from Peanut Butter Fingers but once I mixed the batter together, I realized I don't have a cookie sheet! Oh, the joys of being poor. So, I decided to put them in a muffin pan to see what would happen. Turns out, this recipe makes a pretty fantastic pumpkin spice cupcake! I was worried they would be dry or wouldn't cook well, but they were perfect. I think I ate like three...way to go, me!

Pumpkin Spice Cookies/Cupcakes

1 box Duncan Hines spice cake mix
1 can pureed pumpkin
(seriously, that's it)

Mix the cake mix and the pumpkin together until well blended. At this point, you can drop spoonfuls of the batter on a cookie sheet, or if you are like myself and don't have one, you can put them in a lined muffin pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes for cookies, 15-20 minutes for cupcakes. I checked on the cupcakes every 5 minutes or so, inserting a toothpick, and when the toothpick came out clean, I removed the cupcakes from the oven. I think it was at about 20 minutes.

PBF made her own cream cheese frosting, but I'm not a huge fan of cream cheese frosting or of making my own for that matter. I just used Duncan Hines vanilla frosting and it worked like a peach. Bonus points for being lazy.

I have the supplies to make this pumpkin spice smoothie and have been wanting to make it for about a week now but haven't done it yet. I think that will be my goal for this evening. I'll let you know how it goes. I can't imagine it being anything but delicious so hopefully I am not disappointed.

I've kind of been down in the dumps lately. I don't know what my deal is but I've just been feeling a little more negative than usual. I hate feeling like this because I know it affects how I interact with people. With my job, asking people to raise money for blood cancer research, you really have to be nice and smiley and sunshine and butterflies all the time, so when I'm in a negative mood, it's a little hard to turn on the charm. Shocking! I tend to be more sarcastic in this mood, which can turn people off if they aren't used to my biting tongue. I really hate people thinking I'm a negative person because I'm generally not. I swear!

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Feeling like this also makes me want to eat. I had a really stressful day Friday as I was visiting schools in Marion, Ohio and I was late to all of them and I HATE being late even more than I hate others being late, especially for meetings. The icing on the cake (or the pumpkin spice cupcake, if you will) was being rear-ended by a teen in a mini-van. I got in my car to go to my final meeting, 30 minutes late (thanks, teen) and the first thing that came to my mind was stopping at Taco Bell. Then I laughed at myself because T. Bell is kind of a funny thing to crave after a car accident, right? Needless to say, I'm not one of those people that don't eat when they are stressed or depressed; I do work on anything and everything. I've been better at this but eating three pumpkin spice cupcakes was most likely due to my Debbie Downer 'tude. I'm glad I'm working out tonight to get some of this aggression/negativity out of my system. I'm also hoping all these pumpkin recipes will turn my frown upside down...stay tuned.

"what's your problem?"