I'm Not Re-Inventing The Wheel Pumpkin Muffins

My intention with this blog is only to share recipes and thoughts and stories and jokes and whatever I feel like in the moment. I am not trying to be anything different than the friend you might hang out with and spend some time with around the kitchen island. Sometimes we'll laugh at stupid stuff, and sometimes we'll attempt to figure out the meaning of life.  Hopefully, in the end we'll feel better for having talked.

So when I post what seems to be an everyday recipe, or 'peasant food', it's because it's what I happen to feel like making that day, and not because I'm trying to win a spot on the Food Network. (insert link here ;) )

This morning I saw Joy Bauer on the Today Show. She does the Joy Fit Club segments on the show. I was chuckling because she was talking about easy vegetable soups and stews, almost exactly like I have been posting here so far. Then she suggested eating a cup of it instead of a salad for dinner, or having some while you prepare dinner to stave off hunger and get a serving of vegetables in.
If you read my last post you'll know why I chuckled. And then I thought....and she's rich...and thin!! What gives?

This afternoon I felt like baking something on the healthy side and also wanted to use the gluten and wheat free baking mix I had left over from a friend's visit.
Yesterday I made a batch of banana muffins with it, but a batch only made 9 muffins? Who ever heard of such a thing?
Today I decided to make more muffins, but I had no more bananas. Joy Bauer said she uses canned pumpkin in all sorts of things because it's so low in calories but full of fiber. So I decided to substitute a cup of canned pumpkin for the banana. I also decided to follow the recipe for Banana Loaf Cake instead of the muffin recipe, so that I might yield a full dozen muffins.

I threw in a handful of pecans instead of walnuts and 1 1/2  tsp.of pumpkin pie spice to jazz it up. They're sweetened with 1/2 Cup of honey, and in hind sight I probably didn't need the vanilla.
They were quick and easy, and my son can have a snack when he gets home. I like the idea of using a different flour other than wheat once in awhile, because I think so many things we eat contain wheat. This mix is made with brown and white rice flour.

Though I rarely use a baking mix of any sort, I think it's ok now and then if it's good quality. In this case, I used Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix.
I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here, but maybe to just inspire you to look in your pantry and work with what you've got.

 

I managed to squeeze a dozen out of the recipe!