3 Ingredient Pumpkin Swirl Muffins

Okay, these don't look the greatest, but they taste pretty good! You only need three ingredients, DATS IT. The recipe was found on Pinterest :) The thing is that the cake part is hard to tell when it's done, because the cake batter was light and airy so it almost seems cooked already! I think I baked mine for about 10-15 minutes. 

Ingredients: 
1 box Yellow Cake Mix
1 15 oz. can Pumpkin 
2 cups any kind of spread (Nutella, Cookie Butter, Biscoff, etc.) I used the Speculoos and Cocoa spread from Trader Joe's 

Just mix the cake mix with the pumpkin really well. Scoop into a muffin tin. Then put a teaspoon of your spread into the batter and swirl it in. Bake at 350 F for about 10-15 minutes for the mini muffins. If you bake it in a cake pan then it will probably be 35-40 minutes.

If you have faith as a mustard seed..nothing will be impossible for you. Matthew 17:20

We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through faith— faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work. Yet God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His blessings. The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and sweetness. Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach you to “walk by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And you are worth much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight with your thrilling testimony.

Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds. Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation. Never confuse the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him— a faith that says, “I will remain true to God’s character whatever He may do.” The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the whole Bible is— “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).   [Utmost.org]

Green Tea White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm about to barf out a whole bunch of recipes for y'all. Here's what I made yesterday for some special friends! I'm obsessed with the green tea powder I bought from Amazon, so here's another way I used it. White chocolate x Green Tea is a great combo, lemme just say! These cookies are dense and chewy, they have the perfect green tea flavor. :) 

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons green tea powder (matcha)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup white chocolate chips

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and green tea powder. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together butter, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Stop the mixer and use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla  extract, and beat on medium speed until mixture is fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat on low speed until just combined. Fold in the white chocolate chunks or chips with a spatula. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 45 minutes.

4. Place racks in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

5. Scoop heaping tablespoonfuls of cookie dough onto the prepared baking pans, spacing them about 1 1/2-2 inches apart. Bake in preheated oven for about 12 minutes, until edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven, and allow cookies to cool on pans for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe and all credit goes to The Blissful Baker

Korean Glass Noodles (Jap Chae)

HEY PEEPS, so first of all, I'm not Korean or anything, but I do love Korean food! This is one of my all time favorites, and I made it like a couple of weeks ago. But I finally have had time to post it on my blog. Please don't judge if you know your Korean food... haha if this isn't authentic or anything, but I got the recipe off another blog! And tasted pretty legit to me, haha so try it out if you'd like :) 

For the recipe and a YouTube video and great explanations, click here!

"Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hand but yours, no feet but yours; yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on the world, yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good, and yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now." - St. Teresa of Avila

Have you ever stopped to realize how special you are, and how much God has empowered you to work through Him? I definitely forget all the time. We are his hands and his feet, and people should see Christ through us! What a difficult but rewarding way to live our lives and a constant struggle for me as well. When we are adopted into God's family, He will shower us with His blessings, and it makes Him so happy when we are living our lives in every way for Him...and for His glory only.

12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.  [Colossians 3:12-17]

Mini Reese's Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

This post marks the craziest, longest, [almost] most stressful week of my life. 5 midterms + 1 presentation that we had only 1 night to prep for! But I'm keeping it cool, for the most part. And sleep is my friend. I don't care about studying, I NEED SLEEP! Anyways, I didn't bake at all this week, which is like...BIG for me. So here's the first thing I did after finishing midterms. Yea I'm crazy, I know. Done in like 20 minutes, try it out. They're delish! (I only let myself eat 1/2 of a cookie to try..because I'm trying to stay away from sugar). -.- But if you aren't then go ahead and indulge. 

Ingredients

• 1 sticks softened butter
• 1/2 Cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 Cup granulated sugar
• 1 large eggs
• 1/2 Tablespoon pure vanilla
• 1 3/4 Cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 bag mini Reese's 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. 
2. Cream wet ingredients: butter sugars, egg, vanilla, well! 
3. Mix together flour salt and baking soda. 
4. Stir in chocolate chips. 
5. Take a big cookie dough scoop (3 tbls) and split the ball in half. Stick the Reese's in the middle and seal the edges. 
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown on bottom. INDULGE! 

Adapted from none other than: Picky Palate


Literally, Thanks GOD it's Friday! He got me through this week, and it's crazy how secure you begin to feel once you start lifting up your desires to the Lord in prayer. I just read a devo telling how much Jesus, the Son of God, went in quiet to pray. Can you imagine, THE Son of God, prayed that much, how much should we be talking to our God? I'm ashamed of how much I lack prayer in my life. And it's something I'm working on daily now.

Luke 6:12-13 ~ Now during those days [Jesus] went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of the, whom he also named apostles.

The purpose of living is not to learn to make prayer, but to become prayer; to live in and for God according to the divine call, wholly surrendered to the Spirit's activity in the soul for the glory of God. - Father Gilbert Shaw

"Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment ‘as to the Lord.’ It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received." -C.S. Lewis   [Thanks for the reminder Abigail!]

Pumpkin Speculoos and Cocoa Swirled Muffies

SPECULOOS AKA COOKIE BUTTER AND CHOCOLATE.. holy crap! Well anyways, these are super easy to make, and everything was bought at TJ's, how surprising right? 

Add in some greek yogurt for extra moist muffies!