Way Better Pumpkin Muffins

How are they way better?  Um...they have more good-for-you stuff in them.  That means they have less bad-for-you stuff in them.  Oh, yeah, and they taste WAY.  BETTER.

I decided today to venture into the realm of one-armed baking.  Kaia has not been eating much, so I wanted to make pumpkin muffins (one of her favourites), so she would, you know, eat.  I also wanted to pack in as much nutritional value as possible, since she isn't eating as much as she should.

So, I pulled out my old standby pumpkin muffin recipe, and looked over adjustments I had made in the past.  I decided I could do even better.  Use organic flours, sub almond meal for more of the flour than I had before, further reduce the sugar, use almond milk instead of water, use organic, unrefined coconut oil and organic applesauce in place of the whopping 1 cup of vegetable oil called for in the original recipe...

Here's what I came up with.  (Oh, and BTW, I just took the first batch out of the oven and ate one.  They are so tender, sweet, moist and delicious that I had to post this right away.)

INGREDIENTS

    * 1 (15 ounce) can organic pumpkin puree

    * 4 eggs

    * 1/2 cup organic, unrefined coconut oil

    * 1/2 cup organic, unsweetened applesauce

    * 2/3 cup plain almond milk

    * 2 cups organic sugar

    * 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

    * 1 1/4 cups organic whole wheat flour

    * 1 cup organic all-purpose flour

    * 1 cup almond meal

    * 2 teaspoons baking soda

    * 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

    * 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

    * 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

    * 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

    * 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

DIRECTIONS

   1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line muffin tin with paper liners, or grease and flour them.

   2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, applesauce, almond milk, vanilla and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, almond meal, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

   3. Bake for about 30 minutes in the preheated oven. 

Now, eat them.  Give them to your loved ones and let them eat them.  Just do it.  Trust me.  (And I don't even usually like muffins.)

BTW:  This makes 24 muffins.  Just for the heck of it, I went and calculated the nutritional information, just FYI.

Nutrition Facts User Entered Recipe   24 Servings Amount Per Serving   Calories 192.3   Total Fat 8.1 g       Saturated Fat 4.5 g       Polyunsaturated Fat 0.9 g       Monounsaturated Fat 2.1 g   Cholesterol 31.0 mg   Sodium 220.5 mg   Potassium 102.6 mg   Total Carbohydrate 28.4 g       Dietary Fiber 2.2 g       Sugars 18.0 g   Protein 3.7 g   Vitamin A 56.5 %   Vitamin B-12 1.3 %   Vitamin B-6 1.6 %   Vitamin C 1.5 %   Vitamin D 2.4 %   Vitamin E 9.0 %   Calcium 3.2 %   Copper 3.9 %   Folate 2.0 %   Iron 4.7 %   Magnesium 4.7 %   Manganese 11.1 %   Niacin 2.7 %   Pantothenic Acid     0.9 %   Phosphorus     4.8 %   Riboflavin 5.7 %   Selenium 0.5 %   Thiamin 2.8 %   Zinc 2.1 % *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.