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Thursday, January 13, 2011

Pumpkins



Evening everyone! How is everyone's day going? Mine was pretty uneventful, EXCEPT I got to see my nephew Braedon for the first time. For pictures check out my sister-in-laws blog http://networkedblogs.com/cYozn He is soooo adorable! Today I made pumpkin muffins in celebration of Braedon and his mommy making it home ok. I know pumpkin is one of her favorites, so I figured Braedon better get use to it. I LOVE pumpkin as well! It's a newer favorite food of mine.  Well in the last two years or so. Wanna know why? Do ya? Oh, I thought you would never ask.

1. Its chalked full of tons of nutrients, including zinc, vitamin A + C, fiber, magnesium and trypothan one of the 20 amino acids that keep you being you.


2. It has so much protein, and when put in a yummy muffin, it's like mother nature's protein bar.


3. It can help fight type-1 diabetes. That's right new studies show that pumpkin helps your body make pancreatic cells resulting in more insulin, and helping you prevent, fight off , or control type-1 diabetes. Pretty cool huh?


4. It's delicious!


5. You can actually eat the leaves of the pumpkin plant. I was surprised when looking up information today to find this, I never knew! Be looking for some great pumpkin leaf recipes here this fall.


6. There are a million recipes I've never had, with pumpkin as the star.  A whole slew of new found foods to eat. I'm excited to try some great recipes. Like kadu ka halwa, a Indian dish with pumpkin, ghee (clarified butter), and spices.


7. Pumpkin seeds! It's like a two for oner. You get a pumpkin and pumpkin seeds, which are also super nutritious for you.


8. They are tons of fun to grow! Really easy and the kids love to see them getting bigger and bigger. 


. You can feed pumpkin to chickens in the winter to help them produce more eggs, because supposedly their egg production slows down in the winter. (Good information for the day that I convince the hubbo to let me have a few chickens in the backyard. :) )


Anyways back to the pumpkin muffins. Which were so good I couldn't get my three year old to stop eating the batter! Now that is good! The child eat nothing but peanut butter!

Ingredients needed:
         1/2 cup raisins (plumped in a bowl of hot water)
         1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
         1/4 cup wheat germ (to add some folic acid for the breastfeeding lady)
         1/2 cup and 1tbsp packed brown sugar
         1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 
            (I make my own, just because I always have tons of spices, that I grind up myself, I know its the little martha in me. But truthfully the fresher the spice, the better the taste, the less fat you need, the healthier you are)
         3/4 teaspoon baking powder
         1/2 teaspoon baking soda
         1/2 teaspoon salt
         2 eggs
         1 cup canned pumpkin puree or fresh if you have it
         1/2 cup vegetable oil
         1/3 cup honey
Preheat your oven to 350 and line one cupcake pan. 



Put all your dry ingredients in a bowl including brown sugar.  Make a well.





Add all wet ingredients and raisins into the well and stir vigorously. (Any extra exercise is good, right?)


Throw 3/4 cup of batter in each cupcake liner. And Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes or until they spring back. Very moist! Makes about 12 muffins. 




Coming up tomorrow. How I made this delicious moroccan lentil soup with just ingredients from my pantry/freezer! (Stick stuck at home)


3 comments:

carlee said...

I can't wait for the recipe! That looks amazing! I found you through Tina! You should totally move to wordpress ...just FYI :)

Liz said...

I love pumpkin muffins any time of year :) Can't wait to see this new recipe...

Marie said...

thanks for the comments. I don't know what a wordpress is but I'll look into it. I hope you guys enjoy the muffins and soup!